I get a kick out of creating characters that are a little bit fun, a little bit abnormal, and a little bit insane. It makes it interesting to put them in normal situations and see "What can they possibly do to make this worse?"
While I love writing, sometimes I let it take a back seat to all my other hobbies (or internet) for a long time. It always makes me feel like I'm slacking in the creativity department when I'm not doing something though.
I'm not the best writer out there, nor am I the most experienced but I do have a few things or two I have learned from writing.
Excuse: Writing is Hard
Putting words onto paper is easy, making it sound good is a whole different matter. If you're worried that you're a bad writer, but have the passion and the story in your head then you can still do it. Sure, it may not sound amazing, but remember:
Other writers and authors have been doing this a lot longer than you have. They read books, they have practice, they took classes. Do the same thing, and compare only to yourself! Join a group (like The Dragon's Rocketship) to meet other writers that encourage you and are willing to read your work to provide pointers. Writing gets easier with practice.
Excuse: I don't have time
This is one of the biggest excuses for anything. If you want something bad enough, you'll make time. Whether it's setting 30 minutes aside in the morning, waking up earlier, writing on your lunch break at work, or cutting back your TV time by a little bit, you can make time. If you geninuly don't have time then record what you're thoughts are in the car on the way home from work, and write it down on the weekends when you do have time! A lot of people, including myself, feel better when they create. They let go of inner emotions and feelings, and they just feel alive when they're in a natural creative environment. Do something for your creative side!
Writing a novel is hard, I agree, but it's not impossible. A novel is over 40,000 words. That's a lot of words, sure...but three ideas to consider:
1) Writing 250 words a day will give you a first draft of a novel in 160 days, that's less than six months! If you dedicate time to write only 250 words A DAY you'll have a novel in 6 months!
or
2) Join up in NaNoWriMo in November. The goal is to write 50k in 30 days, that's 1,667 words per day. If you succeed you have 50k words by the end of 1 MONTH! One month of people in the same situation joining you and pushing you and helping you succeed! If you're tired of making excuses, push yourself for just 30 days!
3) The Magic Spreadsheet. The Magic Spreadsheet is an amazing Excel file in Google Docs that's accesible to anybody. You have a row, where you compete with only yourself (or others if you choose) and you write. Each day you get a sense of pride and accomplishment when you fill in your daily word count, whether it was 250 or 5,000 for the day. You see your days in a row going up which gives you more points. More points means you can level! You can "experience points" by writing! You can compete with your friends or just set your own goals and write for yourself. See if you can write for 30 days in a row, 60, 90, 365.
Excuse: I don't have the motivation
Motivation is something you need to find. It's something you can find by being with like minded people and seeing their accomplishments, or by setting a daily goal and reaching for it each day. Whether you're motivated to be creative or to complete your novel to say you did, push yourself. Spend each day finding things that motivate you, go out on a walk, go to new events, search for photos online (and save them for a rainy day), READ READ READ! Do things that encourage you and give you ideas to push yourself further. And somedays, if you don't have motivation JUST DO IT! Force yourself to write at least 250 words, and maybe the rest will come to you.
