I was way through the deadline, furiously typing away when the exhaustion began to hit me. How did I manage to find myself in this strange position of too much work?
Pictured here is the author of this article
As my good friend told me this weekend over drinks is that the sad truth about success is that sometimes you end up too busy to achieve it that you no longer have the time to enjoy it.
Daisy, all of the shirts are now mine! Mine!
The math was simple. April had two conventions in it that I wanted to attend: Norwescon and NWRE. If i wanted to keep on schedule and not work during said conventions that I needed to make up that time somewhere.
Sadly, the Doctor did not come to whisk me away and provide me with extra time or adventure.
I had planned to write last weekend, but a number of events conspired against me, the least of which was that my Dodge Caravan died and I had to spend several days researching deals on new cars. We settled on the 2013 Chevy Sonic which my dearest wife nicknamed ‘the Screwdriver.”
To meet my obligations, I declared a formal writer word-count death march this weekend. If my deadline list had a face, I would have slapped that bitch with a set of gloves.
To quote Sir 50 Cents, I’m gonna pop a cap in your ass!
The results of my word count death-march weekend was a qualified success. I had to duck out of a number of social events such as the Seattle MES history game. Thankfully, my friends have been very supportive and awesome knowing that the next couple of months will be somewhat tight for me due to impending deadlines. It does take a village to raise an idiot and a writer.
Sadly, I ran out of steam this afternoon and then napped. What really happened is that my wife said, “Hey, there is a problem in the bedroom. Can you come look?”
I went into the bedroom very concerned and found the bed made, which is the universal sign that a nap needs to occur.
That said, I completed a large number of the projects on my list, even if I didn’t manage to kill that last item.
The big whale was that I finished an entire chapter at 15,000 words. This project has been worrying me for a while because it is subjective and difficult to translate. I delivered the draft to my partner that is going to revise it and add in his own genius to the mix. This alone makes me feel like I am almost back on track with my list.
My client seemed to appreciate the history I sent him on Saturday night from The Future Embodied Kickstarter project. I feel pretty good that I was able to help out someone who gets a little nervous about writing his background and I think I did justice to the concept he wanted. I have one character history that I need to draft over the next two weeks, but I have a good inspiration and it should be fun to write. And then, I’ll be able to cross off these from my list.
I came very close (1,500 words away) from draft complete with the last chapter assigned for Rites of the Blood.
I am roughly 1,500 words from draft complete with the last chapter I have for Rites of the Blood. Thankfully, the draft isn’t due for several weeks and I can take my time as inspiration strikes, but I like to complete my assignments early and then slowly review them and fine tune the text to make it sparkle.
I count myself very lucky to have such problems. I did manage to sneak away from the death-march on Saturday night for drinks at 13 Coins to regroup my mental facilitates.
Thank you to all my friends and family that have supported me along the way. Special thanks to my wife, Lisa, for only slipping booze into my drink once this weekend.
Next weekend will be NWRE and my 40th Birthday. I look forward to the celebration of surviving all of screw-ups over the years and the friends that love me in spite of them.
