“I am a drinker with writing problems.”
-Brendan Behan
That made me laugh out loud. It showed up in the random quotes about writing that WordPress loves to shove at me…but this time, it stuck. Not so much the drinker part, but the part about writing being the stronger addiction. I’ve been “a writer” for about ten years now. In my own mind writing poems wasn’t true writing…writing is books, and books are stories. So I’ve got 4(?) books barely written, less than short story length still, and as much as I love them, I’m not sure I’ll finish them. It’s not that I don’t want to…see the addiction comment above…it’s just that I don’t know -how- to write. So far I’ve cobbled together scraps and bits of dialogue that slip into my head, chapters of rambling ridiculousness, and bits and pieces that’d make a better comic than book. If I could draw at all. *laughs*
And now, putting my poems out there, and receiving the advice and commentary on them, I have a reason to neglect my poor books even more. I mean, I don’t have -time- to write. I have all this blogging to do. Right?
Wrong. I know what I need to do, it’s just pulling together the discipline it takes to do it. I have 4 areas of “work” right now, and at least 12 hours a day to do them in. First and foremost is the poems that keep sleeting through my brain, and getting the old ones collected and put out. Second is learning to write lyrics, a possibly lucrative-ish outlet for my poetic talents. Third is my writing, and/or learning -how- to write and then applying those lessons. Fourth is crafting/jewelry making/clay work etc. For the last few weeks, it’s been nothing but poems and occasionally a bit of prose, and answering, reading, following and liking…which is threatening to become more addictive than anything else I do. ;)
So my goal for this coming week is to sort out 8 hours every other day for writing…poems, blogs, books, whatever…and concentrate on my learning exercises and craft making the other days. Hardest part for me is remembering to -only- do 8 hours. I know I can do it, I just have to start. And now that I’ve put this out here for everyone to see…hopefully it’ll help me keep to it! ;)
