Writing about writing is exhausting. I kid you not. Every night as I think up a new blog post, I find myself stressing about my sentence structure, my grammar, my style of prose. Because as a writer writing about writing, I really can’t make mistakes, can I? This blog reflects on me, and the last thing I want anyone to think is that I’m a bad writer.
At the moment I belong to two writing groups – well, critique groups, really, since that’s the purpose of why the groups exist – and between them and this blog, I’m finding I have less and less energy for my Current Major Project. Otherwise known as my novel, which is what I consider to be my “real” writing.
Because no, I don’t consider this blog real writing. I know some bloggers do, and of course I totally respect that, but for me, this blog is my rant space, a safe haven to talk about my obsession with writing and books. And it’s a welcome change from writing fiction. But I’m noticing that it’s beginning to take up more energy than I want it to, and it hit me the other day that if I’m not actually writing fiction – every day – then I’ll have absolutely nothing to blog about.
I don’t want to be Jenny the Blogger. I want to be Jenny the Novelist.
So that’s all I wanted to say today. Book first, blog second, and so if you’re wondering where I am on weekends (when I don’t blog) and the odd weekday that I don’t post (which actually hasn’t happened yet), know that I’m working. And possibly hermitting (which is a word my writing buddy Greg and I made up today). Because someday, I’d really like to see my name in print. Even if the advance is only $5,000.
Which would translate to about $2.75 an hour if I keep putting in the hours I do and finish this book by August, which would be the one-year mark.
Good GOD, that’s depressing. I made more than that babysitting… when I was twelve.
And by the way, it’s time to start heading towards some kind of ending for the short story we’re writing. Click here to write your segment! You know want to. Deadline is Thursday at 9pm EST.