After weeks of driving myself crazy, trying
to figure out what I want to do, now that my finances are stronger, I think I
might have an idea. When I started writing, I was writing articles about fish
and holding down a ‘normal’ job at the same time.
Back then, writing didn’t feel like work because
a – I enjoyed it, and b– it wasn’t my only source of income. In recent years,
writing has become my main occupation and gradually the pleasure it gave me
started to get worn away. I concentrated on writing stories for the best paying
markets simply because the rewards were highest.
I need to get back to writing for pleasure.
Today I realised that writing The Writer’s Treasury of Ideas didn’t feel like
work because I enjoyed doing it so much so now I have a better idea of what I
want to do – write the next book and start to think about going back to
fiction, but this time writing stories that please me, not necessarily those
that bring in the most money.
I haven’t done much writing today as I had
to pack a few things that I’d sold on eBay, then go to the shops, followed by
crossword class (great because our leader had been allowed out of hospital for the
afternoon) then I spent an hour and a half mowing the lawn. Why so long? Several
reasons. I have a lot of grass. It was still quite damp so the cut grass (and
moss!) kept clogging up the blades. I
had to take a short break or I would have keeled over.
It’s fast approaching eight o’clock so I think I might spend half an hour working on the book while I’m
in the mood.
Do you find the stories that please you tend to be better than the ones you wrote because you felt it was a good idea? Or doesn't it make much difference? I feel like if I want to be a short story writer I should aim for women's mags, but I found trying to submit for the sake of it a bit soul destroying so I stopped. But a few months ago I wrote a story I wanted to write and then realised that it was probably the right genre and have submitted it. Still waiting to hear though...
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