Distracted

For the last week, I've gotten on here intending to write something and gotten distracted by the blogs of friends. Thanks, friends.

I've been distracted lately. Hard to stay focused at work. Running around The Swamp willy nilly pulling this and that with no discernible plan. Switching between books on the Kindle not because I'm bored but because something else drew my eye.

I think it's growing pains. I've been a lump for too long (and I have the arm fat to prove it). Realm Makers was no great epiphany for me. I've attended too many conferences in my life to fall for the emotional rush that leads to the emotional let down a week or two later. That's code for "I'm jaded." However, I spent a good sum of money, and I want to believe I got my money's worth.

What has come home is it's time to put up or shut up. This is no declaration of a return to daily blogging, but I can't be a writer if I don't write. I've been wandering around for the last few years, avoiding the computer for various reasons, most of them underpinned by either apathy or fear. That's no reason not to write. I don't have to publish one more thing if I don't want to, but I would like to write again - without fear, without worrying about the hard work. I'd like to enjoy it again.

Where is that joy? You couldn't have stopped me from writing in college if you'd cut my fingers off. I spent hours at my laptop giggling and I was writing pure crap, building my million word resume. Those early efforts had only passion to recommend them but I was too stupid to know it. Why now - when I have that practice behind me - should I stop enjoying it?

All my social obligations of two years ago have dried up. Friends' lives have changed and the Turtle sits alone on the edge of her swamp. This is a good thing. This is how Star of Justice was written. I was bored, and I had no friends (and no internet) to distract me. It's time to buckle down.

I'm applying Randy Ingermanssen's Snowflake Method to Dangling Justice. I'm reading K.M. Weiland's Structuring Your Novel because my writing expertise comes from 20 years ago and it's time for a refresher.

TT: I follow her blog but she guest-posted somewhere yesterday and I was so impressed with the post and her book was priced so right -$2.99 on Kindle- I bought it. Guest posting works, folks. Keep it up. 

Time to use distraction to my advantage. Let's see if my newest WIP can hold my attention.

Happy Tuesday, dear readers.