Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Catching Up, Starting new

It's been a while since I've written. You'd think that I'd be able to catch up on writing and drawing displaced by candy canes and baked hams, but now we are full tilt into dreidels and latkes at my house. More excuses to put aside writing and drawing. At least the to do's that I'm currently working on are due in mid-January to give me some catch up time. Actually, I've been doing a lot of thinking about holidays and the true meaning of such. That is the Highlights for Children fiction contest this year and so I'm exploring some characters and situations as I drive to the children's museum or sled with my kids. I'm really enjoying the just being this holiday and trying not to stress.

On another note, the Books Etc. tote bags will be delivered this week and that will bring in some cash.

(The next list...)
New Year's resolutions:

1) clean and organize studio
2) try to do morning writing pages at least three times a week
3) send program brochures to schools and libraries
4) sign up for one course that will help me move me forward on one project this spring
5) keep on submitting and getting rejected. There's got to be a contract out there for me.

Do you have similar goals? What are yours?

Thursday, December 15, 2005

Work slow down

I am an idea person. I love the excitment of the new idea, the start, the exploration, the gathering of information. Then things slow down. It is not that I don't follow through. Not exactly. In fact, I am a great detail person too. I love planning events and seeing them through. However, my writing projects seem to get to a certain point and then languish. Perhaps it is because there are so many now that I do not know where to start. I hear my novelist friends talk about how they are loving being with one character or another. I have so many projects going that I have not had time to become cozy with just one. Maybe it is because I have shorter writing pieces. Also, I have two non-fiction projects that require quite a bit of research to get them to submission and to tell the truth, I'm a little frustrated with doing so much work on speculation.

I'm sure that if I could get something accepted in the next few weeks it would give me the boost I need to get going again. Ofcourse there are deadlines I have given myself. Contest and grant deadlines too. These help. I also set the deadlines after the first week of January so that I can get by the holidays. They are certainly weighing heavily on me right now.

It also doesn't help that we had a snow day last Friday and they are predicting another for tomorrow. Add two days onto the end of the year, sheesh. My feeling is , make the busses tougher and get those kids to school. If school closes tomorrow, I also miss my second Friday aerobics class in a row, and I need the money for gifts and bills. Rain, freezing rain, go away.