Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Amnesia and Motivation

I had a diversion last week when I decided to submit a short story to an anthology. I received some very good feedback from the editor, and spent a lot of time revising and reworking the short. I will certainly post information about it here once it is "published". Hopefully it will be in the aforementioned anthology. If not, I will continue to submit it elsewhere, and see what happens.

I have mentioned my suspect memory in prior blog posts, and it has struck again. I was going through some notes for the next Hemlock book when I stumbled upon a flashback scene that I'd outlined and then apparently forgotten about. It's kind of odd to read over something that you've written and then forgotten about. There is a moment, however brief, when you don't remember what you are reading, and you can almost experience your own writing like a reader would. If there was a pill to induce temporary amnesia I bet it would be very popular with writers.

Not too much else to report at the moment. This past weekend was a sprint between activities that I don't hope to repeat anytime soon. I need some chill time...and writing time. I estimate that I'm about 25% of the way into the first draft of Hemlock II. Dang, I wish I was farther in. But the key is to keep going.

I have a theory about project motivation. If you graph it over time, it looks like an inverted bell curve. You start out motivated and then your motivation steadily decreases as you approach the half completed mark. The key is to reach that 50% point, because though you are at your lowest motivation there (you still have a lot to do), as you proceed, your motivation will begin to increase again because you begin to see an end in sight. I think most projects falter between the 25% and 50% completion point. Your mileage may vary--but this is how my mind works.

That's it for now. Have a great week!

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