Expanding, or Just Blowing Up

I've been productive with my writing over the past six weeks. More than 138,000-words written in five stories, one poem, and one Evil Editor exercise (see September 20, Pirate Speak Exercise). The shortest piece was the poem, 192-words. The longest was a novel, Shadow People, 64,664-words. My current work, The Sweet Girl, has a slight chance of passing Shadow People. It's currently at 60,099-words. I'm finishing it up tonight or tomorrow.

Been thinking of trying my hand at something else: drawing. It's something I have thought about often over the years. I really wish I could draw as well as I desire. The problem I have had is that to draw as well as I desire requires years of practice. (How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice. Practice. Practice.) In order to achieve my goal I have to accept my first efforts will hardly resemble what I ultimately want. I have the same problem with my bass. Damn, I wish I could play it, and play it like a pro. But that requires practice. And that means time.

I suppose it comes from being older, but lacking the wisdom of real age.

But I have this artist's sketchpad. Bought it years ago with a book on how to draw cartoon figures. Actually filled in a page before I became disgusted with my efforts and set it aside. Too impatient. The four drawings of men are supposed to be the same man, and the four drawings of women are supposed to be the same woman. The woman wasn't supposed to look like some ditz, either.


So I'm tempted to give drawing another go, despite the fact that my handsome men and beautiful women are going to look like the images above. But if I could only draw, even to the point where I could actually repeat an image so that it was clear it was the same person, I could generate my comic strips: Decca the Brave, about a fat and lazy horse (based on horses Spouse and I used to own); Hotshot Reporter, about an idiot small town newspaper reporter who was so tall you never got to see his head (based on my time as such). I also might be able to draw images for my Hero stories.

The problem with trying to draw, or play the bass, is that it has to take time away from my writing, and that is going so well right now I hate to do anything to jeopardizing it. Still, I'm feeling creative. Maybe now is another good time to at least think about it. I'm great at thinking about things. I do it better than anyone. Pity I can't get paid for that.