Journal Entry Type #83: Writing is a Journey
I got my edited version of my first story back. The good news is that it isn’t as labor intensive as I thought it might be. The bad news is, if you want to call it that, is I have to do another rewrite. It’s a minor rewrite compared to the lengthy ones I’ve done before on this story so all in all it’s good. Either way, I have to do it. I can go kicking and screaming my way through it or admit the process and get on with it. I’m choosing the latter option. The also good news is I will not have to do as many rewrites on my second story. I’m on chapter 10 although I’ve been struggling a bit with finding the motivation and willpower to stay with it. I don’t mince my words when it comes to my own life progressions and right now I’m in the mud.
As I laid in bed last night, I thought about all the stories I want to write (what’s freaking new, huh?) and how much I would love to start my trilogy that will probably end up being one book. I thought about the huge accomplishment/achievement I will feel when self-publishing all my five novels. Then, I can move onto my novellas. My foolishness is thinking it will be easier to write them because it won’t be as many pages. It should take a shorter time, but in the long run, they may take longer. These stories aren’t as flushed out as well as my novel ideas but they have the most promise of being fully whacky and crazy, minus my fourth novel idea.
I try to reach and commit to personal deadlines as much as I can, but I also won’t sacrifice my writing for the sake of holding it in my hands when it’s not ready. The first book is definitely the hardest one any person will write (to an extent). Let me tell you, I can’t WAIT until it is finished. They should be all hard to write, in some ways, because if not, you aren’t challenging yourself. If everything goes the way I think it will, hopefully my second book will be self-published in 2022 or early 2023. It’s all become a game of timing and giving myself around 25 years to finish all my stories. I know I have it within me to do this, but the specifics of it all remains to be seen. I end with a quote about writing.
-Jonathan Carroll-
“A short story is a sprint, a novel is a marathon. Sprinters have seconds to get from here to there and then they are finished. Marathoners have to carefully pace themselves so that they don’t run out of energy (or in the case of the novelist– ideas) because they have so far to run. To mix the metaphor, writing a short story is like having a short intense affair, whereas writing a novel is like a long rich marriage.”
2 Comments on “Journal Entry Type #83: Writing is a Journey”
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Thank you for your encouragement. Whether the first draft or third, it is challenging. It’s interesting how writing and not writing tortures me in the same way. Good luck on your writing too.
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Wishing you all the best for your upcoming novels! I too am on that grind, and I can say that it is a marathon indeed. Even doing it multiple times doesn’t make it any easier, just more familiar. Thanks for this post!
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