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Friday, February 5, 2010

Overwhelmed

I have a lot on my plate lately—school, work, job hunting, calling, writing, yadda yadda. Yesterday, during my long day, I cracked, just a bit. I’m overwhelmed, to say the least, and I managed to pinpoint one of the major sources of my stress.

Writing.

Now now, don’t get me wrong. I love to write! But I’m thinking I love it a little too much. I have so many projects I’m working on right now, they’re getting in the way of the rest of my life. I’m rewriting The Oracle Seals, revising Circus Soul Heiress, working on a third draft of As Prescribed, and trying to world-build The Raimos (the next novel I’ll be writing.) This last one is really a killer, since when I start planning for a new book, I can’t help but see how much work I have ahead of me before I can even start outlining.

I’ve started working on my writing in my spare time instead of doing my homework. I’m even choosing to alpha-read over doing my homework. This is not me. I’ve always been very good with priorities and getting everything done. I would like to think I’m self-disciplined. Maybe I have senioritis. Maybe there’s just too much I want to work on, and not enough time to work on it. This semester is my last one, but it’s a hard one. I can’t keep turning in half-assed manuscripts to my editing class and skipping over reading for my English classes. I have essays coming up that I don’t know how to write because I’m not doing the work.

At the same time, I feel like if I’m not putting everything I have into my novels, I’ll never be a successful writer.

I need to project-manage. Big time. Just for now. Here’s my current plan: TOS is shifting to backburner. This eliminates my daily word count. CSH revisions now have first priority. Second priority goes to revising As Prescribed, since I need to have it polished by the 16th. As for next-novel planning . . . The Raimos will be done when I’m bored in class or daydream a nifty idea. It’s not going to be something I sit and sweat over, trying to create a great story in as little time as possible. It’ll probably suck if I do that, anyway. All other short stories are going to be bound, gagged, and shoved into the refrigerator until further notice.

Also: Had my first writing group with Sanderson yesterday. It was great—he pointed out a lot of helpful things, which I’ve taken to heart and will instill in my revisions. This class has been really good for me so far. I’m very happy about it.

Couldn’t help but feel jealous when he told someone else in my group that he had the potential to be published. :O Don’t remember if I’ve stated this, but it’s my goal to have my potential recognized before the end of the semester. I’m going to get a compliment like that, even if I give myself an ulcer to get it, ha.

2 comments:

  1. Good luck with your goal! If it makes you feel better (hopefully not worse), Sanderson never told me that my material was publishable--in fact, I scored lower on my final the second time I took the class than the first time. And it's totally alright if you take another month or two to finish critiquing my novel--I probably won't get to revising it until after graduation. I'm just way excited that someone is reading my story and likes it--you know what that's like. :) Good luck with the balancing act!

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  2. Good luck managing your schedule, Chuck.
    The major source of my stress at the moment though is definitely schoolwork though--as in, I've got way too much of it. In fact, it's probably for the best that I not try to do my very best at all of it, ha ha.
    Definitely know how you feel about wanting to be recognized for your writing, though. (It's so lame when people don't recognize your genius!)

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