The Call of Writing

I - Musings From a Wannabe Writer

Writers create. They create from deep within them, the very core of our being driving them to make. They create to feel, drawing from this broken world's shattered reality to construct something far greater than its parts. They create to share that voice within us that cries in the night, demanding to be heard.
If only I were one of them.
My name is Uni. I'm a high school graduate, and during the internim between school and college, I'm a disappointment. I don't want to be. I want to create, to write, to breathe without the weight of my own expectations crushing me. I, like so many of you, have a story to tell but little experience to tell it with. I'm not a writer or an artist (though I adore the craft), yet despite the overwhelming mountain of difficulty in becoming a professional writer, I cannot see myself doing anything else.
It's time to turn wistful dreaming into reality. Waiting for college sounds like murder. Of course, I'll learn the semantics and minutiae of storytelling at a university, but what of experience? Can one truly learn to write without writing? No, the more experience I have before college the more I shall develop as a writer within.
It's time to begin my journey as a writer. It's been too long since I've written; no excuse could be sufficient for my downtime.
...
I don't know what to do.
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At least, I don't on my own. To travel down this route, I'll need a guide, someone who has tread the path before me, someone who will keep me accountable. To remedy this situation, I shall employ two sources of knowledge. First, I shall learn through a curriculum that will keep me both accountable and well-rounded. I fear that if I try to learn through my own means, hopping from guide to guide, I'll develop sporadically, leaving areas of writing untouched or underdeveloped. I have acquired a curriculum through Gotham Writers' Writing Fiction. Frankly, I don't know what to expect. I do know, however, that it is one source that I may work through in its entirety.
That leads to my second source, my ace, you. You, dear reader, probably know something about stories that I do not. Some of you are writers yourselves, proficient in your craft and full of experience. Please, I beg thee, lend me your thoughts. Admonish me. Encourage me. Do some other third thing. Anything helps.
If you, like me, desperately wish to write, I encourage you to watch me fail. The main reason I'm documenting my writing process is, yes, for critiques, but also so that those who come after me may learn from me, follow my successes, and avoid my blunders. There is no learning without failure, and there is no use to failure without learning. Therefore, I shall learn to fail spectacularly; I will be the fool that dances in the royal court for those who are too intimidated to preform to jeer at. Ultimately, I will learn.
So, what now?
Dear reader, now comes the promises. If you feel so inclined, make the promise with me.
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I, Name (Uni), shall, for the foreseeable future (Until college for me), focus on becoming who I know I can be, a writer. I shall do this with three simple steps:
1. I will follow a single curriculum, preforming all the exercises it suggests with the intent of becoming a better writer. I will not jump between different systems unless a prevailing issue forces me to do so.
2. I will read at least a chapter a day. This is to make me a more experienced reader and a more informed writer. (I'll do so, at least partially, on Wattpad itself. Feel free to suggest titles for me to check out. I will not read smut.)
3. I will log my progress. In addition to any exercises, I shall make an entry at least once a week. This is to keep me accountable to my fellow peers as well as provide me a written document to refer to when I feel I have not grown as a writer.
If I fail to keep these three tenants, I refuse to give up. I, Name (Uni), will modify these rules at any point if they become extreme. I will, however, not quit writing.
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Dear reader, you have witnessed my promise, now it is my turn to fulfill it. Thank you for your time.