Getting (Back) Into The Swing

{Carving Your Way In}

I wrote a novel during NaNoWriMo of 2012, successfully finishing the first draft of Frost in twenty-seven days. I have not been able to edit that draft or write another novel since then. For months and months I wondered what I was doing wrong, why I couldn’t manage to get even 10k into a new manuscript. I questioned myself and doubted my writing abilities, wishing day after day that I had even the slightest motivation to edit and rewrite. Over two years later and I still haven’t made any progress in the novel-ing area, yet despite that, I am completely devoted to writing. 

See, I wouldn’t label myself as a novelist. Aspiring novelist is more like it. I had a grand experience writing Frost, but I’m not afraid to admit that books are not my forte at this point in my life. 

I’m a poet. I can hardly go a single day without having written a poem. I pour my emotions into verse and I make fiction rhyme. I keep it short and sweet or drag it out for multiple pages. I’m direct while simultaneously being abstract. Poetry is my niche. That’s not to say I’m never going to attempt a novel again (I plan to get back at that this summer once I’ve graduated from high school), but right now it is what I am most comfortable with. One day I’ll write a novel again, one day I’ll attend a film school for screenwriting, one day I’ll make myself known, but for now I’m a mere poet.

There was a period of time where I thought I was “out” of writing simply because I couldn’t write another book. I was very, very wrong. Truthfully, I didn’t view poetry as something that made me a “real” writer. I didn’t think anything of the fact that poems constantly popped into my mind on a regular basis, taking less than two minutes to jot down onto a piece of paper. I believed I was out of my game just because I couldn’t write the way I wanted to. It is a struggle to get back into (or to get into in general) writing, I’m not going to sugarcoat. It takes severe levels of commitment, dedication, inspiration, and so on. What I’ve learned, though, is the importance of finding and realizing your writing niche. 

In order to develop a routine writing habit and manage to stay committed, you must first figure out what you love to write and what you’re good at writing. Novels? Poetry? Scripts? Essays? Articles? All of the above? If you feel confident writing it, write it. If you want to get into writing, first start with what you’re comfortable and somewhat confident with and expand from there. Find your niche, make yourself comfortable, and then force yourself out of it. That’s how you get into writing and that’s how you grow in writing. It’s one hell of a journey and you always have to start from somewhere.