Becoming the writer I want to be

That was one of my better efforts though, haha. Being 2 lines solid and 1 line slightly off shows that I'm getting the hang of it. I intend to sit down around December 15th (when the last of my classes end) and go through each haiku to make sure that I've gotten it down right. If I did, I'll keep them off to the side. If I didn't then the ones that are off will be rewritten and revised until all 30+ haikus have been amended. I do have a question though: I've written these haikus on countless scraps of paper. Should I keep the scraps after they've been corrected and amended or should I discard all of the scraps of paper since I've no use for them and they also hold more haikus I've rejected than kept. What do you think?

And thanks! It means a lot that you say it's good. I'll make those two changes you suggested and leave the poem as it is.

As for my novel, my final paper is more of a concern at the moment and so I'm waiting until next week before I'll work on the notes again. I'll probably revise the next chapter during the rest of December and then come January, see where the project takes me.

I've got a question for you guys: so someone bashed me for not writing fiction every day, but I've been writing daily in some shape or form. Do I have to write just fiction or can I write anything and use that as a way of improving?

 

Who is this person who keeps bashing your writing/process? Is it the same person who said your writing would never improve a while back, or someone else?

 

The same person

 

Have to ask, why do you keep talking to them?

 

I actually haven't talked to him in the past month. I just remembered that detail this morning and he hadn't also made an effort to contact me. That might be good since I'm probably going to cleanse myself of him.

 

Yeah that sounds like a good idea lol. To answer your original question, I dont think it matters as long as you try to write something every day. Even a single haiku or short piece of journaling is better than nothing.

 

I was thinking of maybe getting a journal sometime in the next few weeks and pen my thoughts on writing and my progress as a writer in it. I'm always writing something so why not try to make the effort and have some record of my life, lol.

 

For someone to be that toxic towards you, they clearly are projecting their own insecurities onto you. Screw them. Toxic people's opinions are invalid. Don't take it to heart. You don't have to write everyday and it certainly doesn't have to be fiction. You can write whatever you want man.

 

I used to write a lot down on paper too. But I can't seem to find sheets of blank paper since moving. So I just use my phone or laptop. However I used to find writing on actual paper nice. I've got a box full of song lyrics, story's, poetry of sorts and musings of madman.

If you don't want to have all the scrap paper lying around, you could consolidate the ones that your not quite happy with on a word document. Or just file them tidily in a box. I've kept all my writing from years back. It's quite emotional going back and re-reading a few years down the track for instance.

Hang onto the ones your not happy with, as even one line, of some of the ones your not so happy with, you can use one line or the topic to rewrite an even better one, inspiration of sorts.


You are the writer, you are the muse.
This critical basher, his thoughts do not matter.
Keep a pen in your hand, ideas flow to paper.
You write one hundred, and keep only one.

It's a beautiful process, this gift that you have.
Is there a child, who walks without help.
Does one never stumble, or fall many times.
Is there a soul, who makes no mistakes.
With every tumble, endurance is born.
New synapses form, your process improves.

Be kind to yourself, give yourself time.
Be patient and write, let the artist come out.
Your the creator, of a world in your mind.
Patiently carving, your thoughts as a draft.

Ignoring cruel voices, be kind to yourself.
This is your process, however you write.
Critics will grumble, moan and complain.
But one day they'll see, how much you have grown.
Don't be discouraged, I think you are great.
Put that pen to the paper, and let it just flow.

 

I meant to say I love your new pic lol

 

You're right and I'm going to unadd him the next time I jump onto Facebook. I'm my own person, but he doesn't have to insert himself down my throat.

I tend to go back and forth. I'll write on paper, but then I'll write on my computer. I mean, I've got all the haikus I've kept in a bundle on my computer and those are the ones that I'll revise and correct, but the original, originals are the ones I'm wanting to discard because they're messy and not good. I keep all of my papers in a small plastic case and I'm wanting to only keep everything that is not messily written. I know it sounds weird, but that's why I asked since I wanted to simplify the sheer amount of papers I've got in there and to clean up my files before I start trying to become a freelancer.

I'll keep that in mind, though it's too late for the ones that have long since been discarded. I'll look at the ones I discarded and see if the lines can be cut and pasted into newer, improved haikus.

You're so kind! I loved this poem and it made me smile. I'll make sure to take the advice to heart going forward in the new year.

 

1845 words today. Back on track to finish this chapter by the end of the week.

 

1746 words today. I do hope I can finish the chapter tomorrow as there is still a decent bit left of it.

 

Alright, I dont want to say I've written myself into a corner but I am going to have to ask you guys for some input and advice.

I have a scene where one of the protagonists is trying to convince someone else that going to war is a good idea. The person they have to convince is a very old, perhaps jaded character who used to be bloodthirsty and warmongering in their youth but essentially stopped acting like that when they realised what his actions brought about. Now I need this character to ultimately agree to go along with the protagonist, without it undermining his moral values or making it seem like the protagonist has it too easy. Its basically a "youth vs experience" kinda situation, except I want both sides to come together to realise going to war is the moral choice.

I have some ideas of my own but does anyone have any input on how I can present a moral argument for knowingly committing violence that accepts that the violence may be bad but its needed? I know its a bit complex but I would appreciate any advice you can give.

 

You just need to start and everything will turn out! I believe in you

 

Thank you very much for the input. Its very interesting you suggest this because I currently have the older characters argument be the reverse of this. He tells a story of how he was there during a massive conflict and he laughed whenever he was instructed to do something, and only truly realised how awful what he was doing was when the home planet of the people he was fighting was destroyed completely. Where this becomes interesting for the reader is that the enemy was humanity, the war he fought in was a war against the relentless expansion of an Earth based empire, and the planet he saw destroyed was Earth. So in a metatextual level its interesting for the reader to see this monstrous alien figure (who is very alien, not a biped at all, in fact I deliberately made a lot of the protagonists the kind of aliens you would assume are monsters in other stories because its more interesting than everyone just being a biped) show some sort of remorse despite the fact he acknowledges it was a necessary act. To relate it back to Star Wars, with Anakin being your avatar, its kinda like how Luke is technically responsible for murdering thousands of people when he blew up the Death Star but its still seen as the "right" thing to do because the alternative to him not doing this is much worse. There is no "right" option in terms of life lost, but there definitely is a "right" moral option. This is further muddied by the fact that the old character belongs to a race of predator animals who prey on another sentient race, and this shames the old character because he feels like a hypocrite for trying to take a moral stance when he is part of a species that does something like that.

And thats where my issue stems from. I made the old characters argument too good, to the point where I was very much struggling to come up with a reason for him to change his mind based on what the protagonist says to him. However, I did speak to some other people personally and they suggested that the best way to make a moral argument for war in this case is to write the dialogue in a way that convinces the old character that he is being selfish, that its not just his life on the line or even his peoples, the stakes are much higher than that and by sitting it out all that will happen is he will live, everyone else will still fight and will no doubt die without his and his peoples help, and then owing to his extremely long lifespan he will have to live with the regret of not trying at all. The old character refers to everyone else as like children because he is so old, and one rough line from the protagonist I quite like that uses this against him is something like "You arent doing this for those who are living now, you are doing this for those who are yet to live. You owe it to them to ensure they are not born slaves." I do like what you suggested about the protagonist walking away and then being called back to learn he actually did succeed though, that could be a very cool moment.

I hope all this makes sense as I didnt expect to write this much lol. Thank you again for the input.

 

1820 words today. Chapter done.

 

Thank you @AtomicTango for giving me that word counter link! I was able to work on the more recent haikus I've written and I managed to fix all of the ones I was slightly off on and even saw that a few I wrote 2-3 days ago were all 5-7-5. It's been a lifesaver for me and I'm looking forward to actually editing the rest of the haikus before the past few weeks sometime this month. I've undergone a different style of haiku writing so I think when I re-edit the older ones and organize them, I'll group them by the three distinct styles I've done this year and show those who are interested in my collection. Now I wrote this as a reply to the fact that I've had some hostilities on a dating app for not being the "typical" guy but I'm seriously contemplating adding it to my bundle since I'm liking it more the longer I re-read it. What do you guys think?

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