HOW DO YOU KNOW WHAT TO WRITE ABOUT?

I used to think I’d never run out of things to say, but faced with the need to write a blog, I find that I go blank. What shall I write about? How can I write about writing? Everybody writes about writing. How do people who write daily columns in the newspaper do it? How do they come up with an idea every day? It’s impossible.

I only have to do this monthly, I think. Just do one blog a month. Just one. How hard can that be? But I don’t have anything to say. What have I been doing lately? Not much. I made a mistake on the size of my new book, so the interior has to be redone. Unfortunately, that means a delay in the finished product. I’m going to be on a book panel in San Diego in June, and I’m afraid my book won’t be ready. Worry wakes me at 3 a.m.

I took a break from my third Florida mystery novel to write a short story for a bi-annual anthology from Sisters in Crime/LA. I worked hard on this one. I didn’t enter last time, but two previous stories didn’t make it. Sigh! I hope this one does better.

It’s a good thing I don’t try to make a living from writing. I never had time to write when I was working. Long days, long commute, make dinner, and clean up. The only thing to do then was go to bed.

I know that lots of people write and work, but I never had the time or the energy. I remember author Robert Olin Butler telling a group that he wrote his first novel every morning and evening on his daily commute on the Long Island Railroad. That’s dedication, as is getting up at five a.m. every morning to write before work. I tried that, but my mind doesn’t function well at that hour.

Now that I’m retired, I do have the time, but not always the inclination. Nor the energy. I read with awe Paty Jager’s post saying she planned to cut down from her 2015 output of four mystery novels, two western romance novels and one novella to ONLY two novels and a novella in the mystery series and two historical western romance novels in 2016. That boggles my mind. Paty’s a real pro.

I’m an amateur. It takes me two years to write one novel. It’s a good thing I don’t have to make a living at writing. I’d starve to death. Now I’m back to my third Florida novels after the break to write the short story. But I don’t know where it’s going. Why did I want to be a writer?

I reread the posts that my fellow ladies of mystery wrote and thought, “Why didn’t I think of that?” and “Why didn’t I write that?” Too late now. So I’m stuck with nothing to write. It’s a good thing don’t have to write a daily column. I’d be fired.