Buzzing along at Starbucks, getting ready for class (Mythology) tomorrow.  Everything is graded-- for that class.  I still have the online English Composition essays to grade.  Maybe this weekend?  Ah.  Spring Break is next week and I’m very much looking forward to it, though I know I really should spend many, many hours working on my screenplay.

I have a tendency, when my plate is full, to heap a few more things onto it.  Take the screenwriting class, for instance.  It really shouldn’t be much of a challenge for a professional (::cough:: me ::cough::) to write a first draft of a screenplay.  Really.  And I know it.  So, when something like this comes along (courtesy of my screenwriting professor, no less), I feel like I must rise to the occasion.  Never mind that it’s my first screenplay.  Never mind that writing a first draft by the end of April and writing a final draft by the end of May are two entirely different beasts.  Never mind that I don’t stand a chance in Hell at winning a screenwriting competition.  I am writer, hear me roar.  Or write.  Whatever. Must do it.  (The masochist’s version of “Just do it.")

Then there is the lovely and talented and driven Alana, who occasionally forwards interesting calls for submissions.  She inspires me to want to write something for these calls-- something good and literary and emotional-- something I don’t possibly have time to write with everything else I’m supposed to be writing.  But I want to and feel like I should, since my writing friend took the time to forward the call for submissions.  Must do it.

Looking at my Stickies, I see that I have seven calls for submissions on my must-submit-something list and four on the if-I-have-time-to-submit list.  These calls for submissions do not include the calls received from writer friends or that I run across in my daily blog and magazine readings.  My head spins when I contemplate the grand total and I become anxious when I consider how many I can really submit to, with deadlines ranging from March 31 to June 15.  Unfortunately, I find I often have ideas for the later deadlines and the fast approaching deadlines leave me blank-minded and frozen-fingered.  Ack.  Better not to think about it, but I still must do it.

I read once that the more you do, the more you find time to do.  Or something like that.  It referred to writers who dream of giving up the day job and writing full-time.  In theory, you’re likely to accomplish more with a full-time job on top of the writing job than you are if you write full-time because you will structure your free time better if you’re working a regular job and you will squander much of your time with promises of “I will write later” if you are writing full-time.  There are times when I can vouch for that.  While the full-time writing is currently juxtaposed with part-time teaching, part-time studenting (not a word, I know) and full-time husband at home part-time, I am writing more lately than I think I could write if I were working full-time.  Lately.  This has not always been the case.  I am glad I feel the sense of urgency that makes me write when part of my brain says I’ve done enough for one day (or that it’s Sunday, so take the day off for god’s sake), but I wonder if I will ever feel like I’ve really done enough.

Must do it.  All.  Now.

Posted by Kristina in School in Writing at 07:04 PM Permalink 4 comments