Besides working on the web, I have a job outside the home, and various time consuming side projects that require my attention as well. Finding the time to tell stories on a large scale can be tricky, but completely worthwhile. If you had seen any of my poetry, you would know that brevity is not a friend of mine, and I tend to be long winded with my pen. So I have been practicing on pen patience for years now.

Honestly, you must make the time to start your tales, and jot down quick ideas of what’s to come, if you do not have time to get to it right away. Major character or plot points can be quickly captured on the page for later. I, too, once believed that I lacked the time to write on a large scale. That I needed to be able to quit everything else and just focus on being a writer full time to be able to dislodge these stories from out of my head. After years of realizing that was never going to happen as I thought, I decided I could wait no longer. I found the time here and there to sit down and focus in to make some kind of progress on these works, even if it was just fifteen minutes to read-through what I last wrote and see if any sparks fly.

Since deciding that I would make time (even at the sacrifice of sleep…did I mention that I may have given myself insomnia, so maybe I could’ve used a better approach at times…), I have completed two screenplays, one novel, six one hour episodes of an original television series, three one hour episodes of a second original television series, and I have outlines for over 30 other scripts and five other novels that I will eventually work my way towards as well. I learned that would be no perfect time, and I needed to stop waiting for one to come along. I wrote when the words came, even if it was to simply scribble down the idea behind them, but in doing so, I had already started taking steps towards crafting that start and moving on from there…in short bursts and stages when necessary, but always moving forward.

I was travelling for work and therefore just saw this now.

Let us say that, if there is any kind pf “writers block” I have the “start” one…
It is as if I always try to have something SO PERFECT, that it permanently feels unattainable!
Characters, histories and all sorts of scenarios, sensations and odours live within me, ready for that magical moment when they may just “be born” out of me…

But my work takes a lot of time… and it has nothing to do with being a writer…

Result: I am ok when I am writing poetry, short stories or articles and essays, because these are small enough for me to muster the time to “give birth” to them…

It is more complex, though, when I dream or really doing something more with the dozens of characters that live in me, sometimes for years…

Well, I will dearly like to be enlightened by many of you who have the blessing of having TIME to write…

To me, a good start is sometimes the only thing that lacks to start pulling this thin thread of inspiration. When it comes, the whole thing blurts out, sometimes in one piece, without need for much editing afterwards.

What cam provoke this “start”?

With me, any number of things.
If those character or stories have been confusely living in me for a long time, sometimes it can be something common, from daily life, that suddenly suggests a start… And, if it sounds good, the rest will follow easily, until, there is a new uncertainty or words become less light, heavier and dragging their feet…

But always a good start will make my day.

I imagine that, if I could just BE A WRITER, I would go for walks (either in the city, among people and streets and cars, letting all this entangled life come in and inspire me, or in the country side, especially if overlooking the sea…).

Characters are especially enticing. They can live inside us for years, until finnaly we can birth their stories… Finally, they’re a bit like old friends or familly.

Well, so sorry for the long post! Happilly, you cannot throw tomatoes at me virtually! Or can you?

All the best,

Maria Carmo