Getting started--and finishing!

I admit to procrastination. But I'm fairly decent about getting started.

Finishing? That's another issue entirely.

I've had periodic bouts of self-discipline, forcing myself to sit in front of my keyboard until relatively coherent text emerged. One such stint lasted 30 days; I produced a 50,000-word draft of a novel. Haven't really touched it since.

Wait. I did dust the binder last September . . .

My amazing partner keeps encouraging me to write, as does my mother, my friends, etc. All the people who are supposed to be in my corner. They are. They're wonderful.

I've got all the books, all the courses, all the software. (I wrote a full-length play in college using Word. Why on earth did I think I needed scriptwriting software at 2:00 a.m.?) But I don't have the writing. Because I can't force myself to sit down. And. Just. Write.

No more.

Starting a freelance writing business is tough because I feel compelled to spend every spare moment working. The idea of sitting down with a cappuccino and my novel strikes me as an inherent waste of time.

I'm not getting younger.

Neither are my characters.

But they're fading. As are my youthful dreams of entertaining the world with my words.

It's time to make good on all those promises I've made to myself. Time to live up to my writing aspirations.

Heck, I live in New York. I could die in a terrorist attack tomorrow. Literally.

So, every single day, I am going to force myself to write. And I am going to chronicle my success--and my failure--on this blog. (The truly interested can even request to see the fruits of my labors. I'm still egotistical--and foolish--enough that I'll probably send it to you.)

This will be the spot where you can watch one writer's journey to a completed, polished manuscript.

Let's get started.