I think I have a handle on things. As I’ve mentioned before, finding time to write with a full-time job and family can be hard. Most of my writing time has been regulated to an hour at night, 30 minutes at work and the weekends. That made for slow progress. In the past, I would get up an hour earlier so I would have uninterrupted writing time. That’s not working this time. Now I have a new plan. I have changed my work hours to a four-day work week which gives me a full day off. Since the kids are back in school I have the house to myself. We’ll see how much I can get done in a day.
On a related note, I am having a good time writing short stories. I subscribe to the Lifewriting Tips by Steven Barnes. One of those tips revolved around the notion of training or exercising your writing muscles. They only way to get good at something is to practice. Short stories are an excellent vehicle to “practice” story telling. Taken from Steven’s Free Online Writing Classes about short stories: “This is Basic story telling, a “Sprint”, with no time to rest. In many ways the essence of the story form. Educational as hell, and also quite confrontive. Many people avoid it, but the short story remains the method of choice for developing professional-level skills.”
My goal is to have a “Story Soundtrack” story at least once a week. As far as the novel goes, I am on chapter fifteen of edits. The longest journey begins with just one step, right?
Peace,
Michelle
What’s Playing on the iPod right now: “Smile” – Kirk Franklin
What I am reading now: “Mogul” – Terrance Dean