A year ago I posted how I was quitting my full time job to work on my writing.  I did that, but as with most things in life, it didn’t turn out quite as I expected. No dramatic change to the life of a writer, starting a new life of art and such pursuits, leaving what was far behind.  The truth is, honestly, over that past year I’ve spent approximately half of that time working.  Working at my old place of employment, to be exact.  It turns out that short term project work is something they need, and something I much prefer to a 9-5 with no end in sight.  Take some time off, write, go back, earn some money, repeat as often as I can for as long as I can.

Yesterday was the first day “off” after a 3 month project. I have 8-10 weeks ahead of me to get some writing done. I’ve settled on a novel that will take place during the American Civil War, because the era and people fascinate me, and I want to test my theory that you can write any type of story in any type of setting/period and if the story is told well, the setting and genre should not matter.  I hope to get a good chunk of this project done over the next 10 weeks, but since I’ve decided to keep it historically accurate (in line with David McCullough’s statement that he “always strives to tell the truth”, which I completely agree with), I might spend the bulk of this time doing research for this project and a few others. Regardless, I’m spending the summer paying myself to write – not recommended for those who like to actually earn money – and I hope to keep to my daily regime a bit better than I have in the past.

I used to always wonder why my father, who was essentially a mechanic in his regular job, used to procrastinate when it came time to help me work on my car. Now that I’m a computer tech and I find myself with a crippled computer at home and no desire to work on anything electronic after a full day at the office, I finally understand.

That’s a long way of saying my computer’s busted, I’m waiting on a part to fix it, and until it shows up I’m just not interested in taking any extra steps to keep myself online and connected. Meh, I can use the break.

In the meantime, Matt was good enough to to post about Altered Fluid’s most recent early morning appearance on Hour of the Wolf a week ago, saving me the effort. Thanks, Matt!

Sometimes I think starting a blog was just another way for me to heap anxiety upon my life. If I don’t update it every week then I feel like there’s something amiss, like I’m slacking.

The truth is, though, that I spend time on my blog when I am slacking. The lack of updates over the past several weeks are because I’m actually writing. I sit down at the coffee shop every day (and I found a new one; farewell to stroller-infested Panera), I think about what I want to work on, and I never think “My time is best spent updating my blog”. Never. I always opt to work on my current story. I know there are a lot of people who update their blogs weekly, daily, sometimes hourly, and more power to them. To me this is a side-bar, something cool when I have time, and if I don’t have the time, then nothing. It takes time. Hell, even the photos are a hassle. I want everything I post to be mine, so I don’t use web graphics or photos, only stuff I’ve taken or created myself. (I couldn’t think of a photo appropriate for this post, so I just stuck in something I took this past weekend)

And yes, simply by writing this now, I’m not working on a story that I’m really excited about. That along with Photoshop work due, and red Swingline’s on the bench, means I don’t really have time to be writing this.