[One of the best songs about football, hands down.]
The problem with Football Season is that it gives me one more reason to be distracted from my writerly duties. Not that I need more distractions…I already have the music, the social media, the Day Job, and everything else! Still, it’s a pleasurable distraction; as with music, I have it on in the background while I’m working on something else, glancing up at the screen every now and again when someone scores or executes a brilliant play.
Time can be tricky, especially when you’re attempting to balance the finite amount we’re allotted with the infinite number of things you want to use it for. I dedicate eight hours a day to my Day Job (I try to avoid overtime, and for the most part it’s never needed anyway), but during my breaks, I will sneak a few writing things in. During my 9:30am break, I’ll sit on the loveseat across the room and write an entry in my daily personal journal. During lunch I’ll read my writing magazines. During the afternoon break I’ll catch up on emails and whatnot. And on the rare occasion that I have a slow day, I may even work on a blog post. After we both log off, we head to the YMCA and work out on the treadmills for a bit, and have dinner soon after. This gives me a few hours at the end of each day, purely dedicated to my writing.
As said, the tricky part is what I should be working on, and when.
The thing about being a writer is that you most likely have about three or four different projects going on at the same time, each at various levels of completion. My current status involves the following: A Division of Souls is out in the world (yes, even at Amazon now — the physical copies are coming soon!), I’m currently working on the final edit of The Persistence of Memories, I’m writing the new Mendaihu Universe novel longhand, I’m carving out weekend time to pick Walk in Silence up again, and I have a few other fiction and non-fiction projects simmering on low heat in the back of my brain. And that doesn’t include my daily personal journal, weekly blog posting, popping up on social media now and again, and other non-writing things such as guitar noodling and songwriting. And there are things that keep getting put on hold, such as doing the daily 750 Words, my artwork and the Drunken Owl music recording project. So much to do, so little time.
See, this is why I have the whiteboard schedule. I haven’t been following it as of late due to the massive editing sessions for the Bridgetown Trilogy, and I think that’s a fair enough reason for putting everything on hold as of late. I don’t mind, because releasing the trilogy myself demands a lot of time and dedication, and I’m not about to do any of it half-assed. But now that the Big Release date has come and gone and that I’m letting it slow-simmer a bit while I figure out different ways to have fun with its promotion, I find myself with a bit more time on my hands. Which means my week or so of relaxation and mucking about online must come to a close. It’s time to refocus and dedicate the time that I have to what I want to get done.
Still, that’s not to say I’m not about to miss out on watching some football this season! I may be busy, but I’m not about to let that get in the way of having fun as well!
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