I am a promise breaker. I announced that I'd write three pages of gibberish each day for the past week. News flash: Didn't happen. Various (some contrived) reasons kept me from fulfilling my goal.
It's the "writing thang." Better put, it's me having great intentions, and then letting everything within mental peripheral range wipe out said "great intentions." Sometimes I think my writing muse has ADHD. When the writing urge strikes, there's always internal and external happenings grabbing my weak attention, or trumping any writing resolve I possessed.
For instance, late last week I had a phone conversation with a multi-epublished writer (soon to be in print, or maybe is already...). We spoke of the trials and tribulations involved in publishing, the importance of gaining a fan base, agents vs. editors, etc. After I got off the phone with her I sat back and felt the "publishing thang" slowly taking over my muse's drive. (I often wonder if possessing publishing knowledge is the poison or the cure - it's hard for me to assimilate.)
And then yesterday I received this literary agency's newsletter. Part of it answered a worn out dilemma I've had for years by describing how to figure out what genre to market my work (although to this day I still feel the publisher does whatever they damn well want). It said, "Get your genre right. Imagine walking in to a bookstore. Where would one find your book? In the romance section? Then, label it 'romance.' In the literature section? Label it 'commercial fiction.' " For two seconds I felt giddy, as if I just stumbled over the Rosetta Stone.
Reality then reared its ugly head as I further read on. The newsletter asked, "What is the defining event that occurs in the first 30 pages of your story which propels the novel forward?" further stating, "Make sure you include your book's defining moment as part of your pitch in the query letter."
Damn, I'm lucky if I can figure out whether I'm a plotter, a panster, or a crazed maniac who should never hold a pen. My muse withered with wonder, its ADHD enhanced.
I haven't lost hope for my muse. Soon it'll be strong enough to ignore all outside stimuli. Soon. Really. Maybe not today, but whenever the time is right...it merely packed up and took hiatus without leaving a clue as to its return.
Thoughts? Does publication and all the do's and don'ts of it seem daunting? Does your muse have ADHD too?
