Just a couple weeks ago I decided to publicly commit to doing NaNoWriMo this year. And I made that decision knowing I would be traveling the first few days of November and would probably have to play catch-up when I got home, but since my writing progress this year has been slim to none, I hoped it would be the boot to the keister I needed to get going.
Turns out that was a mistake. The boot came in the form of Bouchercon, which is where I was when NaNo started. It was inspiring to be back in that community again and one of the writing decisions I made while there is to focus primarily on short stories for the next year. My goal is to get published a few more times so that I'll have books to promote and be eligible to be on panels at the writing conferences I attend. That is something I can do to boost my career. Doing NaNoWriMo - while I think it's a good thing for people who want to take a shot at writing the first draft of a novel - isn't really going to affect my writing career.
In addition, the project I was going to work on for NaNo got put on the back burner when another idea I had jotted down a few notes for a while back suddenly decided to appear very well formed in my brain last night. I don't know why it suddenly came to life, but it did and I'm certainly not going to fight it. I'm about 99% sure I'm going to write it as a pilot script, which would be great for competitions in 2020. It's going to be secondary to short stories, but since it's fresh in my mind I want to get going on it. And since we're talking about 60 pages, like short stories, it's something I can keep a handle on, unlike my attempts at novels. So despite having had every intention of doing NaNo this year, the reality is that I think the shorts and pilot are professionally my best bets.
I'm trying not to feel like I'm flaking out on yet another commitment, but it's hard not to feel like I did just that. But I really feel like this plan is best for me right now.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have some writing to do.
No comments:
Post a Comment