Keeping busy, sort of
May. 20th, 2020 12:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jon_chaissonComing upon two months' out of work, and I'm still getting used to it. My level of slacking off feels a bit higher than I'd like it to be, but that's easily remedied. As long as I remain active in my job searches! I've been approaching that with a bit of creativity and discernment; it's one thing to answer the question 'why do you want to work here' with my head thinking "Because I'm desperate and I have a fuckton of debt" and another to actually be honest and say "because this sounds right up my alley and I'd be a good fit". A has done a bit of math this morning and while our income has dipped a bit, thankfully it's not major. Just enough to remind me that I don't have to go into this search already feeling stressed and anxious. [I totally understand the privilege that comes with that statement, of course. After thirty-plus years of saying the former, I'm incredibly lucky I have the ability to say the latter.]
I need to get back to my writing, though. I think I've cleared my head enough of that process as well to be able to approach it with a calm mind and a clearer path. In fact it kind of feels similar to when I first started The Phoenix Effect back in '97, when I trunked everything and started fresh. As of today I have no outstanding projects. A few possible future ideas, but that's it. Back then I'd done it out of freedom, to disconnect myself from so many unfinished and dead-end ideas. Now, I basically did it to take some time off and recharge. I mean, completely rewriting and revising a hard sf trilogy and writing three new novels in the span of five years is a LOT of work. I don't think I was mentally exhausted, to be honest...I think it was more that I'd started feeling the strain of pushing myself to maintain that level of output, and when that happens, writing becomes less about creativity and more about productivity and that ain't a good thing for me.
Still...I have an idea or two I'd like to play with, so I'll start in on one of them soon and see where they take me!
I need to get back to my writing, though. I think I've cleared my head enough of that process as well to be able to approach it with a calm mind and a clearer path. In fact it kind of feels similar to when I first started The Phoenix Effect back in '97, when I trunked everything and started fresh. As of today I have no outstanding projects. A few possible future ideas, but that's it. Back then I'd done it out of freedom, to disconnect myself from so many unfinished and dead-end ideas. Now, I basically did it to take some time off and recharge. I mean, completely rewriting and revising a hard sf trilogy and writing three new novels in the span of five years is a LOT of work. I don't think I was mentally exhausted, to be honest...I think it was more that I'd started feeling the strain of pushing myself to maintain that level of output, and when that happens, writing becomes less about creativity and more about productivity and that ain't a good thing for me.
Still...I have an idea or two I'd like to play with, so I'll start in on one of them soon and see where they take me!
