Writercam catches Courtney showing up for work before her Muse does.

Whining

Two days ago, I sat with Becca in Aaron’s living room and bewailed to them the fact that I hadn’t yet decided on a topic for this week’s WILAWriTWe.

For her part, Becca was doing her job of working with Julie to choose the final image for my book’s cover art. So I can’t really blame her for not engaging with me in an impromptu brainstorming session. Aaron, on the other hand, was duly sympathetic to my plight — but he is also recovering from a horrid cold, and I think he was slightly ready for Becca and me to depart unto our respective abodes. 😉

So. That left me with no new WILAWriTWe ideas. But I figured I had another 33 hours before my post needed to be ready. Plenty of time to ponder writing-related wisdoms gleaned from life, the universe, and everything.

Two days later, dear inklings, I must admit to you: I still got nothin’.

Wherefores

You see, I’m still reading C.S. Friedman’s Black Sun Rising, which I WILAWriTWe’d about last week. I’m also reading purely “for fun” at this point, because my mind needs the escape of immersion into another world without analysis of that world’s construction. So for now, gleaning any lessons from Friedman’s novel is out.

And then there’s the rest of life. Usually, I could draw a great WILAWriTWe from TV shows or movies I’m watching, deep conversations I’m having, activities in which I’m engaging, tweets I’m reading, ad infinitum.

The thing is that this week, I can’t draw anything from any of that. I’m not watching any TV shows or movies; I’m not conversing a whole lot; and I’m sorta hibernating at home in spite of springtime gorgeousness outside. And though I’m definitely using Twitter like a madwoman, I’m not currently possessed of the presence of mind to draw any significant conclusions to share here.

Colors of Deception, my soon-to-be-released novel, is eating my brain.

Whatnots

I’m writing back cover copy. I’m putting together my author bio and choosing a biopic. I’m tweaking dialogue here and there based on the final feedback from my betas. I’m looking at final cover art images and getting squee-ish and resisting overloading my cover art team with my input. If I can keep my mouth shut, they can do their jobs.

If I’m not doing all of that, I’m thinking about Holly, my MC; her friends; their foibles and troubles; and whether or not this manuscript is actually as ready as I think it is.

Whew!

Aaron and I spend a lot of time here emphasizing that when you’re writing, you can’t wait for inspiration to strike. Nine times out of 10, it ain’t gonna. Even if you don’t have an official contract with somebody, you’ve got to write as though you have an official contract with somebody. You write whether you feel like it or not, because that’s your job.

Your Muse is not going to saunter in for work unless you show up first.

So that’s what I’m on about today, dear readers: showing up for work and just writing, even though I have no inspiration and 9/10 of my brain is stuck in the demon world of Saltmarch with hapless Holly.

I have no idea if this is going to be helpful to any of you or not. But it is what it is, y’know? Writing, no matter what form it takes, is glorious — but it is also a lot of hard work, and that is the truth.

And that, my dears, is WILAWriTWe. Again. 😉