Wow! It's been a crazy year. One in which I found it hard to blog for both personal and professional reasons. But now I'm back, and I'm chalk full of information and new ideas to write about!
First and most important.... You can't edit nothing, but you can edit crap. Just write! Who cares if it's good or bad? You can always go back and change it later. What you can't do is edit something that was never written. In this past year, I have had to change almost everything about my life that I had previously thought to be stable. My relationships changed, I lost people, found new people, changed cars, jobs, schools, and moved to a completely different state all together, both in body and in mind! All of these things leave marks on a person, so put these marks on your characters. Don't dwell on negative or seemingly insignificant changes in your life. If they bother you, whether they are good changes or bad changes, it all gives you new outlooks on the thoughts and feelings of your characters, should you put them in similar situations.
I'm not saying that you need to go out and put yourself in dangerous situations just so you can accurately portray your characters point of view in the same predicament. What I am saying, is that if you find yourself in a place in your life that is new and different than what you are used to, then you should use this information and these sensations as inspiration. Write about it, it doesn't matter what it is. Write about a game that you play, or the loss of family. Write about your new job, or a dog you met the other day. Write all of these things down, and when you are at a point in your writing where your characters need a new perspective, or a new location, you will have a written record of the transitional period that you already experienced. This provides authentic and reliable reference points for your writing.
Again, none of this has to be perfect or even good! You can, and will, as you grow in skill and experience, be going back and editing your work. Eventually, you will end up with something well written and hopefully full of great content and progression. Remember, you can't edit something that has never been written, but you can always edit crap. So just write about anything and everything!
I am currently reading The Silent Blade by R.A. Salvatore. This is one of my favorite authors, and by far one of my favorite series of books. This is book eleven, so I highly recommend starting with book one, Homeland.
"Language is the means of getting an idea from my brain into yours without surgery." ~Mark Amidon
