TadMack and I both wish all of our kidlitosphere buds the very happiest of years, with much peace, love, joy, and reading. :) (Speaking of reading, go check out the lists of 2008 Cybils finalists!!)
As for myself, I was thinking about ideas for a new cartoon today when I was hit with a most excellent New Year's Resolution. Now, I've been sort of waffling about formulating writing-related resolutions (though I posted some regular ones at my personal blog) but I realized that something very important to do for myself--for my writing as well as my well-being--is to give myself space to work.
Not literal space, since I DO have that, thanks to finally setting up our new home office. What I mean is mental space. I'm so good at cluttering up my mental space with real tasks, imaginary tasks, important work, unimportant work, and brand-new, made-up crap to do that I often end up somehow unable to justify spending time on my writing or my art, when really, it ought to be the other way around. Well, okay, the paid work kind of trumps everything else, as does the eating and sleeping and spending time with my husband and cats. But aside from that stuff, I need to make my creative work--specifically, at the moment, my YA novel overhaul--the item at the top of the to-do list. And I need to NOT let myself get sidetracked by less-important things that for some reason I feel like I should be doing because I made them into a big deal in my head.
Like Toon Thursday, for instance. I enjoy it, but often I end up stressed out about it, trying to come up with ideas, drawing them, posting them, all of which takes a fair amount of time. So I've decided to allow myself to take a Toon Thursday break until I'm finished with my novel revision, rather that somehow trying to cram it all in, hoping that some extra waking hours will magically appear in my day. So, I hereby take a temporary break from the tooning, with my return date TBD.
I have some other writing goals that I'm still thinking about, but this is a biggie. If you're interested in other kidlit folks' writing resolutions, I posted a few links over at the Cybils blog, and will likely post a few more on Tuesday.
3 comments:
I'll miss Toon Thursday, Sarah. But I completely support your approach. Isn't it amazing the way we put pressure on ourselves to do things that we don't even get paid for, just things that we've decided we want to do?? I wish you well min making space for what you most want to do!
Boy, does this post speak to me. Thanks for the term "mental space". What a great visual that gives me, and maybe it will even inspire me to do better about keeping mine free of clutter.
Sounds like a great plan. I admire you for identifying your priorities and making the space to focus on them.
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