Fighting the Wrong Fight?

I've been quiet on the blog for the past week, away from home and most Internet access enjoying family, cooler weather, small-town life, and the Jersey shore. Just before leaving yesterday, I came across this crime blotter news item in the Vineland Daily Journal:

A turkey set off an alarm at a business on Wolf Road just after midnight Saturday. An officer found a turkey pecking at the glass on the front door. It appeared to be fighting its own reflection.

Reintroduced to Southern New Jersey a couple of decades back, wild turkeys have proliferated to the point where you see them everywhere, pecking in the weeds, scratching at the dirt, and fiercely protecting their young. They're alert parents and large enough to open a can of whoop-ass on any dog, stray cat, or fox who dares to venture too close to their brood.

Yet, as seen above, they're not exactly Rhodes scholars about figuring out the difference between a real threat and their own reflections. They've been seen attacking shiny hubcaps, flinging themselves against windows, and scratching the heck out of the side of freshly-washed cars. Such frantic, self-defeating activity tires and distracts the birds...not to mention taking their attention from the real threats creeping up.

As you work to achieve your writing goals, you need to ask yourself, am I worrying myself silly about things I can't control, things that ultimately don't matter? Am I expending my time and energy pecking at glass doors instead of producing the kind of meaningful work that has the potential to excite an agent, an editor, and (with the right luck, timing, and effort) a large, receptive audience?

The uncomfortable truth is that there's not time to do everything, be everything, follow every possible path. We can only choose priorities to keep from fluttering about like turkeys attempting to do everything at once.

What's your priority this week?

How Badly Do You Want It?

It's so easy to put other things first. The bills that must be paid, the home that must be tended, the loved ones who strive to squeeze from us every last drop of attention.

Every one of these is worthy, every one of them important. But if you sincerely, desperately want to make it as a writer, if your soul is starving to share your stories with the greater world, you're going to have to look at your priorities. You're going to have to make your writing the rock in the stream, the one immovable object around which the rest of life must flow.

Half-hearted efforts will not serve you, nor will constantly looking over your shoulder for permission or approval. You have to want it more than that. Have to need it to be fully realized as a person. And you have to have the courage to claim it for yourself.

Does that scare you? Maybe it should. Are you up for it? It's your choice. No one else will make it for you. No one ever can.

Stoking the Fire: Keeping the Creative Habit Alive

After taking an extra-long weekend for R&R and travel, I find myself playing catch up this week... and tempted to blow off my own writing to tend to the mountain of O.O. (other obligations) in my way. But the trouble is, O.O.s, like the detritus taking over my office, have a way of expanding to overwhelm all available space. Should I allow them to take precedence over my writing, I'll see more and more and still more things that need doing. And before I know it, the habit of writing will be lost.

It's a fragile thing, this habit, and no matter how many years you've stoked its flames, the writer must remember it takes only a little inattention to see them snuffed out by the demands of living. When I've worked for others, my supervisors never would have tolerated my putting their business last on my priority list. It's important that I'm at least as work-oriented a boss to myself.

So instead, I plan to give over the best hours of my week to what's most important to me: my own writing. Instead of shunting it aside, I'll ditch TV, DVD movies, and (this one really hurts) reading for pleasure in the evenings until I get caught up.

In doing so, I will feed the fire of my work, one twig at a time.

What are your work priorities this week? How to you plan to keep your focus on them?