I never was much for group projects at school. Assign me a project and I would dive into it, working on every aspect until everything was perfect. Stick me on a group project however and watch me curl up into a shell. The problem with most group projects is that everybody in the group feels like they are smarter and do better work than everybody else in the group. The best group projects were the ones where I ended up with one or two people who didn’t care about the project at all. I was not one of those kids who would complain to the teacher about doing more than my share of the group’s project — no way! I would gladly do all the work and put everyone’s name at the top of the paper if it meant not having to haggle, argue, and compromise my way through a project.
I think that mentality is one of the reasons I enjoy writing so much. It’s not a community project; it’s just me. To be sure, I am constantly learning things about writing, reading the work of others, and considering critiques of my work, but at the end of the day, what goes into my story are the words I write. There’s no community around to veto my occasionally crazy ideas. There’s also no one else to help carry the weight when there’s work to be done. Writing is an art where you get back what you put into it. The more you write, the longer your story becomes. The more you edit your story, the more polished it reads. It’s not rocket science.
Last night, after the kids went to bed, I retreated to my upstairs hidey-hole and threw down 2,000 words — although to be fair, roughly 1,000 of them involved rewriting a scene, so my overall word count only grew to around 6,200 words. Still, every little bit counts.
Last semester (and in the past), I found that writing before everybody else was up and around worked well for me. Unfortunately due to my schedule this semester, I’m starting work at 6 a.m. twice a week and just don’t have it in me to write before then. The other three days, I’m exhausted in the mornings as well. That leaves me the night to slink upstairs and put down words.
By myself.
Great post.
In my past writing endeavors I have found certain times I work better alone, while other times it’s almost as though I need to be goaded into putting down words. That sense of community via feedback and discussion can be pretty helpful at times… though unbearably in-the-way at others; while working alone can be liberating and fluid at times… though stiflingly silent at others.
Can’t really commit to one way over another, I suppose for me it depends on the project and where my head’s at going into it.
Again, great post, really enjoy joining you on your journey here.