Daily Writing

For those who follow me on Facebook you've been privy to a barrage of recent posts that go like this: "Day 5 of writing complete," "Day 6 writing complete," "Still writing -- Day 7." It's a fascinating and revealing read into my daily life. I highly recommend it.  

Some of you have been kind enough to ask what it is I'm writing. The answer is everything. Literally. I have 5 or 6 novel ideas I've been half-heartedly toying with for years now, unable (or unwilling) to commit to just one. I've spent years feeling guilty over this. I'm a writer, right? So pick a book topic! Sit down! Write! 

And yet, nothing. 

Last September on our trip to Italy, I was talking to one of our guides about my seeming lack of ability to commit to writing a novel. "I'm afraid of picking the wrong novel to work on," I said. "The idea of putting all that time and effort into writing a book and then realizing late in the process that either the book won't work or isn't marketable..."

"Why choose?" he asked me.

His thought--which is brilliant-- was for me to write ALL the books. Work on whichever book I felt like tackling on a particular day. At some point, natural selection would take hold and I'd realize I had a stronger interest or  pull toward one project over another. But until then, everything was fair game.

So that's what I've been doing. Each day, sometimes for as little as 5 or 10 minutes but more often for 30 minutes or more, I've been randomly opening a novel file and hammering out a few paragraphs or plot points. I love it. All pressure to write THE NOVEL is removed because I still don't know which story I'll go with long-term. I look forward to my writing time because I'm just playing. And the thing is, what I'm writing is good. I'm seeing lots of gems when I go back and re-read it. 

At some point I'll organize all my random writings and pick a book (or two) to focus on but for now, I'm just happy to be writing. Daily. 

Cheers,

Dena