Hang around any writer's forum long enough and you'll be sure to run into a few people griping about
how they miss the good old days, when writers were expected to, you know,
write, and someone else took care of the rest. Personally, I think the "good old days" are basically a fairy tale... you know, a "once upon a time" that never actually happened. One thing's for sure, though. If you want to be an author in 2015, you've got to do way more than just write books.
It's a tiring and frustrating thing sometimes, and one day, when I was feeling especially frazzled, I decided to procrastinate on all the things I was supposed to be doing by making a graphic that sums up what it feels like... Behold, the fruits of my procrastination...
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| I had more but they wouldn't fit. |
This is so flippin timely as I spent the whole damn day working on my website, trying to make a few new pages. It took the whole damn day. I didn't write. But it had to be done.
ReplyDeleteUgh, been there! I feel like I've spent this entire year so far doing writing-type things that were not actual writing...
DeleteAnd this list doesn't even include amateur psychologist -- for yourself and fellow writer friends when the plague of self-doubt and despair hits. I'm not sure there are many other jobs where the majority of people actually doing that job doubt themselves quite as much as writers.
ReplyDeleteSo true! If you add in what it takes to be part of the writer community, the list gets much, much longer... therapist, career counselor, editor, mom...
DeleteMary, I've always thought of you as my mom.
DeleteMakes sense, since I adopted you as my Franzen
DeleteVery accurate list! I often find it hard to balance the time between all these roles, and my mom/wife roles as well! But, I wouldn't trade it for anything :-)
ReplyDeleteIt's a thrill ride for sure :-)
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