It's been a while.
I've been busy, too. Mostly doing
freelance work. Work that pays the bills, so I can't really knock
it.
But it's been so incredibly difficult
to find the time to even read,
let alone write.
On the plus side,
I've transcribed my novel to date. Now I have to re-read it and see
where I am on my outline. As for word count, I'm roughly one-quarter
of the way to my goal. Which works out well, since I would estimate
that I'm roughly a quarter of the way through my outline. So at
least something is working!
The way my process
works, generally, is that I will get on a roll, and I will keep
writing (and as I've mentioned before I prefer to write longhand in a
blank book) as long as I can keep the momentum going.
Eventually, though,
I hit a wall.
For some writers
I've known, their "wall" is generally the point they get to
when they have little or no idea where to go from where they are. I
guess not everyone uses outlines (or some form thereof). Fortunately
for me, that's not the thing I usually call my "wall." For
me, sometimes a wall is that dead-stop, where I can't figure
out where to go or how to get back on track, and I suppose that
happens to every writer at some point. But more frequently than not,
it's a place I get to when I can no longer recall what I've written
to date. It means it's time for me to stop and reread everything.
Obviously this
inability to remember what I've written thus far is a result of my
memory issues from that thwack I got on the head in my accident. But
I'm not actually sure about this. I have a writer-friend who never
had a head injury, and yet still has trouble when writing novels,
because she can't keep her characters straight. Which, while it
might be a result of her characters not being well-defined in
a less-experienced, less-accomplished writer, is not the case here.
In this instance, it's because she tends to write the kind of
sweeping, multi-generational sagas that take me weeks, if not months
to savor my way through. I am soooo not a fast reader (but
more on that at a later time). Since my own work isn't along those
lines, however, I can't make a direct comparison.
At any rate, that's
generally what I think of as my wall. When I get there, it's time to
pause, reread, check where I am in the outline, make adjustments, and
once I'm pretty sure I know where I need to go from there, I can get
back to writing.
But now there is a
new element tossed into the mix: this is the first major project I've
undertaken while also doing freelance writing at the same time.
While I'm sure I'm
not the only one who has trouble fitting writing time into a work
schedule, I'm curious as to how other writers who do freelance work
manage it. It's one thing when you have a regular, 9-5 job to pay
the bills. When I was doing that, whatever I did at the office
stayed in the office. For the most part, I'd leave work and not
think about it again until I was back at work.
But this is
different.
When your home
office is where you do the work that pays your bills as well as
where you work on that Great American Novel, the separation is
entirely in your mind.
And right now my
mind is having a little trouble with that.
How do you stop one
project in the middle (especially if you're on a roll!) and set to
work on the other, simply because it's time to? Right now I'm having
trouble going back and forth.
For reasons I won't
go into, besides the fact that this blog isn't about that, I won't be
talking about my freelance work itself. Just suffice it to say that
about half of it is as boring as any job; it doesn't challenge my
skills so much as challenge me
to not pull my hair out and scream a good portion of the time. And
though the work is something I'm suited to, it makes it that much
harder to tear myself away from my novel to do when it's dull work.
And even on a week like this one, when I'm waiting for work that I
know is coming, it's still difficult to get started on my own
writing. Firstly, if I go and reread what I have so far, and then
the work—which could be ready for me to work on next Wednesday, or
the day after tomorrow, I have no way to know—shows up, I would
probably have to read it yet again when I get done that work and go
back to my novel. Or, if I finish rereading and am still waiting for
the work, and I start working on my novel, I could get torn away from
that at any minute. All of this makes me hesitant to even start.
I'm just not sure how to handle this.
This is where I am now.
And turning to work on a long-overdue blog entry is probably an
avoidance strategy.
So I suppose it's time to get cracking, huh?
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
On a totally
unrelated note, if you are looking for a holiday gift for someone
who's hard to shop for, or really doesn't want or need anything, I
present the following link for your consideration.
I can't afford to donate at the moment, but I certainly wouldn't mind having donations made in my honor if I were that hard-to-shop-for person, and this is a great way to make a direct, tangible impact on some children's lives. I particularly like the tuition program for girls. And since I would like to help, but can't—at least not until I'm caught up on bills!—I will hope that by passing this information on, someone who otherwise may never have heard of this will donate.
