Leave it to me…
I get on a really good writing kick and then everything else falls by the wayside… well, at least in bloggy terms.
I have actual posts planned on issues I’m currently dealing with at this stage of the game, but on days when I have nothing planned, I simply forget.
No, that’s not quite right – I don’t forget. I feel dueling pangs of guilt. Lemme ’splain:
On the one hand, I feel bad about the progress I’m making (or not making) by spending any time doing any leisure-type activity that does not involve my current WIP… especially blogging. I feel that if I have the energy to blog, I should be putting that energy toward the writing. Intellectually, I know this is craziness. When my mind wanders away from the project, I know from past-history that forcing myself to keep writing will only result in annoying tension headaches and shoddy writing. If I’m staying on target with the writing, there’s nothing wrong with me taking a bit of a step back for a few hours to unwind, recharge my batteries and BLOG about it.
On the other hand, I feel bad that I set the goal to blog daily and I’m not hitting it because I really am on a roll right now. I hate interrupting myself when I’m on a roll to do something tedious (like blog daily just for the sake of blogging daily – if I actually had something of substance to say every single day, this would be moot). So, I’m feeling guilty that I’m not hitting the daily blogging goal, but also guilty if I step away from the writing to blog about writing.
I am vitally aware of the fact that I over-think things, thank you.
At any rate, immersing myself into a sci-fi/fantasy novel really kick started me. I’m getting great ideas and incorporating those into my first draft… not plot-related ideas, mind you. I’m talking about the basic mechanics of writing. How to structure a sentence, for example, or how to handle lengthy bits of dialog. As I mentioned, I can write first person perspective pretty well and am most comfortable with it.
My first few pages (the ones that were causing me angst) sounded to me like they were straight out of a Dick and Jane story book. Now, further along, the sentences are developing some depth and complexity (and believe me, this is NOT a bad thing – my initial paragraphs were on par with “She went to the store. She picked up a loaf of bread. When she saw that the price was $3.95, she was glad she remembered her coupon.”). I’ll have to drastically rewrite once I’m done, but I’m actually pretty proud of the fact that I’ve made as much headway as I have in a matter of just a few pages.
At any rate, I am realizing now that I will have to block out time to blog as well as time to write as it has become perfectly clear to me that they are completely separate activities that refuse to share the same time slot. We’ll see how this goes over the next few weeks. Scheduling may have to wait till mid February since we have an InLaw visit in two weeks and a possible Mom attack soon thereafter. For now, I’ve decided not to beat myself up about choosing writing before blogging… if I don’t make the daily post, I will be pleased as punch to know it was for a good cause (you know, the whole reason this blog exists!).
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