Finding time to write...

My grand plan recently has been to stop thinking (and consequently worrying) about what is happening in the publishing world because a) I can't control or change whatever is happening, b) its irrelevant if I'm not writing, and c) it is beginning to give me a headache, and I have decided to focus on my writing. A very sensible option when you call yourself a writer. Of course that whole 'man plans, God laughs' epithet then comes in to play. I keep thinking next week (pick a week, any week). Next week I will have all this free time and empty hours not earmarked for events, family commitments, housework, research for my research paper, filing company tax returns etc.. and I can just hunker down over my lovely little lap top and go hell for leather, head down, bum up, and finish this sequel I have been wanting to rewrite since Adam was a boy. God is indeed laughing at my expense - in fact laughing so hard there are tears in his/her eyes. Things just keep cropping up. Things I wasn't expecting. Good things that tie in to my writing. Things that teach me new skills and/or help promote my name/brand. Things I like to do or know I should do. And look, there they go, those lovely empty hours, winging away like dreams or birds.And I sit here contemplating the reality that 'life is what happens when you're making other plans.' Of course my urge to write is even greater having had an epiphany (yet again in my favourite thinking place under a stream of hot water in the shower) about my rewrite. Holey moley it will be good if only I could get it down on paper the way it looks and feels inside my head. So maybe this waiting has had a benefit in allowing me to have this revelation about improving the plot-line. Okay so maybe its better things go this way. Then again, will there be a point at which I should start saying 'no'? And how will I know when I've reached this point? Or will somebody just kindly supply some extra hours in the day and a wee energy boost to get me through them...

Jumping through hoops with a glass half full...

So while I'm feeling confused and blue about the hoops I'm having to jump through to move forward with my writing, I'm slowly coming to realise that if I let it get me down and suck the energy out of me, I won't be moving forward with anything. The bottom line is, no matter what else is happening, I should keep writing. After all, it is obeying those pesky and intrusive words that won't let me give this career away. I have thought about giving up before and aside from the fact that i'm not much good at anything else, the stories just REFUSE to go away. Sure, I can moan and groan but that will not make someone say yes instead of no, or pick up my book in a bookshop. In fact moaning and groaning will probably have the reverse effect. It probably isn't good for my karma either. I think karma works better with a cheerful outlook, a glass half full kind of mentality and I have been forgetting this too much recently. One thing I will do in addition to keeping on with the writing is not accept everything as its given to me. Sometimes questions need to be asked and even if things cannot be changed I want a better understanding of how they work and how I fit into it all.