So it’s been a rough week. There’s nothing in particular that sparked it exactly except that I am stuck in the Real Life version of the Dreaded Valley of the Shadow of The Middle with absolutely no certain end in sight. And that’s a really tough place to be. Any story, any middle slog is easier to endure if you can SEE the end. Even if the end winds up changing along the way.
I know the end I want. To get the HELL out of my day job. Whether that’s shifting to teaching online full time or getting out entirely. I did the math to figure out what I need to bring in from my writing in order to be able to either of those things (adding in the buffer for the additional money I’ll have to pay in self employment taxes that I currently DON’T have to pay). And the reality is that it will probably be years more before I can even CHANGE jobs, let alone quit both.
I…didn’t take it well.
But of course I am not prone to staying down for long. So I sat down to develop a business plan for the next year, focusing on the things in my control (production). It’s not iron clad as there are several balls up in the air at the moment, but I have three variations based on how each of those balls lands. Either way, end result is I have to keep my shit together and write the damn book. And then the one after that and after that. No matter the rate, the method (self or traditional) of publishing, writing more stuff is the only answer to the question. That and bacon, which makes all things better. Anything else is failure.
In that light, I sorted out what was wrong with the scene I was working on in Riven. And courtesy of a long chat with one of my CPs, I sorted where I derailed in DOTH, and I rewrote the outline for the entire last act of the book. I finished all the rearranging of scenes and adjustment of the outline in Scrivener and moved the stuff that wouldn’t work into the scratchpad. All in all, I only lost 1500ish words, which is not too bad, considering a multi-day funk. I didn’t get any new material written, but I plan to work on that today. Get back in the groove.
6 thoughts on “Midweek #ROW80 Update”
That’s the only way to write for a living. KEEP WRITING BOOKS. It sounds so easy written out like that, doesn’t it? And yet it’s the jobs we try to get away from that are part of the reason we can’t write as much. Like any other business, the more we write, the more “products” we have to sell. It’s that waiting for good things to happen that gets so frustrating. I’m betting your agent will find something for you when DOTH is finished. 🙂
I can imagine your frustration. But the good news is that the cold hard facts won’t stop you. It might take you longer than you wanted but you WILL get there. Just keep at it. You know we’ll be cheering you all the way.
Thanks for addressing the self-employment issue. It’s one of those things that’s frustrating, but it’s something we probably need to look at in the light of reality if we’re going to move in that direction.
Putting together a plan for how you’re going to get the HELL out of your job is the first step. Just because you can’t do it right this very instant is no reason not to plan for it. It might take time, but being ready for when it happens (and revisiting the plan on a regular basis to see if there might be another way to make it happen) are key to making it happen. And I know you’ll get the books written and they’ll be enormous hits, because you know that’s what you have to do. As an old boss of mine used to say, “Go get ’em, Tiger!”
A plan is a fantastic start. You’ll get to where you want to go. Keep going. 🙂 xxxx
Pretty much in the same boat here, Kait. I just don’t see any shortcuts in the road. The good thing about a job you don’t care for is it can be good motivation to write more. 😉 The bad part is how much energy you feel like you’re pouring someplace other than where you want your energy to go!
Check out a book called “Quitters”. It was recommended to me by a friend; it’s about working out a plan to transition from your current job to your dream job, and surviving well in the meantime. I found chunks of it to be pretty useful for me.