I'm on a deadline. Not from an agent or a publisher - I wish - but a self-imposed deadline to keep the book moving along. Well, things happen, paying freelance jobs come up, sunny afternoons call me outside, etc., etc. and before you know it my self-imposed deadline is looming. This week. OK. I will not panic. I can do this - it's just like final exam time for a class that I attended sporadically. I can still manage an A with a few Super Big Gulps and a study carrel.
I gave myself that pep talk with big plans for today to be a day of intense focus and accomplishment. Unfortunately I woke up with my head full of evil YOU CAN'T DO IT demons. Oh no - not those guys. I keep vanquishing them and they keep coming back. I packed everything I needed in a backpack and ran off to Panera Bread, but the demons followed. Fortified with a half-sandwich and salad plus an iced green tea, I put pen to notebook and forced them out of my head. They were replaced by a band of EVERYTHING YOU WRITE IS CRAP demons, but I've been fighting those guys for years, so I just let them buzz around while I wrote until they got tired and went away.
Now it's time to transfer all those ideas from notebook to computer. First edit stage. How much truly is crap, and how much will make it into Word? Time to fill in all those awkward parts I left "for later." Later is now. A quick blog is my break, gets me typing, spelling (I looked up carrel by the way), getting my butt stuck in the chair, finding a comfortable position. OK I'm here. Time to get it done. I can do this.
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6 comments:
You are so funny. Is your book going to be funny too?
Anonymous? Mom - is that you?
I know those demons well. You are fighting them more rigorously than I usually do. Especially with the self-imposed deadlines. I usually find my inner Xander, the goofy one from when he was split into good and lame pieces.
I really admire what you are doing. Keep it up.
As a writer, I share your frustrations!
As Nike says sometimes we have to JUST DO IT!
I've started and stopped writing my book so many times, I forget what's it's really about.
I agree with dodi, I tend to have the inner Xander strength. :-)
Yup. Know those demons too. Not with writing, per se, since I don't do much of that anymore (and I didn't really care much when I was writing). My demons focus more on my ability to find another graphics/web job closer to home. They seem to think that everywhere else has standards that I don't have to meet where I am now.
Stupid demons, even if all the places I've interviewed seem to agree with them.
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