Now exactly what could be so horrific to cause a writer to panic?
I'm 70+ years old and have several novels published, both traditionally and self-published. Not to mention several articles and posts that have offered internationally. Still, I, like so many other authors, remain unknown.
I'm considering not to continue my supposed writing career. At my age, I should be rocking away on the front porch, enjoying life as it passes by.
REALLY?
Enjoy life as it PASSES BY? NO! NO! NO!
I had a few days this week when I actually considered dropping from the authorial world and just enjoy life, playing with the grandkids and great-grandkids, gardening, reading, and traveling. I almost had myself convinced to just sit back.
Then I decided I would step back from writing and just finish up those few novels I'd written and either never finished or needed to clean up to publish. That sounded like a better idea. It could be something I do while we are traveling and camping... or sitting on the front porch. LOL.
I figured a one-year sabbatical - two years at the most - would be sufficient.
So, I made a list of those novels I needed to work on... uh, all 26 (the count so far) of them. That's correct! I have 26 novels in different stages of completion. I actually may have more if I scrounge around on my laptop and backup files. This number does not include the myriad of short stories I have written.
Needless to say, I don't want to peek into the sub-directory named "Future Plots" or the other one named "Ideas" for fear of what I may find there.
Therefore, with the idea of not writing anymore now entrenched in my mind, I have decided that perhaps I should reconsider another avenue.
I won't write any more NEW books until I have the ones already on my laptop finished.
Exactly what does this mean?
It means I won't be participating in any future NaNoWriMos (that is National Novel Writing Month which happens in November) or seeing a wild-flung idea/plot from some obscure news article or tidbit discovered while surfing the internet. Also, I might have to control my imagination when watching certain TV shows - like Aliens on the History channel or of that ilk. National Geographic and History channel can be great idea generators. I can't give up Giorgio Tsoukalos, Erich von Daniken, David Childress, Peter Fiebag, Robert Bauval and Luc Burgin. Nor can I give up the SyFy channel. I'll just have to control (aka lock down) my imagination.
I figure if I can finish, edit and publish at least two (2) books a year - it will take me a mere thirteen (13) years to finish all those I have lurking (aka languishing) on my laptop. Even IF I were to be able to push myself to 3 books a year; it would still take over 8 years to finish them all. Exactly WHERE did I think one or two years would be sufficient?
Can I control my imagination to not... repeat, NOT want to write something new for the next ten years?
At the current time, I am open to any and all suggestions of how to complete the task at hand.
Uh, so you have a "basic" understanding of what I've got stuffed in my laptop --
5 Amish novels, one is a horror, the rest Christian and sort of a series
5 vampire novels (a series)
4 fantasy novels (a series)
2 action adventure novels (1 is a sequel to a published book)
3 epic fantasy novels
1 Native American werewolf vampire detective story
1 Native American fantasy
1 mainstream fiction
1 historical fiction
1 military fantasy
1 SF novel
1 fairy fantasy
As you can see, a very eclectic selection of stories. Oh, and the short stories are a collage of SF, horror, and fantasy... and we have NO count on those.
Is this the time I should mention, I have one "screenplay" I also have in the works and not part of the counts above?
HELP ME!
Until next I ramble on...
