Too thick to write

[Mark Wain]

I have recently found myself in a position with an abundance of time on my hands. So I thought to stop myself joining the ever increasing group of english vegetables, I would try and do something i've always wanted to, and write.

The problem I am facing is.....am I too thick to write?

Ideas are not a problem, I have quite a few, and through scouting around an here, it seems a good idea to try and accomplish writing around a thousand words a day. This will not be a huge problem either......

But writing a thousand good words a day is a problem! In the time it takes me to write a page, it probably takes me ten times as long to correct that page and to make it readable to everyone!

Do other people have these doubts in themselves, or should I just become a vegetable?

[chrispenycate]

Do you like fertiliser?
No one is born knowing how to write, and the number of people capable of stringing words together in a way that makes them interesting to others is severely limited.
As far as I can tell, the only way to learn to write well is to start by writing less well, and improve. Most of us here are on the second step.

Only you can say if you've got the determination and the basic ability to succeed in writing for others, but deciding in advance that you've not is a very good excuse for failure. And none of usneed an excuse for future failure.

[Peter Graham]

Hello Mark,

No-one is too thick to write.

Ergo, you should write.

Simple as that.

Let us know how you get on!

Regards,

Peter

[ray gower]

I agree with Chris. The more you write the better you will get.

But there are things you can try to build confidence:

Most colleges have creative writing courses. There you will find that no matter how bad you are, the others are far worse and the exercises should give you good practice.

Try writing short stories and scenes. It is a lot easier to dash down 2000 words one evening and simply play with wording until it is right, than spending a month with 20,000 and giving it up because it doesn't look good.
You can look at joining two such scenes together after that.

Don't get trapped by the 1000 word rule. 10 good words progress is worth a 1000 pap ones and there will be days when that is all you manage, while others, 2 or even 3000 will simply appear on the screen!

For an instant confidence boost, I would suggest trying a little fan fiction. It is easy to compare your work against the real thing and that of others

[Talysia]

There isn't a lot I more I could suggest, other than backing up what everyone else here has said so far. About the only other thing I could suggest would be not to self-edit it too early on in the writing stages. I prefer to get my ideas down on paper first, and then go through it when I've done a fair chunk of writing, correcting everything and making sure it flows well and such. I always find that my writing goes easier when I tell myself that it doesn't have to be perfect the first time.

[jackokent]

I've got one writing book that describes writing as a muscle, the more you exercise it the fitter it gets. You don't run a marathon before you can walk a mile.

[dustinzgirl]

Charles Schwab is a dyslexic high school drop out.

Thomas Edison, called "addled' by his school and considered a dunce by his father. He was taken out of school for being too stupid.

Albert Einstein, Originally thought to be mentally handicapped by his parents, he was asked to drop out of school, failed his college entrance exams, and barely found a job.

Stephen King failed English and some other classes many times, he almost didn't graduate.

And from College Dropout Alumni Assn

(These are the ones I am fairly certain are right and are verified by other places, but this site just has them in an easy list format lol)

F Scott Fitzgerald dropped out of Princeton, Dec. 1915

William Faulkner dropped out of the University of Mississippi

Edward Albee (playwright) dropped out of Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut, after 3 semesters




Being smart, learned, thick, dense, none of that matters.



You just have to be tenacious and deep down in your heart of hearts love it---not for the money, the fame, or whatever 'may' come down the road----you must love it for the sake of writing.

Try not writing. I scribble when I can't write, and find that I come up with stuff to write about when I am scribbling.

[Teresa Edgerton]

There are plenty of people who are too thick to write. Most of them, however, don't even want to. Since you do want to write, chances are good you don't fall into that group.

Of those who do want to write but are doomed to be hopelessly bad at it forever, this is almost invariably because they are incapable of recognizing their own mistakes. They spew out pages of uninspired, ill-written, unoriginal garbage and think they are God's gift to literature. Again -- as you seem to recognize your mistakes and want to correct them, chances are good you don't fall into that group.

Now the question is whether you have enough desire and commitment to stick with as long as it takes to become good at it. Only you can answer that question.

[Lith]

I wouldn't suggest sticking to 10 perfect words a day, considering most books consist of hundreds of thousands of them. A thousand seems like a good limit (personally I had to up it to 2,000 in order to shut up my internal editor- but I'm not saying that will work for others). The more often you do it (crap or not), the easier it will be to hit the limit.

I don't know who it was that said (regarding talent): "I can tell if you have it, but I can't tell if you don't." There are some talents that don't show themselves for years and years, but if you've got the practice in, then when it does show up, you will be prepared.

[Leo Medici]

"But writing a thousand good words a day is a problem! In the time it takes me to write a page, it probably takes me ten times as long to correct that page and to make it readable to everyone!"

I'm fairly certain every single serious writer would tell you that you are going to spend MUCH more time editing than writing. Seems to me that you have a jump on the whole profession. It takes people years to learn that. Myself included.

[tangaloomababe]

Mark, sadly I cant even get as far as writing, I have ideas but then I pick up a book and discover someone has already done it. A bit like the South Park episode where "Simpsons did it"!.

Perhaps you could give us a sample of your work, I dont think your a vegetable, especially if you can at least get the ideas to paper. Keep at it and best of luck to you.

[andrew.v.spencer]

I am a vegetable. I resent you meat creatures constantly referring to us as "stupid".

You should read the Sonnets of Sid the Sprout again, there's truth for all in there.

[Mark Wain]

Thank you for your comments, I’m taking everything onboard.

I should treat this sudden extra time I’ve got as a catalyst to start this pastime properly.

I have no ambition to make money or have fame out of this, just to enjoy myself and eventually, for others to enjoy what I have done.

[Interference]

I thought for a minute you were complaining your book was getting too big for you.