Small things!

After finishing my rewrite of 400 pages of my novel, I feel exhausted.  As many of you know, taking on big projects requires a great deal of energy, time, passion, and the kind of stick-to-it-ness that is hard to give to other, lesser, projects.  So, today, instead of throwing myself into something new, I decided it would be best to put the finishing touches on some small-scale projects.  For instance, I will be editing a 1,500 word short story for an upcoming competition.  The genre is sci-fi, which is my first attempt at writing something out of this world (ha!).  Actually, it has been a lot of fun creating a story that is not my typical style.  I tend to lean more towards romance, relationships, self-help, poetry, and such.  So, working on something completely different for me brings with it a splash of freshness.

Sometimes, tapping into areas that we are not typically drawn to can be a very beneficial strategy.  If we spend most of our time doing certain things, we are constantly using the same forces of energy and focus which can become mundane.  However, when we mix things up a bit and do something different, we pull upon different resources to help us out.  As for me, writing a sci-fi short story has allowed me to call upon creative juices that are not always so present.  It is easy for me to write on relationships and health because I have worked in those fields for quite a while.  Now, with the sci-fi, I get to put what I know aside and research deeper levels of my brain, or computer, to create.  Thankfully, it is a small project but it has a large impact on making my day great.  When I'm finished with this short story, I will be longing to pour myself back into an area that I am more familiar with!  cheers!