Writing Journal: 1/26/2012 Update

Since I've returned to blogging about my writing, I should probably give an update as to what I've been up to writing-wise for the last months, and what I'm working on now.

First off, as I said in my previous post -- I didn't do that much writing since last July.  I took a bit of a sabbatical to refocus and recharge my batteries.  Instead of trying to churn out as much writing as possible, I stepped back, relaxed, and reconnected with why I wanted to write in the first place.

Because I enjoy it.

Last July/August, I'd become over-extended, over-committed, and overly focused on output, activity, and web-presence.  Frankly, it had reached the point where I just wasn't enjoying it.

But I didn't really quit -- I just removed myself from the web and took a long, deep breath.  I read.  A lot.  And I spent a lot of time thinking, brainstorming, day-dreaming, and imagining stories, characters, and situations.

So the 'Input' process of writing was churning away as strong as ever -- probably even more so, since I wasn't forcing myself to spew it back out as fast as possible.  I could let ideas sit, stew, and germinate.

But I intentionally turned the 'output' side of it way, way down.  To a trickle.

I'm not recommending this to every writer, and to tell the truth, I don't think I'll ever again completely drop off the map.  After all, I never stopped wanting to be a writer, and to be a 'writer' you have to write.  However -- as a new, still-developing writer, it was feeling like I was forcing myself to do things in a way that only emphasized my clumsy, newbie traits -- I didn't like what I was creating.  My works simply didn't feel good enough.

So off the radar of the web, I took the time to really delve into the details of what I was writing.  I'd write, but slowwwwwwwly -- I'd work on a sentence, a paragraph, or a section for as long as it took, for as many revisions as it took, to get it to where I really liked it.  Sometimes it never happened, and I'd eventually give up and move on.  But I never forced it, and over time, I came back to writing on a semi-regular basis, liking what I was creating, and enjoying the process again.

So that's where I am now -- I'm writing, enjoying it, and back to doing it steady enough that I decided to poke my head out of my hidey-hole and resuscitate this blog.  To sum up what's happening with my writing projects right now:

• My WIP novel has been revisited and revised, and I am in the process of a another (major) rewrite.
• I have several short stories in the can, and a few out on submissions (at Every Day Fiction and other places), and also a couple of 50-word stories I've sent to Tim Sevenhuysen at Fifty Word Stories.
• I've reappeared at the Creative Copy Challenge and will continue to post there from time to time (those 10-word prompts are just too much fun).
• I've put the paddles to this blog and jolted it back to life.
• My 'Published Works' has grown to a total of three, and I've created a new tab to start listing them in one consolidated place. Hopefully I'll get more pieces I can put there... ;^)

So there ya go...  Consider yourself updated.

The Renewal of a Writer

So...   Happy New Year 2012!

Or, more appropriately, since we're well past the First of January, 2012, but are on the first day of the Chinese New Year of The Dragon: "Sin Ngen Kai Lok!" and "Kung Hii Fatt Choi!"


Let me begin by saying that I have returned to blow the dust off this blog, and to resume my posting here.


Surprised?   Yeah, me too...

So some history is in order, I think:

Not that long ago, I started this blog to highlight some of my writing and to track my journey from unpublished, wanna-be writer to... well, wherever the act of writing took me.


Then, by writing, and pushing, and biting off more and more chunks of ways to try and write, and submit, and visiting more and more places to submit my writing and websites to post on, and adding more and more commitments about how much, and how often, I was going to write (a novel, short-stories, writing prompts, blogification),  I just -- hit the wall.


I started to realize that I was going for quantity instead of quality, pushing myself to keep up with all the ways I wanted to write and be a presence on the web, and truthfully enjoying it less and less.  Then, somehow, things hit a crescendo -- Real life intruded, not much; just enough to add that last, critical-mass straw, and it all collapsed

I stopped..


Then it was a week without writing.  And then two.  And all the ways I was trying to write and maintain a web presence were behind schedule and piling up.  And my 'behind schedule-ness' kept accumulating, and snowballing, and soon it seemed insurmountable for a part-time writer to catch up.


So I threw up my hands, and threw in the towel, and decided I was just through with it all..


But, yet...

Not really.  Because I still wrote.  A little.  Here and there.  Because I enjoyed it.  I toyed with a few short stories.  I polished some of the things I'd churned out earlier.  I'd write, and undo, and redo, and then -- without the pressure I'd earlier put on myself -- I'd move on.


And now, after many months, I am renewed, and restored, and returned.


I'll tell you more in future posts, but for now, let me just say -- I'm writing, and I'm back.


And for now, that's enough...

Writing Journal: First Time 'Published'!

My short-short story "Expectations" has been posted at Fifty-Word Stories.  This is my first-ever accepted and published piece!  (Click on the story title for the link, or click HERE).

At Fifty-Word Stories, each work posted by the site host Tim Sevenhuysen or a guest author has to be exactly 50 words -- not 49, not 51. It's a fun challenge to try and get a cohesive 'story' into such a tight constraint.

"Expectations" is a little different than the genre (mystery, science-fiction, or suspense/horror) stories I typically write, and while it's only a short micro-fiction piece, it's still a thrill to have something I wrote be accepted and posted.

It may be just a short baby-step, but at least it's a first step in the effort to become a published writer...  ;^)

I hope you enjoy the piece -- as usual, any comments, suggestions, or other feedback is always welcome.  Thanks for reading!