I'm sure you all know someone (other than me) who has said, Yeah, I'm writing a book. You might think, sure you are! or Good luck with that! Never believing that their book will actually make it into print.
Well, I'm writing a book...four of them, actually. One is a Children's Picture Book and is finished. I'm polishing it up and will send it to a few publishing houses to see if it'll be picked up by any of them. Scary thought, but that'll be a topic for another post.
The other three books I'm working on range from YA/Middle Grade Fantasy to LDS Romance. I'm trying not to limit myself. The minute I do that, I know those walls will shoot up in my brain and I won't be able to think.
This last weekend, I had the chance to do a writing marathon with a wonderful group of people. It was put on by Tristi Pinkston, author and editor. I had a BLAST! Even though I only got about 2,000 words "on paper" I consider it a success. I had to juggle a husband, two kids, running errands, meals and a few other things on a very busy Saturday. And with all that going on, I'm pretty proud of my 2k words.
I think the hardest obstacle for me to overcome is just freeing up my mind and letting the story flow. I have trouble with writing, not because I can't think of what comes next, but I can't seem to focus on what should come next. I'm too worried about if I've fleshed that last part out enough or if I explained that detail correctly. I just have to say that having kids makes your brain go haywire or ADHD or however you like to describe it.
I've also dealt a little bit with writer's block; what one lady at our writing marathon described as "when your imaginary friends quit talking to you." But, I was able to break through that by letting my creative juices flow into something else. When my friends in one story saw that I was now paying attention to some other friends in a different story, they got jealous. So, they devised a way to get my attention back on them. They started shouting their story at me so loudly that I had to stop conversing with my other friends and come back to talk with them for awhile.
Anyway, I've decided that I'll be working on my word count in my various stories by spending at least three hours a week (in all reality, it'll be much more than that as I sit up at night to have my "alone" time...a.k.a. wait for the baby to fall asleep in his swing) on just writing out the stories. I'll (hopefully) leave editing and fleshing out to later times. I think I can make my book flow faster if I do that, so I'm excited to try it.
Wish me luck!
