"I would hurl words into this darkness and wait for an echo, and if an echo sounded, no matter how faintly, I would send other words to tell, to march, to fight, to create a sense of hunger for life that gnaws in us all."
-Richard Wright, American Hunger, 1977

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Changing Rhythms

Well, I did okay on Story-A-Day for awhile - by the 12th I'd got six stories done and a couple more started - but then I burned out. That's still more short stories than I've written in the past decade, though. :) Despite feeling creatively exhausted by the end, I think it was worth it.

I had two realisations about my writing, though. The first was that I'm trying to balance three full-time things - work, writing and the farm - and I really only have time for two. This was depressing. Then I realised that wasn't exactly correct. The farm work is seasonal (and right now is the busiest time of year) and so my writing needs to be, too. In April and May, and then again in October and November, I need to focus on the homestead and let my writing kind of take a back seat. The rest of the year the property and stock only need basic maintenance and I can spend more time on my writing. I think I can be happy with that kind of seasonal flux.

I'm going to Baycon this weekend with M--------. I'm really looking forward to the mini-vacation, and to some of the fascinating panels they have, many of which are specifically about creating fantasy and science fiction.

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