Read Your Stuff

I have been having a miserable time getting enthusiastic about my writing. Knowing that good books will inspire me, I've been devouring them, particularly middle grade novels. Right now I'm hooked on Patricia Reilly Giff (Hopefully I have her name right now. I think I switched it around in a previous post.) I also decided to stretch out of my genre of choice and try some William Bernhardt (LOVE to listen to him talk, and figured I'd probably enjoy his writing too. Still have to crack the cover though) and JA Jance (Same scenario as Bernhardt.) I have a lot of reading yet to do. I'm enjoying it fully. But what is it doing for my own writing. Not much. I'm content to read....

Until.

Last night I picked up my own stuff and started reading.

Now I know this is probably going to sound a little egotistical, but at the same time maybe it will help someone out there. I loved what I was reading. I fell into the stories all over again, and was just a bit perturbed with myself when they came to these dangling places where I ran out of juice and didn't push myself to continue. On one of the stories I've lost the storyline altogether, and I'm praying that the synopsis and mind dump that I do in the beginning on ideas and such is somewhere in the many files on my removable drive. If not, I'll have to sit down and do the work over again, because the beginning deserves an ending.

I read three of my stories last night. Well, the completed book I didn't read all the way through. I opened it to the middle and read some chapters that I have not edited to death. The one I'm working on for MomWriters Novel Challenge, I printed out the synopsis and first two chapters that I entered in the OWFI conference this year and that cleared up some issues that had begun to muddle in my head. And I read the opening to Cousins, and I'm ready to get busy on that one. Now I'm faced with the question of whether I discipline myself to edit and continue on the stuff that's closer to being finished, or do I take off like I want to with the creative side of Cousins. Or do I find a balance between all of it?

I can't help but hear Leonard Bishop's voice in my head about how this kind of a waste of time is avoided if you stick with one project, work on it daily, and make yourself finish it. (from his book Dare to Be a Great Writer. I love him and hate him all at the same time. He sounds a bit like my critic, who is often right--just at the wrong time.) I've always been a little proud about my multi-tasking, but maybe I'm just being stubborn. Maybe I need to just hyperfocus on one project and stay connected with it so that I can finish it and get it out on its journey to find a home. Then I wouldn't be re-weaving the story threads that have frayed in my mind. Hmmm.

Widow's Peak is the closest to being finished. Then Out of the Ordinary. Cousins might be a good one for NaNoWriMo in November, since I really only have a start and I don't even have the major plot points down like I like to have them before I get going on the draft. Hmmm.

At any rate, the point is--Ah ha! A point, she says!!!--I'm fired up. I'm ready to write. Finally.

So if all else has failed--read your work. Fall in love with your story and your characters all over again. And GET BUSY!