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.