I wrote to 6 pages today. It was the first thing I did.
That’s a piece of advice that I can offer to any other aspiring writer out there who’s writing in addition to working full-time…write in the morning. Make it the first thing you do. Your day will wear you out, and if you’re writing after all that…well, more often than not you’re going to put it off and not do it because you feel like you deserve some time to just veg the fuck out. And you do! That’s precisely why you should write first thing instead…you’re going to walk through the whole rest of your day feeling like a goddamn badass. And you are. Because you got your writing done.
I felt like that today. Already, I feel like I did back when I was writing Starstuff. I think that I might be at my absolute happiest when I’m writing a first draft. For reals. I love it. And I’m really, really happy when I’m doing it. Obviously there are ups and downs…I know that’s coming. But overall when I think about what my lasting memories are of writing my first novel, I remember feeling absolutely wonderful. I was creating a whole new world, and getting to know characters whom I loved. There’s nothing better.
I then worked until 10 at night. That’s three days in a row. Ugh. But, I’m finally getting paid well for all that work. Finally. It took me 10 years, but I did finally figure out a way to get lucky and be able to do the kind of work I like doing, and be fairly compensated for it. I worked for a long, long time for pennies. That’d be more advice for the young(er) whippersnappers out there: stick with it. Keep working hard and *smart*, and the money will find you.
Keep in mind, too, that I have no less than FOUR jobs right now. So, there’s also that…
The video editing work continues to lag behind where I’d like it to. I could have been better about that today, but I got fixated on this one little section that wasn’t coming together like I wanted it to, and I *knew* what I wanted it to do, but I had to learn a new trick, which took some youtube’ing and the downloading of some new software…and I eventually got it the way I wanted, but I took probably 10 times longer to work on that particular assignment than I should have…but what can I say? I made a judgement call. And now I have a new editing trick up my sleeve. Can’t complain about that. I even think I might be able to use it in several other contexts with my new job, so it might not be wasted time after all.
Not that I had any doubt, because I honestly didn’t, but it’s also quite gratifying to be proficient now in both Premire and After Effects. Like a boss. I can rip through those now. Kinda 😛
Okay, that’s it. The Ho is watching old Josh & Ira videos. It’s gettin’ real.