My long-term goal: I'll just say it, even if my wife is (understandably) anxious about this dream. I want to write for a living, i.e. as a profession. I am a bit of an underdog for the part. Yes, I'm well educated, and yes, I'm well read. One might think these useful to developing writing skills, and in some respects they are. However, neither of these facts automatically make me a better writer. If anything, it sets the standard higher - I have no blissful ignorance to go with my desire to write, only an acute consciousness of how much my writing does suck. That's not a demeaning estimate translated into my self worth. It's just a realistic picture of where I stand now, and the daunting task ahead. I'm good (possibly great) at teaching F/A-18 pilots, because I have practiced to be an instructor for many years. I'm simply not there when it comes to writing. I may not be so bad as to make an incoherent piece of writing, but sometimes the coherence in it is limited to an audience of one (me).
There is a sense of a plan in my mind to become better. It's roughly formed, from my limited experience in writing and other areas which translate to the craft. They are composed of 3 elements. Here they are (in order of perceived importance):
1. Consistent, unhindered creative writing (aka automatic writing) even in small bits
2. Separating the creative process from the critical process (aka editing and peer review)
3. Organizing ideas and arguments in advance/throughout the process (characters, plots, arguments, ideas, etc) - aka (The Spark File)
To be honest, I struggle with all three of these. To be fair, every writer should. Most importantly though, I need to KEEP WRITING. The first step for me is just to get going, and to keep going. My desire is that by writing consistently, without hindrance or distraction, the quantity of writing will eventually translate into a quality I can hone by utilizing steps 2 and 3. What do you guys think?
GOAL: Each day, I will create at least a few hundred words of free-writing, or automatic writing, in order to strengthen the creational process by means of repetition. So far as I can help it, I will separate this from the critical process of writing.
