“Be patient, keep writing” and other things I tell myself.

Last night I finished chapter 20 of Peter of Windbourne, and am now approaching the part in the book in which a series of Very Bad Things happen. The draft is sitting at 101,122 words at this moment, with hopefully no more than five or six chapters remaining (generally my chapters hover between 4-5K). It’s a blind rewrite, as I’ve mentioned, so I’m giving myself some extra wiggle room. I know it’ll be edited down a bit next. I’ve got until November to get it done, because I’ve promised to do NaNoWriMo again this year.

This chapter has been particularly difficult, mostly due to the influx of freelance work that’s come in. When I was in business writing full-time, progress was slow like sorghum, and I’m definitely feeling a bit of that strain. Coupled with the fact that this week has been one endless succession of death and ill-health, ugh. Yeah. Hard to concentrate.

Which is all not to mention other exterior forces that are involved in my writing that I can’t control. I feel a bit stagnant at the moment, as far as The Writing Career is concerned, but there’s really nothing to be done for it. So instead, I’ve crafted a new mantra for myself: “Be patient, keep writing.” I started drafting an email to an expert in the field, and then realized, if I had sent it out, that’s what she would have told me to do. So I saved the virtual ink.  I also keep telling myself: “You’re only 28. You have time. You’ll only get better as a writer in that time. Shut up, and work on other stuff.”

That’s the cool thing about writing and remaining unpublished, something I believe lots of fledglings like me take for granted. I’m at the point where I can write whatever the hell I want, as much as I want, and whenever I want. I don’t have deadlines, I don’t have people telling me what’s selling and what’s not. I’m completely free. If I want to write about a bunch of female steampunk knights chasing around arcane arachnids and lightning worms, I can. And I will.