I Also Can't Walk & Chew Gum at the Same Time

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I don't know if you've noticed this phenomena, but every time you declare something about yourself, the Universe tests your resolve. To wit: my announcement via blog, FB, and Twitter that I am devoting this year solely to working on my YA novel.

The Universe read my blog post and immediately said, "Oh, how cute are you??" and sent some job offers my way. A client I hadn't heard from in over two years suddenly surfaced with a request for website articles and ghost writing a blog. 

"Nope," I said, not even bothering to look up from my notes on character development. "I'm a novelist. Your job offer does not interest me." 

"Impressive," said the Universe. "But do you mean it?" And sent me what was practically a guaranteed job offer for a full-time position with our area community college. 

I looked up and sighed. "Can't you see I'm busy?" I asked. "Now please, leave me be." 

"One more," said the Universe, and up popped an e-mail from a former employer for whom I love working. It was a small itty-bitty job, just writing some copy for the landing page of a website. 300 words. How long could it take? 

"I'll do it," I said. 

"Ah-HA!" said the Universe. "I knew it!" And notified me that the proposal I'd sent in to be a speaker this fall at a social media expo had been accepted and paperwork, course description, etc. must be submitted, post haste. Which reminded me that to be seen as a valid speaker at a social networking event I might want to invest some time in, oh, I don't know... social networking?  

And so it comes to the fact that I have done no "writing" this week. I've stayed busy. In fact, I am a one-woman marketing machine, churning out press releases and sending out requests for promotional blurbs for WHO MOVED MY MOUSE, all while coordinating details for an upcoming blog tour. But that creative writing thing I said I was going to do every day without fail? It's not happening. And that worries me. 

I'm going to call this week a wash. Spend the next couple of days tidying up all these loose marketing threads I've pulled then regroup and try again. 

And when that Universe comes knocking at my door, I'm just going to curl into a tight ball and pretend no one is at home. 

Cheers,

Dena

Writing Is A Scary Business

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I believe I've mentioned in this blog--and more often on Facebook--how well the novel writing is going. I made a commitment at the beginning of 2011 to "submerge" myself in the novel I've put off writing for, oh, I'd say a good 4-5 years now. I've done well with that commitment. I've written over 10,000 words, most of it in character development and plot points and rough scene outlines, but 10,000 words, nonetheless. 

Now it's time to start writing the book. I've got my characters. I know (most) of their motivations. I have my setting. I've written the outline. There's nothing left for it but to write the book. 

And yet, I hesitate. 

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How to Lose 10 Pounds Without Dieting

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Boxes of old papers to be recycledReady for the secret to weight loss without dieting? Here it is. 

Clean out your desk. 

I spent 2.5  days going through every single file folder in both my desk and my credenza. Old research for articles long since published? Toss. Book marketing and promotion info I tore out of magazines and printed off-line then lovingly stuck in a three-ring binder for future reference and then neglected to ever look at? Gone. Papers on old classes I took, workshops I taught and random bits of intriguing info I stuck away in the hopes I'd return to them later? Gone, gone, gone!

The feeling of releasing all the old stuff is really quite freeing. Over the years, I've kept client files on everyone I've ever worked with, which isn't a bad idea if you think you'll work with them again in the future. But I sat down this holiday season and had a nice heart-to-heart with myself and what I decided is that all of the stuff I threw out represents not the writer I want to be, but the writer I guilt myself into thinking I should be. The one who takes on assignments because she's scared she won't be able to make money doing what she really loves, which is writing books.

So I ditched it all. I decided that every scrap of paper or file folder I Plus, paper only used on 1-side that I can resusehold on to that doesn't relate to authoring books serves the unhappy purpose of reminding me who I am NOT. Instead, I'm choosing to surround myself only with those things that remind me of who I want to be. 

The top drawer of my file folder credenza is now filled with the novels and stories and book ideas I've pushed to the back over the years. The notes for the young adult novel I've had stewing in my mind for six months are out on the writing desk, alongside fresh sheets of notebook paper and an array of pens. Having lost all that was unnecessary, unimportant, or draining to the psyche, I literally feel ten pounds lighter. 

How about you? What are you holding onto due to fear or guilt that maybe, just maybe, you could let go of? 

Here's to a lighter New Year!

Right On Schedule

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What's right on schedule? Why, my annual fall resolution to focus on book writing to the exclusion of all else.

If you're a client of mine reading this, not to worry. It's a phase. It will pass. It's just that every November, like clockwork, I decide that client work is a distraction from what I really want to be doing and I can't possibly be expected to work and write a novel. (And train for marathons, and have coffee with friends, and pet the cats, and cook whole, natural foods, and become a P90-X badass, and everything else I make time for in life. Of all those, the only thing that makes sense to dump is anything income-producing.)

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