Michelle Barker's Blog: Hearing Voices - Posts Tagged "finish-what-you-start"
Combating Monkey Mind
I'm suffering from monkey mind these days. My novel The Beggar King comes out in a matter of days and every morning I face lists: lists of e-vites and launch dates, possible reviewers and website updates. My mind is jumping around so much I find it hard to sit down and concentrate enough to write.
And speaking of writing - well, monkey mind is swinging from those trees, too. What should I work on today? Short stories? Poetry? A new novel? It's enough to drive a person crazy.
Then, yesterday, I stumbled upon an amazing writing blog by Chuck Wendig. It's called Terrible Minds, and it's fabulous. #22 of the 25 Things Every Writer Should Know: Quit Quitting. May I quote you, Chuck? "Stop abandoning your children." Whew, that was what I needed to hear. Even though I already knew it, of course. It's so easy to start a project - so much harder to see it through to the end.
My modus operandi these days has been to work on something until monkey mind squeaks, "It's getting too hard. Move onto something else." And I was moving on, and moving on - until I started to feel dizzy.
I've shut that voice off, made a radical decision to see my short story collection in-progress all the way through to the end. Don't mention another novel to me right now. Don't ask me about my poetry collection. I'm going to finish this!
And speaking of writing - well, monkey mind is swinging from those trees, too. What should I work on today? Short stories? Poetry? A new novel? It's enough to drive a person crazy.
Then, yesterday, I stumbled upon an amazing writing blog by Chuck Wendig. It's called Terrible Minds, and it's fabulous. #22 of the 25 Things Every Writer Should Know: Quit Quitting. May I quote you, Chuck? "Stop abandoning your children." Whew, that was what I needed to hear. Even though I already knew it, of course. It's so easy to start a project - so much harder to see it through to the end.
My modus operandi these days has been to work on something until monkey mind squeaks, "It's getting too hard. Move onto something else." And I was moving on, and moving on - until I started to feel dizzy.
I've shut that voice off, made a radical decision to see my short story collection in-progress all the way through to the end. Don't mention another novel to me right now. Don't ask me about my poetry collection. I'm going to finish this!
Hearing Voices
If you were to admit this anywhere else, it might get you locked up, but writers hear voices all the time - and if they can transcribe what they hear effectively enough, their readers can hear them to
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