Happy New Year! Here's another edition of IWSG: where we post our insecurities about writing and our goals. and this year, at least, I think my year is started off right!
While, yes, I will be moving yet again, and my laptop officially died, I achieved some pretty notable things in my non-writing life this holiday season:
I got a job!-- in a bookstore!
I began attending a really awesome writing group!
My guy repaired an old laptop for my use (old laptop that is newer than the one that just died) and got me a laptop table/desk to make my habit of writing-on-the couch more comfortable.
okay.. wait.. I suppose all of these things will be impacting my writing.
The greatest benefit is that I am happy, positive,and everything seems doable.
Which means I get to address my main writing insecurity this year: finishing something.
That's my goal: finish the novella, and at least one of the two novels that I'm working on. Edit and post short stories for sale. And this year I will return to blogging whole heatedly , rather than sporadically writing short little posts. I like deadlines, I like goals. So I'm going to work really hard at keeping myself to them this year.
Why do I have a problem finishing things?
I think it's just been a matter of discipline, honestly. I need to return to being disciplined. But I know that everything I required to help lift me from my mental fog--I now have it. So I should be able to finish something this year, because I should (after this next move) be able to return to a disciplined and structured life.
But when i let something sit long enough the characters change in my head, and then the plot shifts. I know I have to write quickly to finish something, and taht based on whatever else i have in my life fast is relative. But I suppose after the move my days off should include marathon writing sessions. I need to get ahead of the thoughts, the planning, the characters.
I think this makes me a pantser, for all my carefully arranged plots, characters timelines and dictionaries... when it gets down to it, I write in a very stream-of-consciousness manner. Everything formal, I guess, comes in a revision. Which...is a whole different skill that I am working on mastering and has come with its own insecurities (or developed them, more likely) -- which I can elaborate on next month!
What was the hardest writing project you ever completed (or had a hard time completing)?
You need like a self-imposed NaNo deadline to get you to the end.
ReplyDeleteThis last book was difficult only because I spent months perfecting the outline before I began writing. One I did start, it was done, edited, and to my publisher in less than six months.
You have a hard time finishing - I have a hard time beginning.
Yes, I love Nano. But I think I need two months straight rather than just one. I hope I will soon be able to operate as quickly as you :)
ReplyDeleteI have the same problem. I have to write a novel without a break.
ReplyDeleteNano is an awesome tool.
Congrats on the job and on finishing!
ReplyDeleteEach of my projects are difficult in unique ways. Mainly, I think it's because I'm a pantser, so things happening in my rough drafts always surprise me. :-D
@Misha, yeah...me too :D
ReplyDelete