Skip to main content

One Year of Writing

Today is an anniversary. Not of dating or anything Sammy related. A year ago today I started working on my newest novel idea. This idea came to me, I hate to say it, in a dream. After a summer of sort of plodding along with an idea I'd been trying to re-work for years, I had this dream which absolutely compelled me. I decided it was time to at least give it a shot. To my surprise, this story just flowed out of me. 
I keep track of my progress and word count with these sticky notes. 

I finished the first draft in two and a half months, writing in the morning, between classes, sometimes even in class if the professor was just plodding along. I just couldn't stop! Then, to my surprise, after giving the story a bit of a break, I actually had ideas on how to make it better. I ended up editing the beginning of this story multiple times my last semester as a senior honors project. I kept up writing after that, and finished a second draft on July 2nd. That was something that I've never done before, gotten to a second draft. 

Ever since finishing that draft, I've been writing some other things. Every time I thought about my second draft, I couldn't help but think how stupid that story is. I'd think of it and shudder. I know it needs a whole lot more work, and I'd just think of how much it sucks. I was feeling a little down and like I'll never finish it. 

This past Saturday, I decided to re-read that story to re-familiarize myself with it. And to my surprise, it doesn't utterly suck. It's actually a little good. 

Just looking at how far I've come in this last year to getting closer to my dreams, I'm getting really excited, and I'm proud of myself. I can't wait to see where the next year takes me!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Racism, stereotypes, and plain ole judging

Being in a class dedicated to the idea of migration has really kept the idea of racism on the brain. In elementary school, the idea of racism was so defined to me, thinking people are better than others based solely on the color of their skin. It wasn't until middle school after reading many books that I realized racism wasn't jut as issue of black versus white, rather it applies to all cultures. In high school I was actually shocked to here racist statements from people I loved. All the sudden this issue became personal somewhat. (My favorite statement was from a little girl who said, it should be illegal for Mexicans to have babies. I guess I can't have kids then.)  But it wasn't until last week when we did an activity in my public health class that I realized that I myself was being racist as well. Now, this is something I am not proud of. I'm very embarrassed actually and that activity was humbling. Why am I writing about this? Because, it's som...
1 comment
Read more

Toxic Masculinity

It seems like forever ago that they released that Gilette ad about toxic masculinity. I watched as people I'd grown up with freaked out about it, saying that it said that men need to be like women, and that it condemned masculinity altogether, along with other things. I crafted post after post to write on my social media, but in the end didn't bother writing anything. I didn't feel like arguing with people. But I had to share my thoughts somewhere, so here they are.  To me, toxic masculinity is exactly what it says-- ideals of masculinity that are toxic. It's telling your son that he needs to suck it up and not cry. That he can get away with more than girls because 'boys will be boys.' The idea that he can't read or watch certain media because it's "for girls." At the same time, girls are asked to watch things that are "for boys" all of the time. It's the idea that men need to repress their feelings. That they can't be sc...
1 comment
Read more

Little Bit o Writing Monday

The beginning of my short story for class.  When Dora's son tugged on her pants leg, the last thing she expected was to see him holding a tooth. A tooth that clearly did not belong to him. She was no dentist, but she was smart enough to know the colossal thing couldn't have come from Mark's mouth. “Mark, where did you find that?” Dora scolded. “In the backyard.” “Show me where,” Dora commanded. Excited, Mark ran out to the backyard, Dora following on his heels. He led her over to the back of the yard, to the particular corner that couldn't be seen from the kitchen window. There, her other two children were gathered around a hole in the ground. Hole was an understatement though, they'd obviously been working on this, pit, for quite sometime. If there had been no tooth, Dora would have sat the kids down and explained how digging holes this deep was dangerous because of all the water, electric, and who knows what else lines were under the ...
1 comment
Read more