Journal, forgive me. It's been the better part of two months since my last confession. Now I confess that the writing schedule has been a little haphazard of late. Who's fault is that? Mine, I'd say.
But that's okay. It's not been all bad, since for one thing, there's been a hint of a social life. I'm not some mindless automaton enslaved by my keyboard. I'm often at the mercy of my stomach, I do work out once in a while (lifting weights supplemented by kungfu - and I really need to get back into kungfu). And I've been writing, gotten some writing done - and had confirmation of two new shorts "I'm Taking You With Me" through Burning Willow Press and "Can't Shrug It Off" through Emby Press accepted earlier this month, both of which (I believe) should be out by Halloween this year. The latter was a piece I submitted about a year ago.
Just as well. I've not had anything picked up since the offering for Papa Bear Press' "Creature Stew" volume back in January this year. I confess I do need to up the ante a little. My beta readers could probably use a breather of sorts as well. Generally when I write, I write fast, not just at 45wpm, but also in getting a full draft down. Time doing my first and only NaNoWriMo novel as well as time in Kelley Armstrong's OWG (Online Writing Group) taught me that - write fast and finish. Typos? Lack of continuity? Plotholes? Hell, you name it - it really wouldn't matter to me a whole lot until I got a complete draft down. A shitty draft maybe, but definitely a complete draft.
More often than not, I'd write to tight deadlines, maybe within about a week of the cut-off. No easy task when you actually have a life, and a pretty well-rounded one. To their credit, my betas (my MVCs and heavy hitters) have risen to the occasion and handed back some potent edits. But then it falls to me to utilise their input in good time and get the work submitted. So for me, the process has been a little draining.
There'll still be 24hrs in the day. What I will start doing more of is knocking out work further back from the submission deadlines, which should also allow for writing those stories I just have ideas for, rather than just the ones publishers are looking for. Some people who vaguely know me have queried why I'm still writing when I already have stuff published. Now either they don't know me well enough or they're speaking without thinking. Yes, I'm published, but that's not everything. For me, the endgame is being an author, and an author's job is to write. Period. Simple.
I've taken more of an active step in networking in order to meet likeminded people. Those who read. Those who write. Those who'd like to write. For those who'd appear to be on the same page, or at least share some common ground could be assets. I've knocked out some good work so far and gotten paid publishing for it, but I firmly believe in keeping my game tight as well as fluid. So I'm still gonna run with this author thing as far as I can and up the output. Pushing stories and characters to dark places, elevating my craft, reaching new readers - all of it's cool. So as I'm sat here listening to Redman's "Boodah Break", I'm thinking writing's like the NBA:
I love this game.