Naught Monday

I'm forcing myself to take 2 weeks off before tackling the tidying and brainstorming phases of the 2nd draft of this book (2nd draft almost feels like a misnomer--maybe a better phrase would be draft 1.1). The goal is to create some cool short stories. It feels like summer vacation.

Is there anything better than giving yourself the license to write whatever you want to write? For the last several months, every good idea has been noted down and put on the back burner to wait forlornly for that day when the novel would stop being the center of my universe. Now it's finally on the back burner, and let me tell you, the short stories are clamoring for attention.

Let me tell you, I love short stories. They're emotional. They're intense. They pin you inside their world and then spit you out raw and unready for your ordinary life. If I could get away with writing all short stories, all the time, I probably would.

Unfortunately, there's this part of my brain that loves novels, too, and keeps thinking about writing them. I'm sure I like this part of my brain. I don't think it understands that in a novel, there will be middles. And story arcs. And pages and pages of development. All of that takes freaking forever to write!

Yes, I love instant gratification. Glad I've got a healthy serving of it coming my way this week!