I'm feeling pretty good about my writing WRITE NOW

Ever since last Fall, I took on a couple of writing projects. The first was publishing the Josephine the Dragon stories by Taylor Christine on the blog. The second was writing the next installment in the I Will Kill You for $5 project.

But, alas, it felt like I had really fallen behind on the blog and writing in general. Life has been crazy, to my credit. However, as is the case a lot, I dump on myself a lot about writing.

https://twitter.com/babylontales/status/739960281099436032

No doubt about Josephine though, I did fall behind on publishing those stories. Meant to do like one a month or so, but it's been like... um... not that.

However, I wanna pat myself on the back for a second. Because I rarely do that as a writer, I'm sure other writers are the same way. We really like to self-torture ourselves about our ability to spew words.

But the thing of it is this...

• Yes, I did start writing a short story in October.


• Yes, that was a long time ago.


• Tonight I just finished it.


• Yes, that does seem like a long time to write a short story, especially for me.


• But the thing is that it's really long.


• Like way longer than my usual stories.


• I typically average around 2,000 to 6,000 word short stories.


• Once, I wrote an 8,000 word story.


• And I can actually write 1,000 words per hour.


• So, a 2,000 word story can be done in 2 hours.


• So, that whole October thing seems like a long time.


• But the thing is that this story is the longest short story I've ever written.


• It's so long, I'm not sure it qualifies as a short story anymore.


• It's over 15,000 words long.


• To put that in perspective, my collaborative novella Fatal Flaws is 19,000 words long.


• And, I deleted a "scene" or two along the way, in an attempt to shorten the story.


• Basically this... it's the longest short story I've ever written.


• It's also the one of the longest "complete" stories I've ever written by myself.


• And even though it took me quite a while...


• I look at what I have, and look back, and I don't feel bad at all.


• I felt bad during it. But not now.


• Why? Because the result. The result is something way bigger than I intended.


• And that BIG thing has proven something to myself.


• It has made a statement to me.


• It says, "Dude. You can write long form, just don't expect to do it overnight. And don't beat yourself up about that. There's nothing out of the ordinary with that."

CURRENT MOOD: David Bowie's "Heroes"

So. Yeah. I'm kind of in a celebratory mood. I really feel like I've accomplished something, and that feels great. Like I've really discovered something about myself. And for the first time, I realize that the nagging voice in the back of my head telling me I'm failing--yeah, it's full of it. Totally full of it.

That being said... if you are like me, and like to brutalize yourself internally as a writer, remember this--the Voice is your enemy. You're better than the Voice. The Voice in your head can't even write ONE BLESSED word. Eat that Voice.

A few Tweets from the journey

https://twitter.com/babylontales/status/739198362088407040

https://twitter.com/babylontales/status/740712375595081728

https://twitter.com/babylontales/status/745058835736334336

https://twitter.com/babylontales/status/745072463814352896

https://twitter.com/babylontales/status/745083250373066752