Writing Difficulties

I always forget how much I like to write. Granted, I have been writing blog posts at least 2-3 times a week for the last few months. But I'm talking about fiction writing. I had been working on a fictionalized memoir about Dexter (if you don't know about Dexter, read here) around the time I got serious about this blog. Eventually, that project got shoved to the side, as so many other writing projects I had started before it had been shoved aside. I pulled it back up again today, read what I had already written, and said to myself, Wow, this is really good, I need to keep going with this.

So I started it again and added 6 pages to the 10 I had previously written. It was enjoyable - except killing off a child. That sucked. That's partly why I stopped writing a couple of months ago, it was too difficult to kill the kid. It needed to happen, though, to further my plot, so I sucked it up and got through it. In the meantime, I had to take a lot of breaks to shore up my fortitude and I got some house cleaning done while I procrastinated.

Killing a human on paper is hard enough. I can't even fathom how people can kill each other in the real world.

Maybe I'm just too compassionate. I hate to see people suffer - even if they are fictional people of my own creation, apparently.

One of these days, I do intend to actually finish a writing project. I currently have 3 books started; I would like to finish at least one. I think this one about Dexter is my favorite of the 3, so hopefully I can suck it up and keep going. I don't think I need to kill anybody else (except Dexter himself, which will be dreadful), so hopefully the rest of the novel will go a little smoother.

I've thought about putting excerpts of my writing here on my blog, but as my readership increases, I am a little more worried about plagiarism, so I think maybe I won't.

As brutal as writing can be, at least it is only mentally brutal and not physically demanding like my day job. I do eventually want to be able to make a living by writing, so I guess I'll have to get used to killing people - or just write things where nobody dies.

I had let myself get distracted from my true dream of becoming a writer, and I need to put that dream into focus again.

Focus. One small word that can have enormous implications.

I could probably write an entire blog post on Focus - if I haven't already. It's possible I have and just forgot. My memory isn't what it once was.

Speaking of focus, mine is being pulled by the season finale of America's Got Talent, so I think I'll end here. As always, thanks for reading!

OK, you win, here's a cute picture of Hailey to reward you for reading this whole thing.