I have no shortage of things about which to write. My problem is trying to focus and create some cohesive pieces and somehow market them. While I want to put things together and create a novel--memoir disguised as fiction. What I learned at our writer's seminar is I need to do some preliminary work--work on my platform if you will so I can build the type of credibility that will make someone less likely to toss my query or manuscript into the garbage.
So instead of thinking large, I'm trying to think smaller, more focused. This makes the task more manageable. For example, it's less daunting to consider writing a short story for submission to a contest. Even if it doesn't win, at least something will be produced and can possibly be fodder for something greater. In addition to entering contests, completed short pieces can be submitted to magazines, etc. Again, I have tons of things to write, have no problem sitting down and pounding them out, but to what end? Catharsis? Yes!!!! Nothing was more cathartic than my I Hate Jeff poem. It is still legendary as I impulsively sent it to everyone I know--well everyone I know who doesn't know Jeff. I think and am told I have a distinctive voice: I have a lot of life experience from which to pull, I have a clear and long memory of life events (even though I lose my keys daily), but what I lack is focus and an ability to create and follow some sort of plan to pull it all together. As a creative person, my big stumbling block is being able to outline, plan, schedule, etc. For heaven's sake, I don't even have a calendar--I rely solely on memory and the goodwill of my friends who know I have no calendar and call and remind me of things.
That said, I am going to overcome my obstacles and not only write something of substance, but follow through on researching contests and finding out how to submit to magazines, journals, etc. Well, going to the gym first but will do it when I return. After checking email, surfing the net, and playing Solitaire of course.
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I hear ya!! I would like to think the my obstruction to production (as you so wonderfully named it) is two-fold: motivation and obligation (and not necessarily in that order!). When deadline driven...if I do not have a path set in my head....I hem and haw; chew and spew; and painfully crawl towards the finish line. If I have spent some time musing over the subject matter, the deadline cheers me on. Efficient, tidy production transforms my words into a finished piece that I am usually quite content with (or rather " with which I am usually quite content"!).
My best writing comes from the mood; and therefore the Muse. When and idea pops into my head, I just want to sit and write, write, write!! On Wednesday, this very instinct made me 20 minutes late to meet a friend in a Merritt commuter lot! (NICE, eh?) I was inspired by something I was doing and the idea for that Christmas piece assignment we are working on (that, truth be told, I was ignoring/struggling with--muse off shopping or some such) just came. So slacker friend but empassioned writer that I was, I wrote. Short hand to be sure, but I HAD to get it down....(have you ever had that feeling?). Happily or should I say MOST FORTUNATELY, my friend was a good egg and had used the time to tackle some loathesome project, so she was not upset. But she could have been. She SHOULD have been.
Which leads me to that other burr in my side: Obligation. As we are not full time writers (yet!), i am always balancing normal life with writing life. Somehow normal life always wins my attention. Out of OBLIGATION. My sense of repsonsiblity. I cannot let the laundry pile up while I write, as I have children dependant on clean clothes. (yes, yes, you say--tach them to do the laundry. Right you are--but we are still working on getting the dirty clothes into the hamper--I am not sure I have the patience for the next step yet!) Grocery shopping. Bill Paying. Oh, yeah, anything WORK related--or other insane commitments we have obigated ourselves too! No wonder so many writers move themselves to a shack in the woods to write. It surely would be a less distracting environment...morally and visually!!
So I sruggle with those two demons. Friendly, anticipated, annoying demons (much like a family relative who you expect to show up, but don't know what to expect out of him or her!!). Guess I should just learn to set the table for these guys and tune them out when they get too pesky. Isn't that the standard in-law survival tactic?
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