Leaving my Comfort Zone of Writing.
Recently I was doing an audit of my skills and works as a writer.
The obvious to me was that I was not a very good writer(yet) to put it politely and be positive .
The next question I asked myself was “where is it?”
“Where is what ?”
I asked the voice in my head.
Where’s your terrible writing?
Where’s your failed work?
I had nothing.
Of course I have a collection of my writing.
The question is something you have put in the effort and built to be shared. It might end up being terrible. That’s okay. But we can look at it and get an A for effort.
Nothing really.
I want to grow to the extent where I can count my failures.
Can you count your failures?
Do you even have failures and rejections to count?
The Discovery.
What I noticed is that I always try to get more information instead of doing the actual work( writing).
Information is a way for me to hide from doing the work.
This thought had been on my mind for a couple of weeks.
When I stumbled upon an article on the daily routine of famous writers. I noticed a pattern. It was subtle but there.
These writers worked on projects. They didn’t just write.
The hint you would notice would be.
“When I am working on… “
and they move on to talk about their routines when working on a project.
Of course writing consistently is great.
Still on this thought and realisation. I asked myself again.
When was the last time you did something for the first time?
It is impossible to have a favorite food you have never eaten.
How do you know your favorite food, movie,book without trying them?
It is time amidst my insecurities and fear that it will not work.
The other voice told me that.
I will fail.
I will quit ( because I always do)
You can work on a project when you master the craft.
When you become famous.
All these points have one goal.
To get me not to do it. Not to write.
The Comfort Zone
It was time to leave the comfort zone.
The comfort zone is where I feel safe.
I know what is going on. I am in control.
I have guarantees that it will work.
The magic I am looking for happens outside the comfort zone. Where it might not work.
Fear Zone
Surrounding the comfort zone is the fear Zone.
- Stop being affected by others’ opinions. Caring what people would say if it doesn’t work out.
- Stop finding excuses for not creating that crazy story,poem or art. Things like I am not good enough. English is my second language. I am terrible at punctuation. I don’t have time. I don’t know how. I am not ready.
- Stop having no confidence in myself. The best way to build confidence is to build evidence and you build evidence by doing the work. I create the identity.
Learning Zone
Deal with Challenges. You pick up projects and you work on them and you learn.
Acquire new skills
Extend the comfort zone
Growth Zone
Here you get to live your dreams and find purpose. You realise all those aspirations. And then set new goals.
Great realisation but what do I work on.
I know it will be hard. But I can choose to work on something exciting even though it is challenging.
I asked you. Some of my email subscribers and they came with great suggestions for me.
What I wanted was something that had a process and practice.
Challenging yet free.
Something that was measurable and not dependent on external factors.
Publishing twenty stories in 100 days is great but a better project for me would be writing fifty stories and submitting them.
That is more in my control than being at the mercy of literary magazines.
I can write fifty stories that improve over time.
You sent me your suggestions and I decided. Take note that these challenges would have sub challenges for each week to spice things up.
Projects
1.Short Story a Week
Write a short story every week for the next 100 days. Work daily on the story for the week.
Sub challenges will be to try
- New Genres
- Story Length
- Prompts
- Themes
- Flash fiction
- Microfiction
- Forms etc
I haven’t figured it all out. If I wait to know everything I will never start writing. I want to be surprised.
Why this challenge. At the end of this challenge I would have 14 to 15 short stories at least which is the average number of stories in a short story collection. After this I would have my body of work. Ready.
2. Create a Spoken Word Channel
The whole idea of this challenge is to bring poetry and art to the average person. The labourer who doesn’t have time to read. The other person who has read only one book in his life. And that book he read he did not finish.
We are writers.
We create literature
We create art.
We inspire people.
The goal is to publish 2 to 3 videos on YouTube every week. Test genres and see what happens.
As a bonus I could have views and get the channel monetized.
3. Poem a day(100 days of poetry)
The whole idea is not to write a poem a day but depending on what we are experimenting with it could be. But one thing is certain: the challenge is to write some form of poem everyday for 100 days even if it is one line everyday.
What I mean is that we will always be working on a poem everyday. We might not finish a poem everyday
We will test
- Poetic Devices
- Poetry Length
- Poetic Forms
- Poetic Genre
- Poetic Prompts
- Poetry Themes
- Experiment into prose poetry
At the end of the experiment I would have 30 to 100 poems, the average number for a poetry collection.
Here are three challenges for writers: you can pick any one . Depending on your style of writing and what excites you. What you will notice with this challenge is that the timeline is 100 days.
4. And a sidenote I will say there is another challenge I am doing that concerns me and that is 100 days of daily YouTube Videos for my YouTube channel. This is not part of the suggestions .
This challenge is for me to add my experience and failures to the body of work online and to expand my tribe of poetry and short prose writers figuring it out and finding a style that is not out there.
Our own voice.
You can join me on any of the challenges/projects.
Take note all the projects will start on 1 October 2023.
Rabbit Hole
1.Here is a link to the private Facebook group for the challenges and other questions.
2. A book I am currently reading that is inspiring me to do this project.The book is so good I am highlighting pages. The Practice by Seth Godin. If you are scared and afraid that it might not work. You should read this book.
Here are some quotes from the book:
A.”Writer’s block is a myth.
Writer’s block is a choice.
Writer’s block is real.
And yet it’s all invented.
But that doesn’t mean it isn’t real.
Gravity isn’t invented. Everyone experiences it the same way. Chocolate isn’t invented. That’s either a chocolate bar or it isn’t.
But writer’s block is invented. So is a fear of spiders, a belief in astrology, or the confidence we feel before giving a speech.
We know this because it changes. It changes from person to person and from day to day. It’s a story.
Stories are real.
And stories can change.
If your story isn’t working for you, you can find a better one to take its place.”
B. “The truth: if a reason doesn’t stop everyone, it’s an excuse, not an actual roadblock.”
C. “Creativity Is an Action, Not a Feeling
Marie Schacht points out that we can’t always do much about how we feel, particularly when it’s about something important. But we can always control our actions.
Your work is too important to be left to how you feel today.
On the other hand, committing to an action can change how we feel. If we act as though we trust the process and do the work, then the feelings will follow.
Waiting for a feeling is a luxury we don’t have time for.”
D. “You Have the Right to Remain Silent
But I hope you won’t.
The world conspires to hold us back, but it can’t do that without our permission.”
I have to stop before I end up posting all the highlights I made.
3. The Daily Routines of 12 Famous Writers. See these routines and tell me which writer’s routine is closer to yours.
4. Here’s a short video to make you laugh. If Reading a book was like a movie.
5. I will be documenting the process in the newsletter and my podcast.
The name of the podcast is Buildwriting.
Thank you for reading my newsletter every week. It means a lot to me.
I am sorry the newsletter came late. I was overwhelmed with so many ideas to choose for the projects. You know once I choose I have to work on them for the next 100 days.
If you have any questions please feel free to ask me.
I write this newsletter for you.
Until next time keep writing.
Mechi