You Are Worth the Time

Generally speaking, I don't think of myself as an artist. It was never my goal to create great artistic works of fiction. I always wanted to just tell my stories and have people enjoy them. I just want to produce damned good entertainment.

This isn't mutually exclusive from the desire for recognition. I hold a secret yearning for some kind of artistic affirmation from the powers that be: good reviews, a slot on the best seller list, or some respected award. But I don't expect it. I don't ever really expect to do anything but labor in obscurity, quietly doing my job of entertaining. Perhaps someday, I'll be discovered, like Bach or Dickens, years after my death, to have been a transcendent artist and to have written classic works of literature proven by the only test that matters: time.

Hey, we can all dream, right?

This morning, I was woken up too early by my husband's alarm clock. I lost an hour of sleep on a morning when I was already set to get up a full 45 minutes before I had to be getting the little girls up for their first day of school. The little girls, who often dawdle to the point of driving me to insanity, got ready with a good will and are now cuddled up next to me. We have time to sit.

When I put them on the bus, they will be gone for the whole day, arriving home at nearly supper time. And the hours will stretch out before me, hours during which I feel like doing exactly nothing. How odd to plan on wasting a day on this particular day when I am already sensitive to the fleeting, and lasting, nature of time.

There is laundry to do. Pots still to wash. The bathroom is dirty. Perhaps I will do some of those things.

Perhaps not.

Perhaps, on this, the first day of school for so many of our children, we will remember who we are. We are artists--even me.

New for old

Image from FlickrAfter getting my university grades back for the year (I got a 2:1! *that's a B) - I decided to get on with cleaning out some of my business and writing.
Its been hard work knowing where to let go - and where to keep - harder still to buckle down and set up the last of the work that I need to justify keeping them - but I think, sometimes its important to clean out the things that are holdig us back - whether it's a declutter from our professional life - or your private life.

A couple of tips to make it easier though:
Be as detached as possible - you're not looking at long term unless 'long term' is something you're working towards - so if you've got a project on the long term that's stuck in a rut, and you're not sure whether you can revive it, it might be a good time to let it go. I'm not saying 'give in' completely - but sometimes you need to take a step back and look at what you're doing and where you're going.
And how best to get there.

Once you've worked out your goals, your needs - your wants - your DREAMS - be merciless! Get rid of everything you no longer need to accomplish your focus. Trust me - you'll feel better for it.
Decluttering your professional life could be as simple as taking only certain types of clients - changing your contracts to protect your rights as a provider - it could be finishing off that book that is gathering digital dust.
It can be a bit harder in your private life -but its important to prioritise and ensure you've got time - space - breathing room to fully enjoy your life. Even if that means saying 'I can't' occassionally.
Starting with something as simple as decluttering your email can make a huge impact on your life - give it a try!

My barrier is time

Heather asked us what our barriers are, and at first, I thought 'I don't have one!'.
I'm massively profilic, writing fiction, non-fiction, poetry, setting up a publishing house, going to University full time....raising a family...
And that's when it hit me.
My barrier is time.
Not time management, but time itself.

My barrier is time because there isn't enough of it.
My average day is 19 hours long. I sleep for five (though every so often, I don't sleep at all!). In those 19 hours, I spend:
2 eating
4 studying
6 chasing after my children before and after school - doing homework, reading and writing with them.
3 hours cleaning and doing 'house' stuff.
That leaves me six hours for writing, playing games, and the other 'stuff' I do - articles for gaming sites, my books 'etc'.
After term ends in April, I 'gain back' my study time, so that gives me a solid eight hours of work to look at my novels and other work.
But time is a huge barrier for me - I can't do 'everying' I want to do - though, of course, most of its my fault. I love my projects, but I'm pulling down this one barrier by rearranging, carefully. I'm selling off a lot of sites, and amalgamating a lot more.

Whatever your barriers are, you can tear them down - just work out what they are and why they are there and creatively change the rest ;)