I spent a few hours this afternoon dismantling my mom's sadly dilapidated gazebo, the one I had to assemble last spring. It didn't last long. It might have, except that we had an unusually snowy winter and one particular snowfall weighted the gazebo roof down and collapsed it. I've been trying to keep it propped up and strapped together with duct tape ever since, but another strut broke this week and Mom wanted it taken apart.
So anyway, that's what I did. And while I worked, Mom and I discussed my writing career--specifically, how to kick it in the butt. Lately I've been really discouraged about how I seem to have stalled out.
It was a good conversation. One of the things Mom pointed out is that the energy you put into a project is the energy you get back in a different form. It's time that I ramp up my energy level--not just in the creative act of writing, but in the business of publishing too. I'm also going to make an effort to write some short fiction as well as continuing to work on novels. I found a fun webpage with lots of writing prompts on it that I plan to use for that. I'm also going to revamp the main page of my website, probably this weekend, and keep it updated as close to daily as possible.
And I'll be posting here more often, I hope, and being a little more likely to read and post on my friends' blogs. Because you guys are great!
14 comments:
Your mom sounds like a wise woman. (and you can tell her I said..er, wrote, that)
My mom is awesome and very wise indeed.
Here's hoping you're inspired into productivity :)
I'll drink to that! Okay, actually, I'll eat a bowl of ice cream to that.
I need to follow your mom's advice, too. Here's to inspiration and productivity (*raises ice cream*)!
Oh, good, another toast! That means more ice cream! :) *raises bowl*
You assembled a gazebo?? I tip my hat to you!
Amen to that. I do believe productivity makes us more optimistic.
What sound advice. I took stock this weekend and thought, "Where did my drive go?" It's still there, but I want to ramp up my productivity, too. I can't wait to check out that site! :D
-Mercedes
Natalie--And I disassembled it without killing myself. Well, I do have some fresh bruises.
Cate--And vice versa, for some reason.
Mercedes--I haven't done any of the prompts yet, but just looking them over has helped kick my brain into gear. I wrote a tiny flash story today over lunch!
Think of how fast you could have taken that gazebo down if you had a stick of tnt. Sorry, that was a bit of drift wasn't it. I hope your productivity quadruples in the coming months.
It sure would have been more fun taking it down with dynOmite!
I like how your mom thinks. Do you think she'd be available for writing career counseling? ;)
My biggest problem right now is editing. I don't have confidence in that area, so I don't do it. I proofread, but that's about as far as I go. I guess it's time to nip that in the bud, huh?
Oh, editing is fun! You've already got the words down, now you just have to fix them so that they say just what you want them to say. I tend to do a lot of hack-and-slash editing on my first major pass-through, and then I'll tinker with minutiae, and then I'll get frustrated with the book and do another hack-and-slash. It's so much easier than writing new words!
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