I can't sleep. I'm conflicted.

[Noob.]

After the recent run of writing an hour/day and reading on contemporary poetry the likes of Dylan and being interested in the SOC writing of Jack Kerouac and Co., I think I want to make the plunge into writing seriously. And I'm starting to think that doing it just an hour a day isn't going to cut the mustard anymore. Can someone help me out with this. I know it's late and this will probably come off all wrong and uncoordinated. It's just that I'm unable to rest until I can make sense of it all.

:flare:

[jon1jt]

this should probably be posted elsewhere. you're already on your way to being a great writer, it seems. You mentioned Dylan, Kerouac, and Co. as writer who have inspired you. :)

I don't understand your question, issue, or problem. so why don't you just write more than an hour a day? what's the problem?

[Cien]

An hour a day works if that's what produces truth. If it isn't, write more. Don't give yourself standards that you think "should" work if the hour a day is already good for you, but if it isn't, you can always make changes. And if those changes don't work, you can make more changes.

And you do not have to make sense of anything. It's okay.

[raspberry_jelly]

As my English tutor said to me its ‘Quality not Quantity’ it doesn’t matter how much you write as long as you’re happy with it and it’s good. I mean wouldn’t you rather have one perfect sentence that ten pages of nonsense?

Just a thought.

[Noob.]

Maybe this will help..?

...

I've been writing on my own for about year now, just scribbling interesting phrases and little short stories. I've always been told I've had potential to write well since 8th grade, but school made me dislike it because I was never interested in such structured writing. Everytime we had a writing assignment, I would get good grades but it was just whatever to me because it was class, you know?

It wasn't until a year or so ago that I started reading heavily and wanting to write for myself again because I was suggested by a doctor to keep a diary and just write how I feel. I did it off and on, doing little prose verses and whatever. When I enrolled in school again, an English teacher took interest in some of my work when I wrote a short story for class. She offered her criticism (not corrections like most teachers I had would do) and made me feel better about myself and my writing. She, too, mentioned the freewriting for a time period daily.

I decided to take her advice and really freewrite and it felt good. Now that I'm out of school, it's hard for me in a sense that I want to take this further and I don't have that teacher-like influence to guide me anymore. I like guidance but not structure, which sort of doesn't make sense.

I looked around for tips and such on the net and it's all vague and conflicting. One says write as much as possible, others say quality vs. quantity and do it only when inspiration hits. Other big authors wrote constantly until they improved and since I consider myself lackluster at on the cusp writing, I figured that going that route seemed reasonable. If you beat at the door long enough something is BOUND to come out good. Compounded with the fact that I don't know if I want to make it with music or not. I constantly study works of those I look up to and I constantly wonder if it will show in my work or should I approach it like them (if I had the slightest idea how they did it). If I just freewrite will it improve my overall ability and so on and so forth.

And it's really frustrating not knowing where to start and how. I just have a great anxiety about it all. I don't even know if this makes a lick of sense. My eyes are red and I'm so sleepy. But I want to get a handle or something on this.

And YES, I've been told I think too much and it's been the bane of my existence since I've been interested in the arts. :bawling: