performing and writing

I've actually had a few performances lately. I played a couple of times in January. And last Saturday, I played at some kind of party in a multi-million dollar home above Park City. On Tuesday, I played a Valentines dance at a church in Springville, and on Friday, I'll do one at the UVU institute building. Back in November and December, I had no pay gigs at all, which was discouraging.

I've actually had time to get some good practicing in, too. The last couple of days I've been able to put in an hour and a half each. Of course, it seems when I get a lot of practicing in, I don't get as much writing. It's hard to find a balance. A lot of writers want to get published so that they can quit their day job, but I love my "day" job. What other occupations can you "play" for a living?

I'm in limbo as far as writing goes. I hate to start a new project and then have to stop when I need to focus on editing book 1 again. This week, I'm mainly just trying to improve my chops. I'm studying a little on grammar, and I'm also working on disecting Harry Potter. By that, I mean I read each sentence carefully, analyze it's function and analyze its construction. It's very informative, though it takes a long time. I compare it to transcribing jazz solos and analyzing the notes the soloist played.

Also, I've resolved to write in this blog more. One thing I learned from a recent writing podcast is the importance of maintaining websites and blogs. For those who don't know about it, a great source of writing inspiration comes from www.writingexcuses.com. They have a lot of useful insights, check them out.