Woe! It’s Wednesday

I’ve skipped a couple of rant weeks just because I didn’t have much to say and I was busy. You’d think with a non-retired husband and an empty nest, I’d have all kinds of time for writing and journaling and reading. Right?

Wrong.

 

I keep paring down my schedule and commitments but I can’t seem to find any more time in my week. The only thing left to cut out is critique groups.

I’m probably in too many. Two that meet weekly, although one tends to be more hit-or-miss. The other is the most helpful of all and it is the last one I’d quit. Another group meets only every three weeks so it doesn’t take a huge chunk of my time.

I’ve also taken a couple of classes recently, trying to expand my spheres of expertise. I enjoyed the script-writing workshop a great deal. The grant-writing is bogging down some, but I’m still getting good info. It’s just that I’m not sure how I’ll be able to implement it when the class is over.

Every year, my resolution is pretty much the same. To live more intentionally. To purposefully keep in touch with long distance friends and family. To visit more. To read more. To spend more time with the people I love and less with those I don’t.

I don’t care where all the flowers have gone. I want to know who took my day and how can I get it back?

I Don’t Know What I Don’t Know

A friend has a favorite saying: People don’t know what they don’t know.

Sometimes a piece of writing is declined with the comment, “Not quite ready for publication.” My first response is always, “Tell me what’s wrong and I’ll fix it.” But that supposes I have the skills and knowledge to fix it.

I’m starting to see that I don’t know what I don’t know when it comes to writing and crafting fiction. I know a whole lot more than I used to. And I’m learning more all the time. But it’s becoming comical because the more I learn, the more I see there is to learn and the more I feel I will never learn enough to be able to write publishable fiction.

Which is not true. I’ve published non-fiction and short fiction. I’ve won contests and awards. I can do it. It’s just hard darned work. And it takes time.

I’ve heard writing teachers say that writers have to write a million words before they write publishable words.

In Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, he states that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become world class at anything.

I’m about 750,000 words and 7,500 hours into this. I’m close. I just have to keep working and learning and writing.

If only I knew what I didn’t know, I’d know what to focus on.

Today I prayed for: Amber, Taryn, Evelyn, Katie, and Bud Paxson

Currently reading: Between books. Maybe The Historian or … 

 

Technorati Tags: Writing,fiction

It's Time

So. Here we are. It's 10:00 pm on New Year's Day. One of my goals for the year was to set up a new blog. One of my other goals is to post at least twice a week.

I call myself a writer but I'm often confronted with the reality that I really don't have much to say. Or at least that's what I tell myself. I have plenty of opinions but for some reason it's hard for me to share them.

In a group, I'm the one listening and nodding. I rarely speak up. Unless I feel strongly about something and I'm sure what I have to say hasn't already been said by the loud person in the center of the room. That's not an insult because frequently that loud person is my husband and I'm happy to have him speak.

That's why committing to blogging regularly scares me to pieces. What if it's true and I really don't have anything to say?

My blogging friends fall into two categories: the uber-bloggers who write every day, sometimes more. And the others like me who post when either a) something moves them or exciting happens or b) it's their prescheduled day to post.

I hope to fall into a third category: a regular poster who always has something to say.

Today we watched the 120th Tournament of Roses Parade on HGTV. We used to live in Pasadena, then in Sierra Madre and we still often travel down for the parade. Television doesn't do it justice. If you haven't seen it in person, that should be your goal for next year.