Pushing at the Walls

Natasha Fondren — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 17:30:11 +0000

Growing is uncomfortable. Although I’ve written nearly every genre as a sub-genre of what I write, I’ve never actually written something I didn’t have the compulsion to be a prude about.

Until this weekend. I wrote the first non-erotic story in my life, LOL. Silly, that. A bit of an experiment. My story is up at Lurker Monkey’s, whose monthly prompts for flash fiction are fun. From the comments, I’m suddenly curious to discover what people think it’s about.

G keeps asking what the point of NaNo is. There’s tons of reasons to enjoy NaNo, but one of my reasons, this year, is to use the word count and community to push me through all the insecurities and second-guesses I’ll face as I write something outside my normal genre.

I was just reading how Stephen King writes his first draft as fast as he can, trying to outrace his doubts. I get that, LOL.

Anyway, I’m going to try to write a couple more pieces of flash fiction before NaNo. My short story muscle is weak. I used to write 4 short stories a month like clockwork, but I don’t think I’ve written one in three or so years. (They got to feel a little formulaic, after awhile.)

(No, I don’t know what I’m writing for NaNo yet. I am trying not to panic. There have been ideas swirling up there. I’m still deciding.)

*UPDATE: I just found out that Travis Erwin WON Nathan Bransford’s first paragraph contest! I’m so happy for Travis, for so many reasons!

So what’re you doing to stretch your wings, push at your walls, and break yourself out of your current level of writing to get to the next level?

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Pushing at the Walls