What Counts As Writing?

Many unpublished fiction authors have written about how difficult it is to keep writing while sending out query after query and waiting for some agent to see not another piece of mind-numbing drivel but a tender juice worm which they swallow with great excitement only to be hooked....Forget it, talk about stupid metaphors! 

My point isn't how to attract an agent--those mysteries cannot be revealed because they're beyond the ken of human understanding.  What I'm interested in is what constitutes "writing" while waiting.  Blogging is a form of writing.  I'm active on the political arena at www.blogcritics.org.  I'm spending way too little time editing an earlier novel that I believe has real potential.  I've written a couple of book reviews that are getting adequate play.

But I'm not writing any fiction.  I begun sequels to the current novel I'm pitching and the one I'm editing  I also have the beginnings of three other novels.  So, as a wannabe fiction writer, does the other stuff count, or should I be spending at least an hour a day or so writing fiction?  And why aren't I?

I don't know the answer.  Writer's write, and that's what I'm doing, but after years of occasionally writing horrible novels, I think I've found my voice, so is all this other writing a distraction or does it count as useful writing?  Comments would be appreciated.

Comments

[vikk]

As one who writes in many forms, I find all my efforts feed directly into my writing and help me improve. Each form teaches me something else that I use or adapt or keep watch over when I write fiction. That said, there are many writers who do find writing in other forms distracting. Many fiction writers are also intimidated by nonfiction and run arway from it. Unless you find it distracting, I'd keep it up. Perhaps its more a question of balance. You'll find your way.

[Mark Schannon]

Vikk, thanks. You're right. It is a matter of balance. It's just that I've come so late to writing fiction that I think is good, I want to make up for lost time...but that's foolish.

It's not the end...it's the journey.