While You're Twisting, I'm Still Breathing.

I feel exhausted.

Past few days I've had what I guess you could call a breakthrough. I don't feel great using "woo, writer's block is over, time to kick ass, etc, etc" rhetoric about it yet, and because of that I've been putting off mentioning it here. But I am writing, and talking about what I'm writing is what this blog is for.

So I'm doing some prose work. I'm not wild about prose, nothing against it, I'm just not as comfortable with it as I am other forms -- scripts make dialogue feel more natural, internal monologues are more fun in comics. I also lean pretty heavily on one sort of voice, so my prose work in short stories and essays really isn't much different than what I write here, or in letters to people, or, according to everyone except for one girl in a writing workshop I took in college, the way I talk. I guess because of the similarity it always felt less artful, and more like a gimmick.

But gimmick or not I'm soldiering forward. I've put three really rough pieces together, each about 2500 words long. I don't know if I'm going to go back and try edit them, or just use them for things to cannibalize lately. I don't have a strong opinion on any of it, but if I manage to get up the courage to make them presentable, I might post them or part of them here like I have with other writing in the past. A lot of the content now seems like stuff I'd normally just delete at the end of the day, but I've produced almost no work over the past two months and I'm really not wild about the idea of trashing anything until I feel a little bit better about my output.

I'm still a little split on what I'm doing next. Right now, I'm happily sitting on a few things to help other people with, which is always flattering when I'm asked, and a nice break from being worried about whether or not my own writing is worth the time I'm not giving it. Kyle and the Brainwrap crew have also offered me a chance to write for their current/next project [Re: SMAF], which should be a fun opportunity too.

All of this depends on outside factors, but I'm sort of hoping the past few days haven't been a fluke, and that I can keep being productive in one way or another. I'd like to write a couple shorts, or maybe pick up some old work again. I also have a plan to submit a few screenplays here and there to try and get myself attention and maybe a monetary prize or two [though I will admit I'm more interested if I can make some sort of an impression than I am winning anything], but those all have entry fees to scare off the uncommitted, and I remain sans debit card after my Christmas Disaster.

Finally, a request, to anyone reading. I'm going to put up a link bar down the side of the blog in the next few weeks, nothing fancy, it just seems like a nice way to share what little attention this site gets. If anyone reads regularly, and would like a link to their site posted on the page, just let me know in the comments section. If I comment on your blog regularly, or follow you on Twitter, I probably have plans to include your url already, but if you're not sure, don't hesitate to mention it to me.