I did the thing!

I'm awesome at starting things. I get ideas and I plan and I research and I get so pumped. It's like the first day the pools open in summer. It's refreshing. I jump in with both feet.

But then the pool gets crowded, all the floaties are taken, and your goggles start fogging up. You get out to try jumping in again but things keep floating where you're about to jump and your suit is all wet and heavy and...

I digress. My point is that while ideas are new and exciting it takes a lot of work to keep that momentum up. Life happens, you get to a hard part of the plot, new ideas, other goals and deadlines, and unsurpassable plot holes, just to name a few.

So when I wrote the closing scene of a story that I had going for years IT WAS SUCH A RELIEF. I'd been fighting with ideas for this thing, letting other ideas get me distracted, and just plain life happened so there are plenty of months where it just collected dust but it was always on my mind.

Finishing it was like when you finally drag yourself out of the pool and relax on your towel. It's like breaking open that cooler you packed and getting yourself a snack. Like getting comfortable with a good book while the sun warms you back up.

I mean that it's reaaaally nice to not have my brain running on one thing now. I've gotten distracted by how much fun it is to start things that I've forgotten how cool it is to finish them. Perhaps I need a Lazy River Method. You know, those skinny pools that go in a circle around a water park? How people get in and just float but the currant keeps them moving around and around that part of the park? I need a way to stay relaxed about a project but be always moving forward.

Anywho, I hope I figure something out soon because while it's nice here on my beach towel for now that pool is looking mighty tempting again.

Who put this brick wall where my brain was making words???

I've been stuck for at least 2 days. I just can't get the words from my brain to the page.  I never did 'Plot All the Things' like my last post suggested. I think that's the problem. If I don't have things written down then it's like having permission to over think it and end up like this. Almost 3 days behind.

I'm going to bed early tonight.  Going to bed so that I can wake up, eat, make coffee, and write like the wind.  But hopefully, whether before bed or while in bed, I can get get some semblance of an outline written out so I don't have to 'think' (stare at nothing and end up watching YouTube) so much and hit the ground running.

We'll see! Maybe I'll update tomorrow. Until then, keep writing!

If you can't stand the heat...

So for a few weeks now I've been trying to work on a story of mine. Recently, I thought of a another story I wanted to work on. Now I'm pretty weird about how I work on stories because I don't like to work on a different one before I'm done with the one I've already started. But I'm kind of excited about the idea so I found myself thinking 'Oh, well, I'm just doing this one for fun so I can work on it when I'm bored'. But wait. If I consider this as 'for fun' what am I doing when I write the other?

That thought kind of shook me up. I'm a writer. I've written nearly all my life. I love writing. So what's happened that this story isn't fun?

I'll be honest. I haven't been writing a whole lot and I think it might be because I'm putting a lot of pressure on myself. It kind of sounds stupid but I just changed my major to Creative Writing, I've set in stone that I want this to pay the bills one day. And perhaps it's knowing that the sooner I finish something the sooner someone will read it. That's nerve racking for a lot of people right? I want people to like what I wrote so I take way too much time getting it done. I need to remember that the first draft will never be perfect. If I keep going at this rate I'll never get done at all.

Anyways, I think this was just a needed complaining rant post. But my summer has officially started! Now I have plenty of time to learn how to... write badly? Lol. Let's see how that goes.