Nancy Freund
Loads. Here's the thing: I'm working on a novel that I first saw glimmering on my horizon in 2006, so you might say I've been working on that novel for ten years. But the fact is during those ten years, that novel has shifted its focus drastically about four times, and during those ten years I've attended 11 international writers conferences, I've written and published three other full length books, and I've been writing and submitting lots of short pieces and poetry -- most of which of course will never see publication's light of day. I think a writer who can answer "what are you currently working on" with a single project or a single title is a very lucky person indeed -- and an efficient one. But that aint me. I used to tell myself it could be, I just needed more FOCUS! You know that scene in Airplane where the one passenger is freaking out, and someone urges her to calm down... then calm down! Then CALM DOWN, DAMMIT, get ahold of yourself! Soon a bunch of other passengers are lining up with progressively more violent methods to shake some sense into her, brass knuckles, boxing gloves, scary weaponry. I used to think I could be that line of people for my own self, yelling at me to FOCUS DAMMIT, but as I've aged into some very welcome self-acceptance, I've realized that is simply not how I operate. If today a poem strikes my fancy, and tomorrow it's an essay on global warming, well, I better go with the flow. And if I'm lucky, the various works will find homes eventually. But even if they don't, the length of time it takes me to complete the one big project, the novel I'm working on currently, will be stretched out, and that's ok. All the work I do informs the other work, I think. That's why we're artists. We see the world at work in our our unique ways and we make of it what we will, in the ways we will. A little focus will help. But most of all, my answer will just be: loads.
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