Joyously Prolific

I spend a lot of time talking about my goals, my obsession with writing, and the fact that I write every single day -- not because I have to, but because I love to. Oh sure, there are days when I might barely get 500 words because I've hit a difficult phase or I'm tired or ill...but I'll tell you a secret: If it weren't hard now and then, it wouldn't be nearly as much fun.

Anything worth doing isn't always going to be fun any more than it will always be difficult. If it never changes it's just something you do by rote, and that can't be creative. Yin and Yang is a symbol that appeals to so many Western minds as well as Eastern because there is such a universal truth expressed in it that we can all accept the fundamental to life just looking at it. Nothing is ever all of one thing or the other.

Personally, of course, I prefer the days when the writing sails. The week of March Madness was great and just what I needed. Now I'm working hard getting caught up on the other things like classes, articles, etc. and my fiction writing has taken a nose dive. Well, except that I have edited some fifty pages of Muse, so it's not all been a loss, either. Not that doing the class and articles is really awful, but I do get that 'fiction' urge when I spend too much time doing nonfiction.

But this is bringing me to the point of this little essay -- really.

The two year novel course is as much about two things. The first is looking at new possibilities and experimenting with different things you might not have done before. Not all of them work for everyone, but you never know when something is going to touch off that spark of imagination that gives your story a little added twist.

The second important part of this two year course is dedication to do the work. So far that work has been just the assignments, and I've kept those relatively light. But soon we're going to start writing the novels themselves, and I am trying to think of ways to keep those who have gotten this far motivated to keep writing to The End.

I don't have much of a problem there on my own. Reaching The End is the reward I'm looking for when I start a story. I want to get there, and pretty much nothing is going to stop me. I think I've proven that much.

But now, as the work on the class material draws closer to that part -- the part where people are going to have to really commit to doing the work and to find the determination to keep going... I'm just going to have to look harder at ways to make sure it stays fun for most of the time.

5:20 in the morning might not be the best time to try and work out little questions like this.

I think I'll... you know... go write something.