I have been writing most of my life. Short stories, the occasional poem, stage plays, screenplays and now novels. My first short story was in second grade, and I’ve been driven to write ever since. Writing has always been my passion, my escape from real life.
I could never have imagined it would become a chore. But deadlines, edits, PR, marketing, social networks, worrying about reviews, and every other detail that comes along with being an author slowly began to creep up on me. It happened so slowly, I didn’t even realize that writing had stopped being “fun” and had started being a “job”. And yet it had.I know I’ve become a better author with each book I write, but somewhere along the way I lost a lot of the joy. I’d forgotten how fun it was to figure out where my story was going and what was going to happen next.
But this last week, I am happy to report, my muse slapped me upside the head. After suggesting to my critique group that we should consider writing an anthology together, the estimable Jane Charles took my idea and ran with it, creating a better idea than I could have ever come up with on my own.
So now there are 12 of us working on Christmas short stories that are all connected; and hearing about every one else’s stories and figuring how they relate to my short story has been the most fun ever. My muse is back in full force and I can’t wait to get back to working on my story.
How do you handle all the pressures that come along with writing? How do you keep it fun?
*Originally posted at LadyScribes July 29, 2011
