In my old life, the past couple of years, I’ve felt lots of pressure. With the various nonfiction projects in addition to my fiction, I put in lots more time writing after my day job at the Log was done, which left me with that much less to do non-writing stuff (yes, I know, obvious). And even at work, I felt under pressure, not so much because the job had gotten tougher but due to the bleed-through from freelancing.
This morning I woke up and realized I was stressed (and typically woke up very, very early because of it). The Enemy Within is due at the end of April. I have 11 more stories to finish for Big Pulp, and I’ve never had a deadline on my fiction before. Plus I’m doing or proposing several freelance projects in addition to eHow (I just sold a book review to the Beachcomber back in Florida), and if they all come in, I’m going to be an overly busy boy.
But the thing is, I’m stressed, not pressured. Deadlines are scary for personal projects like the shorts and the book (even though I know I can make them) and that makes me stressful, but I’m not pressured; I don’t spend the weekends feeling like my time is too constricted to do anything.
And let’s face it, making steady money off freelancing is a blast, even if it means I can’t goof off on company time (er, not that I ever did that at the Log, William, of course).
Stressed is better.
March 9, 2010 · 9:55 pm
