Bad Habits

After two and a half years of authoring My Blog Can Beat Up Your Blog, I think my greatest writing accomplishment is self-awareness. Later this month I’ll publish a novel and a short story, but recognizing that bad habits are hurting my writing is where I gather the most pride.

When I started this blog, I didn’t envision it becoming a writer’s hamlet of prompts, memes, and serialized fiction. I thought I’d pontificate on things I liked or didn’t, and then share some of my art every once in a while.

With my commitment to Sprocket Ink http://sprocketink.com/ of three posts a week on topics ranging from politics to Ke$ha, I get to share my opinions and journalism skills. Through Twitter and Facebook – @TLanceB and Lance Burson – I can drop random thoughts, jokes, quick opinions, sports rambles, and thoughts on music. This leaves My Blog Can Beat Up Your Blog as the one stop shop for my flash fiction, poetry, and novel ideas. The problem is, and I do consider it a problem, I write too much.

My novel, The Ballad of Helene Troy, should have been out in September or October. Granted, I’m remarkably neurotic, so the fine tuning of seventy-five thousand plus words has taken longer than advertised because I’m bat crap crazy.

The short story contest, America’s Next Author, from which I’ll publish a ten thousand word short story called Italian Radio, took me by surprise. I didn’t expect to last over two months and finish in a tie for fourth of a field of over three-hundred writers. The response to the story was better than expected, so that’s taken on another life.

Certain quirks have developed with my writing, as a result. I’ve become that guy with ideas for new stuff that are never finished. My friend and writing partner, Tara aka @Tara_R http://thinspiralnotebook.wordpress.com/ and I decided to run a summer blog series combining our female killer characters, Millicent aka Vivian and Pauley. The reception was so great and we had so much fun writing it, a sequel was spawned, tentatively called The Brazilian Job. It resumes this week.

The bad habits I’ve picked up along the way – overcommitment to prompts, saying yes to every guest post (even though I’m honored), and not finishing stories I’ve started have made me mad at myself and not enjoying writing as much as I should.

So, some things are going to change.

For now, 100 word song remains on Tuesday nights. I’ll combine it with whatever word my friend Velvet http://www.velvetverbosity.com/ comes up with for the week. The only other prompt I’ll be hanging with will be Trifecta Writing Challenge http://www.trifectawritingchallenge.com/ . I will do at least one of them a week, since they’re only 333 words and 33 words, but they’ll be used in the stories I’ve already started – Soul To Body, Trever Hoyt, and anything Helene oriented. Of course, Tara and I write so well together, any sequels or subsequent fiction adds to our story about Millicent and Pauley will continue. I’ll also provide personal tales of being the only man in a house full of women, as well as fighting mental illness. But for the most part, this will be a writer’s hamlet and Hamlet for my fiction.

I don’t want to say I’ll making My Blog Can Beat Up Your Blog save money, lose weight, stop drinking or travel more. But, in a metaphorical sense, that’s what will be happening.

I love writing. It’s part of who and what I am. I just want to keep on loving writing. Breaking some bad habits will, hopefully, ensure that affair stays strong in 2013.

Thank you for clicking on this site, reading, and commenting. It’s a pleasure to read your stuff, too.

Here’s some Thin Lizzy.