Writerly Wednesday~Watch out for the Roadblocks! #amwriting

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We all have them. Whether we are writers or not, life can always throw us roadblocks. Sometimes it’s family, sometimes health or creativity. Sometimes a combination. I have a habit of starting things and not finishing. Having chronic illness makes writing more of a challenge than it already is. I have seizures and a memory disorder. My short-term memory doesn’t work very well. I get an idea and minutes later it could be gone. I could be writing full-force, have to get up and do something then Bam! It’s gone. I get frustrated easily. Luckily I have friends that keep me going. And NaNo really helps. I think the only stories I have even close to finished are NaNo stories. The trouble with those is a that they are written quickly to get a certain number of words in a month, quantity not quality. I loved 2015’s story Baseball Bats and Cowboy Hats and decided I wanted to publish it. Now it’s time for the rewrites, beta reads and editing as we discussed last week in It’s Drafty in Here.

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My head keeps going in a million directions. Is my plan going to make the story good enough to publish? Will anyone even want to read it? So I slam on my brakes. I am three-fourths of the way through the read through. I have an accountability partner that keeps pushing me and telling me to calm down. I use every excuse  I can to get out of work. I am determined though to get out at least one book this year.

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I understand every step is still a learning process. I am learning a lot not only about writing but about my style and voice. I think if we ever quit learning we will get stagnant. Same with everyday life. No matter how old we are we still learn new things. Life is ever-changing. We learn as children, we learn as adults, we learn to raise children, then as middle age adults the children are gown and we have grandchildren and things are different from when the kids were little. Sometimes life takes a turn and we have to learn new job skills. Writing is a job and it does take some skill.  Also patience and not being afraid to learn. Friday I didn’t get a lot done and am two days behind. I used that as an excuse to quit. Darn roadblock. But my accountability partner told me to get my blogs and stuff done this weekend she expects me back on that edit on Monday. I don’t like much, then onto fixing this timeline and the notes I made. I have so many ideas. That is never what cause me the roadblocks, it is the fear of letting go, learning and moving on. Maybe if I get this one out the next will be easier. Then I can get back to writing.

Do you ever face a road block? How do you get past it?