Getting Started

Something I've discovered while preparing to get started with my novel: I have freaked myself out.

I started this blog to both keep myself on track and to let people know that it's more exciting to go through the process together as opposed to alone.  However, I feel as if I've told myself that it is a much bigger deal than it should be.  In all honesty, I have put myself on a pedestal and told myself to perform blindly.  Least ways, this is how I'm feeling right now.  In every sense of the word, I have stage fright.  And I know that this is not the way to go.

So I'm going to "power through," like Rachel said on Friends.  If I can punch my way through this ideal I have put to myself, it will be easier and much more enjoyable.  The entire point is to enjoy the process and discuss our own personal findings as we go.

I began reading Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury last night.  It's never a question as to how he's one of my favorite authors when I get a chance to read his work.  He motivates me and makes me excited to pick up a pen and start writing immediately.  Which is why I read more today, trying to kick this nervousness I've put upon myself.  And, he did indeed help.

I'd like to share one of my favorite passages from his first essay in the book, The Joy of Writing:

Time enough to think and cut and rewrite tomorrow.  But today- explode- fly apart- disintegrate!  The other six or seven drafts are going to be pure torture.  So why not enjoy the first draft, in the hope that your joy will seek and find others in the world who, reading your story, will catch fire too?

He has fun.  That's one of the things I love about his work.  You can feel it in every word and phrase on the page.  That's what makes it so great, so fun, so explosively joyful!  Even his darker works have that flare of his that tells you just how much he loves his craft.

I want that.  So no more fear and anxiety over the page.  That's the fun part; the part coming up now.  The first draft; the initial plunge into the unknown on an amusement park ride, and I get to ride it all day today and tomorrow and the next day until that first draft is finished.

I'm going to leave you now because I'm going to write.

I invite you to comment on how you find that inspiration and excitement to start your writing, or even to continue writing.