Reading, Reading, Reading…Not Much Writing

I wouldn’t exactly say I’m in a writing slump, but I have not done a lot of writing the last few days other than the Daily Writing Exercise, and I completely ignored that on Monday.

Actually, I didn’t ignore it; I simply chose to do something else with my writing time. A lot of reading.

It began with The Gifts f the Child Christ & Other Stories and Fairy Tales by George MacDonald, whose writing I dearly love. Since first getting the book on Friday evening, I’ve read several of the short stories.

But on Monday, after reading one or two, I was led to read some of the stories I’d started and/or worked on in the mid- to late-80s when I was first reading George MacDonald stories and beginning to want to write the same types of stories.

My immediate impression in delving into those old, heretofore unfinished works was that I’ve both gained and lost something in my writing over the subsequent twenty years. My sense is that the losses outnumber the gains.

It also prompted an idea that sounded really good and is based on one of Christ’s parables; one I’ve always wanted to base a work of fiction upon.

That idea seemed so important that I typed the first scene (written in longhand on January 4, 2009 as a Daily Writing Exercise), set up a file for the first story and for a sequel and pondered the major ‘chapters’ in the main character’s life. Lot’s of possibilities for growth (for me and for the character) and for an epic novel.

And I do mean epic. MacDonald routinely wrote 500 to 1,000 page nove

But in all that reading and transcribing, there was absolutely nothing new to contribute to the Daily Writing Exercise and, around 8:30 or 9 o’clock Monday evening, I finally decided to let it go. Even with that off day, my average daily output for the Daily Writing Exercise is nearly 900 words at the end of the day March 31, so it’s not like I’ve been slacking!

And I did get the Daily Writing Exercise completed before going to work on Tuesday, so that was good.

But the sense that I need to recapture some of the ‘meat’ I was writing in the eighties remains with me.

So do some of those old, unfinished stories.

The array of ideas, old and new, sometimes weary me. How wonderful it would be to have just one idea and to have the energy and excitement to go at it hammer and tongs!

Alas. I have 12 paintings in progress right now. Why not 12 stories?

Praise the Lord for the struggle, though. If it was easy, everybody would be doing it!