It’s been a hectic couple of days and I haven’t found the time to get to the Novel. And that’s my fault, but it took my dear friend J to point that out to me. I continue to treat the novel as something I do when I have nothing else to do. And yet, it’s important to me. Very important.
I need to make it a priority. To make time for it. We’re past the half-way point now. I’m running out of days for ‘making up lost time.’
The good news is, I finished the last article I have due last night (I hope, at least. The editor could always request rewrites). So for now I have no other writing committments.
Another bit of wisdom I heard was about when to write… and basically the answer was “Whenever you have a free moment.” This came in a round-about way from Cory Doctorow via Mur Lafferty, in a piece she did in a daily NaNoWriMo podcast where she shunned the idea of writing rituals. I’m a little guilty of being ritual bound. I have to have a block of time set aside to write in. I’m trying to break out of that mold and write a bit in the cracks and crevices of my day. A hundred words here, a hundred and fifty there…they add up, right?
Sure, they add up, but does it work for YOU? Definitely try new things, dabble in the new to add to your repertoire of condusive writing locales, processes, mediums, whatever, I’m not trying to discourage that. But at the end of the day, do something because it’s working for you, letting you delve into those dark alleys of your mind and channel it forth onto paper. Don’t do it just because some so-called professional writer thinks you should be doing it that way. I personally don’t think you have anything to apologize for as regards rituals. There’s a lot of power in those small details.
And if you’d stop helping your friends with THEIR novels, you’d have time for your own! Hahahahaha