What do you want to know?

[spellbound]

At present I work and write. Writing time is limited on busy days. (I work 9a - 9p Monday serious writing gets done. Quick notes and thoughts only. I love to sleep, so getting up early isn't the answer and no staying up late-rarely is my mid awake enough. I'm up at 5a to take our children to Seminary Monday through Friday and return home at 7a. Not much time to settle into a story before leaving for work.)

Due to this, I let my brain do a lot of the work for a story. I have recently turned in Assignment 3. I have 5 stories in various stages for the forthcoming assignments.

This is my question and concern-meeting deadlines. If they are far enough in the future, no problem, but what about the ones that are imminent? For instance, if I wish to enter a contest, I must choose one 2+ months in the future. Any shorter and I turn in a piece I don't feel and obviously the reviewers feel is not ready.

[MaryR]

Spelllbound, you have to write what works for you. If it takes you two months to get something done with your current life constraints, you're getting stuff done at least!  You may have to finish a piece and then look for a market or contest for it.  Perhaps later on in your life you'll have more time.  Writing is forever.  But right now you ARE writing even if it's at a slow pace.  Don't knock that!  many are not!

As to your Voca, well, writing is often personally cathartic, yes.  Many writers work out personal problems in the course of great fiction.  :-)   But think about memoir, telling true stories about other people that encompass the morals and messages you want to get across.  Memoir (creative nonfiction) readers don't expect conflict the way fiction readers do.  Conflicts can be internal, not directed at others.  Give personal memoir a try, tells stories that you see in real life around you (change the names) and see if that doesn't work.

Mary Rosenblum LR Web Editor

[Humi]

this may not be related here but thought i'd share.

i once stumbled upon a website and they offered deadlines. just deadlines, no prizes or anything but deadlines for writing a 50,000 word novella or a 100,000 word book or less in a month or so. i read the feedback of the ppl who actually turned in their work for fun (no editing required, u just needed to FINISH the draft!) and they were so elated! all so excited and i totally got them esp now that i've mine i know how much fun it is just to complete a draft.

i seriously think editing is somethin u shud pack up out of sight till the very end. just write. on paper. in mind. like one writer said: when i'm looking out the window, i'm actually working.

[spellbound]

Mary,

I don't feel I set unrealistic goals for myself. I feel I worry too much about expectations from others. In the present, I'm a slow and steady kind of person. My goals aren't set against a hard wall. For instance, yesterday I set everything up to revise and 9 pm came along and not one revision had occurred. To many other things presented themselves that had to be done. I'm concerned about the being unable to meet others unrealistic goals for me. I don't consider myself a day behind and now have to make it up by working longer hours. 

This is my concern-I send in an article and it's picked up, but they want revisions by _____. What happens if a day, or several in a row, like yesterday presents itself and make the deadline increasingly impossible. My last name is Sleeper. I didn't grow up with it, but I married appropriately. I love sleep and the lack of it, even small amounts deteriorates my health quickly. My present schedule doesn't leave any leeway for lost sleep. I've learned from other authors and my instructor that deadlines are important to honor. (I even hate being late for anything. Usually I'm early. I don't go by Spanish Standard Time, Mormon Standard Time, or any other standard time that permits me to think it's okay to be late, let alone half an hour or more. Cringing at the thought.)

See, I'm worrying about something that may not happen. But it concerns me because I'm a perfectionist in that quality is extremely important to me. Quality, not only includes what I write, but how I am perceived.

[ann]

spellbound i am laughing at your reference to Spanish Standard Time and Mormon standard Time. Since i have lived in Papua New Guinea for years we have the saying 'PNG Time' which is anytime in the future. Drives expatriates crazy when we have been grilled to always be on time.

I wish i could break the mould of revising too much and not moving forward quick enough because of it. I can happily write a draft in my head but do you think I can put it on paper...I get brain freeze. I'm the tortoise or is am I a sloth. lol I know Mary will be shaking her head at this...Mary I like your website.
Ann

[ann]

Mary I used a tape recorder when my mum was alive as she was classified blind from diabetes. Fifteen years of it. Every week the kids and I talked on it about what we were doing in PNG. Unfortunately I only have a few of them as my mum taped over them and sent them back to me with the family gossip.
I did try taping my memoir once...same thing ...froze I sat there staring at the thing. However with a bottle of wine...or two with our daughters we have got on a roll with the 'do you remember' and I've later said 'if only I put that on tape'.
I do a lot of jotting down on paper or someone in the family does with a 'quick where's a bit of paper.' My last note written by a daughter says 'How responsible were mum and dad when going to and from town they put us kids in the back of the truck with the natives and bows and arrows while they locked themselves in the cab with the shotgun." adding 'don't forget that one mum.'
Reminders are great they lead off to other memories don't they?
Ann

[Voca]

Ann,

Are you saving all these wonderful vignettes for your memoir? I hope so!

Voca