Shelli Rosewarne

Hi all,

Don’t worry about the title – this is more about ‘how not to’! I know a lot of people who write, both in ‘real life’ and over the internet (wonderful place for writer support!) and one of the main things it has helped me realise is that everyone is different. Might seem a little obvious, of course we all write different things in different styles – but what might be a little less obvious is that we all write in completely different ways as well. Some people may churn out thousands of words in a day, some may do a few hundred, some may write every day, some may not be able to fit that around their other commitments. For some people they may scribble out a full draft in rough form, others may need to work over word over and over before they can move on to the next part. Some writers may plan out every scene, every plot point, and every setting while others may just let their characters pull them along.

What does this have to do with my theme, you may ask? Well, if you don’t have the chance to meet other writers, and realise these things then it can be quite intimidating to hear people talking about the way they do things when it is completely different to your way! If someone is talking about how they have easily written 10k that week and you’re struggling with only 1k that you can feel like a bit of a failure. If someone has every tiny point of their story planned out in minute detail and all you have is that your characters are starting in x place and you’ll see what happens, then it can feel like you’re just winging it and there’s something wrong with you.

Writing is something that a lot of people seem to ‘want’ to do, but the reality is often very different to how you had imagined it. There will be times when you wonder what the heck you’re actually doing, and whether you’re just deluding yourself in hoping to make it in such a competitive and difficult field. That’s when you need to remember these things – that it doesn’t matter what anyone else is doing or how they are doing it. It just matters what you are doing. No one can tell your personal stories, and no one can do your particular writing. Remember why you started, why you love this more than anything in the world, and quite frankly if you’re like me you probably couldn’t shut up the wee voices in your head if you wanted to! 🙂

Take care, and have a good weekend x