An observation about making time…

Today, I'd like to talk about time, and motivation, and I'd like to start with a tangent. This last week or so, a number of people on Facebook and Twitter have noted, "For someone retired, you sure are busy!"

And, they had no idea. Like, yesterday? I did paid editing, chopping up news articles for a glass web site, and then I proofed When a Sex Doll Dies and sent the proof file back to the publisher. THEN I formatted Touched as a print book for Lulu and uploaded it. That book is a scant $6.95 for a 5.5"X8.5 paperback format. It also includes a bonus story, so it's a very good deal if you're in the US. If you're outside the US…you'll probably want to get the ebook version at Smashwords instead. Somehow around this, I also found time to practice my guitar for a few hours, and I planted some oregano and thyme.

That was yesterday. Today I had to do the same news editing job, and then I formatted a copy of Redemption Lost for Lulu and uploaded it. THEN I formatted and uploaded a print edition of Little Monsters. Both Redemption Lost and Little Monsters are $11.95, but Redemption Lost is a 6X9 book so it matches up with the other books in the set, while Little Monsters is in a new 5.5"X8.5" paperback format with "publisher grade" pages. What this means is, a 500 page book costs less to print, so I can charge y'all a price that isn't crazy and still make a buck and some change out of the deal.

I also did gardening and guitar practice today, and I'm sure some of you wonder, "What is it that's fired her up now?" Well I'll tell you my secret: it's steady pay. Yep, totally the regular pay coming in from the temp job. See, with cash coming in, I relax and get into my little workaholic zone, and nothing reaches me because there's work to be done. I suddenly find all sorts of extra time to get these projects done. Money motivates me to work faster, and therefore, I have yet more time to do other stuff and earn more money! Er, in theory, anyway.

But let's move along. I've seen a lot of people comment either that they whish they had enough time to read books, or to write them, and the other day, I saw three blog posts, two from readers and one from an author, all ranting about this very thing. If you have time to watch 5 television shows a day, then you have time to read simply by cutting one or more of your TV shows. You have to invest your time in something other than the boob tube on the intertoobs. And if you decide not to, that's fine. But you really can't lament to me that you don't have time. You do, and you choose to use it on other things.

Back when I worked at the theater, I would finish all of my work behind the counter after each rush, and then I would take out my spiral bound notebook and felt-tip pen to start scrawling more of my crazy stories down before the next rush started.

Inevitably, someone would come out for a refill, and they'd see me writing and ask, "Are you writing a book?"

"Yes," I'd say, "My third novel so far." (Or fourth or fifth.)

And they'd nod and say, "That's cool. I wish I could find time to write."

I'm standing there at work, in my work uniform, and clearly, I've managed to find time to write even at a wage slave concession job. But I shrug and give back their popcorn. There's no point in saying, "What you've said is an excuse, and you'd find plenty of time to do whatever you want if you'd just stop lying to yourself."

Right now, I am not reading any books. Nothing. I got burned out, and I need a break. I'm writing at a much slower rate, but since I have so much work in the back log, you won't notice my "laziness" until sometime next year. And that's assuming I stay at this rate of writing year round. Which isn't likely.

Some of you may want to say, "Ha! You can't make time to read either, biyatch!" Well, hold on. First, I read 36 book last year, plus about 9 WebLit serials. I've read 8 books this year and 2 WebLits. While I'm not reading fiction books right now, I am reading guitar tab books. (And a lot of web sites on the same topic. So I'm still reading, just not fiction.) Eventually, I'll get back in the mood to read some dark fantasy and make room for it in my juggling assortment of hobbies. I'll make time to read, just like I make time to write, to edit, to garden, and to learn guitar.

Before you formulate a "very good reason" why you can't make time for reading or writing, I want you to think about this: I have 20 books published on Smashwords in less than two years. I will very soon have my first published novellas released through the kind folks at Belfire Press, as well as a flood of print titles which will be coming soon from Lulu. Including completed trunk novels and projects in the queue, I've written over 40 books in 4 years. That doesn't even include all the projects I started and abandoned partway through because I wasn't feeling the story anymore.

This year, I picked up a guitar and started learning to play, just because I felt like it. For much the same reason, I walked into a wrestling federation and made myself a video producer. Which got me into place to be a referee, a play-by-play announcer, and a federation commissioner. I trained myself in how to use 3D Studio Max 3 to make a silly cartoon, and every few years, I try to dust off my skills by modeling some kind of funky animated puppets just for giggles. I once started a public access TV show, just because I was curious to learn how to produce a TV show. (Even if our show was poop with no budget.)

I'm honestly not bragging. I'm nothing special; a mediocre garden variety creative genius who has the same amount of spare time as the rest of you…okay, slightly more. But what I'm trying to do is show you that all you need is time to study, and you really can do anything you want. So instead of saying "I wish I had time," get up and make time. If you can't make time, all you'll make is excuses. Please don't. Because the world has plenty of those piled around already.