I’m a terrible procrastinator. I could represent Scotland in the Avoiding What You Should Be Doing olympics, such is my talent for being busy with anything except writing. And does this proficiency make me happy?
No.
So why do I do it? I was chatting about my low word count to Gary Parkin yesterday evening. “I want to write,” I moaned, “I just can’t decide which project to do.”
“You know what you want to write,” he said.
“No, I don’t.”
“Yes, you do. You know what you WANT to write but you’re getting confused by things you think you SHOULD be writing.”
“But…”
He’s right. It pains me to admit it, but he’s absolutely spot on.
I have three main projects on the go: Close To Home (crime fiction), The Maths Man Prophecies (black comedy) and The Knife Thrower’s Assistant (for the want of a better description, literary fiction). Two of these I felt were more commercial and would perhaps give me a better chance of getting published. The third was just a story I wanted to tell, a story in which I could play more with language, theme, imagery. That’s the one I want to write.
So now I know which project to work on, I just have to get on with it. After dinner, a bit of research and maybe a film on the telly.
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