The Writing Life

Hello All.

This morning I wanted to blog about my writing process . . . just because I can. I need to vent a little.

I've been working on a new project for a few months now. This is unlike anything I've written so far (different age group, different genre), and it's taking me much longer than I imagined it would. I have to spend more time on research, not a bad thing, and more time editing and rewriting, also not a bad thing.

The area troubling me is concentration. I am shooting for a first draft by the middle of September. That's only a month away, and I'm not even halfway through the manuscript yet. YIKES! So I have been doing my best to write with kids in the house, frustrating to say the least, but I've been making some progress. Yay!

Now comes the weird part, and probably too much information for most of you out there, but I have been getting way too many story ideas lately, especially in the shower. It's like an idea incubator. The problem is that I don't get scene ideas or dialogue for the story I'm working on now. I keep getting new stories, new scenes, new characters. AAHHHHH!

I just want to finish what I'm working on. I don't want any new ideas yet. Why can't creative thoughts be turned on and off like a light switch? Need a new story? Hop in the shower and lather hair until idea forms. Not ready for a story? Normal shower with no extra thoughts.

Simple, yet oh, so complicated.

But I also know there are worse problems to have, like writer's block, where you have nothing flowing at all.

I plan to have the draft completed in a few weeks, and then I'll put all those other ideas to good use.

Thanks for letting me vent.