Back from Vacation

I was away from the office for about a week. It was fun to be away. I spent most of the time surfing the net, listening to audio books, watching movies, going to art exhibits, roller blading, biking, swimming, playing golf and reading my e-mails. I had planned to prepare my writing work by completing my reading on 'The Successful Novelist'. But I could not finish the book and did little preparation in terms of working on the plot and characters. I wanted to be ready for the Nanowrimo event this November but I did not feel motivated enough.

Instead it was more a routine of scheduling time for me to respond to my emails because I was afraid I would miss something at work. A few events where I was needed to be involved to resolve a few issues in Thailand and China. Not serious issues but enough to cause some problems if not handled properly. I am still thinking about my pending transfer overseas and planning alternatives. I research the Internet and sent out a few mails on the subject to my overseas 'coordinators' and to my overall boss in China to keep him in the loop. Both mails have had no reply yet.

I watched 2 French movies last Saturday which I could have spent better by writing. Instead I focuses on blogging and yesterday, after a game of golf, I wrote an article for our club newsletter. Writing yes but not the form that I wanted to do. In the evening, we were visited by my cousins and aunt who were visiting. It was a fun evening and we had a nice time telling stories and having conversation. A lot of activities but not the correct ones during the week. I think I am still not settled in my mind about the mental challenges of being a novelist. I think my mind is preparing myself to acquire this mindset after reading about the writer's life in the books that I plan to be reading.

In fact, it seems more like a mental game without the passion. But I guess the passion will come once one gets into the groove of writing. It is just a re-channelling of the mental focus from blogging and journal writing to crafting a story which requires more analysis, planning and organization. It cannot be the unstructured, stream of consciousness type that occurs in blogging. Of course, this method can be utilized in a story but in the mind of a character. So perhaps the challenge is to remove or disassociate oneself from the characters mind and allow it to assume it's own existence.

But I realize as well that writing is really the gift of expressing and this is the skill that blogging does cultivate. My problem is that I am also settling issues within my self such as clarifying my thoughts and organizing my mind by journal writing. I think this is the activity that I enjoy and writing is just a means to achieve it. On the other hand, writing a novel is the end goal of a novelist with planning, organization and creativity are the means to achieving it. In fact I should spend less time thinking and more of writing. The key I think is to follow the structure already proposed in tools like the New Novelist.