Good Tuesday To You

After a few abortive attempts, I’m once again running a month-long pair of advertising campaigns through Amazon Marketing Services for Parallax while I write Parallax: Genesis. I say abortive because setting up a stable writing budget to fund this endeavor proved to be something of a challenge and I prefer to err on the side of caution with respect to these things.

But I did it and I’m glad I did because despite all the romantic notions I’ve ever held as a writer, making a living at it requires some sacrificing and hard work. After all, you can’t eat fun though you can eat FOR fun. Of course, it costs me very little on average to put out a book even though I would prefer to have some kind of return on my investment and have my books pay for themselves (and me) over time. Balancing a Day Job and a Writing Career isn’t as fun as you would imagine.

I’m still coping with the effects of putting Lights and Shadows on hold but anything is possible with it including revising it later as a future episode of a new series I’ve thought about doing after The Parallax Trilogy is complete involving John Pratt and his merry band of wandering do-gooders.

Anyway, that’s what I’m up to at the moment. Back to outlining Parallax: Genesis so have a great day. 🙂

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It’s Monday Again…

Let’s face it, Mondays get bad reps….

Yep, it’s going to be one of THOSE articles. Those articles where I ruminate over how hard it is to get things moving when you’re switching gears from Weekend Mode.

I’m usually pretty good about getting started on Writing Projects but on Mondays, the motivation tends to drag its feet. I love to write, but there are also times when I adore to kick back, relax, and do my world famous (hehe) impression of a bump on a log.

Then I look at my calendar and realize that I’m on a deadline. Granted, it’s a self-imposed deadline and I can modify the timing to my choosing, but still a deadline none the less.

Yes, it all ties back to procrastination and despite my better angels, I am a Pro at it. I’m also a Pro at recognizing why I procrastinate and how to fight it.

From an early age, we are bombarded by life concepts that range from factual (work hard) to mythical (imagine and it will be yours) to the borderline outrageous (Luck can strike at any time). There are others, but you don’t need to hear the ones about how some abstract element of Society is supposedly keeping you down and robbing you of opportunities.

I believe in a concept called “Make it Happen”. In short, it states that unless you fight off the self-doubt, the insecurity, the moments where your internal critic tells you it can’t be done, you won’t achieve the results you want. Courage isn’t rushing headlong into Folly; it’s about moving forward even with the possibility that you might fail. Let face it, Failure isn’t something to be afraid of anyway because even in Failure, there is learning.

So, grab your coffee and steel your resolve. Monday is just another day closer to the success that is inevitable. You just have to make it happen.