Is writing an obsession? Is it a hobby? is it a job? (As I’m not paid, it’s certainly not a job) Is it all three, none of the above? I don’t know, I was just sort of thinking about it. What I do know is that it’s not something I really have the luxury of spending 10 hours a day working on. Even then, there are days where I can’t think of doing anything else. If it hadn’t been for exploding a bag of tasty bites in the microwave, today would have been that day. Nothing done but daydreaming at the laptop. I suppose in the end I managed to strike a fair balance. The microwave is clean, the floors swept and mopped, laundry done, bathrooms cleaned, and the kids will have all had their baths in the next hour. Plus, I managed to draft about half a chapter. I wish all days could be quite so productive.
Tag Archives: novel writing
Please, just write
Have you ever met a person who wants nothing more to be a writer, yet doesn’t put in the effort, all excuses and no action? It makes me frustrated. Not because these folks are lazy or incapable or anything like that, but because I know they can do it and there might something in their head that I’d like to know. A story I’d like to hear. To those folks, I’m asking, put your pen to paper and make it known. Should you not write because you’re not good? Because it’ll never get published? Because you’re embarrassed by your attempts at expressing your own creativity? I say piss on all that! Write whatever it is in your head, dammit someone will find it worth reading.
Progress report
I was going to post something last night, but I was just stupid tired. Whatever topic I was all fired up about in the morning just seemed to go out of me (still gone actually, though I do want to get to it … at some point). I don’t know if it’s all of the things at work I’m trying to get to (I have to write something suspiciously like a college term paper by the end of the month, which means it has to be done early next week for various reviews to take place), or if it’s the intense focus on holiday preparations, or possibly the fact that there’s about 45 minutes of daylight right now, I’m feeling pretty exhausted at the moment.
In spite of that though, I’m feeling fairly proud of myself. While I may have spent a few too many hours of my week whining about not having time for anything but blogging and running errands, I managed to finish a comb-through and revision of the first 11 chapters (~50K) of my story. The last of these 11 chapters was essentially re-written because it was just weak. Much stronger now. Still needs work, I think, but it’s close enough to move on to the next 4 or 5 chapters before revisiting. One of the reasons I’m proud of myself though is because as I went through and made various edits I actually came to the point where the entirety of the 11 chapters seem consistent and feel as though every action and reaction has a justification that makes sense in the context of the story, back-story, and overall plan. There isn’t anything left where I’m having to tell myself I’ll figure out the reason for that later. It’s making the next 3 or 4 chapters in the queue for revision / re-writing / writing seem a lot clearer in my mind. Once I actually get some time to really dig in, I should be able to make a significant amount of progress.
On Writing Dragons 