An Indigo Mind

Seems the spambots have found my website. over the last two weeks I’ve had over 70 spam comments on just a handful of posts, mostly the one about Leavenworth. So to steam the tide I had to close commenting to that post.

A while ago, over at Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers, Marie Brennan blogged about writers and ranks. I like the apprentice, journeyman, master metaphor. It’s one that resonates with me, perhaps because I like the concept of ‘leveling up’. But in any case it got me to thinking about my writing and where I was in my development of it.

I will freely admit that I am an apprentice. Though I’ve been writing for about ten years now I’ve only been writing seriously for four years, most of which were spent working out emotional upheavals in my life and simply getting a sense of what it was to write. Now I feel like I’m on the verge of something. Not the transition to journeyman, but on the verge of being able to see what it is I need to do to reach that next level and my way will be clear, if challenging.

I’m working on a short story right now. The idea of it hangs clearly in my mind’s eye and I know that there is something different about this story. This is the first short story that I’ve ever written without purpose – not for a contest or anthology submission – and it’s the first that came to me as a short story, and not just a story. Something about it feels right, like this is the sort of thing I need to be doing more of.

I’ve also shifted Covenant Cross to the back burner for the first time since I started working on it. About the same time the short story idea hit me I realized that my pet project was becoming just that – a pet project. I loved playing with it too much and it was swiftly becoming an Unfinished Project. I needed some distance, and to work on something else for awhile.

While I’m linking to stuff here are a couple other good posts I was linked to this last week – Six Friends Every Writer Needs. A list that is both sweet and true.

Also, 15 Step Program for Good Writing Habits. Good advice, especially with NaNoWriMo coming up in just over a month.