Monday, January 17, 2011

Need to Scale Down

There is WAAAAY too much on my plate... I've gone from a plate to a platter to service for eight.

Yeah.

I don't know how other writers do it... all the Facebook, Tweets, blogging (writing theirs and reading others), forums... when the hell do they get a chance to write books?

Hell, when do they go to the bathroom?

I know authors who do all of the above AND raise kids and hold full time jobs.

I can't hold it together anymore... Goodreads, Badreads, Noreads... whatever. There are hundreds of places on the internet for writers to gather and discuss and pour their blinking hearts out. Jeesh.

You know that old adage about your closet -- that if you haven't worn something in a year, throw it out?

I'm keeping the clothes in the closet because if I ever get my figure back (you know, like if I get a tapeworm or something), I'll have plenty of clothes. With a little bit of luck they'll all be in fashion again.

I am not, however, keeping any site that I haven't visited in the last ten days. TEN DAYS.

Yeah, I'm being aggressive about this; I mean it: ten days.

I like Facebook (every day I meet someone really neat); I definitely want to get this blog, The Windy City Author, rolling (I have all kinds of ideas and neat things to post) and I want to continue blogging at Author's Lounge. Of course, I need to answer lots of daily emails and I certainly want to read the news and a selection of blogs every few days. I need to stay on top of my website (change the content from time to time) and I MUST get really, really serious about marketing January Moon... OK, that should probably be a priority ahead of all else: marketing January Moon.

Oh yeah, and then there's the Historical Fiction Group over at the AiA (Association of Independent Authors) that I recently joined and promised to moderate...

And you know what?

I also need to finish writing January Moon's sequel and then start the next book to wrap up the Del Carter trilogy.

I'd like to also read the many excellent books on my Reading List and probably write some reviews and from time to time I want to continue to write and publish social commentary.

Damn.  I'm getting hyper just writing this...

OK, so where was I?  Oh yeah: SOMETHING HAS TO GIVE.

Tonite I went into a half dozen internet sites for authors and readers -- none of which I had entered in the last 10 days (sometimes 30+ days) -- and DELETED MY ACCOUNTS.

POOF! Shazam. No More.

Whew.

Feeling better already.

What about you?

What do you really need to make yourself or your career or your dreams grow?  What can you live without?

Facebook? Blogging? Twitter? Goodreads?

Lemme' know!

1 comment:

  1. I refuse to even "go there" in respect to Twitter, for one thing. Right now, as crazy as this may sound, I'm debating the relative merits of working a part-time job while my kids are with my ex. This saves me from exorbitant child care costs, but it also cuts into the only free time that I can devote to my writing. Am I making enough extra cash at the job to justify the neglect of my writing? I have yet to answer that question definitively. I lean toward the job needing to go, but at the same time, finances dictate that I need to keep it. Dilemmas, dilemmas!

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