Day Fifteen: Not Important

After coming back from about a ten-year bout of writer’s block, one of the pieces of advice I have read over and over is to not let my writing become important.  The moment a writer begins to believe the work has to be meaningful, doubts begin to form.  I find this is the case when I write about the people I love.  I want it to be perfect.  I want to do them justice.  I want an important lesson to be received by my readers.  I am rarely happy with my work.  Many times, I save the piece in a folder and never release it to the world.  It has become too important.

This frustrates me to some extent.  I have a dream of writing a saga.  In fact, I want to write a Nixon Saga.  My family dates back to York, England during the War of the Roses.  My plan is to someday write a series of books taking the family from York all the way to Libby, Montana.  The problem with this project is that it is important to me.  I don’t know that I can do it.  I keep telling myself I need to establish myself as a writer and develop my craft first.  At that point, I will write my opus. 

Another piece I want to write is about four generations of women struggling with mental illness.  Wow, this piece will also be tough because it is so near and dear to my heart.  I also don’t want to hurt people I love.  The work will be fiction, but I will draw a lot from my own experiences.  Definitely a project that will potentially cause writer’s block.  I don’t think I can lie to myself enough to say it isn’t important.  But like the other project, I am waiting to gain more experience writing.

The problem with all the importance is that the idea has wormed its way into my thoughts with my fifth book in Living the Tenets series.  The book has become important.  This will be my last book in the series.  I want it to tie up all the loose strings.  I want the book to be memorable.  I want the book to leave my readers happy with the series.  I want them to be excited for my next series.  As I worked on the novel this past spring; suddenly, the book became important.  Yep, I have writer’s block.

I have done a bunch of things to fix the problem.  I played all summer.  I read books one through four, collecting notes for book five.  I have an outline.  I have read about writer’s block.  I have written other things.  I have gone on a few artist dates.  I have traveled.  I went to a writer’s workshop.  Not a lot has been helping. 

On Sunday, I started a new scene with my character Oddveig.  She is a warrior maiden of the cave trolls.  She will play a vital but small roll in the novel.  Yesterday, I wrote a little over 1,000 words to finish up the scene.  I am excited to be playing again.  I am really excited to get this twenty-year project finished.  Most of all, I am dying to start a new series with the main character Kirzantra.  She is going to be so fun! 

But I digress.  In the weeks to come, I am locking myself in my writing room each morning by ten o’clock.  I can’t leave the room until 1,000 words or more are written.  In fact, I am going to shoot for 2,000.  I have decided not to sign up for the NaNo this year.  I am taking a Writing Sales Copy class and a Webpage Design class this month as well.  I don’t think I will get the 50,000 words I need to win the NaNo.  As Madelle said, I am not really winning anything anyway.  What is the point?  Instead, I will try to announce my word count each day on my facebook writers page: Lisa Nixon-Richard Writer.  If you would like to cheer me on, that would be awesome.  In fact, the encouragement will help the writer’s block I am fighting.

Now, to conquer the day!!!