writing on deadline

I put aside this Sunday to struggle with a writing task. It’s my job, and it should be my job, to write the words for the front page of the Reaching the Animal Mind website.
It has to be done today: this is the last week before the book launches and the website opens. Matt, the website designer, and Mark, the website builder, and Aaron, the website producer, have all been carefully not nagging me, bless them, but I know they need it done NOW.
Last Friday, when I had planned to write this stuff, my brain was fried, the phone kept ringing with good things, and I had a video shoot lined up at 2:30, working with my grandson Nathanial, who’s 11. We shot the second lesson teaching his Boston terrier Annabel to come to a hand target (you can see the first lesson on the video at the temporary home page for the book: www.reachingtheanimalmind.com.)
We took it outdoors this time, and built 50 ft recalls. Nat has PERFECT timing. Belle loved it and was exhausted afterwards.
I took Saturday off to rest the mind, which usually helps. A little gardening, a trip to Costco to replenish household supplies, a movie with a friend (“Up,” loved it except for my fear of heights) and an early-evening dog walk at Beaverbrook Park, which surprised and pleased my old poodle Misha.
Slept 10 hours. Have to write NOW. I’d rather be working on a painting project in the livingroom. I’d rather be at the movies again. I’d rather be reading the Sunday papers. I’d rather be creating my crocodile blog, that needs doing too, doesn’t it?
A recent columnist in the Boston Globe wrote that the most important thing she learned in her business career was that sometimes what matters most about a creative project is not that it’s dazzlingly good, or or even merely excellent, but that it’s done on time. Get to it, Karen.


Get more on Karen Pryor at SimonandSchuster.com