When the Drive is in Neutral

My writing has still been non-existant and I believe I haven't written a single word in almost a month. Of course I can attribute this to some reasons and even make excuses about my move. Yes they are valid but only to a point. I will say that the two of the past three weeks have been filled with moving, a quick trip down south and other time-consuming things, but this past week has had a little more free time. Unfortunately that time has been filled with World of Warcraft, some TiVo and also Mario on the Wii. Writing has not taken a front seat on my priorities list.

Another reason for the struggle is with Mars. This is a book I was hoping would become the second novel I write but I have had major issues with it, and it's not even started. The past few times I've sat down to write it, it's been a complete struggle. Bottom line: I'm not feeling it. This is quite dissapointing though because I wrote the opener one day and brought it to my old writing group. It was well recieved and I thought it was a fantastic jumping-off point for the book. The subsequent pages have not followed suit.

I believe some of the issues lay with my internal debate as to what genre I want to write. Instinctively I'm a sci-fi guy but I also have it in my head that things in that genre aren't as marketable. I'm sure I'm completely wrong but this debate has caused me to second-guess the plot of the story. I have a sci-fi idea but also a normal fiction idea dealing with being away from home.

I've come to a crossroads where I must decide what I'm going to do before proceeding with Mars. I must scrap it, put it aside and begin another project or figure out what the hell I want to write. I refuse to fight with myself and feel forced to get 60k words down on the page. Writing is supposed to be fun and enjoyable. Forcing myself to proceed will just make it painful.