What’s Next ?
I’M GETTING TO BE A REALLY ANNOYING PERSON when I have to deal with myself. Nag. Nag. Nag. I just don’t give myself a moment’s peace. Would it hurt if I cut myself some slack?
Yes.
What is behind all of this? Lemme tell ya.
As it may be somewhat obvious – I have to do a fair amount of writing to keep this blog afloat. Some basic third-grade arithmetic comes out to almost 125,000 words per year. That equals two modern short novels or one weeks shopping list at the grocery store.
I started doing this blog as a device to get myself disciplined into writing every day. It worked. But it has had an unintended side effect – it has pushed the rest of my writing projects to the back burners, and sometimes right off of the stove top onto the floor. A few of my manuscripts are drawing ants.
Now, don’t get all worked up and into a dither. I’m not going to deep six the blog. It’s too much fun for me to do that. No, I’m just going to pull an “Animal Farm” Adjustment on this problem. 
I am going to adopt the stance of “Boxer” the horse in George Orwell’s novel, “Animal Farm.”
“I will work harder.”
I do not want to make it sound like it takes 18 hours a day to do this blog. I can usually crank it out in about 2 hours. One hour to write it and another to get it up and in the queue for posting. If I was a better typist I could get it done in 20 minutes all together, but I’m hitting those keys at a blazing 7 to 8 words per minute. I’d go faster if I was a better speller.
So, here I sit scribbling away on the 22nd of January so this can show up on your computer or phone on the 31st.
I have made a bargain with myself. If I can get and keep this blog up and running with a two 
week lead time, instead of scrambling day to day, I will take at least one day a week to focus entirely on one of my six or seven half-written novels and short stories that need and deserve finishing.
That novel that I listed on Amazon, B&N, and a few other places, is about five years old. I have had a number of people agitating me about when the sequel will be out. My usual answer has been, “Darned if I know.” Well, I’ve gotten tired of saying that.
The first novel was about 80,000 words. The current publishing standards have changed and 60,000 – 75,000 words are what sought after these days. I guess they think that people have a shorter attention span than they used to. James Michener would have a hard time getting published these days. His novel “Hawaii” came in at close to a thousand pages. I’ll try to keep my opus at about a third of that.
Starting tomorrow I will morph into “Boxer” the horse as I try to work harder so that I can dust off my half novel and take my characters on another wild ride. I’m looking forward to it because I want to find out myself what happens next to Laura and Davis.
Down the Hall on Your Left 
Yes, John…..go ahead and return to writing that Novel. Set an example for a few of the rest of us. We need an old fashion example set, every so many years. 🙂
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“A good Writer stays at his typewriter a minimum of 10 hours per day, pounding away until an article is completed. A very, very, very, good Writer stays at his typewriter only a few hours at a time, then rests. A good rest generates many un-thought-of material that a good Writer misses.” ~ William Randolph Hearst
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good luck there kiddo- let’s see how long was Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables…..- you’ll be fine!
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