I mean, I know how to write, right? I’ve been doing it since I was knee-high to a grasshopper, as the saying goes.
The only exams I’ve ever truly enjoyed have been my English GCSEs and then A Levels. I was born to write.
But writing something which someone else might want to publish? That’s a whole other level. I’ve been publishing my own writing for over a decade now, on blog posts and sites like this one. I’ve even written books, one self-published and another couple by a small publishing house - the latest of these is about to be launched as a matter of fact.
But what I’m trying to get to grips with currently is something new: a creative fiction novel. And that is going to require more refining of the skills I already have, and probably learning a few new ones along the way. I’m halfway through a course on writing memoir, and resisting a new way of figuring out which bits to include and which to leave out! Why am I resisting? Because this new way will take longer and I don’t want to take the longer route, I’d rather rely on my previous method, just sitting down and writing! But I look at what I’ve written for this part of my story using this previous method and it’s a jumble, a proper hotchpotch of memory.
I’m going to have to at least try the new way, aren’t I?