When I was a teacher, I would always fantasize about a day when I would have the opportunity to write every day or almost every day. While teaching, I was often too exhausted at the end of the day to get motivated enough to work on my novel or write a short story or poem. When I did write, I would try to fit it in on the weekends, spending an hour or two here and there on writing new material or editing what I had previously written. That was my routine for about 5 years. When my daughter was born and I made the decision to stay home instead of going back to teaching, my goal was to work in a good amount of freelance writing to earn some extra income. Thankfully, I have found a decent amount of work writing web content. So, just as I once wished, I do write each and every day now, but the reality doesn’t look too much like my fantasy did.
When do I write now? Instead of taking advantage of quiet moments on the weekends, I now squeeze writing in whenever I can. Unlike before, I have deadlines now which often means staying up late, going on writing binges, and spending long hours staring at a computer screen. As taking care of my daughter is my top priority, the writing often happens at inconvenient times, times when I’m not inspired, and times when I honestly don’t feel like writing! So, in a way, I got forced into practicing some self-discipline with my writing which I never really did before. As with anything in life there are the pluses and the minuses. My writing life looks nothing like the dreamworld I created in my head 5 years ago, but that isn’t all bad. Here are my pros and cons of writing every day. CONS:
PROS:
Listicles. They're everywhere you look. It seems like every time I read a blog post it is either a listicle in its entirety or it contains a list somewhere in the post. Facebook friends are sharing them left and right and they've even descended upon Medium.
Listicles are attention grabbing, they're quick and easy to read, and they are the "Readers Digest Condensed Version" of anything you'd ever want to know. As a web content writer, the listicle is a great tool to have in my kit. If I'm ever stuck for an idea for a blog post or online article, the listicle is my go-to format. Whatever the subject is, I know I can pop one of those bad boys out in about 20 minutes. When I'm done, I feel pretty efficient and that's a great feeling. I also know that since the general public is addicted to them, my work will be read. And that's why I love them. The truth is listicles are a dime a dozen, anyone can easily read them just as almost anyone can easily write them. They don't dive too deep into anything so you don't have to even have to know what you're talking about to write them. This is why, as a fiction writer, I hate them. I hate them because writing them does not take me out of my comfort zone. They don't require any extra creativity or research. They don't push the envelope. They are safe. While this may be ok for web content writing, a field that values efficiency, it does not foster the right attitude for fiction writing. It's easy to fall into habits with our fiction writing. When we find a "formula" that works, it's very easy to use it over and over again to save time and to guarantee an acceptable outcome. However, the best fiction challenges us, it confuses us and surprises us. In order to be a writer of that kind of fiction, we must dare to be experimental and bend the rules. The listicle approach to fiction writing may work to a degree, but abandoning it can stretch our creativity in ways we never thought possible. Great fiction has no "one size fits all" formula the way web content tends to, which makes it a challenge to work on both simultaneously. It can be done, however, when we put away our "listicle lens" when working on our fiction in favor of a kaleidoscope. |
Rachel Boury BaxterWriter: web content by day, fiction by night. Archives
October 2016
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