Six Months of "Things to Realize"
“Time was as fluid as a river. Waiting for something exciting made time crawl on its knees, and working on deadline made time sprint.”
- Karen McQuestion
Six months ago, I finally owned up to the fact that without deadlines, nothing happens. I started Things to Realize in July of 2020, and Indelible Mark seven years ago. I had various blogs before that going back to 2004. All this is littered with sporadic ad-hoc social media posts. The one thing common to all of these efforts is that I was inconsistent. I went months or years between posts. My last post prior to imposing this weekly deadline was three months before, at the end of July 2022.
I have friends and acquaintances who are writers, and they all are in agreement on two things: deadlines are a pain in the ass. And deadlines are required.
Every now and again, I sit back and reevaluate basic assumptions, and this usually is sparked when I see a wave of coincidences around the topic. The topic seems to bubble up in my consciousness. I wrote about this before, about creativity seeming to bubble up from the ether. Similarly with deadlines. Six months ago, I saw multiple articles, stories, and anecdotes about the value of declines. “Okay, okay, okay! I get it!” I finally committed. I finally felt sure enough of my own capability to do something every day, consistently, that I felt I could commit to a weekly deadline to get an article out the door. My daily commitment is my Morning Pages, and as an update, I have not missed a day since I started in January 2022. And now, six months after I committed to a weekly article here on Things to Realize, I have not missed a week, and “only” missed my deadline of Tuesday at 9:00am Pacific once (I published the next day. Pissed me off).
I published fourteen articles in first two years of Things to Realize. In the last six months, I have published 26 articles (including this one) and, bonus! ten podcast episodes.
It's funny how something seemingly distasteful becomes less distasteful, and even welcomed, when compared to a more distasteful alternative. I hated deadlines. I hated the artificiality are arbitrariness of deadlines. Deadlines a stake in the ground that we just decided should be there. Who cares? But, after looking over decades of inconsistently published work, the inconsistency became more painful to me than just owning up to the fact that I need deadlines.
I have to admit to imposter syndrome as well. Who am I to deign to call myself a writer? How can I be so pretentious as that? Well, a few year ago, a good friend of mine shared this quote:
“The writer must believe that what he is doing is the most important thing in the world. And he must hold to this illusion even when he knows it is not true.”
- John Steinbeck
This spoke to me more than I can convey. I printed this quote out, and every time I falter or feel I am faking it, I reread it. And I continue, and I recommit to the deadline.
My friends, what you are reading here is the most important thing in the world.
I sincerely hope that you all find value in my writing. Honestly, I can only get better, and I get better by writing more. I am glad you are reading and/or listening to my musing.
The jury is back on whether or not deadlines work: they do. I am happy that I have been able to get this out weekly and on time. Now my goal is to get better at writing.
One other thing my writer friends advise is: all writers need an editor. All of them.
I know this is true. I am self-editing the newsletter, but I know there are gaps. I also know I cannot ask my editor friends to edit for free (although I can offer exposure!), nor would I. I expect to be doing this for a long time, and so, I will eventually find an editor. By the way, if you are an editor and want to edit my work, reach out!
Thank you all for reading my work and for indulging me. I have a long queue of subjects to write about over the next six months and beyond. I find life and art and people endlessly fascinating, and there is no dearth of Things to Realize.