In the last few days, I’ve gotten over 20,000 words done — unfortunately, it’s not original fiction, it’s technical translation. That would be a feat, if I could get so much creative work done in such a short time! Maybe I can train my writing muscle …
Recently, I touched on the difficulty of taking time to write when doing freelance work as a real job. Since I feel guilty about only having gotten a few pages of editing and drafting done, I’ll elaborate on this a bit. The thing is, whatever we don’t finish on this translation project before we go on vacation is money we don’t make. The deadline is a week after our flight to Bergen. If we aren’t finished by then, we have to hand this very lucrative project off to someone else to complete the rest. Normally I try to write an absolute minimum of 500 words a day; right now I’m concentrating on translating a few thousand instead.
Greed? Hell, yeah. At the same time, a fat project like this is a bit like a ticket to more concentrated writing time later. I just have to use it effectively, and not squander it like I too often do.
I’m taking my little EEEpc with me on the Hurtigruten cruise. Translation or no translation, I have to get my mini laptop set up before the trip and hope to have enough of an outline for Fragments of Legend finished so that I can get some writing done beneath the northern lights. Now that’s a fine prospect!
Best of luck in finishing the translation. I’m with you, money first, then you can relax to concentrate on the fiction. Being able to sit on a cruise and tap away the day on a deck chair, yeah, now that would be nice.
Have a great week, Ruth 🙂
Thanks, Gene! It’s kind of like Maslow’s pyramid, isn’t it? 🙂 Money first, writing later …
You have to make a living. So I don’t blame you for working on the translation first. When the fiction brings in more money, then you can change your priorities. 🙂
There you go, Lauralynn. As any writer worth his or her salt will tell you — don’t quit your day job! 🙂
I totally understand the guilt over having to abandon the writing for the day job, but it must be done. I’m resigning myself to the fact that I’ll need to devote the rest of September and October to finishing my MA thesis, instead of writing and prepping for NaNo, but it’s all good. I’ll feel a lot better knowing that I’ve tackled my day job.
Good luck finishing up, and enjoy the trip. Taking a cruise beneath the northern lights sounds absolutely amazing. 😀
Thanks, Jamila! Then we can just commiserate with each other on not having time to write! 🙂
Your vacation sounds lovely, and it’ll be a nice reward for working so hard now. Best of luck on finishing the job, and enjoy the relaxation when it’s over. Now I’ve gotta go check out that book with the dragon on the cover: Dragons And Princes And Witches, Oh My! That looks awesome.
Thanks, Jaleh! And glad you like the cover. I actually paid an artist for the artwork because I liked the picture so much. 🙂 Hasn’t paid out yet, but now I have a collection of stories that’s simply beautiful!