Monday, August 27, 2012

Where the Heck Have I Been?

The short answer to that is probably at a wedding.

I did attend three of them within two weeks this month (and I actually have 11 to go to this year, no joke). Two of them required weekend-long travel; one of them I was in; and, for the record, all of them were a good time.

The existential answer to that title question definitely involves some soul-searching, some metaphorical long walks on the beach, and an attempt to figure out not only where I've been, but where the heck I'm going.

This is especially true of writing. Something which this blog is a small part of. The long gap between my previous post and this one is indicative of how writing has been going.

I am working on a first draft of something veeeeeery slowly. Too slowly for my liking to tell you the truth. I'm very afraid of losing the spark, the blind excitement that keeps me going through the awfulness that is a first draft. But I've also had such a busy month, that it's been a good excuse to not write.

And then, of course, I can always find more excuses not to write. Depending on my mood, pretty, shiny things that are much more fun to stare at than a blinking cursor. Or some days a fatalistic attitude that is sure of rejection anyway so what is the point. Or some days, pure and simple laziness. And sometimes, the very lethal combination of all three.

But ANYWAY, I'm going to try to go back to finishing the first draft of this manuscript. My personal deadline is by the end of this year and I know I will be very disappointed in myself if I don't meet that. Putting that on this blog also holds me somewhat accountable to Taskmaster Me, who, by the way, is rather scary.

But, boy, when you get rusty in the butt-in-chair method...man, is it hard to get back to it. I need a writing equivalent of a Richard Simmons yelling in my ear. But, you know, with good ideas I can use and perfect sentence structure that never needs to be edited.

Mystical creature, if you are out there, call me maybe.