Seven days ago I stared at the beginning of the next short story for Patreon and the muse revealed the tale. In the last seven days, I’ve dabbled with SG, and I started a project I tentatively had in the wings for 2023. This other project is nonfiction, so no concern for characters or setting or dialogue or story arc. In this next math workbook, I looked at pages of math problems I’d created when I was last in the classroom and plugged them into equation editor under various concept headings. Why would I begin a project that wasn’t even officially in the queue for next year? The broad umbrella of procrastination.
I’ve given talks at conferences, written blogs and articles, and even created a video about procrastination (or writer’s block, or fear of: failure, success, missing out, etc.). Procrastination and I are very well acquainted. In projects past, I wouldn’t know why I delayed beginning or finishing a particular title. Now, I know. Along with jumping the tracks with the short story, I’m also woefully behind on SG, and I should have started DZ episode 2 yesterday.
My current schedule, and the one going forward, is perfect for my obligations. Holly and I do our thing in the morning. I have about four hours to write and dabble with my to-do list. Then I have some paid work (though this changes daily). Later in the evening, I engage in a digital sundown and other rituals and habits before bed. I’m not time starved. Nor am I lacking ideas. The billion micro-steps I complete with each project before the world knows it’s available are no longer intimidating (mostly). They just are. It’s an observation backed by experience which has created a belief, and I don’t know how to change it.
So, I’m working on another math workbook. It will clear out files of paper and yield an evergreen project. SG is getting around 2K words a day. I’m thinking it will be novella length by the time the story is told. I’ve made peace with the probability it won’t be done by 12/15, and the possibility that it will still be in first draft form, maybe typed, by 12/31. I still know bits of what will occur with Mathew in Alphabet City in the short story that was supposed to be posted yesterday on Patreon. In moments when I’m driving or making a meal or watering the garden, I’m given flashes of scenes and snippets of dialogue for every series I have started, and the two that I haven’t finished book one for. But until I wrangle my mindset into some place different than where it’s at, December will go, 2023 will begin, and I’ll still be doing a little of this and some of that.
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