power whinger

i tried to sit down and write the other day, but all i got done was a lot of whinging and some blog entries. here's the thing: i got started on a concept for a second novel when i was in the middle of final edits for the bollywood beauty. i sketched some characters, mapped a broad situation, and decide that this would be the next story i would tell. the whole time i was supposed to be finishing edits on tbb, i'd be thinking about this new story. later, when i finished the edits and handed in the book, i started writing down ideas for the second story when my mind should have turned to finishing assessment tasks for uni. but no - the whole time i was supposed to be doing something else, i blazed ahead with these new characters and situations, so eager to write all this stuff down when there was obviously so many other things around that plainly needed to be done.

now, flash forward to the present time; shalini is free of assessment task pressures and has no editing deadlines for first novel. in a sane world, this should equate to her pouring all her time and energy into realising the many and varied characters and situations presented to her by this new project that has been on the boil for some time now. however, in the insane world she inhabits, the only things she has been able to do are drink too much tea, watch too much television, and make weird guttural grunts whilst staring at her laptop screen and further damaging her already appaling posture. yes, it's back - shalini's got the fear, people.

somehow the two-thousand word start i made on this story does nothing but irritate me now; read it and say to myself in my head, you have got to be kidding, surely?. i think of the two and a bit years the first novel took me to write and i'm exhausted already - how long will it take this time? why do the scenes in my head not pour straight out onto the keyboard? why is it so hard getting the bastards out of there and onto the screen, dammit? why can't it all be as free-flowing and effortless as having a good whinge on your blog is? why, dammit? why? whyyyyy??

ahem. because it isn't.
we apologise for the interruption in coherent thought.
now is the time we should think like a writer, and what exactly does that involve? you guessed it. it involves going to your bookshelf and grabbing one of the many books written by other writers about the process of writing. it's about picking that quote and really reading it. it's about sucking it up and getting to work. it's about getting over it.
so excuse me for a second as i go put the kettle on, then sit down and try and make a go of it again. afterall, i've got all the time in the world.