Don't Forget To Actually Do It

I'm writing an extended piece of fiction and I can feel the burn. I haven't actually done this in a long time. Much of my prose has either been nonfictional or very short fiction. On top of that, so much of my writing has been for a visual medium, like graphic novels, that doing prose is a significantly different experience. It requires a very different skill set.

I write a lot in Cheff Salad about storytelling. Technically speaking, storytelling is the same anywhere. However, the way that you tell a story can be extremely different. In a graphic novel, you have pictures to show the scenes, describe the characters, tell those subtle nuances. The writing you are doing is about the characters' actions and personalities. The words that people read are dialogue and some narration. Compare that to traditional prose, where your words describe everything, and understand how very different they are.

As such, although I have talked much about writing prose, I'm feeling quite rusty at it. Granted, I am writing my first draft, so there will be much editing and revising in my future, which makes me not feel so bad about being rusty. (Take note on that, writers.)

This leads to the important lesson: don't forget to actually do your craft. Talking is easy. It's also cheap. Anybody can talk about doing something. The difficulty and effort is in actually doing it. And, for the serial starters out there, the difficulty is in finishing what you start.