Eden Robins writer. adventurer. sometime dildo-slinger.

I certainly don’t want to start off this blog sounding like a complainy-puss, but you have no idea how hard I’ve been fighting for those meager 1300 words. And here’s a little secret – *they’re from two different stories*.  But! Words are words, and maybe I can make my weekly goal after all.

I think my problem is this: I’ve gotten into some really bad writing habits recently. I’ve been starting things, freaking out, and then not finishing them, which then puts me in a mindset that finishing stories is hard or that I’m going through a phase that I should just wait out or… something. So yeah, I know I should just push through, or at least, that’s what I always tell people, but y’know, it’s different when it’s you.

The story I’m working on right now is part of an incomplete idea that came to me while I was watching the nifty little indie film Wristcutters, which is about people who commit suicide and then find themselves in a sort of purgatory for people who have committed suicide, which essentially amounts to a slightly shittier world than the one they came from, where the landscape looks like Nevada and nobody smiles. Anyway, this is neither here nor there, as my idea has to do with a person who wakes up every morning in a different house and has to clean that house from top to bottom. Only when she’s finished does the sun set and she can go to bed, and upon waking up again, finds herself in a different house.

It’s a premise I enjoy, but as with most new ideas, it needs more to it to make it a story. Hence my frustration, as I haven’t figured out what that story is yet.

My other theory about my current difficulties is that I’m not reading enough fiction. In fact, since Clarion West, I have had a very difficult time finishing full-length books of fiction. I’ve done okay with short stories and even a YA novel or two, but the stack on my bedside table keeps getting taller and more gruesome. I’ve begun to avoid looking at it altogether.

Or maybe I just need a break. Maybe I should go look at things other than this computer screen for awhile. That might be the best option. Nevertheless, I will have 1700 more words by Sunday, mark my… er… words!

I made a promise to myself and to all those reading my page for the Write-a-Thon that I would write 3000 words a week, or the equivalent of six stories.

Well. Here we are, nearly halfway through the first week, and I’ve written approximately zero words. I can make excuses – I was out of town on Sunday, I had to work my other day-job-that-shall-not-be-named (not this job, which I love) on Monday, and today, well, today I just had to stare at a blank screen for three hours waiting for inspiration to strike. I don’t think I have been this bereft of ideas since the first week of Clarion West last June.

A psychological connection, perhaps?

In any case, I’m going to catch up, starting tomorrow. I will be writing a story to submit to the Shine Anthology, which my dear friend Raj pointed out to me, because it’s good to  have concrete goals.  The story is going to be about… something something climate change something something geoengineering. But really, it will be about relationships, because aren’t they all?

If you have faith in my ability to get my shit together, won’t you please sponsor me in the Write-a-Thon, so future generations can also get writers’ block? Every little bit helps.  And if you are lacking in faith, try some of the other writers who are more disciplined than I.