Writing Woes

I've had this blog for a few years now, so my writing has changed a lot since I started.  I still have many of the same problems as before, like being repetitive, sometimes sounding too cheesy and dramatic, switching from present tense to past tense (and vice versa), and never knowing how to write a good conclusion.  But hopefully I've improved at least a little bit.

I'm kind of afraid to go back and read any of my earlier posts, because it's probably a little embarrassing.

I took a long break from writing my stories, so my writing was pretty rusty when I got back to working on them.  I struggled with major writer's block for a long time, but now I find it's much easier to write and I'm finally making some progress with the story that I'm working on.

Since I took a break from working on it, the first few chapters aren't nearly as good as the more recent chapters.  I'm going to have to completely rewrite the earlier chapters.  And I have a lot of plot holes to fix.  I also find that my side characters are more interesting than my main characters, but to be fair, the plot twist that makes one of the main characters more interesting doesn't happen until later.  One of the things I really need to work on is "show, don't tell".

Sometimes I wonder if anyone would want to read anything I published, because what's popular right now is the Dystopian genre.  And that's not really my thing.  But hopefully, that will change by the time I publish anything.

I haven't read many books lately.  But I have been reading a lot of fanfiction.  Yes, I will freely admit to that.  I read fanfiction.  Lots of it.

Fanfiction is looked down upon by some people, but I think of it as a great way for writers to practice writing.  I've actually considered writing fanfiction myself, but the thought kind of terrifies me.  I'm not sure I'd be brave enough to put my writing out there like that.  But that just proves I need to do it, because how can I be a writer if I'm too afraid to share my writing?

Anyway, from now on, I'm determined to write more.  The only way to improve one's writing is to write, so that's exactly what I'm going to do.