Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Writer's Update 2015



     I quit blogging, but I didn’t quit writing. For a couple of years I wrote and posted every week. I would ponder what to write about and every Monday I would compose and post a blog here. Usually the topic was just something I was thinking about. It was rarely poignant enough to share and sometimes quite dull. But I kept at it because it was part of my writing regimen. But around the middle of last year, I just stopped.
     I had to be truthful. I told myself I was blogging to stay in the habit of writing, but there was plenty I could do to maintain the habit other than the blog. I was really blogging for the attention. And once in a great while I would post a winning blog that people might read and comment on and that just fueled me. And I realized that if I was writing for attention, then I needed to change what I did.
     I kept writing. I spent a few months revising the hardcopy of Sidewinder. Then in October I participated in a challenge to write 500 words a day and post them on my blog, which I did. In November I wrote a first draft of a new novel for National Novel Writing Month. When that was done, I started into a 4th draft of Sidewinder.
I wanted to finish it by the end of February, but it went a lot slower than I thought it would. But then finally I hit a pace and started writing every day. I only missed a couple of days and in the end had a 51 day writing streak. I finished the 4th draft of my novel yesterday.
Now what? My biggest fear is that I will fall out of the habit of writing. This could be especially easy to do this week when I’m getting less sleep due to my busy work week, the week before Easter. So I managed to get up this morning with the thought that I would write a blog post. I thought it would recap everything so far about Sidewinder, instead it’s been a recap of my writing life of Sidewinder? I want to share about it. Maybe tomorrow. I have a lot to consider for it. I’m in uncharted waters. A 4th draft of a novel, not ready for publication. So again, now what?