[Writer Post] Getting Back in the Game

So I had a draft of a blog post ready for today, and now I get to change at least part of it. FenCon did what I wanted it to do recharged me. I hung out with brilliant and talented folks who helped rekindle my creative flow. It’s awesome! Oh, and if you have a FenCon Program book – keep hold of it. It’s not only a collectors’ item for being a limited print run with an amazing TOC, but I have story in…with the wrong title. There’s a “WHO” in my title in the program book that isn’t in my manuscript. If it’s ever reprinted, it will be with the original title – “The Astronaut Stole My Sharpie”.

Yesterday I was kicking my own behind to get back to working on the play I’m supposed to be writing – it’s a little fundraiser murder mystery for the youth of my church. It won’t be produced until like February, but I needed to get it done ASAP. I’m happy to say that at least the first draft is done. I’ll type it up tonight and send it off to he who needs to see it/approve it. But it’s silly and melodramatic and maybe obvious – but it’s got a beginning/middle/end. My deadline (self-imposed) was the end of the month – and with revisions, it’ll probably be done by then. But YAY ME getting back into the game.

I’ve been away from this groove for far too long – this is why I need deadlines. Seriously. Deadlines give me something to beat. If I don’t have those, I flounder. Accountability. I needs it. But now that FenCon is over and most of my shows/conventions are done for the year, I’m trying to focus and be productive while I have the chance.

There is one more thing I have on my calendar. Some of the writers my mother knows through the American Christian Fiction Writers have started their own writing group for independent authors. It’s a new group for traditionally published authors (some) who are also doing some publishing on their own. The woman who started it asked Mom to ask me to come, and then asked me to speak at the meeting on the 26th. Starting to put together some ideas for that, while fighting off the “I’m a big fat fraud” feeling. I do have some insights to offer, darn it.

But… I’m back, baby. The wonkies and the stresses of late August and September can fade away and let me get back to what I need to be doing – which is not getting distracted and finishing stuff, darn it. And working on stuff, and just being on task much more than I have been the last couple of months. Bring it on.

Tags: FenCon, murder mystery, program book, The Astronaut Stole My Sharpie, writer's group, Writing