The first step is admitting you have a problem.
About five years ago I started up a pile of writing projects. Good ones. Interesting ones. I conducted interviews, amassed clippings, drew up outlines and rough drafts…and then just stopped. On occasion I’ve written extended blog entries for my Chicago site (www.chicagosteppes.com), but otherwise I just developed daytime night terrors over finishing anything. I finished my novel a year ago, and I’ve gotten about 30 pages into editing it before thinking, “Why?” and galumphing off to do whatever the fuck. It’s not writer’s block. It’s goldbricking, and I’m sick of it.
So, to quote Paul Shaffer in Spinal Tap, “Just kick my ass, okay?”
(Subject title came from a sheet of paper my friend Steven Svymbersky’s daughter Maddie wrote down and handed to me many years ago. SHE READ MY SOUL.)
