Playing nice

The book's out. The chat went well. I even met another author whose story struck me as interesting. He channeled his own debilitating illness into his main character. It was interesting. Write what you know, they say. I figure if I release fifty or so books, at this rate, I'll have fifty or so business contacts, people I met here and there. We exchanged emails once a month, were seen in the same photo twice a lifetime. Well, I hope it snowballs.

The results for that writing contest came back as well, and I got a tie for third. Doubt I'll win the breaker. There aren't a lot of authors on the site, but most of them seem to know each other from wherever they were recruited from. Which isn't necessarily bad, just bad for me. In their posts, I can hear the familiarity they have with one another. I can see their body language, and I realize now the difference between all the specific steps professional contests take to better insure objectivity and why they exist. I'm just a random guy who showed up, and I don't quite have the ice-smashing social presence to make friends easily. I'm not thinking of quitting, but I am skipping August's writing event.

Last weekend went somewhat poorly. I didn't write. I don't necessarily feel stifled, just... occupied. I'm letting life get in the way. At the very least, I made some headway on the sci fi universe's development. I finally was able to read someone else's ethnography and see what they meant through their use of the word. It was very helpful, and very detailed. I'm a little intimidated by the work I have to do, mostly because I don't know where the time is. Another instance where I'll have to manufacture it. And I just put my time machine up on shelf, too.

Also, the meet up where I learned about that interesting technique is happening again on Sunday. My knee jerk feeling is not to go. I get less work done. It's just a fact, and I can't really understand doing something that's going to result in less progress. Yet I feel I should express some gratitude to those people for helping me out, so what is a few hours in the grand scheme? It wouldn't be the first time that random, flippant action resulted in unexpected results. The first time this month, even.

So maybe I'll rethink all my anti social thoughts. Maybe.


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