I’m having a tough time getting started on any writing projects lately. Well, no, that’s not quite it. I’m having a tough time *finishing* any writing projects. I’ve got two short stories, a novella, and a book started, and I can’t seem to make progress on any of them. I flip back and forth, flounder for a while, put it away, and them miss a day or two while I pay attention to other projects.

Wash, rinse, repeat.

Part of it, I think, is that I feel very betwixt and between. I don’t feel finished with ALM. I need to let go of it, but instead I keep tweaking, keep questioning. I’ve resisted major changes but I keep stumbling over minor ideas. For example, bread is served at a meal, described as a crunchy Italian loaf. Wouldn’t it be more interesting if it were green? Made of some sort of seaweed flour? And yet later I have a green pastry made of seaweed and won’t that line become repetition if Fen has already eaten seaweed bread? It would be a little change that would ricochet down the line resulting in other changes. And I look at parts where I did make little changes and worry that the changes haven’t balanced correctly–Fen’s fear of hallucinations may be too strong in one place, too mild in another, for example.

Eventually, though, I’ve got to let it go. On the 26th I’m going to ask my mailing list if they want review copies and at that point, it has to be final. I wish I could figure out how to be productive with something other than ALM and its audiobook between now and then, though!