I’m pleased to have progress to report. For a long time I wouldn’t have. Perhaps that’s why I didn’t report.
Last fall I lost motivation for awhile. I got frustrated with my weak writing and weaker characters. I didn’t find the plot compelling anymore. It just wasn’t working, and I found it easier to do just about anything else on my lunch hour than write.
Then I lost opportunities. I started wanting to write again, but there was just too much going on at work. People would interrupt me. People would schedule meetings over my lunch break. I’d need to skip lunch to get things done. There was just no momentum.
About the only thing that kept me trying was the hypocrisy of writing blog posts for Authors’ Think Tank encouraging other people to write. But I’m back on the wagon again, and I’m starting to enjoy writing again. I’ve written every lunch hour for over a week straight now, and it’s feeling good. I like what I’ve written. It’s no “Mote in God’s Eye”, but it’s not total dreck, either.
If I can keep this up I’ll be getting to the most exciting part of the book, and that’ll make it even easier to keep going. Plus we’re only about a month away from LTUE 2014 and my big chance to at least see Orson Scott Card. I’ll probably be hyper-motivated to write come mid-February. I want to finish this novel and then let it sit for several months at least while I work on some short stories. I think I need some practice with short forms again. And something to try and publish.
I’m not sure if I’ve answered the question of whether I write because I feel I should or if I write because I want to, but at least for now it’s not a question of whether or not I write at all.
Great post, Thom!!