My Own Writing Experience

In Brenda Ueland’s book, If You Want to Write, he says, “Everybody is talented, original and has something important to say.” (P1) As a rhetoric and composition student, I attempted to write a novel based on what I learned from creative writing class and style classes, but I failed for many reasons. I did not think I was ready to write a novel yet because I did not read enough books about prose style or I did not have enough life experiences to help me write a profound novel, since a novel is a long narrative fictional prose piece based on what I know. For these reasons, I waited until the moment when I thought I was ready, but the moment seemed to never come. Finally, I tried to begin to write a novel, which was based on my true story.

The beginning seemed pretty easy, but when I wrote around 10,000 words, problems showed up. The main character’s voice was lost because the deeper the novel went on, the harder it was to describe new, unfamiliar environments. I did not know how to describe what I had not experienced. The other problem was, “what should I write next?” To surprise the readers, I needed much newer plots, but I felt that these fresh thoughts and plots might distract the reader. Then I was totally lost. I got stuck at around 10,000 words and did not move. It was like going on a trip without planning for it first. Starting the novel made me feel excited and fresh, but the more I went on, the more difficulties I met. I wondered which directions to go and what to write to make it fun again. My good start gave me higher expectations for the rest of the novel, which only made it harder to continue. My character was stuck in a village, and I pondered about the future and how time has flied. The unfinished novel was there, and I did not write another word.

But every one has  different life experiences, which can be shared with others. In that sense, a lot of people can write a novel, and I did research and found that 60 percent of people have started writing a novel but did not finish, while 75 percent of people thought about writing a novel but did not do it because they did not believe they could finish it.  My senior project is a research paper that is to help people who are not writing majors to know the process of how to finish a novel.