So I was enjoying a nice walk with my hererosexual lifemate today, discussing the important things in life. We successfully determined that a) Batman is undoubtedly less gay than Superman, b) World of Warcraft is more fun than Lord of the Rings Online, and c) Rhode Island really is too far from Boston.
Inevitably these discussions touch on writing, and this was no exception. I was explaining my irrational fear of starting to write again- it went so smoothly last time, what if it doesn’t now? -
and I was reminded of something Neil Gaiman recently said in a Podcast. When asked what he told aspiring writers who came up with a ton of excuses for not writing, his response was:
“Okay.”
That pretty much sums it up. Neil doesn’t care if you write or not, and neither does the universe, your dead grandpa, or really anyone else. If you do you’ll find the time, if not you won’t and should go do something you do care about.
We continued walking and talking, and it occurred to me that I was also afraid of the project I’ve been working on, for much the same reason. I love the project and don’t want it to fail. It occurred to me that the writers I respect most are all generally working on several different projects at once, and that I really haven’t done anything much else since starting this one. I opened myself up to new ideas and they immediately poured right in. On cue the sun broke from behind the clouds and warmed me up on the outside to match my happy inner-bits.
The idea to write something as far from what I normally do as possible popped up, and so tonight I’m writing a short children’s story. Shut up. I’m really looking forward to it, so I’ll get on with that now.
Anyone out there have an illustrator handy?