It’s common knowledge that in order to be a writer, you have to write. And in order to be a “professional” writer, you have to treat your passion like a job. This means adhering to a schedule of some sort, making sure that no matter the capricious moods of our muses we’re sitting at the desk banging out words. And it feels like I’m nearly there — that I can sit down and work on something every day.
It’s quite different when you have specific projects that you need to have done within a certain deadline, I’m discovering. Last year, if there was something I didn’t quite feel like working on I could go off and do something else — a low-stakes project that didn’t require a whole lot of thinking or worry. But now that’s not quite an option; if I wake up in the morning and feel a bit too sleepy to work on a story that ‘matters’, too bad. It needs to be done, so I’m going to need to do it anyway.
That requires an adjustment that I’m still working through. I’m behind on a few things already, including a Thursday Prompt short story that I wanted to have done today. That will have to wait for the weekend to be written; I already have my idea spun up and waiting, but I’d rather take some time to play with it before rushing it out the door.
On the bright side, this means that my three posts for next week are all spoken for. Ryan and I have made a commitment to watch an AFI Top 100 Movie every Thursday, so I’ll be reviewing that in a post here. Between that and the Thursday Prompt, that leaves one blog entry to fill during the week to keep up with my minimum. I think filling that slot with personal thoughts and progress on various projects is a good way to use that.
This weekend, I’ll be writing, reading a lot and probably watching Ryan playing Mass Effect 2. We have yet to recover from the holidays, so this will be an excellent time to slow down, clean up our apartment, and really solidify our plans for a great new year.
That’s the plan, anyway. I’m sure there will be plenty of wine in there somewhere, and a meal or two with friends. A rabbit has to poke his head up out of the burrow once in a while, after all.
From the Desk of Jakebe T. Rabbit 