December Writing and January Goals
Dec. 30th, 2020 09:02 amI actually took the last week of December off from writing, on the grounds that (a) it is a holiday!, and (b) I’ve been having difficulty writing new material since the pandemic began and attempting to bulldoze through has not, so far, been successful, so maybe I should try a new strategy, i.e., taking a break.
During my bulldozing attempts, I have racked up an impressive number of partially-finished books (including two f/f novellas about college girls around 1900), so if/when I get my finishing-things mojo back, I ought to be able to knock books over like bottles on a fence. Right? That’s how it works, yes? This may be wishful thinking.
The only project I’ve made much progress on is David and Robert, which grows more unmarketable by the day. It’s fine. I’m telling myself that I will never publish it anyway so I don’t need to worry about pleasing anyone but myself. Sure, I could just stop in 1920, after our heroes get together (if I do so, I already have a complete draft!)... but why not continue for the next twenty years so I can drag them through the vast dysfunctional polycule that is the interwar English intelligentsia? David could get married! Robert could have a Bad Boyfriend!
(The Bad Boyfriend is a gift to myself; I love writing bad boyfriends. You can’t imagine how much extraneous Paul material there was in Honeytrap. I really grieved when I had to cut out his maniacal insistence that he and Daniel could never share a bed all night because BOTH BEDS NEED TO LOOK SLEPT IN, DANIEL, obviously it’s NOT ENOUGH to just throw back the covers in the morning.)
...Anyway, my plan in January is to start myself off with a Very Low daily word count (I’m thinking 250 words a day), plus a generous number of days off, and see if that strategy doesn’t work a bit better than bulldozing.
During my bulldozing attempts, I have racked up an impressive number of partially-finished books (including two f/f novellas about college girls around 1900), so if/when I get my finishing-things mojo back, I ought to be able to knock books over like bottles on a fence. Right? That’s how it works, yes? This may be wishful thinking.
The only project I’ve made much progress on is David and Robert, which grows more unmarketable by the day. It’s fine. I’m telling myself that I will never publish it anyway so I don’t need to worry about pleasing anyone but myself. Sure, I could just stop in 1920, after our heroes get together (if I do so, I already have a complete draft!)... but why not continue for the next twenty years so I can drag them through the vast dysfunctional polycule that is the interwar English intelligentsia? David could get married! Robert could have a Bad Boyfriend!
(The Bad Boyfriend is a gift to myself; I love writing bad boyfriends. You can’t imagine how much extraneous Paul material there was in Honeytrap. I really grieved when I had to cut out his maniacal insistence that he and Daniel could never share a bed all night because BOTH BEDS NEED TO LOOK SLEPT IN, DANIEL, obviously it’s NOT ENOUGH to just throw back the covers in the morning.)
...Anyway, my plan in January is to start myself off with a Very Low daily word count (I’m thinking 250 words a day), plus a generous number of days off, and see if that strategy doesn’t work a bit better than bulldozing.