I feel a little like I’m in a 12-step program today.  What’s that first step?  Oh, yeah, admitting you have a problem.  The second?  Accepting it?  Hmmm . . . I don’t know.  Maybe this is a lousy analogy.  I attribute it to that rust I mentioned in my last post (at least, that’s my story, and I’m sticking with it).  Anyway, I got thinking about 12-step programs because they are supposed to be about self-exploration as a way to get to the root of a problem.

So what’s the problem I want to explore here?  That’s an easy one.  I didn’t have a great writing year in 2015.  Not a single measure I track—words written, stories finished number of submissions, webpage posts, sales—shows I had a good year.  Even the writing successes I did have (some sales, some good reviews) were the products of earlier efforts.  I have to face it, 2015 was a dud of year in terms of my writing.

On the personal and professional front, a lot happened in 2015.  At the start of the year, I had a parent who was sick and needed a lot of tough love—it’s hard telling a parent they can no longer take care of themselves.  After that, I was essentially working two full-time jobs for while (especially during the middle of the year).  Add to that a busy travel schedule for my day job, various family responsibilities, etc., and I found myself mentally drained.

All this contributed to a distinct lack of story ideas, or rather, a lack of story endings.  I started a lot of stories, but they all seemed to stall.  I seemed to have no endings, or at least I developed an inability to write the endings I had.  After a while, it became easier to not try, then to do.

But you know what, writing fiction is hard; if it wasn’t, everyone would write a bestseller.

Yes, 2015 was a tough year, but in the end, I think I forgot my number one rule for writing: butt in chair and words on the screen.  Writing isn’t glamorous  and sometimes it isn’t fun, but if I want to reach my writing goal (writing and publishing), I need to put my butt in my chair and pound out stories—one word, one sentence, one paragraph at a time.  I know it will be tough for a while, and I know I can’t always write my way out of a story tangle, but if past experience is any predictor, it will get easier with time because I’ve found that the more I write, the more ideas I get and the easier it is to find and craft those endings.

So here’s to a better 2016.  I’m already more confident that this year will be a better one for my writing.