The same huge problem in my approach to writing that has held me back over and over has sidelined me in my pursuit of becoming published for quite some time now.
Laziness. Or maybe procrastination.
It wouldn’t be nearly as impossible to fit writing into my life as I’ve allowed it to seem lately. True, I’ve been putting in all kind of crazy work hours and had plenty of stuff to acomplish that, priority-wise, should come first. That’s doesn’t mean I can just let writing completely disappear from my life .
That’s exactly what I’ve let happen, though.
So, earlier this week, I forced myself to sit down in front of the computer and do some work. First, I jotted down some notes on two new story ideas. They are about two things I really get into, the junkyard and the NBA. MAybe I’ll explain more later.
After getting the bare bones of these two stories down before i forgot my ideas, I revisited my biggest project for the first time in a looooooong time. Staying away from that project wasn’t just laziness, though. That was a choice.
I had put together the skeleton of my first novel awhile back, but had decided to approach writing with a plan for a change and not just deal with whatever pops into my head.
The plan was to focus on short stories first, then revisit the novel later. I had several reasons why this made sense.
First, it’s simply easier to get a short story published than to get a book deal. If I can get an established name out there through a handful of published short stories, it would give a publisher a reason to pay a little more attention to a manuscript.
Secondly, short stories fit in with my work schedule a lot better. It’s pretty hard to stay committed to a project as big as a novel with only an hour here or there that I could set aside for working on it. I tried working on the novel in small incriments of time, but it made organizing my thoughts really difficult and tying one plot point to another even harder.
And just as importantly, it gives me practice to fine tune my writing on smaller projects.
While I still think this plan makes sense and should be where my focus was, revisiting the novel gave me some enthusiasm and determination I’d been missing lately. It was a lot like getting back on the basketball court after a long time away from it and somehow, despite the lack of practice and exercise, still playing well and remembering why the game was so much fun.
So the novel can go on the back burner again, as long as my writing altogether doesn’t go with it.
