Slow, but done

A story of how steady persistence still sees things to completion, I suppose. That’s sort of the theme of my life right now; everything has to happen so slowly, it feels like nothing is moving at all. But at least I know that’s not true – I just finished a hobby project I started in 2021. It’s a doll thing, and not a book thing, but I think the lesson is the same. Last week, I attended an author meeting, and something said to me has been hanging in my thoughts ever since: “It’s not hard. You just have to do it.”

So I did, and now we’re here.

Around this time two years ago, as I started leaning into digital sculpting for doll making, I decided to make Link. The Zelda games have always been dear to my heart, and they’ve been a huge inspiration for my writing, too–something that’s been pretty evident, with several readers referring to Spectrum Legacy as “if Zelda games were books.” It’s high praise and a great honor. But things have gone so haywire this year that I don’t know when the next Spectrum book will be going out at all, and that sense of uncertainty has given me a lot of anxiety about my work.

But it’s not hard. You just have to do it.

That’s part of what makes my Link project a great reminder, I think. Almost every bit of him was handmade; I didn’t make the boots, because I already had a pair that worked well enough for his outfit. But I made the doll itself, every layer of clothing, his hair, his gear. Even the face painting and eyes. It’s all me, and even though it took a long time, it’s done, because that’s what you do. You just have to do it.

Right now, I’m trying to approach my writing the same way as I approached making Link. Five minutes here, ten minutes there. Maybe, if I get lucky, an hour somewhere I can just sit down and really focus. It’ll get things done just as well as writing for an uninterrupted 8 hour shift, which is something I can only dream of right now.

It’s like that popular saying: How do you eat an elephant?
One bite at a time.

Link’s elephant is eaten now, and he gets to be a fun reminder that even when progress doesn’t feel tangible, it’s there, and it’ll eventually come together in a beautiful whole, where all that work suddenly becomes clear and obvious.

The book elephant, though? I guess this week is the first bite.