Yesterday I wondered what it was that had got me writing again. Well, not writing, but getting on with my writing to the tune of 3 short story completions in as many days. Today, I believe I have found the catalyst for this sudden successful burst of writing.
It isn't what people might expect. I haven't got a new muse (mmm, Calliope...), as you might expect. I haven't met anyone new (because that will never, ever happen - I'm resigned to becoming something of a hermit). I haven't even undergone a life-changing experience. No, what has helped me to suddenly being able to finish what I'm writing is something far more prosaic than all those things.
I changed the template I use to write into.
That probably sounds ludicrous. How can a template affect how happy I am with my writing? Does the writing look different on a different-sized page, in a different font? Well, actually, it does. They say don't be afraid of the blank page, but that's almost what I have been with A4 Times New Roman 12pt 1.5 spacing with 3cm margins, my old template. With this new template, on a strange-sized paper - not quite so small as A5, yet not the size of A4 - it's suddenly become so much easier to write things down and be happy with it. Perhaps most importantly, it suddenly feels like I'm getting somewhere with my writing, my main problem with writing on A4.
Once I've finished writing, I then copy and paste into an A4 document for ease of presentation, but I'd like to think my problem has been solved. After a long time of not writing much because I was scared of the blank page, I'm back writing reasonable amounts because I've got over that fear.
A word of thanks should go out here to the person who sent me the template in the first place, so thank you Holly Marsh, who sent the template for the anthology I wrote for back in February/March time. I owe you one, and I owe Stacy one as well for creating the template in the first place. Thanks to both of you.
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