I'm not one of those people who writes every day, or even every week.
I'm more of a Herculean writer, where I sit down to play with my work
and suddenly I've written a couple scenes or reworked some things or
figured out the next chapter of my story. This can be good and bad,
because at least then my scenes are each entire coherent scenes, but at
the same time it could be argued that I'm not really practicing my art
very well.
The biggest downside I find with my
Herculean efforts is writer's remorse. I write scenes and sections, and
then don't see them for weeks. When I open that word document again to
continue writing, while I wait for the pages of writing to load, I'm
left to stare at the opening paragraph on the document. Often I cringe
at it and wish that it wasn't such a bad paragraph, but my brain can't
seem to focus on how to make it better. My brain would rather waste its
funds on pity parties and bemoaning the fact that someday I'll have to
go back and fix it.
This always leads to the big question writers always ask themselves: Why do I do this to myself?
I
don't have an answer. I've read lots of answers by other successful
authors, but I guess it just comes down to the fact that we're all crazy
and will do what we must to enjoy our hobbies.
Until
then, I'll have to decide whether I want to rework that opening scene of
chapter two, or whether I want to just grit my teeth and just keep
moving forward.
