A Writer's Notebook, Day Four-Hundred-And-Twelve

While I have been writing my poetry this year, I have not done as much writing in other forms.  That is, generally, fine, but I am feeling an urge to get another novel written.  It seems to me reasonable that I should attempt to get a novel written each year, though it may be only a draft version.  I do have an idea for a book, though it is a bit odd and unformed at present, and I am not ready to really commit to it yet.  At the same time, it is an idea that has come up several times and feels stuck in my mind in the right way. 

At the moment, though, I am still a bit torn, as I don't want to disrupt my other work.  I think I can probably keep myself going with what I am doing, even if I am working on a novel as well, but that is not based on anything but my own wishful thinking.  In the end, the only way to see would be to get to work on something and see what happens.  If I could think of a good idea for a short story, I would actually try my hand at that first, to try it without the larger commitment.

In any case, I do think it is a good thing that I feel the desire to do other kinds of work at the moment.  I mean this in several senses.  First, with recent events, I am glad to be in a creative place despite my feeling rather worn out emotionally, and taxed in other ways as well.  Second, I think it is also important in that I recognize fiction and poetry as very different things, each of which I am interested in, and I am just glad to find that, though I am still very into my poetry and the work I am doing, I am also still wanting to go further in terms of fiction as well.  It seems significant that I can want to do both at once, as I had some fear about that at one point, as though it might be too difficult switching mental modes.

Ultimately, I don't know what I will do.  I may wind up writing a novel, maybe the one I am thinking of, maybe a different one.  I might think of a story to begin with, or I may just jump in at some point, but it seems more significant to me to recognize this feeling of wanting to push on in my creative work.  That is itself important, whether I decide now is the right time for that part of my journey or I wait a bit first.

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