Another month, another lull

I have nothing particularly witty, useful, or deep to say at this point in time. In fact, I have no doubt that I will end up deleting this post later.

Still with me? Great. Here comes some ramblings.

I'm nowhere near I wanted to be with Rise of the Carrion by the end of August. Which is to say, I'm nowhere near done with the first draft. I'm nearly done with Part 2. That's milestone enough, but I wanted to be done-done. I wanted to do edits in September and have something readable by October. It's not the end of the world that I have to [once again] adjust my timetable, but it is a little discouraging. To be honest, it reminds me of the too-much-time I wasted being unemployed.

Delving into my psyche, I find that I'm as susceptible to the paradox of the artist: I hate routine, but routine is the best way to get things done. It's the old how do you eat an elephant? problem and, to be perfectly frank, nobody eats an elephant artistically. You just have to do it. Effort and time, that's what I always say.

I keep looking toward the future, beyond "Rise." Not only do I still want to write the sequel to The Ninth Avatar, but I have a couple of unrelated Fantasy projects ready to be hatched or already in "first chapter written" stage. I also have a "historical fiction" planned, though it may lean a little in the Fantasy direction style-wise. I want to write these things. I need to write these things. They won't leave me alone.

What's extra disturbing is that I can track my lulls with alacrity. I backup to the cloud. When I finish a writing "session," I send myself an email with my MS file attached and the word count in the subject line. These automatically get stashed into a folder (aka an archived label in my GMail) with, of course, a date stamp of when they were sent. Care to see my "progress?"

Maddening, isn't it? Well, it is to me, knowing how much I can output when I really focus. When I don't really focus, hell, I barely get my MS file open before my attention is off elsewhere.

Then I usually end up with one of these blog posts, promising to recommit, to trying even harder, and returning to the same slugfest that has become my [lack of] writing routine. You'd think this would get easier with each subsequent project but, with the tumult of personal and professional lives intruding on my writing time and willpower, it really just doesn't.

I've read over and over that the key to focusing, when it comes to writing, is being able to close the door to distractions. While I find this to be true, I also think it's nigh on impossible for me. Closing the door, in many cases, just negates any effort on my part to regulate temperature (not a great thing in August). In the old days of 2010, I used to take a day off and spend it at Starbucks to really bump up the word count. While I still have the capability to do this, I don't have the time.

I think, maybe, that I had the balance at one point but I've let it slowly slip away. I'll find it, though. Just as soon as I can actually look for it.



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