Monday, January 24, 2011

Work/Play: Writing

things to do on cards

I have redone my index card system once again. Sunday is purple for putting myself back together. Monday and Wednesday are green for writing Livestrong or Pioneer Press articles (yellow and green) or league schedules or press releases (blue, do you see what I did there? Yellow + blue = green! I don't have any yellow this week. I have three Pioneer Press articles, and they pay more.) Friday and Saturday are red for writing blog entries and for skating. And all of this is a clue.

You see, something like "writing" isn't just one thing. The clue is that blogging and skating are the same color, and that blogging is a different color from other writing that I do. Writing for Livestrong or Pioneer Press or even the league is a means to an end that's an end in itself, that's HOBBY. And you know what skating is. So I'm saying that blogging is more like skating than like other writing. Blogging is PLAY, it's an end in itself that may turn out to be a means to an end. I mean, geez. If I even end up making half a living blogging and half a living plus health insurance working on spreadsheets, I win at life forever. I'm not expecting that, I already win at getting a whole day to blog every week.

Here's another clue. If you have designs on writing a novel or being a screenwriter, you already have a means to an end on your hands. And the more it's about the end, the more it's a means to an end. Which is to say, it's work. It's writing that is work, you'll know you have this if it feels hard. If you have big dreams, I'm not going to tell you not to work for them. Just know what you're dealing with, writing isn't this rarified thing that you're can't take apart and see what makes it tick.