I'm not sure the best use of my time when it comes to writing. Lately, I feel all over the place. I should be working on a million things, but then there's something else instead. I've been at this long enough to spot procrastination. But this time I'm wondering if my efforts might be better spent some places more than others. Like with my novel, I'm not sure it's very good. I finished it. Sure, I can do another draft. Or I could foolishly start a new novel. I've got short stories and essays for days, at least ideas and notes. When is anything ever more than just ideas and notes? But I'm feeling the need to go through everything. Redo everything. Or just do new things. I want to be moving forward and not going in circles, but no matter what I do it can feel like going in circles. How do you really hone in on what's important, and how do you even know what's really important for that matter? Ever feel like you're losing focus and sight of what's important for you to be doing as a writer? How do you adjust or regain that sort of focus? I feel like a scattered disaster right now.
This. Absolutely. I only have the two stories I'm working on. TC (230k) is introspective, emotional, and sexual. TNT (70k) is a dramatic, destructive, techno-romp. Both have mystery elements, so each holds my interest, but getting in the groove with either is more difficult than I expected. I think I may be getting intimidated by my stories, which I could never have foreseen.
Hey! I have a professional interest in this kind of thing (I am a coach for career artists). We talk a lot about when something is FINISHED. This is where that usually goes: - Finished is a place on a curve, not at the end of a line. The curve has a peak, and you can try your best to hit the peak but sometimes you might be either side, and that has to be okay, because we will never see the curve. - It is impossible to reach perfection because everyone has different feelings about every single piece of work. Get the concept of perfect as far away from you as you can. Work needs to reach the audience (by being finished), not prove that you are infallible. - Use time as your guide. Work on something for a set number of hours/days/weeks and then accept that after that time, it's done (include proofreading in that time at your peril ). - Accept that you improve every time you start something. Therefore, the you that finishes is different to the you that started. You can't go back and redo it as the new you, because the work exists at the moment you started it. That means you will always feel that your work could be improved if you redid it, and that is usually a good sign that it is finished, because it signifies that you as the artist (writer) has moved on. As for what to focus on, I tell them not to work on more than three things at once, and only to keep working on something if it feels good. I'd make a list of projects with the one you like the most at the top and the rest in a kind of hierarchy. Work on the first three for an hour each. If they all feel good, work on them until they're finished (see above) and then move on to the next three. I hope this doesn't sound preachy. I don't mean it to at all, it's just that this kind of thing is my bread and butter.
