A Heart-to-Heart

Today on her blog, YA writer extraordinaire Natalie Whipple invited everyone to share their writing fears and she would offer support and advice. Well offer she did! There were a ton a different fears (a lot of which I realized are similar to almost all of mine, which made me feel comforted) and even more great advice from Natalie, some of which I was lucky enough to receive and that I thought I'd share with you! Behold:

Ella's Writing Fear

Hi Natalie!

...another big fear I have is what do I do when I'm writing a first draft and after only a couple days of working on it, I'm bored with the idea and I want to move on to something else? This fear has plagued me for far too long now: I've started probably hundreds of first drafts, but never FINISHED any (except one and that was back when I was 14-I'm 21 now, yikes)! So, I guess what I'm trying to say is, I'm afraid I'll never finish writing another first draft again. Any advice for resisting the urge to quit and move on to a new story when writing the current one gets tough or boring??

Thanks a ton!
~Ella

Natalie's Advice

The Blogger Girlz, ah, you are being taken in by the new shinies! You must resist the shinies!

For me, I always get bored or scared or worried around fifty pages written. Or the end of act 1. That's when it starts to turn into work. That's when I just have to dig in and force myself to finish.

You can finish. You WILL finish if you decide to. Remember that all ideas are good. Are you chasing a "better" idea? Are you avoiding the tough middle parts of your stories? Figure out what the hold up is.

And if you want, I FORBID you from writing something new until you finish a book.

I'm serious.

LOL! Isn't she awesome? :) I love her advice and how she's basically telling me to either sh** or get off the pot when it comes to finishing a first draft and she's right: I WILL finish-if I want to. And darn it, I so want to! Plus, she FORBID me from giving in to the siren song of another Shiny New Idea until after I finish writing a first draft! Oh, it's ON now, Natalie! :P Thanks for the awesome advice! It's just the kind of kick in the pants I've been needing! :)

Hoping this helps others who are in the same boat,

~Ella