Almost Time to be a Writer Again

 

The Journal 6 has been released, and the emotional rollercoaster ride of the post-release period has begun to slow down. Which means I get to be a writer again soon. The fun part will be remembering where I left off.
 
My writing goals for 2012 have been shot to hell. In fact, they’ve been shot to hell since late March. Which is a bit earlier than I expected them to come under attack, but that’s the nature of trying to plan for an entire year: There are a lot of days-weeks-months between 1 January and 31 December.
 
How I was able to think, back in December, that I could hit those writing/publishing goals and develop, test, and release The Journal 6 is beyond me. Even back then I knew that I would be doing each and all of those things from January through at least July.
 
I’ve done software version upgrade releases a number of times before, for a number of products. I should know by now that I get more obsessive and single-minded the closer I get to the software release date. And that the obsession doesn’t go away with the release. It takes time (for a variety of reasons) to fully recede and allow other activities some mindshare.
 
But, no, I chose to ignore that experience and make plans as if I was some kind of relaxed, easy-going, and balanced fellow–and absolutely not the obsessive, single-minded type of guy I can be.
 
In fact, based on my experience with writing goals over the past several years, I should learn from that experience and stop making detailed writing goals at all. Stick with a very simple set of overarching goals, like:

Write.
Publish.

 
Within any given year–sometimes even within a given month–those can easily cohabitate with my other overarching work goal:

Develop software.

 
Rotating through this Trynamic Trio over the course of a year, obsessing on one, then the next, then the next, I should be able to get all sorts of stuff done. In fact, that’s how I’ve worked for years. I just never seem to remember that when I’m making my goals in December. Maybe this year I’ll finally learn.
 
All of which to say: Once the new release of The Journal has settled down (hopefully within the next couple weeks), I plan to shift my obsessive mentality to the completion of Gunwitch2.
 
-David
 
Related Posts:
The Approaching End – My Goals and Deadlines for 2012Things That Loom and Goals That AdjustMy Latest Heresy: I Don’t Want to Write Fulltime