This week I’m celebrating a return to writing. I’ve been thinking about various ideas for quite some time now. But the truth is I haven’t really tried to (and made progress on) any fiction in almost two years.
I’ve been stuck. The reasons are varied — busy with other things and not making the time, not being in the right mental/emotional headspace following many life changes (including a divorce, two position changes at work, moving, something something a global pandemic, etc, etc), and probably a lot of self-criticism that was unhelpful. I think for a long time I’ve prevented myself from writing what I feel like writing because some part of my brain felt I should be writing something else. And, as I’m sure anyone who has attempted a creative pursuit will affirm, creative brain will put up with executive brain bossing it around for only a short while.
So I’m putting aside the sequel to Red Soil Through Our Fingers, which I’ve tried to write three separate times in the past four years only to inevitably start spinning my wheels. I’m also putting aside grander visions of an epic space opera and a fantasy world based on South Asian traditional cosmologies, as well as a few near-future-impact-of-technology short pieces. These are interesting projects, and certainly I hope to complete them at some point — but they really do fall in the should be writing category. Sorry projects!
Instead, at least in the near-term, I’ll be writing straight up fantasy in a homebrew world that I like for no other reason than I think it’s cool. There’s no deep message I’m trying to convey, nor — at least so far — does it have anything to do with anything important. It’s just fun. More on that project later.
Meanwhile, for the consistency problem, I’ve set aside a couple mornings a week for writing and hope to be able to beyond this minimum. I’ve also reconnected with The Muse down in Norfolk, and will be taking a couple of short workshops in June to resharpen the ol’ toolbox and try to get back in the right mindset about the craft of it.
We’ll see what develops…
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