The difficulty of "getting down to work".

I should say that right now, I am rife with ideas for new work. I have probably half a dozen workable ideas floating around in my brain right now with tiny little seeds breaking soil just about every day - spinoffs involving characters I have already introduced. Everything inspires me!

It is like a writer's playground, my brain. I should be rolling in romance right now, swimming in stories, wallowing in words! Should being the operative word, here.

I used to live that good life... spending several hours per day writing... though that was in conjunction with a time that I was only employed seasonally and "the good life" involved getting an unemployment cheque every two weeks that barely fed me (thank God for parents who loved and encouraged me in my writing). Unfortunately, at that time, I was still developing my craft (who am I kidding? I am still developing my craft and it's my belief that when you feel like you know everything and are the best you can be, you start to get stagnant and you really aren't the best you can be), and didn't even have a completed manuscript, or really, any other ideas.

Since then, I have acquired a (very good) full time, year round job, with benefits and weekends off and all that fun stuff. I hate to say it, but now that I have a better idea about myself and the things I am capable of, I regret not spending the "starving artist" months writing. It feels like there are never enough hours in the day, and when there ARE, I am so tired from everything else that is going on in my life that I can't settle my mind enough to write.

Take yesterday, for example - Sunday morning... I slept in, got up and puttered in the barn for a few minutes and then came in and snuggled up in the sunshine on the couch, laptop in hand, ready to work on the synopsis for my NO ONE ELSE, which I am hoping to query to Samhain in coming weeks. I kept getting distracted. Dogs wanted in, or out. Laundry needed put in. I needed a drink of water. Wanted a cookie. One thing after the other until I realized I wasn't making any progress at all. I couldn't settle my mind.

I have experienced this same problem with writing new stuff. I just can't settle my mind enough to just get to it - I am so used to having eleventy billion things on the brain at one time that it is hard to focus it on just one or two things or just one story. I often even find my OTHER stories interrupting on my time with NO ONE ELSE. It drives me!

With that said, I think I am going to start forcing myself. Thirty minutes of undivided attention to my writing, no matter what, every single day. No tv, no MSN, no internet, no checking my email obsessively (nothing from an agent or publishing house wanting to publish my work is going to land there until I actually get my work written!). Now, more than ever, I want to be an author. I want to be published. I want someone to read my work and fall in love with my hero. I need to get down to work and stop letting my brain make excuses.

And I am going to finish that darn synopsis tonight.