I got this germ of an idea for a story last summer and scribbled out the opening scene and dropped it in a file. Well it has been simmering in the old cooking pot for awhile until about two weeks ago. Then, like a sleeping volcano, it spewed forth into my awareness, grabbed a lobe or two, and will not release my brain until it is done. It has been a pretty wrenching two weeks.
Sometimes, that happens. This has been good and bad.
I have been writing away every day, sometimes just a painful couple of hundred words, but the story is almost done and I am tweaking and fixing spelling and a plethora of grammar boo boos. Did a wee bit of language change, got tense over the tense of the story, and basically have thought of nothing else or done anything else, writing wise, except that. That is the good part.
The bad part is the other projects are suffering and that.. irritates me. I have another short I want to finish and send out before the end of March, and it needs finishing and editing and, well a lot of work, but I think it is a fine story and worthy of the time and effort. But it just sits there. I also have a dozen or so sestina in various stages of completion that I want to finish. And lets not forget our old friend, the.. Project. Oh and sheeple stories and the blog in general.
My head has turned to mush. I get out some time on this story and boom, hit the wall and I am mentally tired. So I shift gears, or try to at least, and attempt some words in other stuff. Well call me a monkey's uncle cause I just can't switch voice that fast. The voice is important and I just have not learned, yet, how to shift into another tone.
My poetry has a voice all it's own. Different poems may have different accents, but it is the poets voice coming out. Two of the shorts are kinda like old school science fiction and are similar, again same voice, different accent. The third story, the one possessing me, is science fiction but of a totally different bent, for one thing, it is written in first person and it sounds totally different. Then the.. Project is fantasy and has it's own sound and voice, unique to itself. Then there is the Paddy voice of the blog, which is just me being me.
So I am starting today just being me, and complaining to boot. I really have no reason to at all. To be honest, it has been a long time since I have focused so intently on writing that I need to just go with the flow. The dreaded block has not appeared in about a year and it has been a fun ride. Of course, all other creative endeavors are poof! gone, but that is fine too. It helps to just ramble on here, get the focus back, and go on. The trick is to go with the voice and put in the effort, really not that easy some days. Sometimes, you just need to take that deep breath and take a peek around, then dive right back into it. I think that is true for most things..
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