Works In Progress

I keep telling myself that I need to do a better job updating my blog by writing posts. I can tell myself that as many times as I want, it is going to take some real work to get it to happen. I need to make time to not only determine what I want to blog about but also to write said blog posts. Now, I don’t know about other writers, friends or famous professionals, but as much as I love to write, it is not necessarily the most leisurely of activities. It requires a fair amount of brain power and concentration. Neither of which I always have in excess when I have time to myself after everyone else in the house has gone to sleep. To be honest, more often than not I’d rather sit on the couch and watch some TV. Tonight is one of those exceptions.

I re-read a story that I hope to submit for publication shortly in hopes of cleaning it up a little more. Once in the mindset the mental debate began. Work on a work in progress or blog. As I struggle with finding or making time to write I ponder the question about building an author platform. Why would anyone follow an author or read their blog when they don’t produce content? Instead of promising anyone reading this post that I’ll blog more often or even promise myself the same I’m simply going to start working little by little on the projects I have in progress right now. As I make a concerted effort to work on one of many projects, the production both of stories/novels/blog posts will be the happy result. Not as if I don’t have enough projects to choose on which to work. Which if I’m at all like other writers I’ve met and gotten to know a little about it is that we all always have a multitude of projects going all at the same time.

With a cursory glance I can say that I have five or six that I have worked on to some degree in the last few months. For one it may only be jotting down a note about a character or scene in the notebook dedicated to that piece. For another it may be actively editing and reworking it with hopes of sending it to a few family and friends in the near future for early feedback. Another may be limited to mulling over plot points before falling asleep. As much as I am a person that can’t stomach the idea of reading multiple books at once (guess I feel like they all deserve my full attention), I would feel completely disingenuous about being a writer if I worked the same way with my stories. Many times mentally working through a problem will give light to an issue in another work. The other big thing for me is that there are days when I want or feel like doing some writing but the project I worked on last just isn’t lighting my creative fire that day. In those cases it is always nice to have other works to shift my focus and help get the juices flowing again.

My most recent project, a children’s story inspired by a fun time playing sandwich maker with my 3 year old, is different still. It is an odd feeling to have worked such a short time on the piece and feel like it might be ready for other people to see already. Should I set it aside after having written it like I would a short story? Give it time to ferment? Are there plot holes that I’ll need to patch? It is such a different beast that I am still learning how to handle the creative process. While I am thinking and waiting on that it is comforting to know that when I find the time and energy to write, I will always have plenty of working waiting for me.

That all said, guess I should just post this and get on with another of my works in progress in hopes of moving it to the completed pile allowing another germinating idea to take its place in the work in progress pile.