One place [my perfectionism] is NOT allowed is anywhere near my first drafts.
For years, I’ve struggled to find the time to write. It’s a familiar story, right? I’m too busy, I have other priorities, I’ll get to it later, I can’t carve out any time, etc., etc., and next I know I haven’t written a word creatively in over two years.
Does success breed inspiration? Perhaps. Or maybe it’s that I opened a door I’d locked, and once I turned on the lights, pulled back the curtains, and let some fresh air in, everything began to make sense again.
My short story “The Demons of Pamela’s Autumn” has been published as part of Horrorsmith Publishing’s fall 2023 Fear Forge Anthology!
Alas, I am not a poet. At least, I haven’t been one since my high school days, and let’s be honest, weren’t we all poets in high school?
In a supreme twist of accidental fortune-telling, my last blog post was about how hard it is to find time to work on my creative writing. And for all my good intentions, I proceeded to fall off the wagon into a ditch somewhere and I just sort of stayed there until now.
It’s impossible to escape the selfish aspect of writing: that of some part of you living on after you’re gone, your voice echoing into the future from beyond the last day of your life.
What’s your secret to prioritizing the creative aspects of your life?
At my current stage of life, my creative writing has to be intentional.
