It has now been, I believe, three weeks since I laid out the ground rules as to when and how I am going to write and what I am going to share with you in regards to each writing day and time. Well, to be truthful, it has been rough goings thus far. I am still working through character bios and I find myself losing focus often over the last week or two. I have also noticed that my passion for the material and my objectives has diminished quite a bit.
I am not sure why it has. It could be due to outside distractions. My sister was here for 8 days with my nephews, my kids have been sick on and off, and well I have found things to distract me from writing. It is quite easy to do, believe me. But now the kids are well and my sister is back home, so those excuses are no longer available. This means I have to get my nose back to the grindstone on this all.
One of the things I have done in order to get my head and heart back in the right place is reading. You see for a writer I actually read very little. I would say I have read 3 novels over the last 6 months. Your average novelist reads probably that many in three weeks. Granted, they don't have a regular 9-5 job, two kids,or a wife in college. But even still, to be a good writer I need to read more.
To assist me in this, I decided to finally purchase a Kindle. For a long time I was very much against e-readers of any stripe. I loved books, the feel of them in my hand, the weight they had as I turned the pages, the tangible quality they possessed. But I slowly, over time, realized that I lacked the space where I live to accommodate all the books I owned and all the ones that I planned to. I knew the only way to make it work would be to put books in and out of storage or sell off books before buying new ones. I quite frankly did not like either option.
The Kindle I purchased is able to hold 3000 books. That is more than I have in my collection right now. So, I am able to buy new books as needed without figuring out where to store them once I finish them. I also can keep some of the books I love and be able to access them whenever I want to. Taking the leap just made sense.
So with Kindle in hand, I have been working through some of the books on my wish list. It is nice and I find that as I use it more my desire for real books diminishes and I find myself more and more loving reading with the Kindle.
In addition to reading, I have been trying to listen to more music, particularly classical and instrumental music. I find that this type of music inspires my imagination and allows me to get back in touch with my creative mind. Music is my muse. So far that statement has remained true. The other night I listened to some of my favorite pieces and found that after I was able to work through two more character profiles. I also pounded out notes on the second book in the series this initial novel will be contained within. It was so liberating and I felt so much better about things.
Of course, I still have tons of work to do before I can even start the novel. But getting myself back in the right mindset and writing again is such a blessing. So with things settling down again, I am going to get back to my schedule. This means I will be writing again tomorrow night and you can expect a post sometime Sunday or early Monday related to that.
Writers can get sidetracked and often lose time to outside influences. But good writers can get themselves back on task and begin producing good material again. I am not a good writer yet. But I feel my work ethic is getting there.
Until next time my friends...
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