…because, you know what? They fit the bill.
One of my best friends, since childhood, passed away in
February due to a surprising diagnosis of lung cancer; surprising because she
was a strong, healthy, young woman who never smoked and lectured anyone who
did. The time between her diagnosis and passing was less than three months. It
was horrible, and I won’t discuss it anymore except to say that the loss has
inspired a sort of mid-life ass-kicking crisis with what I hope will result in
a positive outcome.
Until now, I have lived in an invincibility bubble
coexisting with so many of my high school students, who think nothing can ever
go wrong and that we have “until forever” to get things done. We don’t.
I don’t want to waste a moment. I may need to change my blog title.
Recently, I have finished the edits on my first YA novel (finished except for every time I open the MS and change something else). I have sent queries and received my first rejections. I have begun edits on my second YA novel, and I have written the intro and outlined my first NA novel. I have a bit of fire under my rear, and I’ve welcomed it. Even now, I sit at the kids’ swim practice typing this blog post because I refuse to spend the next 1.5 hours staring into space.
The downside of this obsessive work ethic is that I feel guilty simply sitting, napping, social networking, or even just pleasure reading. I’m also irrationally bothered when I see others sitting idle. I realize I need to mind my own beeswax and deal with this baggage soon because everyone deserves a break, but I don’t have time for that today.
Why fire up the Procrastination Station blog? I left it because I realized nobody, besides my mother, even cared about the blog. Seriously, no one read it. I came to this conclusion when I read other personal blogs and found them to be rather tedious unless I had a connection to the writer, or he or she was fantastically hilarious. I wondered why people put their personal diaries online when no one really cared. I’m saying that very matter-of-fact. It doesn’t hurt my feelings. If a post is not relevant or impactful to the rest of the world, why blog it? So, I stopped.
I don’t want to waste a moment. I may need to change my blog title.
Recently, I have finished the edits on my first YA novel (finished except for every time I open the MS and change something else). I have sent queries and received my first rejections. I have begun edits on my second YA novel, and I have written the intro and outlined my first NA novel. I have a bit of fire under my rear, and I’ve welcomed it. Even now, I sit at the kids’ swim practice typing this blog post because I refuse to spend the next 1.5 hours staring into space.
The downside of this obsessive work ethic is that I feel guilty simply sitting, napping, social networking, or even just pleasure reading. I’m also irrationally bothered when I see others sitting idle. I realize I need to mind my own beeswax and deal with this baggage soon because everyone deserves a break, but I don’t have time for that today.
Why fire up the Procrastination Station blog? I left it because I realized nobody, besides my mother, even cared about the blog. Seriously, no one read it. I came to this conclusion when I read other personal blogs and found them to be rather tedious unless I had a connection to the writer, or he or she was fantastically hilarious. I wondered why people put their personal diaries online when no one really cared. I’m saying that very matter-of-fact. It doesn’t hurt my feelings. If a post is not relevant or impactful to the rest of the world, why blog it? So, I stopped.
The blog is now important again because YA and NA readers
are NetGeners. Authors need to be accessible to readers and perspective agents.
Do I have an online presence? Yes, but I’m all over the place on Deviant Art,
LinkedIn, Twitter, etc... My next short-term goal is to create a website so
that readers have one place to access all things related to my stories, and the
site will be all about my stories because that is what most readers care about. Once
they are sucked into my tales, they may want to peek into my personal life, and
I may blog about it from time to time but probably not right away because do
readers really want to know the funny thing my 9-year-old said at breakfast?
Probably not. If so, they can follow me on Twitter.
My rather directionless blog now has a purpose, and I am using it again, as a business tool. Even if I am procrastinating, I will be supporting my goal to be published, which makes me feel like I’m not wasting any of the time I have.
My rather directionless blog now has a purpose, and I am using it again, as a business tool. Even if I am procrastinating, I will be supporting my goal to be published, which makes me feel like I’m not wasting any of the time I have.
2 comments:
And this is precisely why I feel so helpless. You have a goal. You know what you want to accomplish. I feel like I'm wafting in the wind and going where ever the wind takes me because I want SO MUCH but they are all so varied and I cannot pinpoint any one thing. Is this me, or is this my stage in life right now b/c son is still so small?? No, this isn't rhetorical. I need guidance.
I don't know how it is that I did not see this comment until just now.
I still sometimes wonder what I want to be when I grow up and fear that I still won't be satisfied when I achieve this goal. But really, there are so many things I want to accomplish and so many things that I have already had my nose in.
I think having varied interests can only help you as a writer. I'm rambling... sorry.
Really, my goal is to make enough money writing, so that I can travel all the time and have a backyard full of chickens. Maybe a goat too... I would also like to make artisan cheese... and learn another language and swim a 5K, and, and...
Maybe write a list and then start checking things off..
Things were harder when H and S were smaller because I didn't have much of my own identity. I was H and S's mom. Now, even H and S's friends will sometimes call me Christie, which is weird, but I am becoming Christie again... slowly and now I'll do what I want.. within reason. ;>
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