Keep Pushing

With constant interruptions to the writing process, sometimes its hard to keep motivated.  The day job is rearing its ugly head once again (well, something has to pay the bills!) so it trumps writing time.  It doesn't eliminate it, but it does reduce it.  That being said, I promised myself I'd make up the difference over the weekend - which I did.

(Saturday) But sitting down, staring at a half finished chapter, trying to figure out where you're going next - sometimes that can be daunting.  Especially when your train of thought has been derailed repeatedly.  So I started at the beginning, knowing I had some edits to make earlier on.  I'm only 6 chapters in, so this isn't so bad as it may sound.  Then something magical happens.  I get excited about the story all over again, and the words begin to flow.

(Sunday)  Then there is the detail aspect.  How do they do that, how do they get there, what does it look like.  Once again, I have to take time away, although this is important time away, to research pieces of the story.  At some point during the day, I realized I needed to put some words down, so I abandoned my search to be productive.  I have the major questions answered, and the detail, while interesting to look up, may not be important to the story.  I can fill in the blanks later, if they need to be filled in.

The moral of the story is to keep writing.  Even if it's drivel.  Even if it's incomplete.  Words on the page are valuable.  No words on the page are useless.  I actually started one chapter with what I wanted that chapter to entail.  One short paragraph saying "this is what they're doing and where they're going."  It works.  Its pushes you through to the next section. 

Just keep pushing. 

Writer's Angst

I've been productive today - looking over my social networks, answering my emails, trading critiques AND writing.  One of the writers on my social network made this comment "for the first time in a long time, I feel very content with who and what I am. I'm sure it won't last (I'm a writer, we're neurotic) but I'm very much enjoying it."  This is a feeling I can relate to.

As a writer, there are always ups and downs - one of the most frequent questions we ask ourselves is "Why Am I Doing This?" accompanied by a certainty that what we are writing is pure drivel.  Neurotic?  Absolutely!  It goes with the territory.  You hit a downturn in the writing process - a plot point that you can't quite see clearly or a slow part that stalls you out. 

One of the things that stalls me out is my day job.  I hit that "I don't have the time to devote to writing" roadblock frequently, and then I get a big block of quality time - like today - and I discover that I REALLY love the story I'm writing right now.  So even though I don't have the right allotment of time at the moment to devote to it, I have SOME time to devote to it, accompanied by large chunks here and there, which I take full advantage of.  So even though yesterday I was ready to throw it all in with the whole "why bother?" attitude, today is a new day, and it's these nuggets of inspiration that light up our lives that keep us moving on.

What motivates you to keep going even when you feel like you're fighting a losing battle?

Rollin' rollin' rollin' rawhide

The story is still flowing!  I love it when they seem to write themselves, but here is one of the banes of an author's existence.  DISTRACTION.

While I have kept fairly focused on writing my latest, every now and then I come across a concept that I don't know enough about, so I stop midsentence (sometimes) to check my facts.  Fortunately, I have a resource close by (upstairs, as a matter of fact, sitting at his own computer), but my curiousity and need to know extend beyond even his knowledge at times.  Then I have to zip onto the Internet to check it out (I have lots of new bookmarks!).  For the most part, I've kept focused and haven't let peripheral information take me on detours down the information superhighway.  So that distraction has been reined in well, if I do say so myself.

Another distraction - every day life.  Yeah, that happens all the time.  Writing or not writing, on a roll or stymied.  Distraction of the week:  I have a strawberry patch.  We have had ideal weather for growing strawberries this year and I'm getting an abundant harvest.  Berries don't keep forever, ya know.  So I've had to take extra time to make some homemade jam (thanks, mom) and a couple of frozen strawberry (technically I guess they'd be strawberry cream) pies/desserts.  Okay, that hurdle conquered, there's the other everyday distraction of exercise.  Yes, we all need to keep fit (and I'm doing a 5K tomorrow, so no slacking off!)

I finally sit back at my computer - ready to go again.  But there are emails to address, and critiques to do, and critiques I've received to consider.  It's a matter of prioritizing, and yet it all needs to be done.  Two hours later, I'm caught up again, but then there's the blog thing (yes, here I am).  It's been more than a week again (my apologies).

Does all this mean I've lost my entire day?  Nope.  I've edited my first three chapters according to useful critiques I've received and gotten additional information to include in chapter four, currently under construction.  I'm still rolling along with my story, and now that my distractions are out of the way - oh wait.  It's dinner time.

The distractions will always be there.  It's making the time in between to write that makes the difference.  And yes, there IS a chapter four and it IS progressing.  And with all my other distractions out of the way today (there's still good writing time left), tomorrow looks promising - until tomorrow's distractions kick in.