I'm done with this writing challenge and quite relieved!
As I wouldn't forget the writing bit, but to update here.
My most important takeaway is that ideas are going to come. I have to spend some time brainstorming and developing them. If it's a book then chapter-wise, using an excel - horizontally, not vertically. Don't ask me why, but horizontally works.
This is how to figure out which ideas I want to work with - playing with them expanding them, or simply noting them down and moving on. The next is brainstorming plot points when I'm stuck. Just because I have an idea for chapter 1, doesn't mean I have the whole book plotted out. I have to spend time developing the idea before writing it.
The last two things are: practising the craft and finishing pieces. Practising, for the sake of practising is important, be it writing description, action, dialogue, plot and so on. Next is finishing pieces. While it is important for me to continually work on a longer project, it is also important to keep churning out shorter pieces, for practise and possibly publishing. It also helps with how I end pieces, as endings and climax are as important as the rest of the book, not just a part of the process.
3 creative writing workshops which I attended and 2 writing workshops which I taught last month and this is where I ended up.
Closing thoughts, this would have been a frustrating month, had I not had real live creative writing teachers to interact with. Doing so many writing workshops this month - learning and teaching was a great idea as it helped me fine-tune, revise and reaffirm so many of my ideas. Also, doing so many different kinds of writing - my head was spinning was writing-related questions, ideas, stories - I had no room for self-doubt!
While I have been harping on that it's all about staying inspired, and rushing from inspiring books to TV shows and movies, now I understand that it's also about getting inspired and developing that idea in one way or another - through a character, or a story.
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