All That Other Stuff
February 22
Hiya. I don't have anything special to say tonight, so I'm gonna just ramble. It'll probably be really tedious and dull, so skip it if you want. I won't be offended.
I worked on some poetry tonight, and it's all bad. There's barely even anything recognizable as poetry in the stuff I wrote. I had all this serious stuff I wanted to get at, and it came out in the most flat, trite words imaginable. I'd forgotten this sensation, this inability to push through with poetry. That's because I don't write it as much as I used to-- lately when I write poetry it's because I feel moved to. I haven't treated poetry like work in a long time, and I'm trying to change that, to make it part of my writing routine. But with poetry, far more so than with fiction, sometimes it just doesn't work-- it's not on. I can force myself to write serviceable prose even when the words aren't coming easily, but that doesn't work so well with poetry. I don't know if I managed anything salvageable tonight.
Hmm. I think about all the writing projects I want to work on, and it looks totally overwhelming. It's not-- I just need to take it a little at a time. But, for the purposes of further intimidating myself, here's the stuff I'd like to get done within the next several months, in no particular order (because if I put it in, say, priority order, it would be better organized and thus less intimidating, and we can't have that) from the momentous to the smallish:
Get all my not-quite-polished stories revised (there are *lots* of those) and in the mail.
Research markets for poetry, and send out my poems (this is not a small project. This will take many hours).
Write a new novel, probably the Mr. Li and Kelli book.
Synopsize The Genius of Deceit and get that book in the mail.
Finish preliminary research for White Buffalo Woman and the Angel of Decay. Outline the novel. Write the novel.
Revise Raveling.
Prepare poetry chapbook manuscripts Other Altars of the Heart and Talking About the Mystery. Research markets. Submit manuscripts.
Finish writing "Romanticore."
Write Bathtub story.
Write Roommate story (not inspired by actual roommates) (also not one of my Dare Opening stories, but a new and compelling idea).
Nudge potential collaborators. Actually do some collaborations.
Look into beginning to think about learning how to go about getting an agent.
Submit to some anthologies, because I never do that, and I should.
Collapse in a weeping pile of overwhelmedness...
I don't know, y'all. There's just so many things I want to do! I know if I take them one at a time it'll get done, it's just when I view them all at once that I get overwhelmed. I also have this nasty tendency of feeling like I'm not working if I'm not producing fresh wordage. There are other components to a writing career, though, and I should concentrate more on those. So once I finish "Romanticore" (and maybe my Roommate story, since I think it'll be short), I'm going to pay attention to these other things, and forget about word count.
I know I can write quickly. I've proven that often enough in the past. Let's see if I have the necessary chops to do all the other stuff.
Total Word Count: 38,606
Today's Word Count: 0 (on fiction-- bunches on poetry, though)
The Daring Darlings: