Better Late Than Never

Okay, I know it’s been a while since I last posted, but I have an excuse.

Really. A bunch of them.

A couple of weeks ago I promised myself that I wouldn’t post again until I had finished revising my first chapter to the point where I could feel good about showing it to my wife and kids. Not completely finished, mind you. Just good enough to give them a feel for how the chapter would eventually sound.

Needless to say, it's not finished. (Though I decided to post anyway!)

My list of lame excuses excellent reasons for why I haven't finished:

1. The nasty cold (flu?) which knocked me out for about a week.

2. I'm a slow writer who only gets to write late at night.

3. Openings give me more trouble than anything. You need a fair amount of description to get your reader grounded, and I'm awful at descriptions. Seriously, I must have rewritten the first paragraph fifty times already and it's still not there. I wish this writing stuff would come more easily.

Anyway, I plan on staying awake this weekend until that chapter is ready. No more excuses.

The Insecure Writer - Part III

Today is January's contribution to Alex Cavanaugh's Insecure Writers Support Group.




The fact that I find it so easy to come up with reasons why I’m insecure as a writer makes me feel insecure as a writer.

That’s my happy thought for the New Year.
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I spent much of Christmas vacation working on my book. I’m pleased to say I accomplished quite a lot – tightening up early chapters, fleshing out some of the middle ones, and outlining the last third of the book. In fact, it’s gotten to the point where I can now visualize the book as a finished product sometime in the (distant?) future.

Then why am I insecure? Because I’m gaining a better understanding of everything that is necessary to finish a book. Despite my recent progress, I’m a bit worried that I may be even farther away from finishing than I first thought. It seems the more I learn about writing, the more I realize how much more needs to be done before I can consider the book finished. I’ve spent two and a half years on this story so far and I despair that it might take another two and a half before it’s done. I just don’t know right now.

Nevertheless, my New Year’s resolution is to have it completely finished by next Christmas. Is this a realistic goal? I’ll let you know in June.