I am having an unprecedented surge in writing productivity lately. I attribute it to three things: 1. the remarkable successes of my two inspirational writing buddies, Tanya Chernov and Kelly Davio, who are cranking out the manuscripts faster than I can say to my kids, “Put some socks on, it’s only 20 degrees outside!” 2. NaNoWriMo, for obvious reasons, and 3. the poetry workshop I did with Kim Addonizio, which just ended last week. You already know all about my NaNoWriMo experience, but the workshop was just as productive in its way. I wrote six new poems, which will soon be in submitting form thanks to the excellent comments from Kim and my workshop buddies. I would highly recommend her workshop to anyone who has some skill with poetry. It’s definitely not a beginning workshop (which is something I valued greatly) but for medium to advanced poets, it is super helpful.

Given those six new poems and the new poems I’ve written earlier this year, plus a couple of old ones I went back and revised yesterday, I feel a new manuscript taking shape. Or, rather, pieces of my old manuscript combined with some new stuff in a fresh way that goes in a whole different direction. My poetic voice has really changed since I wrote that MFA thesis. Not only that, but when I go back and read some poems from then that I thought were finished, I can see clearly now how to make them work better. Apparently my brain has been working this year, even during the months when I didn’t write. This is the second time I’ve had a long dry spell and then come back to it feeling like I’d taken a big leap in skill.

So it’s all good, right? Well, not exactly. Now I have a quandry that I’m having a hell of a time sorting out. See, I have two goals for my writing, and I feel equally excited about both. One is to finally write the poetry manuscript that’s been hanging in the back of my subconscious for months, and feel really good about submitting it for publication. I feel like I’m in a good place in terms of skill, motivation, and clarity to do so.  The second is to finish the memoir and pitch it to an agent. This project has been hanging back there for a few years, and I’m halfway done with a draft, plus I’m getting more clarity about the theme, voice, and direction of it with each day that passes.

I have a lot of confidence and enthusiasm about both projects, and I can’t seem to figure out which one should take priority.  I’m not sure I can work on both simultaneously and maintain the kind of eat-drink-sleep-breathe-the-project intensity I’m going to need to do it right, so I have to pick one or the other to focus on first, but which???  It’s driving me nuts. And I am not a patient person by any means, so I desperately want both of these projects to be finished yesterday. Heh. It’s making me crazy that I’m stuck in this zone of indecision instead of plugging away.

Perhaps I will leave it up to you guys. What project should I do first, and why, keeping in mind that I see these two projects as being relatively equal in terms of workload and time-to-completion?  You decide, and I’ll get to work.