My hero hard at work.
Yes, that’s a purposefully poor joke on my part in the title, but you get the idea about the topic (hopefully).
Hello, my faithful friends and followers it has been much too long since we’ve met. I’m working full time again (as some already are aware of) and yes, I am still writing.
And yes, this writing gig while working 45+ hours a week, balancing a family of five, while maintaining an exercise regime is difficult. My mother used to say that there wasn’t enough hours in the day and as a child I often looked at her like she’d grown an arm from her forehead. What did I know? I was only a kid.
And I still am.
It’s been a hectic new start to a New Year. I’ve picked running and tennis (as much as it can be called tennis when playing with a 7 and 9 year old) again and I’ve very nearly quit smoking. I say very nearly because going from 35 cigarettes a day to 5 in a month is pretty good, but not quite there. I’ve got five left in my last pack and I’m endeavoring not to smoke those. It’s not enough to throw them in the bin. It’s about willpower and me choosing to exercise mine.
Okay, I’ve defended myself enough, onto the writing talk.
For the past year I’ve been grappling with completing the sequel to Dog World. Yes, there is a second book coming, and there will be a third, but all good things come in their own time. And that time is…soon.
My job and family eat, no, that’s not right. I’d say they devour my time, and like any writer, author, or whatever you call yourselves, you hammer away on your work in progress where you can. For me it’s my lunch hour, while my son is at Saturday drill, and on Sunday morning if, God forbid, I’m not pulling overtime. I don’t mind overtime, but we need to pay the foreseeable future’s rent and feed the immediate hunger sometime. LIke a famous man once said, “I’ve got this powerful need to eat sometime this month.” But I digress. I do write at those times. In fact, those times have reignited my passion for writing.
For the longest time I ambled along calling the Dog World sequel, Dog ‘Verse. ‘Verse was a play on Universe, but there was something wrong with it. The lycans aren’t going into space, are they? They might. That comes later. Maybe. No, Dog ‘Verse was wrong and that bothered me. I didn’t think I’d get it fixed, but then I let it go.
One night, not long after leaving it alone, while watching a My Name is Earl rerun I laughed and said something to the effect of “Looks like that’s gone to hell and the dogs”. Inspiration struck me and a new title floated to the surface; Dog World: Gone to Hell.
I liked it immediately and wouldn’t you know it, the word damn split open and the story returned to focus. I mean it’s not like I lost sight or even forgot mind you. No, the story just became a little blurry. But now all is well, DW: Gone to Hell is finished, and in a month I’ll be sending it off to my trusty proofreading buddy (you know who you are *cough cough Janet Sked cough cough*), and hopefully after that it will be in print soon after.
This writing thing is hard or even harder-er, but who would have thought that having something as time consuming as a full time job would lubricate the old mental cogs, forcing them into action.
You know what? I wonder how you other writers get the old mental juices flowing when things grind down or even develop into *gasp* writers block? Make a comment and let me know what you do or share a story that unplugged the floodgate on your WIP. Hey, I’m open to almost anything.
