In The Heart of Forgetting
This Week Is Smack In The Middle…
…of the Time of Great Forgetting. Actually, might be a little closer to the end, but it clearly is the worst week.
I can see it in the number of assignments turned in, in the number of comments about posts, both in letters and online, and in the lack of chatter about writing on different lists.
For those of you who have not heard me talk about this fascinating time for writers, it is when all thoughts of the New Year’s Resolutions have vanished and when writing seems to be something you will do tomorrow.
It starts early May and runs through late July and into early August before writers sort of get bored, look around, and realize they haven’t been writing. Then the worst part is how hard it is to restart. I have done all sorts of blogs over the years about restarting, but it usually takes until September for writers to even think about getting going again, if they do at all.
And then the end of the year rolls around with the writer disappointed and wondering what happened to all the goals going into the year.
And the cycle restarts.
I have no point to this blog other than to point out the timing. And to hope you all have been writing and keeping some focus on writing in one way or another through this Time of Great Forgetting.
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Monthly Regular Workshops…
You can find them under Online Workshops to the right of this post. Sign up for July on Teachable.com. For credits or workshops beyond July, write me and pay through Paypal.
Each regular workshop is 6 weeks long.
Again, it will take you about three hours per week on your own pace to do each of these if you do the assignments. These are the starting dates of upcoming regular workshops.
All have openings at the moment.
Class #1… July 10th … Depth #3: Research
Class #2… July 10th … Author Voice
Class #3… July 10th … Dialog
Class #4… July 10th … Writing into the Dark
Class #5… July 10th … Writing Fiction Sales Copy
Class #6… July 10th … Writing and Selling Short Stories
Class #7… July 11th … Depth in Writing
Class #8… July 11th … Business
Class #9… July 11th … Writing Fantasy
Class #10… July 11th … Information Flow
Class #11… July 11th … Magic Bakery
Class #12… July 11th … Advanced Depth
16 Comments
Topaz
Somehow I missed all those posts about this topic.Luckily I am still writing. 🙂
Looking forward to the webinar tonight about the game. My last 4 years were stunningly interesting.
Kessie
Maybe you need to post something really inflammatory to get people commenting again. 😉
J.R. Pearse Nelson
Still writing here! Making great progress on my plans for the year & just reset with new goals for the second half of the year. Now to get to my keyboard before my kids get up!
Phillip McCollum
No luxury of forgetting here. I have five stories to crank out in four weeks. 🙂 So far, so good.
Linda Maye Adams
No forgetting here. I’m actually a little overwhelmed at the moment. Day job is horrendous and toxic and I’m trying very hard to get that cut off from the writing side. Meanwhile, I’m promoting the heck out of the military SF bundle I got into, which is a huge learning curve for me. And I’m also learning in some areas that aren’t craft.
A big one is that I really have to focus on not beating myself up over word count. When I wrote my first novel, I struggled to reach the required word count for publishers. I couldn’t figure out how someone actually wrote a 90K novel, or wound up with a 250K one. I was barely hitting 40K. I know word count isn’t the same in indie, but there’s a little voice that pops in and tells me “This is only 30K. It should be more.” So I’m going to have to focus on shutting out that critical voice entirely so I can produce more novel-length fiction.
E. R. Paskey
Ha, I have the opposite problem. I haven’t been able to write a novel under 100K yet. I’m going to try to talk my creative voice into it–it would be nice to have a few books that aren’t behemoths and don’t take me so long to write.
D J Mills
I am in the middle of Tax Time (end of our financial year) calculations, and Wimbledon starting tonight (AEST).
i am also shaking my head at all the writers who don’t put their eBooks in Smashwords so miss out on over 1 million readers seeing their books during the July Summer/Winter sales. Even if I only get 10 – 20 sales this July, it is better than listening to crickets chirp on Amazon during July. 🙂
NPhoenix
I’ve been thinking about writing XD. I know that doesn’t count but this post is a good reminder that 1)I’m not the only one and 2) I need to work more on consistency. Managing 8 kids (4 are teenagers gah) during the summer and preparing to move across town (all while hubs is in the oil field) seems to have swallowed up all my thoughts on writing. Thank you for the reminder 😛
Frank V.
I even remember that back in 2017 you were going to update your Making a Living from Short Fiction post. 😉
dwsmith
It didn’t need updating. You can still make a living with short fiction. Nothing has changed on that.
Frank V.
Short Fiction Living Post Coming
September 8, 2017 Written by dwsmith
I Have Promised…
Since I’ve been working on some short stories for Smith’s Monthly, I was reminded about my old making-a-living posts. Over the years I have done periodic posts about how it is possible in this new world to make a living at writing short fiction only. That belief hasn’t changed.
Math hasn’t changed much either.
So I’ll update that next week for 2017. Stay tuned. It seems to always be a popular post in different ways. (grin)
dwsmith
I suppose I could bring it forward one night just for fun. Double check it to make sure the math is right.
Frank V.
Maybe I missed it?
paladin3001
Things have been a little busy with me this past month or so. Moved to a new home in my old home town. Settling in, getting into the new rhythm with live and loves. Looking for work, starting work. And that’s just the small things that I have been doing. For some reason my muse is not working well with me when I do have time to get the butt in chair. Writing has become a bit of a struggle lately no matter what I am trying. Hopefully things will get better soon.
Barb
I am happy to report that I’m well within my writing goals! 🙂 This year I want to write 500K and at the end of June I was already at 270K! Very happy to reach half-pulp-speed for the first time (been trying since 2015 (450K) 2016 (400K) 2017 (350K)… this year I want to write those 500K!)! 🙂
Maree
It’s not so much that I’m forgetting, it’s just that I have less time available, and the time I do have is fractured with interruptions from kids off school for the summer, family activities, vacations etc.
So it’s not that I’m not writing (I’m doing a short fiction challenge this month to make sure of it actually!) it’s just that if I don’t have time for both writing and writing community participation. And given the choice I’ll let keeping updated on blogs and message boards slide.
Hopefully other people who have disappeared have made the same choice