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January 11, 2006 | Writing
I haven’t blogged in a couple of days, due to a physical ailment that resolved itself. Unfortunately, it didn’t until I drank two bottles of a barium cocktail for a CT scan. My insides are all normal and glowing, thank you very much. Luckily, the scan wasn’t for my brain.
Right now, I’m taking a couple of online classes which are really fantastic. Line editing my book, and I WAS reading a couple of short books on writing. One of them, I’ll be posting on my Favorite Article and Book page soon.
But all of this knowledge started wearing heavy on my brain, making my eyes hurt. My brain went into overload and damned if I thought I couldn’t write a single word! Is there such a thing as too much information? I’m not talking about the kind of information you get while sitting in a bathroom stall and the woman next to you is discussing on her cellphone how she caught her husband cheating, and was asking her friend what should she do? True story. In January, all of the writing magazines, and other magazines do it as well, are filled with articles on how to write, how to set goals, how to start the year off writing. Getting goals for losing weight, saving money, etc. How to, how to, how to. If you read all of them, which unfortunately I almost did, you could start doubting if you’ve gotten the right characters, or point of view, or even the right genre. Articles that tell you how to set schedules, deadlines, meet your goals. Then if you read and make notes, you’re supposed to sit at your desk and write. Write ,with all these ideas swirling around in your head? Write, when you’re trying to make sure you printed your spreadsheet out correctly to track your daily work? Write, if your muse says, ‘Forget it, I’m not going to be put on some schedule like a train!’ Then leaves you high and dry, as to try to write an emotional, highly charged sex scene! How dare she!
Well, take heart. Or at least one sentence or paragraph from an article. Or, have critique partners like Sloane Taylor and Beth Anderson, who have already written blogs and articles that you can cut and paste to fit your writing style. The major word – your. I know I fall somewhere between those who write by the seat of their pants and those who keep detailed journals. I know I need to plan days maybe weeks in advance, and leave open spaces for those emergencies that pop up. I know my muse will haunt me in my dreams for nights on end, if I don’t sit my butt in my chair and write every day. I know I need to track my work, not word by word, but for me scene by scene, chapter by chapter. I know that there are some things I can control in this writing life of mine, and other things I can’t. I need to keep clearly distinguishing between the two. What motivates and keeps me on track, may put you in writer’s hell, stunt your creativity. We all write, but we don’t all write the same way. The trick is what works for you, so that one day, YOU can write an article on how to write!
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Hope you’re feeling better, my friend.
I’m feeling better. Last time I checked, I was female. How’s blog withdrawal coming honey?