I’ve finished my last writing class until the anthology workshop in Oregon in February, and am working hard on the current novel. And: I’m on vacation!!! I realize it must seem odd that I’m working on the novel on vacation, but writing is fun for me, so this has been really great.

One of the questions often posed to new writers in classes, books, etc. is some variant of: do you want to be a writer, or do you want to have written? The point is that writing is not always easy. Sometimes the words practically throw themselves on the page; sometimes it’s a brutal slog. For me, I want both. I love writing, and will tough out the slogging because even that is rewarding in a way – but I also love having written because when I’ve finished something I feel a sense of accomplishment.

I have a few writing goals on my vacation, the most important of which is to find a way to look at my writing differently so that I can start being more productive. When my head is in the game, I can write a lot very quickly – but when I’m distracted, or unfocused, or being lazy, etc., I can drag out a project like there’s no tomorrow. Since I only have so much time to write each week, I want to be as efficient and effective as possible. Sure, I’ll have bouts of laziness … but as long as they’re small and temporary, that’s fine. The point is to be so determined to finish a project that I stay focused. I’ve done this many times before, so clearly it’s doable, but I have also lost my focus before. So: this is my biggest goal on vacation.

Well, my biggest goal is to make sure the dogs have a good time 🙂 so I guess figuring out how to improve my focus is number two.