Though my work schedule has been tight, aggravated by winter weather delays, I've found a little time to work on the follow-up to Cordell's Rebellion. There are only a couple of scenes to complete and the first draft will be done. The excitement is building.
Writing
I am starting to see a pattern. Fall of 2017 was almost as bad. In my day job, I teach software development and databases. This fall, one of my courses, the technology changed while I was teaching it. All of my preparations, my examples and so forth were invalid. This really cut into my writing time.
I realized just what a long semester it had been this spring. Classes took all of my time and disrupted my writing quite a bit. Then I noticed that I said the same thing at the end of the previous semester. I'm starting to wonder if teaching full time will be compatible with a writing career. That's part of the list of things to do this summer. Can I get it done?
Once question I've heard over the years is why do I write? There is an assortment of ways to answer the question, some more serious than others. In talking to other writers, it seems there are some common threads. Maybe some of those reasons apply to your writing as well.
The obvious answers are short. Writing is fun. Writing is a cheap hobby. Maybe we have something we want to say to the world and writing lets us do that. If you are skilled, writing can earn money. On top of those, my brain won't let me get to sleep at night if it is in the mood to write.
I've been trying to get an agent for my novel for over a year now, off and on. Along the way, there has been some awesome agent feedback, for which I'm grateful. That means I've made changes to the novel along the way. The suggestions for changes don't just come from agents, though. Far too often, something in my mind tells me I need to adjust just one more little thing.
After the recent Horror Writing Intensive, I decided that I should definitely try to find a market for the resultant short story. I even put it on my To Do List so I would feel guilty if I didn't get around to it. Four hours later, nothing else had been done, but I did make progress in my attempt to get published.
Tags
I recently participated in an online horror writing class from the Writer's Digest people called Horror Writing Intensive: Analyzing the Work of Genre Master Stephen King. It was taught by Philip Athans and I found it to be very informative and enjoyable. Here's why.
I'm still in the recovery stage from simultaneous flu and sinus infection. Illnesses with fevers give me strange dreams and, since I tend to drift in and out of sleep at those times, I remember more of the images. Thinking about the dreams reveals a little about my life. For one particular dream, it showed not only some of my frustrations, but how my writing life blurs with my day job.
I haven't had much time for writing lately and it started to show. I can feel it in everything else I do. There's an extra level of crankiness, like when my blood sugar is low or when politicians talk. I know I have to take time for writing, but sometimes life is extra full of other stuff and you have to keep postponing the narrative. That's when you risk it taking things into its own metaphorical hands.
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