Idle Thoughts

Ignorance is bliss. Starting with a cliche is not what I had in mind when I signed up to do a blog. I tried to find a better start but couldn’t find anything better to describe my mood. The last six months I have read six or seven books on writing, the English language and struggled through critiques’ by teachers and rejection comments by editors. I want to be a writer and wanted to know how to become a good one.
Before all of this I would think about writing something for several days while walking or laying in bed at night and start to write. Once the character or characters became a picture in my head the thoughts of the previous days would start to fall in place and I would write faster as I lived the story in my head.
The last six weeks I have written only one new short story and wasn’t too happy with that. Before I didn’t know that the first sentence should be strong and grab the reader or that there needs to be a beginning, middle and end. All of the don’ts keep jumping out at me, don’t tell, don’t use cliches…
I have edited and used some of my older work and submitted and even had a story accepted by an e-publisher. The problem is I have lost the excitement of creating something that is new. I am working on a true story that needs to be finished by the end of the month. I write ten or fifteen minutes and put it aside.
Compounding this is the fact that this is a busy month family wise and commitment wise. There are too many legitimate excuses that I can use to put off writing. I seem to jump from one thing to another, not finishing one but feeling compelled to try something else and doing this over and over.
I would like to find that old freedom, to find the pictures in my head and try to turn the pictures into words that let others see pictures.