the writing process

Got an email today that made me think about the writing process. Good grief, what a complicated, many-faceted beast that is. Everyone has a different system. Some people sell their writing process systems for bundles of money, some people struggle for years to find the system that works for them, some people just sit down and bang the shit out, and voila! Story.

been a while...oops

Okay, so it's been a year since I've posted. Erhm...shrug?

I have been writing, though. I really have. I'm pretty determined of late, for sure. Writing is not only a passion, it's something that I intend to support me. So, write I must!

my week has disappeared

I am having the hardest time writing this week. Even on contracted freelance writing! Ergh. Maybe it's the smoke in the air from the large wildfire burning somewhat nearby. My eyes are tired, from both smoke and staring at the screen. Makes wanting to write less and less appealing.

Sigh.

On a plus note, I am chock full of writing ideas. Love that!

Current WIPs:
-novel, Uninhibited
-novella with shifters
-werewolf short story

Is this writer's block? Eh. Not sure. Probably more of...writer's malaise??? Life block?

Sigh. Again.

Ok. Back to it, folks! And have a great weekend. If I get more inspired, I'll write a post more worth reading. ;)

dormant, i have been

This is what happens when one loves too many things...has too many interests...follows the rules that there are only so many hours in a day...and, oh yeah, goes through existential crisis! (Not going to talk about that just yet. Know that all guilty parties will one day be the inspiration for evil characters who end up in the shitter. And the gutter. Heh heh.) In other words, my blog AND my writing suffer.

Sigh.

However, I am back on that horse. Writing. Blogging. Tweeting. Focusing! Of course, that might go out the window again when my day world catches up to me soon. But I have a new project that is capturing my interest....

Procrastination and the writer. Why do these things go hand-in-hand at times? I can only imagine (mm, lovely imaginings!) that being WILDLY successful would make one adhere to deadlines that much more strictly. That's been my personal experience, at least. Not the wild success. Darn. No, the feeling obligated by responsibilities and deadlines of one sort or another. When someone else relies upon me, I do those deadlines, lickety split. Oh, indeed. (There's usually a paycheck attached too, of course.)

But if it's just for me? Lil' ole me? Eh. Toss her and her ideas on the scrap heap and come back later!

I am making a new year's intention here. I am honoring myself and my deadlines! Personal deadlines, but there you have it. I'm 40 (that still feels soooo weird to say. I don't feel 40. What the hell is 40, anyway?), and who knows how long I've got left? (Well, according to that palm reader on Venice Beach about 15 years ago, I'll live "well into my 80s." We'll see. I'll keep you posted on that one.)

Now. Time to write!

5 Reasons I Savor the Writing Life

I am a writer. Really, I am. I have the paystubs to prove it (well, the e-receipts and the looming taxes). I can give you links to my published work. I can tell you honestly that I get paid to sit at my laptop and put words to page. (Maybe not these words...but some words!

And yet how I do my UTMOST BEST, at times, to act as if dragging me to the keyboard is akin to making me walk the plank, ball & chain strapped to my leg. Why is this? I love being a writer. I've been a writer since the 2nd grade, when I "published" (classroom project) a picture book about Hermie the hermit crab and his undersea friends. I adore creating worlds, characters, plots. (Well, I love it more when they just sort of spring fully-formed from my Zeus-like head, but you get my drift.) I LOVE getting hard cold cash (check, direct deposit, whatevs) for my writing. I mean, how cool is that, still? Chortle.

So what the hell, eh? I love writing. Let me share with you, and remind myself, why:

5) I can listen to the most disreputable music while writing, at full volume, and bother no one but the cat. She's finicky anyway. Oh, and the dog might hide out in his "den" under the guest room bed, but he's just unappreciative of loud noise. (Hey, I happen to enjoy Kid Rock and Eminem at certain moments. So sue me. Yes, I also listen to R. Carlos Nakai's soothing flute music if so moved. Either way, I won't get written up by my manager.)

4) My office view is whatever the hell I want it to be, thanks to the miracle of technology. Have laptop, have wifi card linked to my cell service, have several hours of battery power. I can sit on top of a mountain and write. And post it to the web. And, um, shop and surf at the same time. (Danger, Will Robinson, danger.) But still. My view is sublime, and I can enjoy it in my ratty old slippers and animal-hair-covered yoga pants if I so choose. It's my office and I'll slob around it if I want to.

3) Online support community! Gone are the days of the reclusive, lonely, hard-drinking writer. (Mm, I suppose they're still out there...but it's hard to be hard-drinking before noon if you have a Twitter account you need to maintain with a semblance of sanity.) I can have writerly contact any time of day or night, in any corner of the world, in any genre, right at my fingertips. Ahhh...my people. They understand characters screaming in my head, plot conundrums that twist my brain into snarly little knots, and questions about the bad guy's virility that would raise eyebrows elsewhere. Only problem is how addictive and time-consuming these lovely communities can be...

2) It's a total valid, utterly legitimate, and possibly tax-write-offable (hmm, and word-creationable as well) excuse to buy lots of books. Like, hundreds. Thousands, even. Can I possibly read all of them in one lifetime? I'm trying, I'm trying! I tell you, being a writer is the absolute best excuse in the universe to pump up one's personal library. Especially, as a romance writer, those books with such delicious covers of drool-worthy heroes...excuse me, must go swoon over my TBR pile for a moment.

And (drumroll please), the Number One Reason I savor the writing life:

1) Full-bodied, rich, yet still delicate, red wine. Zesty, orgasmic-quality dark chocolate. No, no, think about the implications here: I can drink this nectar of the gods, and eat their favorite sustenance, while I'm writing for hire...which means that someone is paying me to drink wine and eat chocolate. The mind boggles. Is that not simply the craziest best reason to be a writer? Whodda thunk? I never did. But, whoo-hoo! Bring it on! I'm drinking red wine at this very moment! Eating great dark chocolate! And in another window I have open the piece I'm writing for pay. Which means that in some sort of circular motion not to be examined too closely, I'm getting money to indulge.

(attribution aarontait)

And that, my friends, about sums it up.

Can you top my reasons to savor the writing life? I'd love to hear them (so I can possibly expand my list, of course).