to abandon a goal
i have a conundrum. i'm wondering today whether to follow my writing goal for this year as previously described or to abandon that goal and focus my efforts on making publishable the novella i wrote last november. i don't think i can do both. i'm not that sort of multitasker. one project at a time.
i think the goal of writing new stuff may be a cop out. it's almost easier to do that, and maybe more fun. it's nice to have written something and be done with it, or done enough for now; and it's hard to work more on something i've put aside and considered finished. so, poo.
this wouldn't have happened, i wouldn't be having this internal (now external) debate, were it not for my parents. should i never have given them a copy of the story for christmas? damn the holidays! damn my own good nature!
i have genuine published-writer (sort of) friends in seattle and the parents recommend contacting them, etc.; and maybe they're right.
even when i was doing a lot of writing, i've never really taken the next step. there are stories i've worked over and worked over, perhaps to the point of obsession, but never to the point of really readying them for publication. publication was always a pipe dream.
but maybe it's time. maybe i'll spend at least this month and next reading through "nocturnal dyspnea" and doing another draft. adding another 20,000 words or so. oh boy. this is much scarier than writing a new story each month.
3 comments:
i guess it all boils down to why do you choose to write? for yourself? for others?
i write for me. i write the kind of stuff i want to write. but i do like it when people like what i write. i do like the idea of being published. being published would be good for me. i'm not interested in catering my writing for a specific audience or publisher, if that's what you mean.
n.d. is real writing. perhaps you owe it to yourself to figure out exactly what you want it to be, and then make it that. and a word or two of advice from published authors might be helpful. but there, i've said nothing new.
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