Hey, yeah, hi.
So, I'm totally still alive.
When I first started working on this post, I said that school was eating ALL my spare time. Don't get me wrong, I have been busy. But I've still been managing to find time to tumbl and watch at least an hour of TV every night, so I must still have SOME free time, amiright?
So let's talk about what this post is really about. It's something I've been thinking about and wanting to talk for a while, and now seems like the perfect time.
Basically, saying that school was eating all my spare time was an excuse. An excuse for not blogging and for being hit-and-miss on Twitter. An excuse for not reading and writing as much as I'd like to.
Making excuses was something I first thought about a while ago while talking with my sister. I have a short story that I've been sending out to a few literary mags and haven't gotten any bites. I have another short story that I've been planning to send out to mags and haven't submitted once yet. I'd told my sister that I thought the stories weren't strong enough and that I should go back and fix them before submitting.
So I'd said I was going to work on them. I pulled them out and read through them. And had zero ideas for how to actually improve them. I'm not saying they're perfect, because they're not. I'm just saying that what I've got is what I've got.
The thing is, as artists, we're always going to believe and know that a piece of work can be better. It can be easy to fall into the trap of tweaking something to death without ever actually changing it, improving it. I've always been fearful of falling into this trap. That's why I tend to write something, edit it as best I can, and stop. Move on to a new story. And what I've got is what I've got.
I realized that I was sticking my toe closer and closer to that trap to see how close I could get without actually falling in. I was actually pushing myself closer to the trap that I was so fearful of just so I had an excuse to not send my work out. Because if you don't put your work out there, you won't be rejected.
So now I'm trying to work up the nerve to put my work out there by starting little. Send out just one thing at a time. When a rejection rolls in, send it (or something else) right back out. I'm not sure if it's a good approach, but it's what I've got right now. In the meantime, I'll work on other stories. That's the best way to deal with the stress of putting your work out there. Keep writing. Keep working.
Do you ever find yourself making excuses? How do you break out of it?
So, I'm totally still alive.
When I first started working on this post, I said that school was eating ALL my spare time. Don't get me wrong, I have been busy. But I've still been managing to find time to tumbl and watch at least an hour of TV every night, so I must still have SOME free time, amiright?
So let's talk about what this post is really about. It's something I've been thinking about and wanting to talk for a while, and now seems like the perfect time.
Basically, saying that school was eating all my spare time was an excuse. An excuse for not blogging and for being hit-and-miss on Twitter. An excuse for not reading and writing as much as I'd like to.
Making excuses was something I first thought about a while ago while talking with my sister. I have a short story that I've been sending out to a few literary mags and haven't gotten any bites. I have another short story that I've been planning to send out to mags and haven't submitted once yet. I'd told my sister that I thought the stories weren't strong enough and that I should go back and fix them before submitting.
So I'd said I was going to work on them. I pulled them out and read through them. And had zero ideas for how to actually improve them. I'm not saying they're perfect, because they're not. I'm just saying that what I've got is what I've got.
The thing is, as artists, we're always going to believe and know that a piece of work can be better. It can be easy to fall into the trap of tweaking something to death without ever actually changing it, improving it. I've always been fearful of falling into this trap. That's why I tend to write something, edit it as best I can, and stop. Move on to a new story. And what I've got is what I've got.
I realized that I was sticking my toe closer and closer to that trap to see how close I could get without actually falling in. I was actually pushing myself closer to the trap that I was so fearful of just so I had an excuse to not send my work out. Because if you don't put your work out there, you won't be rejected.
So now I'm trying to work up the nerve to put my work out there by starting little. Send out just one thing at a time. When a rejection rolls in, send it (or something else) right back out. I'm not sure if it's a good approach, but it's what I've got right now. In the meantime, I'll work on other stories. That's the best way to deal with the stress of putting your work out there. Keep writing. Keep working.
Do you ever find yourself making excuses? How do you break out of it?