A Writer's Realization

(And speaking of writer's angst...) So where was I? Ah yes, resting after finishing a story within one week.

Though I meant it as a joke in an earlier post, I was serious about feeling like a bloody addict after I finished. Three days since I last submitted my piece, I still feel like opening a word file and working, working, working-- whether it's a new story or one I've already started.

Ironically, that's how I managed to finish my last story (my unfortunate try at a magic realism story). A few days after I decided to work on an unfinished piece as my submission, I decided to change to another story because I wouldn't hack out the details of the first one. I finished the rewrites and revisions of that story in one day; by the next day, I thought the story requirements didn't fit that particular story so I went back to my first story. By now, there was only one day 'til the deadline but it didn't matter as I finished the story a few minutes before midnight.

Despite the loss of that one day, the changeover helped because it got me moving over the story-bumps I was having, akin to shooting barako coffee direct into your vein (not that I've tried that, of course). I suppose what I'm felt then (and what I'm feeling now) is something like a caffeine rush after drinking coffee. It's quite an exhilarating rush actually and I can see why some writers keep at it despite the hardships involved.

Alas, I expect this 'high' won't last long with time, work and the real world set to bring me down. Still, it's nice to know that something is really true: that the best way to solve a writing problem is to write.