Writing Chaos

The above photo is a lie because I'm not that chipper little author up there. I'm not writing. I'm in writing chaos right now, which should surprise no one at all who knows me. Let me tell you what I mean.

Writing chaos is that time in a writer's life when you have stories in your head--lots of stories, but none of them seem to be coming together. I've been making crazy notes about Sarah's story--the next book in the Women of Willow Bay series. I've got conversations between Tim and Hallie in my head, and I'm plotting my cozy mystery, which is going to be blast to write if I can ever get it started.

But here's the thing. I'm mostly writing in my head. I write while I'm doing dishes, while I'm weeding, while I'm folding laundry. Scenes, conversations, descriptions of people are all bashing around in my mind while I'm doing other things. But when it comes to sitting down at my computer and actually writing . . . well, right now, I'm not. And I'm wondering if it's because I'm sorting through stories, working on discovery. Or if I've lost my storytelling mojo.

I'm going to figure it out and here's how I plan to do it--and by the way, I hate saying this out loud (or putting it out there since I'm writing this, not speaking it) because that makes me accountable. But, maybe I need to be accountable for a while. I've tried not being accountable and clearly, that's not working. So, I'm going to write each day at the same time. They (whoever "they" are) say that it takes three weeks for something to become a habit. So I'm going to get out of bed at 6:30 a.m. every morning for the next twenty-one days and I'm going to write for one hour.That's sixty minutes of writing, not checking email or Facebook or Twitter and not reading blogs or Yahoo news. One hour of writing.

I'll keep you posted . . .