Astronomers are much like tabloids

They both photograph stars and analyse the image, attempting to discern such information as life history, companions, or time and manner of demise and contribution to future generations.

A week of writing

Originally published at a denizen's entertainment. You can comment here or there.

A very short week, true. Only two days in the last week was I writing, but those were two significant days. The first days on which I had produced any fiction since June. The first two consecutive days since April. The first work on that particular story since January.

It has been nearly a year, perhaps longer since I wrote in a way which could be credibly called 'serious'. All the entries for Seeing the Lights appeared in 2008, true, but most of those had been written in November and December 2007. Since then (even if 'then' is unclear - January? December? November? some other when?) I have been in a long stall.

Extended periods of not writing are common to me, enough that I am tempted to think of them as cyclic. Normally, however, I am at least thinking of stories during these periods. Wanting to tell them. This time I was not even doing that much. Lacking interest in my stories, nor but intermittently drive to write at all, I began to wonder if that were entirely lost to me. Some may recall occasional posts from this period, lamenting the lack of writing being done. Without much drive at the time to be writing, what I was mourning was mostly the desire itself. Writing has been a tremendous part of my identity and purpose in life, and to have lost that left me considering several drastic measures.

So it is joyous to have at last writing to report. Only two days, true, but two days of exceeding goals, and not draining reserves, and with confidence this can be continued and built upon into the future. Triumph, wonder, excitement... let's not get carried away just yet. But it could be!

This past week saw 569 words produced for the final part of Epic Fantasy. I tend to write very slowly, so for me this is a definite accomplishment. My targets for those two days were a total of 200, or hopefully 400 words, because the main goal is to be writing on a daily basis, not to write a large amount all at once and be burned out for the next two weeks. I couldn't manage that anyway; these were not a case of meeting the target and signing off for the day, they were the most I could manage at the time. Hopefully if I keep this up the amount I can write in a day will increase.

I think it is helping that I am focusing on a single project at a time instead of flitting between many. I think so. That was the plan for writing this year before writing fell apart. It remains my overall goal: to focus on completing writing projects rather than dashing from one shiny idea to the next and not actually making more than a bare beginning of any.

Just to prove my seriousity, here's a progress count:

Epic Fantasy: 853 / 20,000 (3.0%)

The total is a wild guess currently. Could end up anywhere from 10,000 to 30,000 words, but unlikely to be outside that range.