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mmerriamI'm celebrating the new One Year Closer to Balance holiday by casting aside my (admittedly already trashed) internet sabbatical, because my (almost non-existent) sabbatical was, it turns out, mostly about finding balance. It was about balancing the time I spend on the internet against writing, housework, and other personal needs.
Although I did not completely withdraw from the internet, I did cut back enough to make some serious realizations. The first thing I discovered was that, after being away from them for a couple of days or more, there were places on the internet--networking sites, webcomics, blogs, and others--that I did not miss. After consideration, I realized I was still visiting these sites out of habit and nothing more. I had once enjoyed them, but now they are just time-sucking wastes of my day. They have been set aside.
I found that I had become compulsive in checking Gmail / Live Journal / Facebook / MinnSpec Forums: So much so that it was interfering with my writing time. I've decided next week to start a schedule (schedules, it seems, are becoming a very important part of my life) where I will visit these places for an hour in the morning, an half-hour over lunch, and an hour in the evening. That's still 2.5 hours allotted for these sites, which I think is more than enough time. I did find that I missed LJ, and when things became difficult this week with Reverend Selena's situation it was nice to come here and get some extra emotional support from my friends. Live Journal has been very good to me, and I won't give it up. I will, however modify my usage of it to better manage my time. Balance. It's all about balance.
I'm also working on balancing the needs of my writing life against the needs of my personal life against the needs of my own sanity. I'm going to talk more about this latter in another post, but I think one of the reasons I've slowed down in my writing is, I've let too much of the noise on the writing-related blogs, forums, and websites I frequent get into my head. Too much snark, and too much anger. Too much snobbery and tearing down. Too many otherwise fine writers, editors, and agents forgetting where they came from, and that we all had to start somewhere. Too much forgetting that everyone begins as a beginner. Too much of me worrying about what other people think and being told what a story should and shouldn't be, what it is and isn't. Just…too much. I lost my way for a time, let those self-appointed arbitrators of what is and is not "Good Fiction / Writing" get into my head, which is one of the dangers of being deeply immersed in these writing-related places. I had to get away, reset, and remember why I write. I had to remember that at the core of it all, I write for myself.
I find myself trying to mentally balance the cold hard truth that--no matter how hard I work--it is quite likely I will never ever never find even a little success (financial or otherwise) in this business against the deep pathological need to write, to tell stories, to create (hopefully) entertaining fictions for the amusement of readers. And I'm searching to find a good balance between my desire to pursue writing as a career and the needs of my family. Despite some decent sales, I'm making no money to speak of, and![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
careswen is going to need to start her internship soon. Given my physical limitations and the current economic climate, I've pretty much come to the hard realization that finding employ in a "classic" workplace environment is unlikely, so I need to focus on finding more freelance work. I've been doing blurb and copy writing coupled with a little freelance editing, and found I enjoy it. I'd like to find more work like this, maybe add in some freelance researcher / fact checker-for-hire work as well. Add in the situation with the Reverend Selena, and finding a way to balance my nascent writing career against my personal responsibilities in order to maintain a stable home life is paramount.
There could be more to this, but I think you get the idea. Now, I'm going to go have dinner and then I'm going to work on a story. Thus ends the (greatly abbreviated) sabbatical.
Although I did not completely withdraw from the internet, I did cut back enough to make some serious realizations. The first thing I discovered was that, after being away from them for a couple of days or more, there were places on the internet--networking sites, webcomics, blogs, and others--that I did not miss. After consideration, I realized I was still visiting these sites out of habit and nothing more. I had once enjoyed them, but now they are just time-sucking wastes of my day. They have been set aside.
I found that I had become compulsive in checking Gmail / Live Journal / Facebook / MinnSpec Forums: So much so that it was interfering with my writing time. I've decided next week to start a schedule (schedules, it seems, are becoming a very important part of my life) where I will visit these places for an hour in the morning, an half-hour over lunch, and an hour in the evening. That's still 2.5 hours allotted for these sites, which I think is more than enough time. I did find that I missed LJ, and when things became difficult this week with Reverend Selena's situation it was nice to come here and get some extra emotional support from my friends. Live Journal has been very good to me, and I won't give it up. I will, however modify my usage of it to better manage my time. Balance. It's all about balance.
I'm also working on balancing the needs of my writing life against the needs of my personal life against the needs of my own sanity. I'm going to talk more about this latter in another post, but I think one of the reasons I've slowed down in my writing is, I've let too much of the noise on the writing-related blogs, forums, and websites I frequent get into my head. Too much snark, and too much anger. Too much snobbery and tearing down. Too many otherwise fine writers, editors, and agents forgetting where they came from, and that we all had to start somewhere. Too much forgetting that everyone begins as a beginner. Too much of me worrying about what other people think and being told what a story should and shouldn't be, what it is and isn't. Just…too much. I lost my way for a time, let those self-appointed arbitrators of what is and is not "Good Fiction / Writing" get into my head, which is one of the dangers of being deeply immersed in these writing-related places. I had to get away, reset, and remember why I write. I had to remember that at the core of it all, I write for myself.
I find myself trying to mentally balance the cold hard truth that--no matter how hard I work--it is quite likely I will never ever never find even a little success (financial or otherwise) in this business against the deep pathological need to write, to tell stories, to create (hopefully) entertaining fictions for the amusement of readers. And I'm searching to find a good balance between my desire to pursue writing as a career and the needs of my family. Despite some decent sales, I'm making no money to speak of, and
careswen is going to need to start her internship soon. Given my physical limitations and the current economic climate, I've pretty much come to the hard realization that finding employ in a "classic" workplace environment is unlikely, so I need to focus on finding more freelance work. I've been doing blurb and copy writing coupled with a little freelance editing, and found I enjoy it. I'd like to find more work like this, maybe add in some freelance researcher / fact checker-for-hire work as well. Add in the situation with the Reverend Selena, and finding a way to balance my nascent writing career against my personal responsibilities in order to maintain a stable home life is paramount. There could be more to this, but I think you get the idea. Now, I'm going to go have dinner and then I'm going to work on a story. Thus ends the (greatly abbreviated) sabbatical.
