It’s been a busy and productive Summer. The only place I haven’t been productive is right here. Only 3 posts in 3 months. Until I started blogging in January I never understood why some of the blogs I follow had lengthy periods without posts. Common sense dictates that bloggers who don’t post have either run out of ideas for a column or maybe just maybe they were, uh, busy?Duh?
That’s been the case with me. Work on 3 different projects has taken up lots of my time since May.
Years ago I read an interview with Stephen King. If you’re a fan of Mr. King you know he’s a prolific writer. I probably read this 25 years ago. He said that when someone is paying him to write he works on that during the day, giving it his full attention. When he’s working on something else on spec or for fun simultaneously, he works on that at night. His point was that if it’s someone else’s nickel you give that priority.
I’m not now nor have I ever been as prolific as Stephen King. The idea of spending 5 or 6 hours in the daytime working on a paying job, then working that same evening on a non-paying job (something I’m doing for fun) is alien to me.
If I get 3 or 4 pages on a given day it’s cause for celebration.
Because of the projects I’ve been working on this summer, along with two classes that I taught, I’ve had to view the time I spend on this blog like what Stephin King refers to his nighttime fun work. Symbolically, the projects I’ve been working on are “somebody else’s nickel.”
The thing I want to convey is that for most writers, we can go weeks, months and years without anything happening. Nobody likes your script or you can’t finish it or you can’t come up with a good idea or you’re having your annual self-doubt week. But when something, or more than one thing, happens and it means that something you’ve written finally has forward movement, that’s when, as the farmers of yore used to say we should: make hay while the sun shines.
This Summer has been a positive hay-making time for me. Some good things are happening and I’ll be discussing them soon.
I’m also going to free up time to get back to making posts on a regularly basis.
As my friend Lew Hunter likes to say: “Write on!”
DB...I'm so glad somebody's making money with all of this writing we're all doing! Nice to have you back!
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean. I had an opportunity to put aside a play I was writing to earn money writing jokes for a TV show. My heart wasn't entirely in it, but it was great to actually be paid for my writing. And the money justified my going back to the play.
ReplyDeleteGlad you are back. Many of your posts have been very inspriational and made me keep writing.
ReplyDeleteYou mentioned annual self doubt week. I have annually self doubt month, 3 months, 6 months and sometimes yearly. Nice to know I'm not the only one who experiences self doubt.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the paying gigs DB!
ReplyDeleteSometimes it's the only way to get to where you want to be. I've been practicing my underwater nuclear pipe welding skills in the backyard pool but, life keeps intruding ;)
ReplyDeleteRoger