I set a goal for myself this summer – ‘write a story, longer then you’ve ever written before.’
I’ve had an idea which has been luring in the back of my mind for a while and when I decided to put it into words, it simply felt right.
The past year I’ve acquired the habit of writing something ever.damn.day. Whether it’s a diary-page, a small poem, a short-story, has not mattered. What I wanted was for my writing to become habitual. To make the urge to write a constant. It’s easier to write when inspiration flows from within, but I know writing is not easy, and my main goal has been to go beyond the “need for inspiration”. To find a place where I write, without judging myself and constantly reminding me of “it’s better that you write something useless than not writing at all”.
The articles and reportages on authors I’ve read, all state the same one thing when the interviewer has asked what their key to writing is – “sit your ass down and write”.
What differentiates an author and someone who wants to write a book? – The author actually writes it.
I have not come especially far – although further than ever – but the success is not within the amount of words, it is in the growth of the storyline and the characters. For the first time in my life I see my main character in front of me. And wow what a feeling. I know how she will react to different situations and what her thoughts are on those happenings. Thanks to consistency and stubbornness my mind has learned how to put the story-pieces together, and trash the ideas (my darlings, if you so will) which are of no use.
It is an incredible journey I’ve embarked on and I am in ecstasy to see where it will end.
Josie Mattsson 