April's End

If you can believe it, it's almost the end of April. National Poetry Month has been fun, even though this year I didn't attempt to do as much with it as I normally do. Camp NaNo is almost over too. And no,  I'm not going to meet my goal (sneak peek of what I did write will be posted on Patreon May 4, if you're interested). Although it was only 25k, I kind of get that wanderlust feeling every April, like I'm supposed to be someplace else and there's some really arbitrary deadline no one told me about. So I scramble to work overtime on paying gigs instead of my creative work. It doesn't get to the point where I actually leave, but this time I'm doing a little more with actively getting plans in place, like getting someone to take my resume seriously even though I'm out of the local candidate range.

There's also the issue of that script I was writing for a fellowship program. It was so much better in my head than it is on paper. Applications are going to be accepted through the end of May, so I have a very short window to transform it into something I would want to put my name on. Of course being accepted into that program comes with its own issues, but I need to stop that type of thinking--that's what gets me to convince myself that earning an opportunity like this would bring more headaches than it's worth. I'm not going to dive head-first into personal affirmations, but I am going to check myself when necessary to keep this career moving forward, whatever shape that takes.

So do your worst, May. I'm still going to keep writing.
(No, May. Please--I didn't mean it. Be nice to me!)

The Rush

The cinematic quality of my brain can be hit and miss sometimes. When I came up with the idea for the script I'm writing as part of my application for a fellowship, it was definitely a hit. I saw all of the details, every piece of dialogue. I had been mulling this around in my brain for months because when I first heard about the fellowship, it was only two weeks before the last deadline, so I wasn't going to rush something that clearly needed more care than that. I thought I had it all and that it would be easy to just get it down on paper. Things are never that easy.

I'm falling into a couple of writing traps that all my work, no matter what genre or format, seems to suffer from in the draft stage. The first is the rush to get the words down. I'm so anxious to get it down that some serious details get skipped over. I try to follow the rule of drafting that says you just sit and write, you don't go back and change things until you get to the end.

That leads into the second major trap--underwriting. I know many writers have the problem of overwriting--they just can't seem to stop with every little detail or aren't able to find the right place to stop the story. I get to the end and find that I only have two-thirds of what I need for a standard novel/short story/script.

I guess I'm not trying to change these issues themselves, but to be okay with them and base any and all future revision sessions on the idea that it will always be this way. It's just the way I write, and it's not a bad way. It may get frustrating at times, but it's always produced something I could be proud of in the end, so I guess it's working.

Does your writing ever give you that sense of frustration?

March -- Yeah, It's Going to Happen.

I think this cartoon pretty much sums up what's going on in March. 

Every 1st of the

A post shared by Ruby (@rubyetc_) on Mar 1, 2018 at 3:42am PST

This month is all about writing and tons of reading, because as usual I can't say no to an ARC that sounds interesting. I won't hear back about anything I've submitted so far this year until April (which, if all goes wrong, will really be the cruelest month). April is always a huge month, with National Poetry Month celebrations and Camp NaNoWriMo. I'm spending my March writing time completing the first draft of a television script. I've got my sights on a screenwriting fellowship, and I think I have a story that will get their attention. It's for an existing show (as the application requires), so theoretically it should be a bit easier than coming up with a whole show of my own. Now I just have to figure out how to write it to mirror what it looks like in my head. Ahh, the life of a writer.

What are your writing plans for March?