Today you get two things from me (A, in case you didn't figure), so don't miss him too horribly. First I'll start with some words of sort of encouragement:
You fail only if you stop writing.
-Ray Bradbury
This isn't to say that you fail at life if you stop writing (though gosh...wouldn't you kind of?) but rather: you fail as a writer if you stop writing. Just because your first draft is crap, your second draft is crap, your fifty-third draft is crap...that doesn't mean you've failed. Some people never finish stories; some people finish stories that no one ever reads; some people publish stories that no one ever reads.
This doesn't make you a failure because writing isn't about the pages or the word count or the poetic prose. Writing isn't about what other people can see and measure. Writing isn't even about always becoming a better writer.
It's about writing.
It's about thinking. It's about creating. It's about living, escaping, embracing, discovering, developing, learning. Writing is just about writing. Stop worrying about the rest.
The second thing you get from me (I did say there were two, didn't I? Pay attention) is a writing prompt. Even if you don't base a 150k word novel on a writing prompt, you can at least base one page on a writing prompt.
Here it is:
He tended that rosebush every single day that he was alive.
No one knows what to do with it now.
By the way, and not that you care, but I have Riptide stuck in my head (by Vance Joy). "...I gotta lump in my throat cuz your gonna sing the words wrong...." Don't know why. Get it out.
Oh. And note that it's a *black* rose. They do exists.
