Every day I wake up feeling pressure to write. It's there before I even get out of bed, nipping at my heels like my cousin Helen's hateful Chihuahua. What to write is not the problem. I'm one of these types who has no problem generating writing topics. It's the finishing that's the issue for me. I have half a dozen manuscripts in various stages of completion. Some are products of NaNoWriMo. I can get going, but my adult ADD soon kicks in and I become bored with the project. I get a wandering eye. Anything and everything appears like a better idea for a new project than the one I am current working on.
Last year I put the hammer down and refused myself the luxury of any new book projects until these unfinished orphans are complete and e-published. I chose one and have been working on it again. It's not the best one. It's not my favorite. It's not the one with the most potential for success. But since it is the one closest to completion, logic dictates I finish it so I can move on to something else. Honestly, my heart is only halfway in it, like a philandering spouse. Sure, I come back to it, but I also lust after everything new and different and exciting that passes by.
I am making some progress, but my re-commitment is somewhat suspect. I have this blog plus a Facebook Page plus Instagram plus my guilty pleasure and apple of my SM eye, Twitter. I tell myself I am 'building my brand', but let's face it - what good does it do to build a brand when I don't have any product to sell? The social networking and tweeting and branding are all just delicious diversions from the actual business at hand: finishing the dang books.
So for me, it's not about the work. It's about choices. I need to take a lesson from the girl in this old Moonraker clip. Why on earth does she tried to evade vicious, slavering four-footed killing machines in her clunky heels, rather than just hopping in the golf cart and high-tailing it outta there? I need to choose the golf cart here! Sometime soon, maybe I will be blogging about the blessed relief from pressure when my book is complete and out there on the virtual bookshelf at .99 per. Here's hoping the golf cart stays charged.
Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this post, I hope you'll take a minute and subscribe to my email list.
Finishing an entire project can feel soooo good. Even if, later, you don't think it's all that and a bag of chips, it's empowering to know that you CAN finish a novel or novella, without haring off after the new shiny. (Also a problem of mine.)
Keep going, keep going!
It helps that the new shiny is the third book in the trilogy - my carrot and stick 😉
Good luck with finishing your draft - the excitement at the end will be worth it!
Agree - working on it as we speak/type!