Its 2012, and just like taxes you kinda feel like you’re starting with a fresh slate. You have this desire to make changes, accomplish goals, or seek dreams. Or at least I have, I can’t really speak for the rest of you. lol
I’m feeling the need to scour my house, purge the unused & excess clutter in cupboards, sort things. Of course THAT’s impossible due to ALL of my garage is in various corners in my house as we finish walls, floors, install cabinetry, etc. So I set aside that feeling; looking to organize some other part of my life.
Work! Yes, I can get a little more secure by planning my conference trips and booking all the flights and hotels. Sorting and planning are my favorite things to do. And often I let them take the place of actually doing something.
Like writing.
In the back of my mind is my Muse wondering if I’m ever going to actually DO anything with the talent beyond blogging my thoughts & impressing new men people with my wit & stories? This is exactly what happened in college. Living life took over, dancing and drinking was more fun than writing & then I did a cost analysis of effort over payout and felt it wasn’t worth TRYING for.
Cuz I’m inherently lazy.
Recently I started writing a little description in my head of someone. And it occurred to me I could take my Cougar character Cat and write little vignettes. Almost a homage to some of the more interesting and more “what!!” experiences I’ve had with people.
And then Fate seconded the idea. I ran into a fellow GLAWS writer at the Starbucks where I meet many people. She’s the only other member I know of in my area & since I haven’t been to the meetings much I haven’t seen her in ages. Ironically I was about 20 minutes ahead of my schedule & by the time we finished a quick catch up chat not only had all the seats in Starbucks emptied but she’d left me with a lot to think about.
Last we’d spoke an agent had decided to represent her book. Which was great because she was unemployed, trying to make it in Los Angeles as a writer… very difficult if you’re writing fiction and not working for t.v. or movies. In the course of our conversation, I found out her agent quit the industry, so she’d tried publishing it on Amazon as an e-book & was gearing up to do a print run herself. Because her mother had passed away & had left her a bit. (Robin is a VERY Aspergers female and delivered all this deadpan!) I’m going from “damn agent!” to “sounds great!” to “Oh my condolences”!
But I wrote down her suggested links and forums, got my Iced Macchiatto (& lemon pound cake.. don’t tell my diet!!!) and pondered it a bit while I waited.
The Cat Vignette idea had merit. I have a blog & FB friends as an audience. Romance no doubt sells way better than some other genres on Amazon, etc. And in all my planning I haven’t set aside a single day, hour, moment to actually write some pages. It’s all been surface research, plot outline, character definition…. basically procrastinating the dive into full immersion with surface skimming.
And it needs to stop.
This is soo ME
I’m an Aries. We are the Ram. We plan, we strive, but we are at our best when we LEAP.
We’re really good at balancing quick, scouring the landscape and leaping again if necessary. We’re also good at picking ourselves up from a tumble & gathering up the nuggets of gold we discover we’ve dislodged. Cuts, bruises, etc will heal… what have we gained & learned & where will we go next is our focus.
In 4 months I’ll be 49… time to stop NOT achieving ALL that’s possible for me.
Time to Leap.