I'm afraid that I won't ever finish the novel that I'm working on. Currently I have about 10,000 words. This morning I was going to join Tina's Practice Room and write for an hour, but my son wouldn't stop screaming and then my daughter came down and wanted breakfast, and then they both screamed, and then I had to clean up because my son dumped his cereal all over the kitchen floor, there were clumps of dog hair all over the living room, I had papers lying everywhere waiting to be filed...and I wrote one paragraph. ONE. I'm hoping that I'll have an opportunity to write more tonight, but the thing is...life gets in the way.
For example, you can barely walk in my hallway upstairs because of the amount of dirty laundry just sitting there waiting to be washed. My room is a disaster zone. My dog rolls in the mulch outside and then brings pieces of mulch inside, and they're scattered everywhere...seriously, I need to hire a cleaning service to clean this wreck of a house.
WARNING: *RHETORICAL QUESTIONS FOLLOW*
How do you guys do it? How the crap am I going to finish this book (and not just finish it, but do a good job on it) when there are so many other things in my life that are competing with my writing?What if I finish this sucker and then it never gets published? What if I only ever dream about writing? What if I get hit by a Fedex truck tomorrow and I never live to get published anyway? AGH! I feel like the whole world is out to stop me from writing this book. Yes, I'm being overly dramatic. But I'm a writer, remember?
I'm feeling depressed about this. A little. Enough to write this post. Not enough to eat a whole gallon of ice cream or anything...well. I don't know about that.
Anyway, thanks for being a virtual ear.
I'll whine at you guys later.
13 comments:
Oh, I can totally relate. Writing is almost impossible sometimes. I've learned that I'm not an everyday sort of writer. I'm a squeeze it in when there aren't 20 other things I should be doing writer. If you do a little every day it will get done eventually!
A lot of times I feel like I need to hurry and get something done. I want to finish! But I have to remind myself that it isn't a race and my pace probably won't be as fast as every one else's. That's okay!
Good luck. Just keep writing, even if it's only a little bit every day.
This may sound totally bad, but...GET OVER IT.
If the book takes you three months or three years to write, that's how long it will take. I know you want to be done with it, but you've got a really long road ahead of you. From what I hear about revisions, we should be savoring these days of frustrating drafting.
Also, if you do get hit by a FedEx truck (or pushed off a porch), I'll see your dreams through, the PB ones at least.
OMG, my word ver for the last comment was ABLED.
I feel you. And perhaps this is the main thing writers whine about. But your book is going to practically write itself. I can tell because of the way last week happened. Maybe today will be tough, and perhaps tomorrow. But it is coming like a freight train and you just got to get yourself out of the way. And as for your house. Clean it when the words are not coming. Hold Jacob when he needs it. Take it a moment at a time. Do your best. A little mulch(or a lot) and dog hair never hurt anyone (ever read Last Child in the Woods?).
I'm jealous about your book. And I might just start throwing burritos at you any second.
From my experience, we have good days and bad. (I know -- pretty earth-shattering stuff here!) On a bad day, sometimes it's better to take care of some of the stuff that's distracting us or to do something totally unrelated to our writing, something physical. Sweat out the fears. Then when we get back into that WIP, we realize that, for better and worse, there's nowhere else we'd rather be.
Thanks everyone (BUT JON) for the support!
somehow I knew Jon would give me the tough love speech. Can't a girl complain once in a while???
Natalie- "I've learned that I'm not an everyday sort of writer." OMG thank you for telling me this! I don't know if I am either, and I'm trying to be and it's screwing with my head. Glad I'm not alone and it's okay not to write every day.
Tina- I really appreciate the support. I really do hope my WIP writes itself :-) I'm just having an off day today I think.
Milo- That's great advice- "sweat out the fears." I think I definitely need to do something unrelated to writing today- maybe just take the kids out to the park and forget about it.
Dena -- just don't think about finishing it. Just take it one sentence at a time, one paragraph at a time, one page at a time. Every little bit counts but the fact is, you never know how long it's going to be or how long it's going to take. I remember being so overwhelmed thinking I'd never ever never finish my WIP -- right around 10K words. I NEVER thought I'd hit 40K. I thought it would be FINISHED at 50K. I'm subbing it now at 68K. It ONLY took four years. And I still can't believe it, nor can I really tell you how I did it. It just sort of happened in those in-between times. You'll do it. Do what you can when you can. And whine away! We all understand!
Thanks, Kris!!! You're so right, it's going to have to happen in those in between times! GOOD LUCK GOOD LUCK GOOD LUCK with your submissions! I really appreciate the encouragement :-)
Update: I've written almost 1600 words today!!! All thanks to you guys and your nice words of encouragement! Thanks for the pick-me-up.
Dena--I'm totally late to the party here, but I FEEL YOUR PAIN. One foot in front of the other, one word at a time, that book will get written. Just have some faith!!
Hang in there, Dena. You've written more than I have today--zilch unless you count comments on blogs. Tomorrow is another day, and I will write then.
These are the same questions I ask myself everyday, but don't you worry-just hang in there and stay positive. I promise, you'll get there and so will I.
I've found so much support within the blogging community and it really helps to keep me moving forward.
Just keep it up and remember to smile! :)
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