I love this part of writing....

On the whole, I try to avoid writing about writing, because it's redundant, self conscious and on the whole too revealing, like starting to strip on a crowded subway, just something to be avoided. But, perhaps that is what also makes it awesome and exhilarating, like a good skinny dip.

So here's the part of writing I'm good at, the mental preparation for for war. Oh, about a month in I'll be fried, but now, I'm about to start a new project, and I'm excited. I've got the storyboards up on the wall, and I'm ready to go. But not yet, the story needs to cook a bit more in my brain. Can't go starting things at 10 at night, I need to work in the morning, after all.

However, I found a new brilliant method of preparation, and I would imagine this works for everything. Watch out, it has to do with the power of positive thinking. Yeah, I know, hold onto your hat, the awesomeness is about to come right through your computer. Every time, I think about something negative, I switch my thinking to ... not just anything ... something positive that I can get excited about--writing my novel. It's like penance and excitement and motivation all curled up into a handy nutlike snack.

Up to this point, I've really have floundered on the positive thinking thing. It has been forced. Between very intense meditation, vision boards, even journaling, positive thinking just has not been easy for me. However, this is different. Yes, I'm 10 years into the novel writing process, but I've got a good 50 more to go, perhaps 70 or 80 with better medical technology. At that rate, I've got at least 15 more drafts in me. A complete novel is inevitable. Therefore, it is my new positive thinking tool. And, I have never felt better about myself than I have the last couple days.

Digging through the basement

Last weekend, I started digging through the pile of stuff downstairs in the dungeon. There hidden among a bunch of old posters were two storyboards from a novel that I was working on long ago. Despite the fact that these ugly decorations were of no use to me the first or second time they graced my walls, perhaps putting them up a third time would give me more motivation than I have previously heretofore acquired. 

This particular novel is funny. I started it right before my first successful Nanowrimo run. And, despite it being the shortest of the three novels that I'm working on, it has certainly garnered the most attention and time of all my writing. On the whole, it is probably the best novel I've written; although, the first half is admittedly a grammatical disaster, so much so that I occasionally wonder if I can just change the second half into a short story.

In short, perhaps I've just put these up on my wall because, like most people, I just need a reminder of what motivates me. I need something that recognizes that I have sacrificed and accomplished a task. And most of all, I need a reminder that I am perfectly capable of doing all of it again in the near future.