These seven and eight hour shifts are killing me. This was supposed to be a part-time, ten-hour-a-week job. It wasn’t supposed to cut into my writing time, since I want to transform this writing thing into an actual career. Yet I find myself drawn out and tired and only able to veg on my days off. I’m stuck in a little bit of an identity crisis: when I quit my last job, this is not where I found myself returning seven months later. But on the other hand, the money has been pretty damn good, all things considering, and so I’m trying to see the silver lining about how now is a good time to save as much as I can. Besides that, it’s a part time thing, while my main gig is writing, so it’s MUCH easier to not get stressed out and to just kind of enjoy my job for what it is. NaNoWriMo is only a handful of days away; I figure I can see how this goes, if I can discipline myself to bust out the rough draft for The Slayer Saga: Soulless in one month. If I pull it off, awesome, it’s just a matter of getting that time management down and making time for my writing. If not, if it’s too much, then perhaps it might be a good time to re-evaluate my current employment.
But enough of that. I should get to that RoW80 check-in I should have done yesterday.
Goal One: Madeline. It’s definitely not enough to make up for all the lost pages on this project to get it done by October 31st, but I pumped out three pages yesterday, so that was pretty awesome. The writing goes easier when there’s steamy sex scenes involved, apparently…
Goal Two: Reading. Man. Seeds of Time is draaaagging at the end, but I’m busting pretty quickly through The Alchemist’s Daughter. I started a new sci-fi/fantasy-esque book that’s been capturing my attention pretty well. I’m excited to see where it goes, though it’s a little bit slow going.
Goal Three: Short Stories. “The Lady of the Masks” returned yesterday with its third rejection…maybe fourth time’s a charm? I’ll be brushing that up, as well as working on a Jules Verne, Robinson Caruso, Typee-eque story for Ill-Considered Expeditions, although I’m considering sending them “A Song for the Underworld” if that returns from Uncanny Maganize negatory.
So, I’ve been keeping up okay, though I’m totally swamped and unable to keep up with social media, blogs, comments, or promotion. Everything’s a balancing act, right? At least I know that it’s not uncommon to constantly readjust, and I’m getting much better at managing it day-by-day, even if I can’t manage all I’d like to do.
How about everyone else out there? How are your goals going? Have you ever attempted to do something and have it morph into something completely different? That’s what life is all about.
L.S. Engler 
Hang in there! You’re not alone on the tightrope 🙂
Ha, and even though there are nets, falling is NOT an option! Gotta make it to the other side!:)
Thanks for the encouragement!
How did that job evolve into more hours? Were they so impressed with your mad skills that they wanted MORE? 🙂 (I suspect that’s really the truth!) I hope you can get everything lined up for NaNo where you won’t be so tired from your job. I know you want to win it!
It’s a combination of me being a good, dependable worker and our department being generally short staffed. We’ve lost five people since I was hired, and they have yet to hire anyone to replace them. I started working there in May; it’s absolutely ridiculous that no one else has been hired since then…Another reason I’m considering parting ways. What kind of company leaves a department hanging like that? I’ve been in management before, in hiring, and yeah, it baffles me.
And thanks! I think I will. I also discovered that the new multivitamins I’ve been taking might have been contributing to my exhaustion lately, so I’m switching up when I take them to yield a better result.
Oh, it’s very common for management in different companies to just not hire anyone else, but let others take up the slack. Trust me, I’ve worked for this company for 33 years. LOL