Thursday 11^th June 2020

As I’ve stated, I’ve been a bit restless of late. I’m juggling a few writing projects at the moment. Some of them are existing ideas, some are new. But because of a number of things going on right now, I’m not sure what should be my priority.

It’s left me feeling quite restless, and whilst there’s plenty to be getting on with, I’ve discovered that, just like an RPG, I need a main quest as well as a number of side quests.

Not knowing what I should be prioritising is stopping me deeply engaging in the way I need to do my best work.

Some of this is just simply because like publishing, there’s a lot going on but it’s moving slowly. My way to deal with this usually is to just focus on something else; to find a big project to absorb me whilst I wait. I’m just not sure which of all my numerous projects is my main quest for the next couple of months.

I hate that I can get so easily distracted at the moment. Deep down, I know I’ll look back and say that given everything that was going on, I did remarkably well, but lockdown has left me with a real sense of mortality, and a need to get projects done. So I’m mentally beating myself up for not being more consistant.

The problem is that something like a novel is a big time commitment. My focus on process is really my neverending struggle to speed that up. My planning isn’t too bad, my writing is fast, my editing is slow. But even being fast, it’s a good 8-10 weeks just to bang out a first draft. That’s 8-10 weeks where I need to be focused on that project as a primary quest.

Currently I feel like I’m focused for 2-3 weeks before world events, or life, or other events throw me off or I need to swap to another unrelated project.

So before I choose my primary questline, I need to know I’m not going to be thrown off it onto another priority in a few weeks’ time.

Luckily, it’s been suggested to me that I focus on a few new sidequests. Continuing with the RPG metaphor, these are standalone quests, not the start of huge new quest chains. And best yet, they will help whatever my new primary questline turns out to be.

It’s given me something to focus on when I’m waiting on feedback and have felt like I’ve been slowly losing my sanity due to being unable to really work on anything major in case the focus changes.

Best of yet, it should take just enough time to do that I should be getting awaited responses by the time I finish it.

It’s given me a little focus when I’ve felt a little adrift, and I’m thankful to the person who suggested it.