Camping at Martin's Creek in East Texas
Camping at Martin's Creek in East Texas
It was a cold, nasty, rainy day to be camping, but I loved it.
It was the last day of January 2023, when I decided to go for a short camping trip. When I left home, it was a warm 81 degrees and I knew some rain was coming in, but I didn’t know it was going to turn cold and icy. But it did.
I stayed inside the camper van and read books to hone my writing craft. I read a short novel written by James Patterson, because I was curious how he wrote 2-3 page paragraphs.
While reading other books on writing techniques, I relaxed from observing the cold frigid rain coming in across the creek. The skies were dark and inspiring to me and caused me to go in a trance of deep thinking.
Camping is a good way to get out into nature and enjoy yourself and get exercise that our body and brain needs to be healthy. A healthy mind makes for a good productive writer.
Finding my “why” to be a writer
With writing I often solve life’s large and small problems.
Writing provides me a satisfaction of socializing with others.
Writing fiction gives me an escape from the harsh realities of life and helps me reduce normal everyday stress levels.
Writing helps me express my creative side.
So, as you can see, I have plenty of reasons to answer the “why” question. Now I have to discover the answer to the “how” question.
Some thoughts about writing
I’ve read countless books on writing, good prose on how to structure your Novel etc. and I’ve come to the conclusion, I need to find my own writing path.
After much thinking and pondering, I’ve narrowed my writing strategy down to simplicity.
I use Plottr.com to create my story outline with the help of “Save the Cat”
I use scrivener as my writing platform where I can import my outline from Plottr.
I use the free writing template from K.M. Weiland integrated with Scrivener.
I use the Snowflake method for Designing my novel (created by Randy Ingermanson). He also teaches you how to publish your book.
Someone recently told me writing is hard work. Steve Presserfield ( War of Art) argued the hard part was “sitting down to write.” That rings true to me. we’re all human with the same 24 hours a day to spend any way we please.
Writing at the same time each day and doing it every day is the best policy to adopt to become a good writer. Because to be a writer, you have to write to learn how to write.
Adopting a writing habit that fits you, is the best way to go. I’ve tried different writing strategies and none stays with me. Since I’m an early morning person, I do best writing for an hour each morning. But if I get in the flow, then I may write longer, or write in 20 minute increments through out the day if my energy levels are high.
I read books daily and when my eyes get tired, I switch over to audible and listen to the book of my interest.
It’s a good way to learn the craft of writing.