I'm DOIN' it, baby
I don't know what exactly moved me from inaction. Maybe it was a couple of recent experiences which convinced me that some published authors actually suck at this whole writing and thinking thing and I could do better if I put my mind to it.* Maybe it was the galvanizing examples of my friends, one of whom is working on her second novel and another of whom landed a photography intership. Even as I feel happy for them and root them on I can't stop a voice in a corner of my mind: "What are you doing, dumbbells?"
Maybe the primary motivation is internal and the external examples, both negative and positive, only weigh on me because of my own doubts. I'm sick of dithering all over creation about my career and future. Lawyer, academic, or writer? Ha ha, I could never make it as a full-time writer that's why I went to law school in the first place Do I write my novel or my dissertation Do I even have a future as a scholar Shouldn't I have a full-time job like five years ago When will I make money When do I have teh babieeeez ad infinitum ad nauseum ENOUGH.
More thinking isn't going to get me to a decision. Non-action is a choice, but no longer one I'm going to make. I'm working on my novel, starting today. The research alone is going to be huge, to reconstruct the lives of the ancient northeast China-north Korean Peninsula region and the peoples who lived there. Since two-thirds of the planned series takes place in what is now China I'm going to have to improve on my Chinese and try for grants to visit the areas. I'm going to have to bug pretty much every expert in that time period, too, and read up on not only history but archaeology, linguistics, ancient metallurgy techniques, you name it. And that's only the first step in reimagining these people whose only traces remain in fragmented records and dig sites.
What am I getting myself into?
It's going to be a years-long project, so I'll be working on my dissertation as well assuming that goes anywhere. Meantime I'll write and try to sell short stories in this setting to flesh it out and maybe test the market waters. It'll be a good way to practice transmuting the raw material of history and speculation into the stuff of story.
It'll be a wild ride, but as the old proverb says, starting is half the battle. *looks down scary long road* Actually I think the proverbist was wrong. Whimper.
* Totally pointless note: On the Mary Catelli journal it may look like I left off the thread in disgust--or fled cowering before her mighty powers of rhetoric, whatever--but I actually don't have that much sense. After addressing me in the third person for reasons known only to herself, Ms. Catelli saw fit to change the comments setting on her blog to screen my last comment, and has neither unscreened my rebuttal nor replied to it. It's one way to end a time-waster for both of us, I suppose. Her space and her rules. But I do have to wonder at the insecurity of someone who has to go to that length to get the last word, lol.
Maybe the primary motivation is internal and the external examples, both negative and positive, only weigh on me because of my own doubts. I'm sick of dithering all over creation about my career and future. Lawyer, academic, or writer? Ha ha, I could never make it as a full-time writer that's why I went to law school in the first place Do I write my novel or my dissertation Do I even have a future as a scholar Shouldn't I have a full-time job like five years ago When will I make money When do I have teh babieeeez ad infinitum ad nauseum ENOUGH.
More thinking isn't going to get me to a decision. Non-action is a choice, but no longer one I'm going to make. I'm working on my novel, starting today. The research alone is going to be huge, to reconstruct the lives of the ancient northeast China-north Korean Peninsula region and the peoples who lived there. Since two-thirds of the planned series takes place in what is now China I'm going to have to improve on my Chinese and try for grants to visit the areas. I'm going to have to bug pretty much every expert in that time period, too, and read up on not only history but archaeology, linguistics, ancient metallurgy techniques, you name it. And that's only the first step in reimagining these people whose only traces remain in fragmented records and dig sites.
What am I getting myself into?
It's going to be a years-long project, so I'll be working on my dissertation as well assuming that goes anywhere. Meantime I'll write and try to sell short stories in this setting to flesh it out and maybe test the market waters. It'll be a good way to practice transmuting the raw material of history and speculation into the stuff of story.
It'll be a wild ride, but as the old proverb says, starting is half the battle. *looks down scary long road* Actually I think the proverbist was wrong. Whimper.
* Totally pointless note: On the Mary Catelli journal it may look like I left off the thread in disgust--or fled cowering before her mighty powers of rhetoric, whatever--but I actually don't have that much sense. After addressing me in the third person for reasons known only to herself, Ms. Catelli saw fit to change the comments setting on her blog to screen my last comment, and has neither unscreened my rebuttal nor replied to it. It's one way to end a time-waster for both of us, I suppose. Her space and her rules. But I do have to wonder at the insecurity of someone who has to go to that length to get the last word, lol.