It’s traditional to share an excerpt from your work-in-progress on Wednesdays. Unfortunately, I’ve not made any progress this week on Shalan #6 (or Shalan #2, depending on how you decide to number them). It’s been a busy, productive week, just not in the realm of writing.

I’d love to be one of those writers who writes every single day. My life just doesn’t allow it, though, as I’ve chosen to prioritize time growing in my faith and then family time followed by my two jobs. Because of a conscious choice to put those things ahead of writing, adding to the Shalans’ story will always be on a catch-as-catch-can basis.

But that doesn’t mean I don’t actually make some sort of progress every day. It’s just not always something I’m capable of sharing. The book is constantly on a mental back burner, simmering quietly away. I’m putting ideas together, stirring them up, and taking a sip to see how they taste. Sometimes they taste fine in my head but not so much on the screen. Other times they turn into good stuff. The last time this happened was recently. I’d been kicking around all the plot elements in my book and how I really wasn’t clear on how they fit together. So I didn’t want to write until I had it figured out. But then, one day, it all made sense. And then the words just flowed.

I’m not waiting for that kind of inspiration now, though, but for myself to have time to actually get the writing done. Some writers can sit down for ten or fifteen minutes, hammer out a couple hundred words, and come back two hours later and do it again. I’m just not able to do that. I need a good solid hour at the very least to get anything done. I type a sentence, stare at it, stare off into space, go back and change a word, stare at the screen again, watch a bird or squirrel out the window, and then move on. Sometimes, like right now as I type this, I know what I’m going to say and it’s just a matter of typing the words as fast as I can. But that’s more often true for a writing like this than when I’m working on a book. This type of writing is more extemporaneous and more directly mirrors my thought process than writing fiction does. This type of writing comes more naturally and flows more easily, but is somehow less satisfying in the end.

I fear I’ve begun to ramble, so I’ll stop before I degenerate into complete nonsense. Hope you’ve enjoyed this little glimpse into my writing process. I hereby commit to having an actual excerpt by next Wednesday, so make sure and come back then. In the meantime, I’d love to hear from you. Comments and shares are happy things, so please consider one or both.