End of a Hiatus

It's easy to get pulled in too many directions. Today I found myself saying yes when I should have been asking more questions. I find myself reminded of all those magazine articles with a topic about how to say no. Say no politely, say no assertively, say no even when you think you can do it all.

I can't do it all. Most days I don't want to.

I started to make a list of the things I accomplish on a daily basis. I get tired of it near the afternoon and skip it, but if I don't keep up the list I can't remember what I've finished.

Lists don't just include those little things (like taking vitamins) that slip through the cracks without a reminder. Today I looked up all the work in progress ideas I have in various stages. I have six published short stories that I call done. I have one novel completed that needs a rewrite and I haven't decided to push myself through mentally. I have another novel with a reworkable premise. There are also fifty short stories that I haven't finished or haven't edited or haven't yet published.

Fifty?

I can't believe I've allowed so much time to pass me by without doing something with those ideas. This week I had two more (ideas, not half-written slush pile stuff). Last night I outlined them to give myself direction to tackle them.

I'm at a loss over the fifty mark. Most of them are short- too short for me to think that I ought to put them for sale on their own. However, several of them are candidates to be lumped together into short story bundles.

If you need me, I'm looking into some market research. See you next week.

October: Day 5

Challenge to myself this month is to prep one short story every day. So we're five days into the month and I already have prep for six short stories.

I'm not sure what came over me the one day that I had two, but I know today might have been another of those days except I got way too far into the concept and started branching into little things that would be awesome details for it.

On the other hand, if I really try to write one short story a day, I'd need to have those parts handy to just write. This story is more of a parody, but the concept is interesting enough to warrant some fun.

My list of prompts has swollen to 97, and here and there I keep scribbling things into the idea pile instead of sorting them into the short story pile.

Somehow, I'm all on top of it despite my other pending projects. It's a little surprising. The boost in creative energy is awesome. It makes me wonder if what I really need to do is keep myself challenged with little things like this all the time, or if it's something special about having a bunch of other writers also highly motivated to meet a coming deadline that is improving my productivity.

Stay tuned - I'm going to keep posting my progress throughout the next month.