Hello all!
I’ve been having trouble starting this blog, first because of technical reasons, and then because of nerves. I’ve lost the window of opportunity to focus on the launch of my book, so I admit that it’s tempting to wait until I have another signing to promote, or other news to share. But that, I’ve come to realize, is the heart of the matter.
I don’t want to write now. I want to write later, when there is a well of time, inspiration, and content at my fingertips. I want to wait until that perfect moment when the planets align and I’ll be able to get my thoughts out onto a page with little to no work. This does happen, occasionally. I’ve experienced times when my words feel like they’re writing themselves and I seem to be reading along. Those times are wonderful. But unreliable.
I’ve been having a difficult time transitioning from making the last few polishes on Untold to starting effectively a first draft of my new book. Before I had gotten very far with Untold, I liked first drafts. The thought of editing was discouraging, and it felt like the “real” writing happened in the first go-round. Now that I’m back in the trenches I’m starting to think differently. I feel like I’m holding a million different pieces of what could be at least a pretty good story, but am having trouble finding places for them to go. I have a good sense of the amount of work ahead of me once I finish this draft, but for the first time it doesn’t seem intimidating. How luxurious to have your only decisions be if a word is working correctly, or if your commas are in the right place? (I’m still having trouble with that one.)
New content is difficult. New content is scary. New content is crucial. I know this, and I know that the only remedy for writer’s block is to pretend that it doesn’t exist. Don’t have anything to say? Say something anyway. No idea where a scene is heading? Write it anyway. The tricky part of following this advice is when the excuses come in. I don’t have the time. I’ll write later. I’m busy promoting Untold. But life doesn’t regularly structure the perfect time to work. It just doesn’t. So, my friends, here is my first (slightly rambling) blog post, done and ready to post. I will post one every Monday, because deadlines are the enemy of laziness. I’ll try not to get too caught up in my head about what I’m saying, and how I’m saying it, and in exchange, you go work on that project you’ve been putting off because you’ve been waiting for that strike of inspiration that will make the work you put into it worthy of what you imagine. It will get there, I promise, but waiting isn’t the way to do it.
Now I’ll sign off and post this before my internal second-guesser tells me to delete this whole thing and go for that other topic. You know, the one I should have written about all along…
I’ll save it for next week.
Amy