States of being

Yesterday a friend asked me about sports. Specifically my opinion about whether or not a certain player, that I had never heard of, should have made the all-star team. After his dismay, he further investigated to what extent I just haven't been paying attention, for years apparently. Later last evening, a different friend called me to tell me one of his projects was starting to get some air under its wings. He blessed me with the opportunity to get my name out there through an outlet of his creation, and asked me how my own projects were going. I told him the next book was due out in April. He asked me if I was working on the next one. I told him that I was working on a different series currently, but that the next five books of the series in question were already drafted. Again, there was silence on the line, though dismay is maybe an improper description.

So I guess I've given up things for all this focus. I haven't quite started stashing notes in my desk at work, pieces of plot and such, but I do tend to only catch the first half of things, or not at all. I prioritize in strange ways. So perhaps there will be commensurate payoffs as well.

I actually hung out with a writer friend recently that was pretty great. I'm not sure if it was the personal interaction or just the talking about stories but I left there, as always, thinking I should be doing that more. As luck would have it, he heard about a writer's group just the other day and told me that details would be forthcoming. And that his own projects are swimming along well. He's shifted from writing on his off days, pressuring himself into production, to getting up and writing some, even a little, every day. That's something I'm just not comfortable with, given my schedule. He's also a different kind of writer, than am I. He explores, fluidly ebbing and flowing with the story as he writes it. If he feels the need for a bird, he dots one in, like a painter, and later if it turns out he was wrong he easily removes it. By comparison mine could be described as more immutable. Pre-conceived, but difficult to change once chiseled into place.

I took a break from writing last weekend, the first in a while, but I feel good about getting back on the horse as it were. I don't think there's any more editing to do... I think... so I should be fairly distraction free. I had a sad moment when I remembered the short story I never wrote a few months back. I'm not even sure where the notes are. Nor am I sure where the time is for me to crank out a draft.

But then, it was with the first friend that I discussed the difference between hoping things would happen and making them happen. Finding the time versus making the time. So, I guess, I will be making the time soon. Perhaps it will be written just in time to share with a shiny new writer's group.