The Things Left Behind or Diversify

Blog No. 359

Those of you who read this blog semi-regularly know that I actually write these posts on Tuesday and schedule them for Thursday. When I first started doing this weekly, I would try to write them Wednesday night, but most of the time I scrambled on Thursday, at the day job, with an avalanche of people streaming in for angry, yelling, tribunal time. It didn’t work out so well. I chose Tuesday as it’s usually a quiet day at work and it gives me a buffer in case things come up or my schedule changes. Because I write the posts two days early, I sometimes write about things that haven’t happened yet, but are likely (or almost certainly) to happen in the interim. Sometimes it’s a scheduled event, or just a planned meeting. This time, it’s me finishing the first draft of Broadcast Wasteland.

I feel dirty writing that with at least two chapters left to go, but I’m so close and I’m already over the time I said I would take to write this novella by a week, and then over by three more days. I’m at the point where I feel like I have to push through on Wednesday, even if I have to write double what I normally do. For several reasons, I need this journey to be over. I want the story to be done (a common desire when so close to the end), I need a break from scrambling to make writing every day work with an increasingly chaotic October schedule, I have made promises and commitments that are waiting for this to be over (and I’m even pushing the limits on some of those), and I have personal matters that have basically been pushed out of my head by this single minded focus on writing.

Overall, the writing focus is good. I need it. Even when the daily writing stops, I have to (and feel I’m likely to) keep writing more consistently. Jerry Seinfeld was right. Daily productivity is addictive. I’m promising to myself that I’ll write (or edit) at least four days a week for the rest of the year. It’s the only thing letting me give up the daily writing without crashing and burning, essentially eliminating all momentum. I’m ahead of the game, but there is a lot left to do. The sooner I finish, the more time I can spend working on the things piling up and buffer myself for the edits. Then, I’ll have more time to spend on those edits. I still have to get back to the novel. I have reviews for other people that have been hanging. I need to get new tires.

I’ve also been reminded about the need to have exit strategies and to diversify. I love doing the novellas, and I hope they become something one day. I have the novel that, if it turns out to be any good, I’m going use to try to find an agent. There are a lot of other avenues, though. I should have more finished short stories. I have loose connections with people who make television and movies. I should have some scrips finished, or at least in progress. I don’t want to water down the soup, but I’ve just show to myself that I can be more productive than I have been. It’s time to put another iron or two in the fire. I also need to keep a better look out for day job replacements. Drastic changes are being made that are currently only a minor nuance and small blow to my pay, but there are murmurs of other things to come. Plus, it’s a reminder that my income is currently under the control of people who can change things on a whim. If someone has a bright idea, I could be out of a job with no notice and no recourse. I have some vague and superficial leads, but I should add a regular job search to my monthly routine.

Anyway. Positive, positive. My book is (probably) finished.