Why I Need to Write My Novel

So, I have been writing lately. More than I was a month ago, that’s for sure. But, I still feel… discontent with my writing. I’m not sure what it is. I’m getting down good words, I like where the stories I am working on are going. But sometimes I find myself asking “why am I doing this again?”

And yesterday, I think I hit upon the answer.

I’m not writing my novel.

Let me explain. While I am enjoying the short stories I am writing, and am even enjoying writing some things specifically for contests or magazines, I’m not writing a novel. The novel, the one that I really want to write, that I started outlining back in January. The one that is still pounding at me in the back of my head.

See, the truth is simple. At some point, I started getting focused on getting published, so I’ve been submitting and I’ve been writing stuff specifically to submit. But I haven’t been writing what it is I really want to write. That story that I write because I enjoy it, because I really want to.

And not writing that is making me feel kind of depressed every time I go to write.

So, with that in mind, I am going to put some of these stories I’ve been writing on the back burner and focus once again on my novel. Not to say that all of my shorts will go away. No, there’s a couple that I’m working on with some friends that I wish to work with. But even that is going to take second place to my novel.

Because, I am a novelist, and that’s where I need to go back to. Writing novels.

So, until next time, I’m going to be working on my next novel.