As my father was so very fond of saying, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” And when I “finished” Book One of the Sylvia Avery Mystery Series, in… *gulp*… July, 2011, I “intended” to get started on the second book right away.
And right away I started setting roadblocks in my path.
What if the publisher (as yet unknown) wanted to make changes to the first book? Well, then the second one would be all messed up and my efforts would have been a giant waste of time. So wouldn’t it make sense not to write Book Two until Book One was at the printer?
Yeah, that’s the way my stinking thinking blocked me from sitting my butt in the chair and starting Book Two way back then.
In my defense, in the year and a half since writing “The End” on Book One, I have self-published three collections of short stories and put up six eBooks on Smashwords.com. So I wasn’t just twiddling my thumbs while I waited (and still wait) for the right agent, and/or publisher to come along.
Yet today I am still finding “reasons,” a.k.a. “excuses” for not jumping in headfirst and beginning Book Two. Granted, January 1 is a very seductive number for resolving to accomplish grand and glorious things, but I’m just not ready to commit.
When I lay all my projects out in front of me, I know there are a few things I have to scrap off my plate to have a fighting chance at the major endeavors lurking in the not-so-distant future.
But first— Well, I need to take down Christmas. That will take several days of concerted effort. I took over a week to put it all up, and I don’t want to just throw it helter skelter into the 20 totes earmarked for the attic.
And then there are my tax mess, heaped in not one, but two overflowing shoeboxes this year on the shelf above my desk. And lordy, I barely have room to turn around in my office, so I must clean it before I even think about spreading out the year’s receipts to begin organizing.
And then what about all my other unfinished writing projects mocking me from the folders on my computer desktop. Shouldn’t I get some of those done before tackling another novel?
And what about updating my will? Perched here on the first day of another year naturally makes me reflect back on the past one, and I’ve lost several people mentioned in my current will who now need to be removed. Another difficult and daunting task.
On and on it goes. Yes, I know I suffer from Class A-1 procrastination, and I know I just need to make a list, pick one thing, and start somewhere. I just need to be happy with any baby steps made in a generally forward motion.
The Christmas tree, up now for a full month and losing more dry needles by the minute, must be number one. Then maybe I’ll write the rest of my list this afternoon. Maybe.