What Have I Been Doing???

Wow! It's been nearly two years since I started writing my novel. Guess what?!? I'm still writing -- sorta. I had a huge gap in writing the book and have ultimately decided to start over. I've been busy, but just not spending my time writing. Life certainly gets in the way (or so is my current excuse!).

While I would like to have finished this novel by now, I'm glad I didn't. These past two years have given me a LOT of time to work through my characters and the plot in my mind. I think my original concept is good, but it was a bit shallow. On this go 'round, I'm attempting to delve deeper into the issue of emotional abuse and a woman's choice to walk away from family to save her own sanity. I haven't quite figured out how I'm going to navigate around the fact that my heroine walks away from her family and still remains a likeable person, but I'm getting there.

As I said in an earlier post, writing most certainly does take a full measure of self-discipline to carve out time and write. Hopefully, I get further along this time around!

The Discipline of Writing

I’m in the early stages of writing a novel and I’m surprised at how hard it is! I am learning exactly what is meant by “it takes a lot of discipline to write.” It’s not easy to sit down and write, much less get in the “zone” when I do.

I had a couple of extra hours today – hours that I could have used to make real progress on my book. Instead I watched mindless celebrity gossip shows on E!. When I finally fired up the laptop to write, I found I wasn’t focused and I was yearning to play mindless computer games. I get so frustrated! It’s as if I’m my own worst enemy when it comes to writing.

There are so many distractions; it is easy to go a few days without writing anything. Some of those distractions are my own doing and not necessarily negative. I think it’s important to get wired into the world of writing, so I joined Twitter (I’m still figuring out how it works) and I started this blog. I’m hoping that by having alternative writing venues (that are much shorter than a novel!) I’ll still sit down each day and write something.

Discipline is a precious commodity when you are a writer. With a little persistence, I hope to shore up my reserves.