Kidlit Life
  • Home
  • Reading It
  • Writing It
    • The Alphabet Forest
    • Favorite Sites for Kidlit Writers
  • Loving It
  • Contact Me

Kidlit Life Blog

Periodically, there is something that I just have to say about children's literature. This is where I say it. 

This is also where I share articles and blog posts written by other children's authors that I find particularly interesting or helpful.

Sign up for email notifications!

Indecision and Perfectionism

4/20/2016

0 Comments

 
I have a problem. I've blogged about it before, though it's been a while: I can be an infuriating perfectionist (you can read about that here). I can also be infuriatingly indecisive when it comes to writing. I want to write picture books and chapter books and middle grade novels and young adult novels. I want to write fantasy. I want to write inspirational works. I want to write fiction as well as nonfiction.

And I want to write well. Really really well. I want to write the next Caldecott or Newberry Medal winner.

The real problem, though, is that this perfectionism and indecision has paralyzed me. I have so many stories that I've started in virtually all of the genres mentioned that when I actually make the time to write, I don't know what to do. The writing folder on my computer looks eerily similar to my craft cabinet: too many projects begun and too few finished.

To make matters worse, I'm on the fourth book of a series by Andrew Peterson (The Wingfeather Saga) that is exactly the kind of story I want to write: creative, original, action, adventure, humor, heartache, joy, good vs. evil, multi-layered plot, and oodles of themes explored. And he does it well. How can I ever come up with something like this? I can't. Might as well throw in the towel.

I've given up writing more times than I can count, but it never lasts. I've tried to run away from it, off and on, for years. I have too much going on. Who has time to write anyway? Life is too full, and people are more important, right? I need to answer one more email, send one more text, check Facebook and Instagram; is that my daughter calling? BUT it seems I just can't shake it. When I don't write for a while, it haunts me like Casper. It's friendly, but it's there. I end up crabby. Itchy. Unsettled. Squirmy.

Writing gives me some kind of endorphin release.

I began to write this post this morning. It's now evening after a long day at the office. I checked Facebook earlier, giving my brain a little break from the details of my job. I belong to several writers' groups on FB, and today, I just happened to find this on one of those pages:

Picture
I'm not a huge Cheryl Strayed fan, but this time, she definitely has a point.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Kidlit Life

    If you'd like to read my previously published blog posts, check out my previously active blog, Kid Lit Life. For new blog posts, come back here or sign up to receive notifications via email.

    Archives

    August 2017
    April 2016
    March 2016

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by
✕