Tuesday, May 30, 2017

Update: Getting Stuff Done

I've made some further progress on writing since the last post although I did not get really moving on short stories like I thought I would. Publisher me has still been doing more followed by Editor/Magazine maker me. Writer me has been left to wait again and that's not set well with me. Making strides on projects is fine and necessary for the goals I have in mind for those ventures. At the same time, I like to think I'm first and foremost a writer and that is certainly a venture I do not mean to shove into the background.

I've related that there have been factors in my own life that have probably influenced this turn, so I can at least try to be a little easier on myself. That said, I did catch a few good moments yesterday to do something I haven't done a while. I finished a book. It's a novella or short novel in fact and one I knew I could sense an ending for so I went after it and wrapped it up. There was a sense of relief in that mission accomplished.

Yes, I could actually get fiction done again. I had this little nagging fear that I was caught in a looping cycle where nothing every really ended and I would just advance all of my works-in-progress but never complete them. (Yes, I have several unfinished books languishing on my hard drive.)

This whole turn of events just serves to highlight the simple need to get stuff done. As Heinlein has said in his famed rules of business, "Finish what you write." I haven't been the greatest finisher of fiction lately. Well, in a very long time. What works I have complete are starting to emerge from their limbo status, some as part of collections like the Cursed King And Other Stories, or published in MYTHIC. I think more of them will show up in the coming months, making it necessary to write more. Finding the focus for that has been tough, but the desire is still there so I hope you can wish me luck in pursuing that aim.

That novella I mentioned will now get looked over and I will let you know when it's ready for publication. The next step is the next story. Or in my case, the next work-in-progress--maybe the one closest to completion. That's the approach I think will work for now. I just keep moving down the line, finishing book after book, story after story, until I hit a true opening with nothing left in the queue.

I'll also admit that none of this addresses the nonfiction that is percolating in my brain and trying to find the most apt express so it might appear as a book too. That's something I'll keep closer to the vest for now.

Onward to more writing!

No comments: