Anyone who knows me can tell you that I’m always busy. It wasn’t until right before high school that I really started writing (The Belgrave Daughter—now The Belgrave Legacy). In high school, I had a lot less free time, but I somehow squeezed in writing all 3 novels in The Belgrave Legacy trilogy (before it became 1 book) and starting The Matchmakers.
Now that I’m in college, I’ve barely written a new word since last January (when I revised and edited The Belgrave Legacy for the last time before putting it on preorder). I sadly haven’t touched The Matchmakers in way too long, despite my best intentions to finish it two summers ago… then last summer… and then this November for NaNoWriMo. The truth is I definitely haven’t prioritized it like I should, but I’ve been giving myself the mental breaks I didn’t give myself last year (which led to a not-so-minor breakdown).
You may be wondering at this point: What’s with the Hamilton-reference title if you’re saying you haven’t written a novel in a while?
My answer: just because I haven’t been writing my books, doesn’t mean I haven’t been writing.Almost every 2 weeks I have a paper due, and that means crazy amounts of reading, writing, and editing. This weekend alone will have me revising a paper due Sunday and writing like crazy to finish a paper due Thursday so I have time to edit it thoroughly.
Has this made me a better writer? I think so. There’s nothing like a hard deadline with the threat of failing a class to get my butt in a chair to write something to conclusion. And I because I have a date for The Matchmakers (January 27, 2017), watching that deadline approach is starting to make me antsy and wishing I could write more of the novel.
I’d be remiss to say that the recent election results haven’t motivated me to finish writing my own utopian/dystopian world. Veronica Roth once said Divergent was her utopia (the society, probably not including the crazy dictators). I feel the same way about The Matchmakers (because although it assumes we have a third World War, the maintenance of 90 years of global peace sounds amazing). And in this troubling time, I might as well indulge in what has always been my saving grace: writing.
So I’m declaring that after I finish these 2 papers, I will stop using YouTube as my go-to free-time activity. I will be a writer who writes, rather than a writer who waits. And I will finish The Matchmakers before the ball drops on New Year’s Eve.