In my mind, it's still
the late months of 2000. It's late 2000 and people are bitching about
Florida fucking up the election. It's late 2000 and there are a few
people lamenting the fact that the world did not end at the onset of
the new year. It's the year 2000, and there is a real reason why I'm
there in my mind.
It's also the searing hot
summer of Tucson, Arizona, 2005. The heat of the summer is
oppressive, especially in Tucson. The heat waves will obscure the
city even if you're a few blocks away from it. It's hot, yes, but
you're still outside because smoking cigarettes is more of a comfort
than the air conditioning. It's so hot that the asphalt melts under
your feet. It's hot enough that you could, should you feel inclined,
cook food on the steel rails of the 32nd parallel line.
It's hot, 2005 in Tucson, Arizona and there is a reason why I'm there
in my mind.
It's 2009. I'm a recent
graduate of the Goddard College MFA program. It's 2009 and I have
just quit my job as a restaurant manager and I've just sold my house.
It's 2009 and I'm suddenly homeless, jobless and writing for the
cartoons. It's 2009 and I'm still stuck there a little bit too, just
like 2000 and 2005.
I bring up these three
time periods for one very solid reason. Each time, 2000—Portland,
OR; 2005—Tucson, AZ and 2009—Denver, CO have one thing in common,
at least for me and my life as a writer. In each of these situations,
I did nothing but write. I know I worked, I know I had bills to pay,
I know I had all the sorts of things that people have in life during
those times. But I was, and I mean I really was, writing and nothing
more. I can say with the utmost certainty that each of the three
times that I cite here, I was writing in an excess of 8 to 10 hours a
day, every day, and it went on like that for months.
Yes, for months on end,
and 2009 is the greatest example of it because of the time the
duration and the produce. In 2009 I wrote 5 novels, a dozen short
stories, and a half a dozen screenplays. I made a film “Pastrami
and Rye” in 2009, and I started Umbrella Factory Magazine
in 2009. The latter two things, although a big deal in their own way,
were not the focus at the time.
At
the time all I wanted to do was to write. I wanted to write more than
I had ever written before. In a way I think I was successful. I doubt
I wrote more in that year than I had in the 25 years prior to it, but
I wrote more in that year than I would normally write in any given
single year (or 3 or 5 years) before or since. In fact I would have
said the same about the fall of 2000, or the summer of 2005, that is,
until 2009. It was all I wanted to do.
And
it remains all I want to do. All I want to do is fill notebooks and
fill it with whatever novel or short story or bad poem suits my
desires at the moment I sit down to write. I want to get up at noon,
open my notebook and not close it again until well on past midnight
and I want to do that seven days a week. I want to be a writer, and a
writer writes, right?
It
is so much more than that initial draft in the notebook. It's
writing, yes, and rewriting and rewriting again and again. And if a
writer you must be, the next step in the process is to submit
whatever it is you just wrote to someone who will read it and
possible publish it. Because to be a writer means that there is an
audience.
There
are all the smaller tasks that arch the process between the final and
completely revised work of writing and publication. This portion can
be set up in steps: research, queries, all those endless emails and
correspondences, cover letter writing complete with an analytical
look at your our words, and the endless wait to receive the editor's
rejection only to do the process all over again. This process sucks
until it ends in publication.
When
it ends in publication, then the list of tasks change, somewhat.
First, you get as many people to read your publication as possible.
Then you figure out how to market yourself and your writing to secure
more readers and future publications.
Then
there are all the other things that happen to the writer. For me, all
those other things are great and they all take time. There is my
blog, there is my magazine and there are the collaborative projects I
take on. And in the past there were the regular places where I
contributed, the films I made and the classes both at the college
level and the community workshops that I taught.
I
became very busy as a writer. I like to be busy, and I like to be
popular. I would not say in the times that I've been busy that my
writing suffered from the time I spent away from the notebook.
However, the times that I have been busy doing all those writerly
things were all the years outside of 2000, 2005, 2009.
Even
now, I would love to spend all my time writing new stories, new
novels. And I would love to do this because I feel, and I have always
felt like it's more important than anything else I could possible do.
I mean, I'm a middle-aged white guy living in Boulder County,
Colorado, who the hell is ever going to read anything I've every
written? As depressing as a thought as that may seem, I feel like
it's just a call to arms to write even more.
I'm
having a bit of a change of thought about these sorts of things. I
recently took an inventory of everything I've ever written. It was an
amount that really baffled me. Then I took a look at my CV and the
publications I've had. It's a good list and I'm proud of it. There
is, however, a very big difference between the number of things I've
written and the few things that have been published.
So?
Well,
I realize that it's time to work a more balanced set of activities.
There is the new material that's important. There is the submission
of stories and all the tasks between my manuscript and publication.
There is the writer's professional image, whatever that means. There
is the need to work or to get a job as a writer. There are many other
things to do other than just write. I know this, and I accept this,
but what if all I want to do is write?
My
suggestion is to break things up. This means that there are fifty
hours a week to work and sixteen tasks that need attention. Rather
than write for 50 hours a week, I like I did in 2000, 2005 and 2009,
write for maybe half of that. Spend some time submitting work to
magazines, creating a presence via a blog, or a magazine of your own,
and then do all the professional marketing including the social
networking like LinkedIn. Out of the fifty working hours, maybe only
30 of them should be the generation of new material. Once you have a
writer's plan (see last week's post) it's easier to stay on target.
It's
easier to stay on target on paper. However, do your really want to
stop in the middle of a good writing session to see what your writer
friends are doing on LinkedIn? Probably not. Any other activities
outside the notebook are valuable too. Since I find looking at social
media, teaching workshops, editing my magazine, and to a lesser
degree writing this blog post to be sheer drudgery compared to joy or
writing something new, I have discovered a few ways to overcome this.
First,
make a plan, a long term plan, a short term plan and a weekly plan.
This is what I call the writer's plan. This plan must include
everything you want to accomplish and the steps to get there.
Second,
stick to the plan.
Third,
don't do too much of the things you don't want to do in one sitting.
I suppose the argument could be this: do all the bullshit first then
reward yourself with writing time. Whereas that doesn't work for me,
I can see how it might for others. What works for me is this, I have
ten items on my list and only one of them is writing something new.
I'm inclined to spend my time doing one task a day and then getting
to my writing session. Or likewise, write first, in the morning when
I'm fresh and then do the other stuff later in the day when I'm too
tired for creativity but not tired enough to sleep.
Last,
commit to all the smaller tasks and know that they are valuable and
just get them done. For instance, for me, I will spend this week
writing, submitting a handful of short stories, doing work on my
magazine, networking and as you know, writing this blog post. And
hopefully I can avoid all the distractions and pitfalls and really
optimize my time
Next
time:
-
Understand that Youtube videos are short, until you watch 50 of them
-
Break everything up in small easily attainable tasks
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