I'm currently reading Stephen King's On Writing. It's pretty inspiring stuff, reasonably encouraging throughout with some pessimistic and downright depressing material ("If you are a good writer, you will never be a great writer. If you are a bad writer, you'll never be a competent writer" - cheers, steve!).

However, there are two points i need to rant about.

Firstly, there's a section about how you should write even if you think what you're writing is bad. Now that's made me paranoid, because everytime i sit down to write, i worry that it's bad. I worry that i'm a mediocre, barely-competent writer (We interrupt this rant to inform you that this is NOT an appeal for compliments. Any compliments recieved will be ignored) and that i'll never succeed at this. I know that every writer thinks that, but it's particularly strong at the moment.

Secondly, and more importantly, he insists that when you sit down to write, you should close the door and shut out the world. He writes this at a time when he is able to spend all day shut up in his room, when he can sever his connection with the world, where he has a door to shut. He is writing for people who live alone, who have retired or have a lot of time on their hands, who don't have family around them expecting them to respond at a moment's notice.

The point is, in this house, there's no such -ing thing as a closed door.

If i am home alone, I'm usually doing the housework, making the place nice and tidy so the folks and my sister can wreck it while i do my shift at Tesco, leaving it nice and messy for me to tidy up again the next day.

Once i get that done and retire to my room, the door must be open so that i can answer the phone or the door whenever the Indian housewife next door brings us whatever spicy treats she's been cooking up in her spare time.

If someone else is home to answer the phone/door, it's either my sister (who'll be revising [read: watching tv] or too 'busy' [read: not] to do anything that i can do for her), dad (who'll be crashing and banging around the house complaining that the place is a shithole, even when it's at its best, and may even recquire help in whatever he's fixing [read: destroying]) or, most likely, mum (who will be doing some form of uni work and constantly call me down like a personal dictionary, thesaurus, spellchecker, computer hotline, tea maker, etc.)

When the [insert tasteless profanity here] am i meant to shut out the world in order to write?

You're right, it is very difficult to close that door. Stephen King is very lucky, his job is to write and therefore he has a very good excuse to close the door. most of us, however, are not that fortunate. If I even get the chance to do almost anything in a day that isn't work related, that's a sucessful day. Not that I don't love my job, I do, but with every full time job it takes up most of my time (well duh I guess). And the same goes for college stdents, part-time workers, people with familes to look after. If writing is not the breadwinner then it's often put on the back burner.

The only thing I can suggest is that if you can't close the door in your own house because of interuptions, then maybe find a place that isn't your house. for example I love cafes and librarys. I can go to one of those places and sit for hours. Unless I'm at uni (in a small town where's it's difficult to go anywhere without bumping into someone) then I can write relatively undisturbed - and have refernce books there or all the tea and cake I could ever want :D

And as for writing even when you think your writing is bad....well if you enjoy writing then that's far more important then how good it is. And besides, writing is how we get better at writing (that and reading). And anyway sucess in writing is about determination (and some good fortune as well I guess). TF you have wanted to be a writer for as long as I have known you, and (I will ignore your brakets and say that you are a good writer :P ) if you are determined that you will succed as a writer then you will.

:D

Cheers, aleana. I may well use a few of those tips, but Uni starts again on Thurs, so writing will be on the backburner until the summer. I've considered trying to write on the train to work, but i never get a seat, so i'd never be able to steady a pad (my writing's bad enough when i'm at a stable table!).

I think that the hardest part of it is trying to get above the hack level. I get three pages in and then I rewrite those three pages about a hundred times and then I just give up. I can't usually use the computer to write because its my roomie's and hes kind of a kack about that, and if I use spiral ring binders I have so many edit marks on the pages that they become illegible. terrible terrible terrible

According to King, "the scariest part of writing is just before you sit down". I think that's the main problem, because i've become too scared.

Mwahah and here I, who left home for uni, have the advantage. Even though I'm really bad at actually sitting down and writing. I have a nice big room to myself and a lock on the door :D!

That said, I've probably written less than you. But I write to tell my characters stories, not for publishing...I hardly ever edit >.>

Well, restarting and rethinking has made me refine the story and the characters, and now it's at such an ultimate stage that i just want to put on some magic brain-sucking helmet and get the story out that way - it's quicker than writing!