…I start writing again tomorrow. I’m a bit daunted, to be honest. Trying to not let it get to me. It’s been two weeks since I last sat down to write. I so so so wanted to be done with this rewrite at this point, and I’m not. Part of the dauntedness I feel is due to the failure, that I failed to achieve a goal I’d set for myself…
But I know why I failed at that goal. I actually do: I have too much on my plate. I’m reading a series of books right now on writing by an author by the name of Chris Fox, and he coined a term, or at least borrowed it from somewhere else, that I really like. It’s called “clearing the decks.” I wonder if it’s a military term. So many of these indie authors seem to be from the military.
Anyway, “clearing the decks”: it means that you have to set yourself up for success by identifying all of the things that can and will distract you, and figure out ways to ensure that they don’t. Well, I have a shit-ton of those, all self-inflicted, that really impacted my writing output this past year. Too many jobs, too many other side projects.
Even before reading this Chris Fox book series, I knew I needed to trim those other obligations from the daily tree. It’s just too much stuff. I need to simplify. I realized that I had a limit to how many balls I could juggle in the air at once. So, I am. That is the focus of the first two months of 2017: clearing the decks. This rewrite is deck-object number one. After that, it’s TG1T.
The second component of that is re-establishing my writing routine. Gotta do it. Every day. Has to happen. And in reading these books, I’ve realized that it needs to happen even when I finish this rewrite and move on to clearing out the mountain of TG1T editing that I have to do. Not sure what that will look like yet…but I think I’ll use that time to develop the two books series I’m going to write; work out some of the longer story arcs…make sure I have a solid, solid outline for the first book or two in each series.
Those are all the thoughts swirling about in my head tonight as the clock strikes 11:11.
I had a rollercoaster day today thinking about making the transition to writing full time. It was up and down. For a couple hours here and there, I was sure it was going to be a mistake, a catastrophe, that I should just pack in all the ideas of working as a professional creative. Then for a couple hours, I’d feel so excited about spending so much time writing and telling so many stories, that I could hardly contain myself. I finally recognized what was happening around 8 and night or so. It was the darndest thing. I don’t know if I can ever remember so many ups and downs in a single day…or maybe it’s just the first time that I’ve become aware of it.
Knowledge is power, guys. If I am aware of a behavior that I exhibit, I can change it if I want to…or at least be more calm and in control of it.
Anyway, it’s 11:15 and it’s time for bed now.
One last thing that I also realized today: I have to confess that for whatever reason…I feel like it’s because I feel that lately I haven’t been as disciplined as I was for a while…that I’ve been un-forthcoming in my blog entries lately. For the past month, maybe two; that I’ve been keeping things light and short rather than really talking about what’s on my mind. I’ve been cruising with the entries instead of being truly honest, even (especially) when the honesty would be sharing something sensitive, or shameful because I’d failed at something, or were falling short of my own expectations.
I haven’t been disciplined lately, you guys. I’ve been overwhelmed.
More on that later I guess 😛 Had a little mini-blowup with the pups that’s now contained. Time for sleeps. Night 😉
Artwork tonight is from Tim White.