protagonism

I want to develop my skill at writing creative non-fiction. That's my project for my writing on Medium. It will probably change the way I write my blog. The two formats will feed each other. Writing for Medium has already changed the way I read and think about my blog. I've realised that, in my blog, I make leaps from one topic to another without explanation. With my writing for Medium, I have to think more about structure and sign-posting and helping the reader. I have to plan what I'm going to write because a good piece of writing will always have a thesis or central idea, or at least convey a logical progression. So thinking about all of these things leads me to see my blog in a different light. 

I'm trying to work on a novel as well. I've already made an attempt. I got quite far a couple of years ago. I wrote 9.5 K words. That's not huge but it's further than I've ever gotten before in previous attempts at writing extended prose fiction. To be honest, I truly feel like I have no aptitude for writng fiction. There's something about it that I just can't do. But then I felt like that about the kind of writing I'm doing for Medium. I'm figuring it out as I go, and enjoying the process. 

It's not that I'm not good at creative writing, it's just that the kind of creative writing I do is very experimental. I have this urge to bring art into writing and writing into art. But anyway, I'm not good at art either, but that doesn't stop me. Maybe to write my novel I should do what I did with art and just forget about what is expected and how other people do it, and do what I want. Then, the more I made art, the more skills I developed and the better I got at making something worthwhile, at least that I think is worthwhile. 

What other people see and appreciate and think about your art or writing does come into it though. Just as you only receive when you give, you will only be able to create written or visual art that people like if you forget what people like and work in a way that you like - do your own creative process.