Submitted For Your Consideration

August 2011

Sustainability

As you may know, since you're reading this on my Web site, I have five blogs. This wasn't part of a big planned marketing strategy. I started out with one and kept coming up with more, based on what I perceived as my needs at the time.

I've managed to develop a schedule for updating each one, pretty much. Except for two blogs: My Life on the Mid-List, where I market my books and myself as an author; and Green Reality Check, where I seek "to discover what it really means to be green and sustainable -- or not."

I'll let you guess which of the two blogs has suffered the greater neglect due to lack of a regular scheduled day for putting up posts. It doesn't take a genius to figure it out...

To say that I've thrown myself full bore into marketing my books might be understating things a bit.

And I've tried to focus my attention and energy in directions that will provide the greatest payoff with the least effort possible. Because, unfortunately, due to my dystonia, I cannot afford to waste effort on useless tasks, because I can barely type as it is. I can't, in short, bitch about stuff online endlessly, email people all the time, reply to people constantly, Facebook everyone about everything under the sun, and on and on, ad nauseum.

Now, keeping up a daily pace of blogging and writing takes a toll. Especially when your limbs are relentlessly twisting against your will. The routine tires you out. It drains you, physically, emotionally and mentally.

The question has become: is my marketing approach unsustainable? Here's the thing. Dystonia has caused some secondary problems with my hand. I've developed a bunion-like growth. I'm getting acupuncture to help with the swelling, but the deformity is there for good. Could it have been prevented by seeing an acupuncturist sooner? Who knows? Thanks a lot modern medical science for all your help! (Yes, I was being sarcastic.)

So, now I'm starting to feel a difference in my hip! When I walk, my balance is thrown off, due to my clenching left foot. And I can feel it affecting my body all the way up to my hip! Well, excuse me, but that scares the living sh*t out of me!

Anyhow, I'm beginning to rethink my priorities a little. I'm (ironically, perhaps) wondering if I should pay a bit more attention to my sustainable living blog. Maybe I could learn a few lessons from it, huh? :

Meanwhile, I will keep showing up every day and doing what I can. Even if it's just typing 350 words of my next novel or other work-in-progress. Because some days, that's all I can manage. If I push myself and focus more on the writing and less on marketing, I can probably produce a higher word count. However, like marketing, fiction writing takes effort, concentration and creativity (used toward a different end, of course).

In any case, if I push myself too hard, I'll end up feeling spent and frustrated. Especially since I used to type more than 75 words per minute without a thought before I got dystonia.

I'm not saying this in a bid for pity. I just want to emphasize that writing isn't a competitive sport or I would have lost ages ago.

Sure, there are days when I feel like a snail in a world full of cheetahs. But if I can write at least 350 words that day, I'll feel better in the knowledge that I'm at least 350 words closer to my goal. And that's something, isn't it?

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