Poking a Jellyfish with a Stick... And Hoping not to Get Stung

It seems I'm having a few problems this week getting the process going. I'm currently editing two stories concurrently (try saying that three times fast....), mostly because I figure that when I hit a roadblock on one, I can do something with the other.

This is, of course not always the case, but it does seem to be working for now.

The problem is that I'm finding myself leaning more towards the one that reads more easily than the other that needs more work. The one that needs more work needs almost a full re-write. The story just doesn't work as is. The characters are flat, the story comes to it's conclusion far too quickly, and like Pandora's Box, having unlocked the endgame, it's proving hard to stuff the crap back in there to make the darn thing work. The easy one, I'm finding I'm just skimming along. Occasionally, I hit some little thing, make a note about it and move on. Easy as pie. I can almost see the end from here (although I know I'll be telling myself to "work on this").

I just end up feeling guilty because, like last week, I spend the larger part of my time reading the good one -- ten, twenty pages at a time --, while I'm doing maybe a page a week for rewrites of the other. But, at the same time, it's hard for me to balance that out more. I just don't know, right now, how to fix the story that needs work.

Ugh. Well, I'll take the blessings with the burdens. Hopefully, by the time I've sorted the edits on the easier story, I can come back to the harder one with renewed purpose.

But, does anyone have any advice?

Butt-in-chair method has gotten all of the stories I've written thus far (4!) together, and while editing is always slow, I've been pretty fortunate that the one that's got me stumped has been the only one with the problems I'm having. Along with everything else -- shaky plot, faded characters, hard-to-work with character with perhaps too unique a problem for my writing ability -- I'm also having Premature Ending Syndrome. I feel like I've stumbled over this ending and found "Surprise! You've got nothing else here!"

And it's got me scratching my head, looking at a re-write. Maybe the sea monsters came in over night and stole the rest of the book. Things go missing, perhaps it was the kelpie. Who knows?

So, come on people. The floor is yours. What should I do? Keep on keeping on with the one that works and set this aside? Or should I set aside the easy path? Is there a real compromise between the two that can be had? I'd appreciate any and all feedback.

Undercover Writers

Do you know any undercover writers? I'm going to bet you do. You're probably one of them yourself. Someone who, like me, not only has a day job, but a day job that has very little to do with writing or the genres they love. People who write over their lunch or late at night, people guiltily scribbling away during meetings and never taking "notes."

Have you ever noticed that when you catch some one (or are caught yourself) just how many other people out themselves around you as someone who does the same?

It's funny, really.

And encouraging.

Yo-Ho-Ho and a Bottle of Rum

On topic with a post I wrote back in February, a trip to the bookstore a few weeks ago provided me with a myriad of new reading options playing off of the world, characters, and life of Jane Austen, up to and including a book where Jane is residing in modern times -- as a vampire. We'll see how that one turns out.

I am currently about half way through the madness and mayhem of Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters. And I'm enjoying the trip.

I picked it up after having enjoyed Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

And Zombies??? You ask. Yes, and Zombies. And Ninjas, too.

I enjoyed it so much that when Quirk Books released Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, I figured, Heck, why not.

They aren't written by the same author, but both are irreverent takes on classic books, which, in my mind really only heightens the enjoyment. I love recognizing things you liked about the original story combined with something completely different.

Makes me wish I'd thought of it first.

53 Stitches at a Time

One of my (many) hobbies is knitting. Right now, it's the only one other than writing that I'm consistent about (with the possible exception of singing, although I don't think I can count "in the shower" or "with the radio" as practice, even if those are the only places I perform in these days). And that's because I can do it on my commute to my day job.

The project I'm working on right now, I'm getting in about 53 stitches at a time when I sit down. Which would be great, except that for what I'm working on each row is 103 stitches. And the pattern involves 7 repeats of 72 rows, two sets of 12 rows, and one set of 41 rows. Before placing it into this context, I thought that I was doing pretty good.

At this rate, I'll be lucky to have it done for Christmas, let alone Mother's Day (sorry, Mom!)....

I need a little more time and a few less hobbies (don't get me started about the list of "hobbies" I fuss with)... ;)

But really, it is the story of my life. In the last few years I've gotten a lot better about my writing my putting it into a "small, regular goals reap large, long-term rewards" format. But, it can be a little disheartening to see a couple hundred words, knowing that to get to a full novel you need to get near 50,000 words.

But, everyone needs to start somewhere. And every project needs to start somewhere. Who knows, I've picked up the pace writing before, maybe I'll get faster with the fine yarn and tiny needles.

I'm sure as heck not giving up yet. (This pattern is way too pretty to give up on!)

*Pattern is from 101 Designer One-Skein Wonders.

Don't ask me. I'm new here...

When we first started this blog, I admit, I attempted to adopt a tone that was not my own, one advised by one of my compatriots. You may have noticed that when I do post of late, it's been something completely different. The reason being: I really don't have anything I can teach or preach about. I'm still too new at this. This doesn't mean that I don't write or that I don't work on perfecting the craft every day. I do.

But, I'm not a professional writer. And, right now, I'm not likely to be one.

I write because I enjoy it. Not because it's going to make me rich or famous.

I'm not particularly literary. In fact, I've had a teacher despair that I'm “too clinical” for fiction writing, while a professor of biology claimed I was “too emotional” for science.

So why am I here?

Good question, and one I've been asking myself often of late. I've been starting blogposts that I've never published. Why?

Because, I really don't know what to say.

See, unlike writing fiction or poetry, I blog because someone else thought it was a good idea to talk about what it is we were doing.

But for me, I'm afraid it sounds more like what the bard wrote: A tale told by an idiot. All sound and fury, signifying nothing.

Anecdotes, random stories. Thoughts on a book I've read. Really, that's all I've got. And that's not a voice of a teacher. That's the voice of a friend, talking to you about what she's got going on. And hopefully, it's enough. Because that's what I have for you. My unprofessional, random thoughts.

I just hope you don't mind hanging around and letting me know a little about you and your random-and-professional-or-unprofessional thoughts. Talk with us. Genn and Jenny and I would be more than happy to hear from you.

Reading Something Old New Again

I'm going way off topic this week, but it's because of a certain call I've been answering. And I think that call has to do with all of the edits (and writing) I've been working on.

When I love a story, I always want more. I'll read and re-read the same book again and again. For example, I'm a huge fan of Jane Austen. And, while I haven't read all of her novels, the ones I have read, I read again. And again. She never wrote sequels of her most beloved books. But, other people have.

Just like Sense and Sensibility, I find myself re-reading the Pamela Aiden series Fitzwilliam Darcy, A Gentleman. But, every time I do, it brings to mind a question I've been asking myself for many years. Something of a debate I've held with myself over my guiltiest of pleasures. When is it art and homage and when is it just fan fiction?

Outlines: Another Side of the Die

Granted, outlines can be useful; I wouldn't outright say that outlines aren't useful.

And I certainly wouldn't say that whatever I have against them involves stifling my creativity.

But, I think there's a time and a place for everything under heaven. And at some point if you haven't set the thing down on paper, creating one is actually more of a procrastination tool than anything else.

That said, I've worked on my own stories both with and without it, and I think that needing one or not, and the format you use (as Mike Chen mentioned not too long ago, when talking about his story webs), depends on the narrative. For me, at least.

My first story was written the whole way through with a kind of non-traditional outline. The story is set in a specific time-frame, and I needed to keep that frame in mind. And so, I set a loose outline of that story up in a day planner. My chapters are less "chapters" and more like what happens each day for my three protagonists. The day-planner approach (I hesitate to call it an outline, but it is one. Kind of.) was really helpful for me in visualizing what was going on and the pacing of my story. But it hasn't worked in all cases, for example, my second story.

For my second story (a Nano-Novel), there was no physical outline. I thought about a day planner, but it didn't fit. I had a plan from the beginning for the over-reaching story arc and while the smaller stories with in it have been developing within that framework, there wasn't an outline set out for the first (or second, or third) of what I hope to be a series of three. I finished the story, ran through a first set of edits and then a second, marking in the text notes for what I wanted to see and when. I had a fairly good idea about the way the story flowed and the way it progressed. I've always been a bit of a patchwork writer anyway and I see the connections between pieces. It's all in my head and I'm good at visualizing where it goes and if it needs to be moved. The big picture.

It wasn't until the three of us sat down and set out a specific deadline for passing around a draft of one of our novels that someone even mentioned outlining, and while I did it to stay in tandem with both Genn and Jenny, I really felt that doing the outline was keeping me from doing what I needed to actually do on my actual story -- do something about all of those notes about "move this here," "eliminate this," or "bring this in here." The only thing the outline I completed has helped me to do is to see where I put the song lyric quotes I still am not convinced I need for most chapters. There are one or two chapters where the song quote is just too perfect to get rid of, which is why I'm still having a bit of a hink about keeping them or not. I broke up a few chapters into smaller pieces, but really, the reason I'd had them together as one before was thematic. I spent most of January working on something that the whole time I was convinced (and am still convinced) that at this point, I don't need. It was far too late for an outline on this story.

My third story, still being written, is also going right along without an outline. But, it's also a story line I've had in my head for a while, and while I've had a few fits on some specific scenes (some characters just don't want to be written out! What cheek!), it's still going right along without one. I know what I need to write next, even if it's hard. And I know what I need to do for the last chapter. I've written some of it already, thanks to another suggestion of Mike's, something I've been leery of letting myself do as it's part of my prior MO with my unfinished novels -- writing scenes out of order. I never used outlines back then, either. I don't think I'm creating an outline for this one. I feel pretty confident I know what's going on the whole story through.

My fourth story (another Nano-Novel), was actually finished before my third story, but it's the second for the series mentioned earlier. I'm still tottering on whether or not this edit is going to need an outline. If I do, should I go with an option -- like with my first novel -- that isn't conventional. The problems with the story were ones I'd realized before I'd finished, much like the earlier Nano-Novel: this one ends abruptly, there stuff missing -- like tension and a plot line. I don't want this to be filler between the first and third stories, so I have to find some way of making this story stand up on it's own, and once I've finished with this round of edits on the second story (confused yet?), I need to roll up my sleeves and figure out some way to breathe life into the inert monster that is this second-of-three-stories. Even so, not having read it over once yet, I'm fairly confident I know what's wrong and what I need to do where. No outline, but an idea of where things go in my head.

A lot of times, I think what really is my bug-a-boo about outlines is that I'm not entirely a lineal thinker. I can keep it all straight in my head, but if I were to create something to show the whole network of plot bits, I'd have to have the software used to plot epidemics (a whole web of connections) or I'd have to create an "idea mobile, with strings connecting each floating piece, or use an erector set with little tags on it for each point at my desk (hmmm... I like this idea. I haven't done that in a while.... where is that erector set...?) -- and that takes up a lot of physical space.

So, I'm still out on whether or not I think outlines are useful or just a procrastination tool. I haven't finished a story because I've had an outline. I've finished a story because I gave myself goals and deadlines and put my butt in the chair and got to work. That's just how I roll....

Although, I could have probably used an outline for this blog post.... ;)

NANO Week 3: How Are You Fairing?

Hello everyone out there. At this point, those of you who have joined us in the exciting journey through NANO land have likewise hit the midpoint. Are you hanging in there? Are you still just as excited about your story as when you started?

If not, you're not alone. This is a hard spot. At this point you've been writing for two weeks now, pumping out word counts and exploring the world you've been creating.

This is my third year doing NANO, and while my word counts are vastly improved from the first year, those struggles still haven't abated. I just reach a point when I slow down, not for lack of ideas, but because I just question everything. I just finished a scene that breaks me because I know I'm going to have to go back and get rid of it all. Almost all 2000 words.

The only thing that gets me through this is knowing that I've come so far -- too far to turn back now. That and remembering Rule Number One: Go Forward. You go back when you edit, and editing will happen when the story is done.

Of course, small sweets and other incentives are certainly helping....

How are you getting through NANO this year?

What NANO has Reminded Me: Early Morning Writing Joy

In many ways, participating in NANOWRIMO teaches me things about writing and about myself. Many of those lessons are reminders. The biggest thing I've been reminded of lately is of my morning creative period.

Before joining the huddled masses in the real world, I was always an early riser. As Ginny and Jenny can both attest, for much of my time in college I was up before my roommates finishing papers and projects I hadn't finished the night before. Ten PM was my limit of lateness for work, but during the morning hours -- from six to eight (in some cases, nine, if I didn't have a class) -- I was gold. I liked working in the morning. My brain liked the morning. And I was more than willing to run with it.

Fast forward eight years. Work life and home life being what it is, my sleep clock shifted. My husband (love him dearly) has always been a night owl. He works best in the late hours and has no problems sleeping in until eleven on the weekends if there is no alarm. While I've never really been able to sleep that late, I might get up when the cat wanted a feeding, crawl back into bed and sleep until the alarm or until about nine AM without it. But I'm not going to bed until eleven PM - midnight. And, I've been getting into the habit of blaming work as much as my husband -- in getting home and needing to get so much done before bed because I was at work all day, but I'm rediscovering early mornings this NANO, thanks to the time change.

I'm rediscovering my early creative period. For the last week, I've been up every day by seven at the latest (the old eight). I pour myself a cup of tea, curl up with the cat (the only time he "cuddles"), and I get working. By the time the alarm goes off (around eight), I've got six-hundred words or so banged out. I'm awake and feeling good starting my workday. Perhaps it's a little early to say, but I think this is something I want to keep going into the rest of my writing year. Perhaps not upwards of two-thousand words a day -- although NANO has proved to me I can do it (and makes me feel more guilty about my dry spells), but maybe this is how I could keep that up post-NANO.

I do have other revelations that have come to me this and prior NANOs, not the least of which is that I'm capable of doing two-thousand words a day, but we'll save those for another post on another day.

In the meantime, I'm going to get back to my NANOing. For those who might want to track my progress, too, the NANO log-on I'm updating is MiaBrightborn.

13894 and counting!

You Had Me at the Headline

So, I was looking at CNN recently and couldn't help but check this out.

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/showbiz/2009/10/20/dcl.charlaine.harris.intv.cnn

I actually did find the interview inspiring, from the point of view of an aspiring genre writer. Over the course of it, Charlene Harris talks about her journey to her current genre, things going on in the world of Sookie Stackhouse, and genre writing, particularly the supernatural-mystery genre, and the True Blood TV series. It is, in all a very short interview, but certainly amusing.

And how can you resist this headline: "I like my guys without fangs," Author Says ?

What do you think?

I've Been Workin' on the Railroad....

Okay... perhaps it's not that bad. In fact, I am rather proud of this week's accomplishments, all things considering.

I made my writing goal last week by Thursday (This week: 3600. Onward Ho!) and decided not to push it. Not knowing how much time I would be able to devote to either endeavor over the course of the weekend, I had decided to take a little time during the long ride out to a friend's wedding (CONGRATS AGAIN, JAMES AND AMY!!!) and work on some editing. And boy did I ever. Between the car rides there and back, when I wasn't driving, I was able to finish most of chapter one. I added a little over 3000 words -- which is great because I eliminated a lot, probably about 3000 words or more (and if I continue with the edits that I've been contemplating will be just the start of an entire overhaul of the next four chapters and the elimination of most, if not all of chapter two). I was surprised at how easily it worked. Some trips I find I can't do anything at all, while others have some crazy abundance, maybe to make up for the ones where I sit for seven or more hours in the car (or bus or plane or train) and ask my SO over and over again "are we there yet?" (I fear for the day we have children. He may lose it. Seriously.)

Here is where my confidence lags, though. I honestly wonder if I'll be able to keep this level of productivity up now, and if I do, will I run out of whatever it is that's been buoying me these last few weeks during NANO? Perhaps, perhaps not.

I would feel a little better, going into NANO if I felt some things were off my plate. And if I did more research into what I'll be writing for NANO. It wasn't something I could work on this weekend, because until Sunday night, I was without internet. I suppose part of this shaky confidence is knowing that what I did (and have been doing) is frankly insane in the light of what Jenny and Ginny are doing. What do I think I am, trying to edit and write at the same time?

But, on some level I saw it as a kind of "free time." I'd already done my goals for this week.

On the other hand, if I'd used that free time to work on my current writing story, would I have gotten 3000 more words out of myself (doubling my goals and getting me that much closer to having this finished before NANO)? Or would I have had a car ride of staring at the lovely turning leaves but asking myself as my power slowly dwindled -- on so many levels -- are we there yet?

So, I suppose the ultimate question I'm posing is, is it smart of me to have taken this route this week and divided my time between two worlds, as it were, which may or may not get me closer to eliminating one of the balls in the air in my right hand? Or should I have taken a more decisive step towards finishing the story I'm still writing, thereby moving that ball from my left to my right?

What do you think?

Celebrating the Milestones... and Moving Forward From There

So, I hope everyone out there had a productive week. I sure did. I feel like I might be back in the groove ::fingers crossed::. I beat my goal of 1500 words by almost double. And, I've finally crossed the big 200 page mark on the active story. It feels like I've been pulling teeth to get there this time, especially with the slow summer I've had. I had been starting to worry I'd never get there.

In addition to hitting that hurdle, I've started working on dossiers. And although I haven't done any editing work for either of my finished stories, I feel like I'm back in a fabulous place.

At the beginning of this week, I started thinking about getting ready for NANO.

Get ready for NANO! Isn't that still about a month and a half away? you ask.

No? You're asking what NANO is?

::rubs her hands together::

NANO -- short for NANOWRIMO, or National Novel Writing Month -- is one month of sheer madness. 150 pages or 50,000 words in 30 days, the whole month of November writers everywhere are called to action with the simple premise of literary abandon. It doesn't have to be good right away (that's what NANOEDMO is for a couple of months later). The idea is to get done as much as you can without holding back or going back and editing until you've pulled as many rabbits out of your hat as you can in a month. Jenny, Ginny, and I will all be discussing the finer points of it as it comes and keep you all updated as to our progress, but if you're interested in looking into it now, check it out at www.nanowrimo.org.

So, in preparation for NaNoWriMo, I've made a commitment to up my word counts by 500 words each week. My original plan was to hit 1500 this week, 2000 next week, and so on. However, in light of the successes of the last week, I'm going to go an extra mile. My plan is that if I go past my goal, my new goal for the coming week is set at 500 past wherever I ended with the week prior. So, if I do nothing else this week, my goal will be around 3100 for next week. Seems big, but I had thought 2000 would be beyond me this week and I blew it out of the water.

I'm also going to be doing research for my NANO story, the second novel in the trilogy I started writing during last year's NANO. In the coming weeks, I'll be working up dossiers on all of the characters I know will make an appearance in the second novel (mostly because they made appearances in the previous one). And hopefully, I'll be ready and able when it's time. For now, I'm not going to worry too very much about doing edits -- I'll do a little now, but I think I'll be able to put more focus into it after NANO.

Any of those of you out there with plans for (or are already planning for) NANO?

New Week, New Work

So this week I'm feeling a little better about my "Actively Writing" story. On Mike's advice, I wrote an out-of-sequence scene -- an exercise I haven't done in a while. The scene I created is completely out-of-sequence and when I was done, it made me smile. It was a great moment between two of my favorite characters in this story. And it seems to have lifted some of my block. I have finally (FINALLY!!) finished Chapter 8.

Another thing I'm using to get things going and reorganize both my active story and the stories I'm editing is a character dossier. It's based in part on the character sheets of my youth (Oh, yes, I am a gamer. I know what THAC0 is.) and in part on more official information gathering paperwork. I hadn't really thought about doing these until I was re-reading my murder mystery and saw the part I'd written about the forensic report. I haven't done these in years, but I remember it did help a lot to remind myself of small details I might forget as the story grows longer. And, now that I'm more savvy with computer programs, I can create a web of connections and see where all my relationships are. So I've created a sheet to work with, and now, all I should need to do is fill in the blanks! We'll see if it works with both my writing and editing processes to get things going in the right directions.

I'll tell you how it's going next week!

A Weekend Away....

I hope everyone out there had a great Labor Day weekend. I have to admit, Labor Day weekend always makes me a little sad and restless. It's not that I don't like fall -- actually my two favorite seasons are fall and spring and the riot of color and comfortable weather both bring. It's just that I always feel that I should have gotten more done over the summer.

Mind you, I don't really think of myself as an overachiever. It's just there's something about the "laid back" days of summer, and my memory of vacations that makes me think: I had all this time to do something and did I?

Realistically, I'm not sure how much I can do these days: I don't have "summer vacation" in the old, school time sense. No endless, sun-drenched days of nothing much to do. I work now. Monday through Friday. 9 to 5:30. For someone else, and that certainly controls what I'm doing during those hours, when I'm not at lunch. And my vacations, out of necessity, all surround some holiday or other.

July was pretty much a bust. I reached page 170 in my current "actively writing" story over my brief Independence Day Weekend vacation and then spent the whole rest of July trying to get back to page 170 after realizing that the chapter as written really didn't do anything to move the story forward and if I went back and did it over, it would leave me in a better place to move forward. Embarrassing, as we (Jenny, Ginny, and I) have been working on just moving forward while writing and saving editing for afterward. And that last scene is the one I'm still having trouble writing.

August has been better. While I am having trouble getting that last bit of the fight scene to work, I have 184 pages on the main story and, thanks to some great advice, I'm going to bounce ahead a little bit and write an interesting scene that came to me last week before vacation. And one that should work to bring two other characters back into the story from the fringes they've been at for a bit.

And I've started looking at the second level edits of my first finished novel. And I've gotten a new prologue and a few ideas for at least the new first chapter. So, that's pretty good.

I probably should also not forget that August also saw the start of the blog.

So, all and all, summer has not been bad. It hasn't been fabulous, but it's been good enough that my dearly-beloved's moratorium on the computer this past weekend didn't leave me all panicky about getting something -anything- done. And it's really helped. I did bring a notebook for paper ideas. The one night I did any work in it, I outlined that scene for my main story. I think it's going to be pretty good. I have a lot of hope for it. But, I had a nice, quiet weekend away and didn't feel the pressure to have a ton done to show for the time off from work. I got to enjoy time with family and the lovely Maine coastline.

Did you enjoy your weekend? Was it a break? Or were you able to get work done? Do any of you feel that strange sadness to see the summer gone or am I just being strange?

Adventures in Editing II: Returning to the Scene of the Crime

As you may have guessed, I'm a bit of a corny writer. I love puns. But as I've completed my read-through portion of my second round of editing my first novel -- my murder mystery -- I'm beginning to wonder if it might be a crime against writing.

I'm trying to figure out how, when I read through this the first time and proofread and edited and finagled, I missed just how terrible the first five chapters are. Or is this something that every writer encounters about their first book?

When I sent it out for the first round of friend-reads, I felt it was pretty solid. Now, I know why only one person sent me back a response.

But now I know what I need to do -- or at least I think I know what I need to do -- starting all the way back at the prologue. I'm plotting it out and readjusting my time line. We'll see how that goes.

Going Back, Going Forward

So, in order to reorder my creativity, I've decided to make a two-fold alteration this week in my usual process: I'm going to write one of the future scenes in my active-writing story (thank you for the suggestion, Mike!) and go back to do some editing in an old one.

I like the idea of changing things up. I think a week-long trial won't kill any of my hopes to keep things moving in my main story and I'll get a little more work in on one of my finished stories.

I am a little worried about going back to editing.

I remember this amazing glow when I finished this novel. It might be akin to the feeling you get when you've given birth. (I don't know as I've only recently done the first and never the second -- well, perhaps some day, just not yet.) You've spent months putting energy, focus, and emotion into building, creating this thing piece by piece, block by block, and once you've gotten there there's relief and pride and accomplishment. I did this. I made this. Wow.

The wonderful flush has worn off – and has been for some time now – and now I'm looking back at this thing I've made and every time I look at it, I realize I'm faced with a challenge more daunting than finishing my first novel length work. Editing my first novel length work. I've had a first read through. And a first run of edits. And I've had my moments of cringing and asking myself "how am I ever going to make this work?" Well, I feel better about it than I had when I went through my first run of edits, but as I look into it again, I know I've still got a long way to go.

I've kept a running list of positives (Relatively cohesive! Interesting mythos! Fun characters!) to go along with the negatives in hopes of keeping some perspective. And maybe to give me some things to remember for the future.

Yes. I admit it. I am enamored with the comma. It is (apparently) my foremost punctuation device. It's something I'm working correcting on now: I found a paragraph editing the first round with only two sentences in it. A paragraph that lasts half a page because each sentence goes on with Lyttonesque fervor. Beautiful images, though. I have no doubt that I will find more run on sentences as I go through it another time.

My plot line is a little muddled, and even after the first round of edits, I'm still trying to work that out. But, I have a few ideas after time being away from it, and I'm hoping to see what I can do to make that work.

Well, it'll be something of an experiment, but I'm hoping it goes well. If anyone else has any other suggestions about how I might be able to get my creativity going again, drop me a line.

Here's to this week.

Keeping My Head Above Water -- Or: Surviving the Doldrums

I have reached a point in my work right now that I'm just going to call the doldrums. It's an odd place: I'd been going along at a fine clip for a while and then, suddenly, it's like my sails deflated. My speed has dropped from 60 to what comparatively feels like almost zero. It's not that I don't have idea of where I'm going or even great scenes plotted out in my head. It's that I've just lost the energy. Creatively speaking.

Ginny had to remind me that these periods have to happen. That you have to slow down or burn out. And that you have to refresh your creative self. But, after nearly a year of nearly consistent production and very few fallow periods, it has been somewhat frightening. I keep asking myself if I've lost it. If some how I have completely burned out.

But, she's right. Everyone needs to take a little breather. And it's not like I've stopped altogether.

But, I'm really not sure: how can I work on refreshing my creative winds? Does anyone have any suggestions, because, I'm certainly open to them.