Back to work this week. I’ve had a nice break and made good progress on non-writing goals, but my list of things to do is filling fast and deadlines are calling. Usually I work on whatever interests me. I choose from a big file of ideas and snippets that I maintain. This latest batch of projects are external—work other people would like to see from me, these people being editors. So interesting for different reasons I suppose.
I can write what I want. No limits on my imagination or specific content. Still, for me, a change from the purely self-driven stories that have kept me busy the last couple of years. I’d completed just about everything on the last list so the timing is good. I work on what’s ready and it looks like I’m ready to submit— mostly because I’ll keep my own other work on track and flowing.
I know that may be an odd way to put it, but I concentrate on the quality of the work and the reader. (It’s my own until I give it to the reader.) Not a lot else. So a thumbs-up/thumbs-down editor is an uncommon phase in my process. That’s the benefit and possible challenge of having done so much indie work: I don’t spend a lot of timing thinking about submitting. For me, that’s preferable. I’ll see how this experiment goes. It’s lovely to be asked so I’ll just focus on that part.
Also it’s allowed me the opportunity to build something, which is always welcome, to manage the different works.
Why take the time to take on a project to manage my projects? Have you seen how much large dry acrylic dry erase boards cost? Necessity may be the mother of invention, but being cheap* is an attentive stepmother (and being resourceful is the bottle wine that make them fast friends).
*I like to think of it as strategically allocating my funds, and if I want quality for what’s less important that usually means I have to make it.
Tenea D. Johnson
7.23.21
