Thursday, September 30, 2010

Peripherals

It's a funny, sad, serious business, this writing thing. I find myself looking back at a week just past, and thinking, "Where did the writing time go?" Some weeks I can sit back and slam the keyboard like whoa, and some weeks (like this one), I self report my progress as...

Zip.

Nichts.

Niente.

The reasons can be many. I'm hungry. I'm full. I'm tired. I'm too full of energy. Name an excuse not to put in quality time on the work-in-progress, and I've used it.

But I find myself spending increasing amounts of writing time in activities that are peripheral to the Main Event. I blog. This is a good thing. I maintain my web site. Also a good thing. I check e-mails, which is a must-do good thing. I schmooze with my writing and non-writing buddies. I do the social network sites.

And what happens at the end of all that? Have I set down one word toward fulfilling my goal -- writing something that'll get me a bit closer to THE END?

No.

Time to consider. Time to think about whether to cut back. Do I need to be on fourteen different e-mail loops? Maybe not. Do I need to perform all these peripheral tasks? Or do I need to better focus on the stories in my head, and the talent to tell them that God gave me?

Thoughts?

1 comment:

Shawna K. Williams said...

Deb, this is me. I love writing. I even like editing. Blogging can be fun when something to blog about strikes, but lately I've hit a total burn-out on the promotional angle. I feel like a zombie.