Shocker: I don't write all the time
Shocker: I don't write all the time
6/29/2024, 1:52 AM
Song in head: Chocobo Theme from Final Fantasy 7 (the OG one)
After last week’s newsletter I got a question from a family member, Britney, that proceeded like this:
Britney: Between all that you're doing, do you get any sleep?
Me: HAHAHAMWAHAHAHSGINFFLHFXJ UT CJBYH... yeah I do. That's why sometimes I uh, don't write as much as I want to.
Britney: how do you fit it all in? How much sleep are you getting? I'm "just" a full time mom and homemaker, and I'm still not writing much.
Me: woah woah, don't say just, both those activities combined is like working an overtime job as it is. Sometime[s] I get 6 hours, sometimes less. If I'm really tired I get 8, I just gauge how much energy I have left for the next day. Alsooooooo, I wrote Rye's Rite with a goal of 300 words a day, which is like two paragraphs. So even just that much writing you can have a book done. I believe in you!
Britney: how long did it take you to write Rye's Rite?
Me: probably like 5 years, but I stopped and started a lot, sometimes for years so, definitely writing every day, even that little, would have sped things up.
Responding to myself today, yeah, after school, family, and my full time job, sometimes I don’t write. Granted, I am only taking 1 class at college, but after doing chores, I just want to lay in bed and feel bad that I’m scrolling on social media and not writing.
Being a writer isn’t always writing a ginormous amount of words each day. I remember seeing this tweet on social media the other day, showing Neil Gaiman, which I would consider a very good writer, writing so slow on one of his novels, that he literally moved at the speed of molasses, its the picture above.
I am not suggesting you always write at such a snail’s pace, but a good novel can come slowly, too. On the other hand I feel like professional writers do have a deadline for their next project, or book, especially if it's financial independence that they are after. Author success will never be an easy horse to straddle, and I barely understand that metaphor because I myself have not seriously ridden one.
I want to be honest with ya’ll, I think this week I have sat down to work on my latest project once. I feel disappointed in myself, but I hope to gain more time now that I feel a little more confident in the chapter I’m writing. You see, some chapters I know the direction I’m going, while others it feels like I start crossing my eyes, drooling profusely, while yelling yee-haw as I spout nonsense. I have been feeling like this for the past few weeks.
I finally snapped out of this jack-assery this week, by figuring out the area where my motley crew is headed was placed at the wrong part of the story. I copy and pasted the ill fitted story beat into a different chapter, and thought back to the beginning of the chapter, where there was a hint of what needed to be at the end of the chapter once the gang solved a puzzle.
What I’m trying to say is, sometimes it's not writer's block, I’ve learned that it simply was not the right plot point for the story. I had to remove it, put it somewhere else, and make the chapter ring true with a previous plot point in the beginning of the chapter.
Again you are welcome to ask me questions through my contact info below, your question might even appear in the next newsletter for readers to enjoy, if you want it too, I’ll always ask beforehand. My contact info is:
1-385-450-9450
I’ll see you all next week!
