Thursday WIP and Other Thoughts

Today, work finally began in earnest on Project: Scenic Route, which, for those of you coming in late, will likely please those who enjoyed this, this, and this. The rest of you, not so much. It's a pleasure to be able to start it, though, as I've been looking forward to it for, well, close to a year now.

I also pitched another rather interesting project to BL that was accepted, so there's that to start on as well. In related news, as of this week I've managed to successfully submit to pretty much every short fiction market I wanted to for 2012. Now, granted, not all of those submissions will make it out of the slush-arena, but still...little goals get you through the day.

When you think about it, that's all the business of writing is, at times. Little goals. Daily word-counts, weekly page-counts, hurdles and humps, all adding up to something quite large, depending on what you're working on. It's a game on increments and it encourages you to hoard time (and inspiration) like a miser. This is the house Jack built, with bricks of paragraphs and punctuation. Minutes not spent on the act of building must be spent on the tangentially useful, lest they be wasted.

Yeah, I used 'lest'. That's how I roll.

Or maybe all of that's just me. I'm a workaholic. When I'm not working (whatever form that work might take, be it writing, editing, researching, promotion, networking, etc.) I invariably find myself at a bit of a loss. On bad days, even simple pleasures, like reading or playing a game, hold little amusement. I shut down without work, disengaging from-well-everything. Between projects, I lose track of time. My brain ticks like a cooling engine. 'My mind rebels at stagnation,' as the man said.

I've never really thought of myself as one who 'needs to write'. I don't. I just need work. But right now, writing IS work, so, thus, I need to write.

Anyway, tomorrow is another instalment of SHAKING THE SIX DEMON BAG, this time with Gerald Page.  But while you're waiting, why not check out last week's interview with Meddy Ligner? Or even download "The Matryoshka Affair", May's free story?