The Moment of Doubt Turns Into Inspiration

If you haven't figured it out yet reading this blog, you need to know that I am an unabashed George RR Martin fan and sycophantic apologist. I love just about everything the man writes, especially in Westeros, and will defend him with vigor. I fear the day that I will get to meet him (if ever) because I really have no idea what my reaction will be. Seriously.

For those of you not in the know, today GRRM released another chapter (I'd link but the traffic pretty much crashed his site) of the penultimate book in the classic A Song of Ice and Fire series. And yes, #1 it's classic...say all you want about delays and the mediocrity that was FEAST, it's still one of the most important pieces of literature of my generation...I said it, frakking deal with it...and #2: I won't call it by it's HBO name, that's something completely different! It's a chapter titled Mercy but we all know who it really is...don't worry, I won't spoiler it. And it is intense. And creepy. And squicky. It's everything that Ice and Fire is. And it's brilliant. And it's visceral. And in that moment, it made me completely and totally question my ability as a writer. I mean seriously, pack it in John. Game over, man. Game over. You don't stand a chance at ever being good. My mind goes panic/dark too quick.

I'm overreacting, of course. I know that's a shocking to those of you that know me on a personal level beyond the confines of the World Wide Web! I tweeted something to that effect and was talked down a bit by my friend Mark Hoover who directed me in the way that I should be: inspired, moved, so get freaking writing. And that's just what I am going to do. I've been in a rut lately and I need to correct that ricky tick. Maybe this was that moment of doubt that I needed to spark me into action. I think that it might be. GRRM did it to me once, way back when in 2000 when I first bought my copy of A Game of Thrones and never looked at fantasy again. It's like he's done it to me again. Kicked me in that ass. I've been thinking about writing all afternoon (well, at least since my students left my classroom) and I can't wait to wade back in!

Tonight, words on the contemporary project I'm working on and a serious focus on a "writing plan" for the Spring and Summer. Lots of spinning plates and I want to dedicate a serious chunk of time this summer to working parallel: writing a fresh project while working on rewrites. I'll talk more about that in another post...once I get my writing plan down!