If you want to be a writer, you spend lots of time writing, even when you don't feel like it. End of story.
Most the time I am excited to sit down and try to write, to escape into the stories in my head is like taking a mini-vacation, but when you have a contract due and babies screaming and other things crying for your attention it can be difficult to make yourself want to spend time writing, or maybe the story is no longer quite as fun to write, but you promised the story would get done.
That's where I am today.
I just don't feel like writing, but I know I have to. I have a lot of pending important stuff in my personal life and yet I promised this story would get done and bills need paid. My freinds are counting on me, my publisher expects the story, and readers want to know when it will be done. So now I am not just writing the story for my own personal enjoyment but under a little stress.
It's not going to get any easier. The end of the year is looming with all the expectations and time crunches. The holidays are great but they absorb so much time, there is decorating to be done, candies and cookies to be made, presents and costumes to be made, and did I mention the hours of baking? I love the holidays but visitors are also my number one excuse to stop writing and the big rule of being self employed is you work if you want to make money. If I don't write, I don't make money. It's that simple.
So I must write, and I have several projects that have to be done. Strictly Business is at the top of my list. Howvere since it has taken me close to two years to get halfway done I have to ask myself why so long? Why did I stop writing? Can I ever get back into the story? I still love the story, but there is a little more pressure I am feeling and stress. The first two books are not only written, but published. Questions swirl in my head. My self confidence suffers. Will it be good enough? Will the story live up to the reader expectations? Failure would set me free from the stress but I would never know the answers if I don't try.
I have four stories in major need of getting done. I can only work on one, so I am choosing the one that has sat the longest, Strictly Business. The goal is to get 8 pages done today and end the scene around page 121. It's halfway done. There is no turning back now, only going forward, marching bravely into the future.
I am going to try something new today. I usually flop horribly when I tr to write multiple stories at one time. Very little gets done and I just hit a wall flipping between the stories. Names and eye colors change. The end result usually needs massive editing.
However, this time I am going to try to use the morning for SB and the afternoon for PI. Both those stories are the ones I need done first.
To be done
SB-M/F
PI-M/M
HH-M/M
RD-M/M
So what are you all up to today? Is there writing in your future?
