Too Many Choices (Sydney Salter)

Every January I fill out my Ink + Volt planner, committing to five big goals, like writing a new novel, and a dozen smaller things I'd like to accomplish, like reading more books that I already own (😅 I'm very bad at that). I've checked off two of my big goals so far this year, and I'm in good shape with six months to go.

But I have a decision to make.

During the planning/research phase for my next WIP, I suddenly figured out the problem with two of the stories I've been shopping: my initial pages of one story set the wrong tone, creating the wrong expectations for the genre of each story. Figuring that out helped me realize how another story starts out too eager to please, too over-the-top voice-y, again setting up the wrong expectations. A third story starts in the wrong place. Again.

I can fix all of it.

But spending time fixing those stories will make it unlikely that I will accomplish all five of my big goals for the year, and I really want to write something new. I love the creative phase of writing--all the possibilities. Revision is hard. And I've made the wrong repairs twice now on one story. GRRR.

All week I've been floundering around with too many potential writing tasks.

I can do X. Or Y. Or maybe start Z. Too many choices have left me paralyzed. 

I need to focus. I talked to a writer friend who advised me to go for the low hanging fruit. I think she's right. It's probably better to fix up existing work rather than creating something new that will need a lot of revision once it's done. I can submit the more polished stories while working on the new WIP.

It feels good to focus on one story at a time--in order from least to most work to brand new. That's the nice thing about decisions: once you settle on a choice you can dig in and get to work.