Something changed recently, and I am writing again. This is the driven writing -- on buses, on breaks at work, sitting in coffee houses.
Why? I'm not sure. Maybe I have something to say. Maybe I have slowly worked myself back into the habit of writing, since I am working on revising a novel, which has been sold to a small press. Whether or not I'm interested, I have to finish this novel.
I guess I'm saying there are two things going on here: how much life interferes with writing, and how much I want to write. If I really want to write, I can overcome more interference.
Maybe a third thing is going on: it really helps to establish the habit of writing. Over the years, I've heard a lot of SF writers say, set goals for every day. Some writers set a period of time when they must sit in front of the computer, even if words don't come. Other writers set a word goal. If you write 3 pages of a day, you have a thousand pages after a year.
And maybe a fourth thing is involved. I've been feeling bored with my writing and myself as a writer. So I'm taking a poetry writing class at The Loft Literary Center. I have written a fair amount of poetry over the years, and I belong to the Lady Poetesses from Hell poetry workshop; but I have never been one for taking writing classes of any kind.
And I've begun work on a YA fantasy. I've never tried a YA before.
What I'm doing, I think, is poking around and trying to find a way to make writing interesting again. Maybe this is working.
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1 comment:
It's fantastic to hear that you're working well, Eleanor. A YA fantasy by Eleanor Arnason sounds like dangerous candy.
I love being at that place where the world falls away and there's nothing but the work -- when I'm like a pig in the jungle, as Hemingway said. That's the hit I'm always looking for. (Yes: to be like a pig in the jungle.)
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