Like A Novice

The other day, I broke a personal record. I had only thirty minutes to write that day and I was groaning because I was probably going to get nothing done. I typed as fast as I could and let the words flow from my mind. I wound up writing two thousand words in those thirty minutes. It made me proud. It was enough to be a full days work, but it didn't take a full day.

I can write speculative fiction novels more quickly now than when I started. The first novel I ever wrote was a fantasy romance and it took me forever sometimes even to write a paragraph. And when I did write, everything I wrote sucked. What I mean by "sucked" is that it was so bad that even the best editor out there couldn't have salvaged any of it. It's why I eventually threw that whole manuscript away. I don't delete stuff I write, but I did delete that story.

Lately, I've wanted to branch out from what I usually write. It would be interesting to maybe create another pen name and write contemporary romance novels or contemporary drama. After all, it's a genre that I loved reading growing up. I'm even more familiar with it than I am with fantasy.

But when I sit down and try to write it, I stare at the screen for an hour without writing even one word. I'm stumped and lost.

I was talking to my friend yesterday about this. She said if she was a writer like me, she'd probably write contemporary novels because it's easy. You don't have to create a new world or write about things that don't exist. You draw on life experience. But for some reason it's not easy for me. If I'm not creating new worlds it doesn't make sense to me.

Going out of your writing comfort zone is difficult. If you ever want to humble yourself as a writer, then this is an easy way to make yourself feel like a novice