June 16, 2009
Tonight, I was determined to start a new story…my first short story in many, many months. But I didn’t start it. In part, my reasons were good. My wife had a tough day and needed to talk. I had to run an errand. I had to work on a query for the current novel. But I have to admit, my main reason for not writing was a bad one: fear. As Frank Herbert wrote in Dune, “Fear is the mind-killer.” How true it is. The fact is, I haven’t written a short story since February-March 2008. That’s right: over a year ago. Now, in that time, I haven’t exactly been idle. I’ve written two novels and a ton of marketing materials. I can’t say the lack of short story writing has even been a bad thing; after all, I made a conscious decision to focus on novels. However, now that I really want to write a story, I’m afraid. I’m also facing the natural fear that comes with not doing much creative writing since the end of April 2009. So now I have to work a little harder than usual to build a head of steam. I have to get to the point where the urge to write surpasses the fear of writing. And then I just have to start pounding the keys. That’s how it works sometimes. Okay, most of the time. So wish me luck! See you soon.
