When your muse texts you back
She did.
My muse texted me, and it said something to the effect of “GET YOUR ASS MOVING, YOU LAZY FUCK. WRITE.”
It was that simple. Now, let me just say that I have not had writer’s block. It’s not as simple as that. But you should know that it was time for me to update you on progress in my projects. I have felt a little too mellow in my writing, but there’s also evidence that I have been making decent progress with some literary projects. You also deserve an update on how much other life stuff has contributed to these changes.
Last time you heard from me on this blog about writing updates, it was March, and I was inching my way along the first draft of the novel “The Ocean Hunters.” It was right around that time that I decided to move to New York with my boyfriend Matt. The move wouldn’t happen until September, but it meant I would be pretty busy making the move happen.
I wrote incrementally in “The Ocean Hunters,” but its pace slowed to a sickly crawl. I also cleaned out old clothes from closets, sold gadgets, packed up my life. The move took up precious hours. As you can imagine, the usual writer’s shame set in. Then, summer was here, and I spent some time doing a re-write of an earlier novel I mentioned in this blog before. That novel was code named “Carapace.” I have been doing some revising and rewriting, and well, that’s been slowing down the new copy in “Ocean Hunters.”
I think that is okay. I am going to not judge myself in this moment, because I do feel that. I have made progress, even if it’s not exactly linear.
When the text comes in, what can one do but comply?
Then, as you know, I began work on The Labyrinth. That project has been an amazing breath of fresh air, and even though it’s an audio project, I feel like it’s opened the doors of my imagination a little further. I love doing it. Overall, the production and recording time of the show add up to about 2-3 hours a week, and that is time I am not writing.
That is okay also, I think.
Revisions to “Carapace” are almost done, and in the process, I managed to squeeze out a brand new short story last week called “For Safety.” I am not sure if I am going to publish it to this blog or submit it for publication. What do you think?
So, the wheels are turning, friends. And I am grateful to all of you, because you are in this with me, and I am grateful for friends and family and how they support my writing.
As soon as next week I’ll be back in “The Ocean Hunters.” This novel feels unwieldy, but in a good way. We have ancient artifacts, hidden libraries and a world of magic that keeps me coming back to it every time I come back to the word processor. Yes, there’s monsters in it, too.
I am going to go back to some word count goals on this project, but I think I will be cautious about not wanting to hurry through this manuscript. I think 2,500 words a week should do me.
All in all, 2012 has gone well, but I feel like I should be more, I don’t know, productive? That sounds like such an Americanism. What my intuition tells me, though, is that things are fine, and I am writing precisely how I need to be writing, right now.
The best moment is always the present one.
