I came out of the AWP conference pretty jazzed about Meet the Larssons and Project Hometown. I jotted down half a dozen good ideas to incorporate into the revision of MTL, and at least that many ideas for Hometown. Since the end of the conference, however, I haven’t done anything on either project.
Some of that was because I wanted to spend some time with the Siren and the kids, and some of was about being a little burned out after three days thinking about almost nothing but writing. But some of it, I have to admit, was about screwing around on Twitter and Facebook and other places on the internet (or, as our kids call it, “teh stoopid internet,” because it conks out so often). Tonight it was a combination of screwing around with a new toy and doing real bill-paying work.
But tomorrow, as we all know, is another day. After the kids go to bed, I plan to get at least an hour in on Meet the Larssons. As for Project Hometown, I think I’m ready to start the scene-by-scene spreadsheet in the Snowflake Method of outlining. I’ll try to get going on that over the weekend.
During the conference, I met people who had been working on their novels for years, so I don’t think I’m going to beat myself up too much for taking a few extra days off. But my fingers are starting to itch from lack of output, and tweets, status updates, and blog posts aren’t going to cut it much longer.
I received another couple of rejection slips recently, by the way, for TTB and “Mr. President.” “Jimmies” is now the only story I have out there. I think both of those stories need to be trunked for a while, to give them (or me) time to get some distance. I also want to consider getting back to “Jamie’s Story,” which I stopped working on last month and has lingered, unfinished, more or less in the gloom ever since. What can I say? It’s a tough business.
The Unfocused Life 
Sometimes, a break is exactly what you need. :)
Sorry about the R’s, though. Good luck with finding a home for “Jamie’s Story”, though!
Thanks, Jen. I made some progress on MTL tonight, so I’m feeling a little better about it just from having made a commitment to myself and keeping it.
I got tired of rejections and I started to focus on blogging. It is not that I am a good writer but I always wanted to write. Blogging has given me this opportunity. I can write and this gives me a lot of pleasure. Blogging actually brings enough money for me to pay all the bills. Well, it is possible because I live in a poor country.
After a lot of failures in life, I really believe that rejections are good if you can learn from them.
I haven’t sent anything out yet. No short stories (I have one I have to revise, S/F), no queries, no nothing. I guess I’m to chicken$#@! to face the rejections. I’m still waiting for the Beta verdict(s) to come in.
You’re the second author I know to have mentioned the snowflake method. I will have to look into it and would love to hear about your progress. I am too much of a write-by-the-seat-of-your-pants writer and suffer for it.
Thank you for the comment over on my blog as I don’t think I would have discovered yours here. I like it and will be coming back.
Hang in there. You need anything, I’m just a tweet away. Unless I’m sorting my fabrics, again. This time though I promised my family I would tie a rope to my waist – you know, just in case.
Razib – If you’re making a living from your blog, it seems to me that you’re doing something right with your writing.
Ralph – Rejection slips are cool. All the hip kids have them. I got a bunch of them in high school and I have a dozen from the past year, and I can promise you that not one of them consisted of the editor scrawling “HA! Seriously, no.” on the back of a napkin in crayon. There’s a Meetup downtown (I’ve never been, it hasn’t been convenient) where the price of admission is a rejection slip every four months, but when you bring yours in, they give you candy. Get the short story done and out — what’s the worst that could happen?
J.C. – There’s a link to the Snowflake Method in the Places I Go and People I Know section on the sidebar (and in today’s post). Meet the Larssons was written off two pages of notes that I never revised (and a corporate organizational chart, because I’m a dork), and the pain of the rewrite has motivated me to do more advance planning with Project Hometown.
Will do!