I recently watched The American President and realized one of my favorite lines from that movie actually applies to me: I've been so busy trying to keep my job, I forgot to do my job.
I've been so wrapped up in trying to improve my stories and create the new membership site to protect them that I've stopped producing those stories the way I used to, one chapter at a time.
I think part of the reason I haven't focused my writing efforts more on getting new chapters ready to post is because I've known that I wasn't going to post anything new until I got the membership site up and running. While that has been incomplete (and some days I've even considered it up in the air because I've been on the verge of chucking the whole idea and just taking my stuff down), I haven't really felt any impetus to work on the next chapters for my stories.
Instead, when I have worked on my stories (in between all the life crap that's been getting in the way or trying to get the new membership site done), I've tended to focus on editing what I've already written, or working on scenes that come later in the stories, or working on unposted stories, or researching facts and ideas.
All of those are certainly valid endeavors and need to be done, but they haven't really let me feel like I've accomplished anything. And they certainly don't let my readers feel like I'm still actively working on my stories. If I had new consecutive chapters ready, even if I didn't post them until the new site was done, I could at least tell my readers that they were written (I'm not going to lie and say they are when they're not). Instead, I have half-finished rewrites, partial scenes, and various "snippets" scattered throughout my stories without a single "next" chapter completed.
Because of the numerous edits I'm in the middle of for The Vampire Hunter, it's unrealistic to expect myself to be able to work on the next chapter in that series, since until those edits are finalized, that next chapter is somewhat up in the air.
But none of my other posted stories are in such tatters. So, rather than beat myself up for getting so sidetracked, I'm going to try to let all that other crap go and really put some effort into working on my stories on a regular basis the way I used to. If I'm in the mood to edit, then I will, but I really want to move forward. I love writing and I feel like I've lost sight of that with all the distractions of day-to-day life stuff coming up and my mistaken belief that I had to get the new site done before I could focus on my stories again.
So, I'm hereby giving myself permission to make writing my top priority, not finishing the new site.
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Doing My Job
Written by Kodi Wolf at 3:16 AM
I recently watched The American President and realized one of my favorite lines from that movie actually applies to me: I've been so busy trying to keep my job, I forgot to do my job.
I've been so wrapped up in trying to improve my stories and create the new membership site to protect them that I've stopped producing those stories the way I used to, one chapter at a time.
I think part of the reason I haven't focused my writing efforts more on getting new chapters ready to post is because I've known that I wasn't going to post anything new until I got the membership site up and running. While that has been incomplete (and some days I've even considered it up in the air because I've been on the verge of chucking the whole idea and just taking my stuff down), I haven't really felt any impetus to work on the next chapters for my stories.
Instead, when I have worked on my stories (in between all the life crap that's been getting in the way or trying to get the new membership site done), I've tended to focus on editing what I've already written, or working on scenes that come later in the stories, or working on unposted stories, or researching facts and ideas.
All of those are certainly valid endeavors and need to be done, but they haven't really let me feel like I've accomplished anything. And they certainly don't let my readers feel like I'm still actively working on my stories. If I had new consecutive chapters ready, even if I didn't post them until the new site was done, I could at least tell my readers that they were written (I'm not going to lie and say they are when they're not). Instead, I have half-finished rewrites, partial scenes, and various "snippets" scattered throughout my stories without a single "next" chapter completed.
Because of the numerous edits I'm in the middle of for The Vampire Hunter, it's unrealistic to expect myself to be able to work on the next chapter in that series, since until those edits are finalized, that next chapter is somewhat up in the air.
But none of my other posted stories are in such tatters. So, rather than beat myself up for getting so sidetracked, I'm going to try to let all that other crap go and really put some effort into working on my stories on a regular basis the way I used to. If I'm in the mood to edit, then I will, but I really want to move forward. I love writing and I feel like I've lost sight of that with all the distractions of day-to-day life stuff coming up and my mistaken belief that I had to get the new site done before I could focus on my stories again.
So, I'm hereby giving myself permission to make writing my top priority, not finishing the new site.
The new site will get done when it gets done.