My Quest to Get Organized and Get More Stuff Done

I tend to let everything I have to do, all I want to do, and stuff I should do just float idly in my mind.  Since I have an active imagination, there are a lot of such things floating idly around in my mind.  So at the end of most days, I tend to feel like I have left a lot undone. This, in turn, tends to make me feel a little useless, and also tends to lead to the state I wrote about a few days ago (read here).

So, I have recently decided that I need goals. Hard, concrete, measurable, and easy to achieve goals.

My goals as of right now are:

1.     Set said goals

2.     Get organized

I’m still working on the first goal, but I’ve made some progress on the second. 

I have started using the free Evernote app on my iPhone. (Incidentally I love my iPhone, and it’s not because I’m any kind of Apple fanboi. I love my Macbook pro, iMac and iPod Nano too, so there). Moving on…

For those of you unfamiliar with it, Evernote is a web-based service that lets you keep track of practically anything, from webpages, to notes, to recipes, to restaurants, to that really cool sign on that really cool store, and more.  I’ve never really seen the true usefulness in Evernote, despite the fact that many people rave about it. 

Until one evening when I was lying in bed, trying to get to sleep, and an idea regarding this other book that I plan to start writing once I get Protector out the door, struck me.  What I usually do when I get these brilliant ideas at inopportune times, is find a piece of paper and write it down. This is exactly what I did on said evening. (I have a big paranoia that if I don’t write an idea down the second it occurs to me, I will forget it forever.  Though I have found that this does not really happen all that often.)

A few days later, I was cleaning up and came across this piece of paper. And I had no idea what to do with it, since I do not yet have any type of system for collecting ideas for my future book.  So I once again grew very afraid of losing the idea forever. 

That was when I had another brilliant idea.

I could take a snapshot of it with my iPhone, and store it in Evernote.

And that’s just what I did.

I’ve since done with many other loose scraps of paper with my brilliant ideas on it.  Including my idea for this blog post.  See?

As you can also see, my handwriting is really, really bad.

Now if I could just get to those goals…

Getting Good Feedback

In an effort to make my book the best I possibly can before unleashing it upon the world, I have recently joined the online writing workshop CritiqueCircle.com.  The idea is to have people read and comment on my novel, thereby spotting any problems I might have missed in the revision.

I am happy to report that, so far, the feedback I’ve gotten has been quite positive.  One of my best beta readers on CritiqueCircle.com, Christina McKnight, even went so far as to mention my novel Protector on her blog.  You can read her kind words here. 

One of the main reason why her review means so much to me, is because she is not normally a reader of fantasy.  I must be doing something right, if my book is able to touch and resonate with readers outside of the fantasy genre.

P.S. If anyone reading this would like to offer their take on my novel Protector, I have set up a critique group (on CritiqueCircle.com) where you can do so.  Let me know and I’ll provide more info.

Short synopsis of my novel Protector:

A clueless, powerful soldier accompanies loved girl, and the group sent to collect her, to the other side of a Veil separating two worlds, trying to keep her safe from priests who rule their world, and are bent on stopping them.

Analysis Paralysis and I

Just a reminder that life is a lot simpler than we imagine it is!

I almost didn’t write this blog post. 

Why, you ask? Well, the answer is in the title. I suffer from analysis paralysis, which more often than not has me sitting motionless (ok, not really motionless), fretting. Fretting over all the things I have to do, all the things I want to do, and all the things I have not the time to do. Huh?

I have all the time I need. And I have much more time than a lot of other people do, being a self-employed, freelance copywriter. I have at least 10 hours each day to do as I like. After I do what needs doing. Definition of Analysis Paralysis: “The term "analysis paralysis" or "paralysis of analysis" refers to over-analyzing (or over-thinking) a situation, so that a decision or action is never taken, in effect paralyzing the outcome.” -Wikipedia

Yup! That’s me.

But why did I almost not write this post?

Because I’ve now spent almost 2 weeks deciding on whether to buy a domain name, or just use the free blogger platform.

That’s right. Two weeks.

I could have written a dozen, or more blog posts in this time.

But, no. I wrote not a one. 

Because I have been too busy fretting over whether to buy a domain name, and then worrying about the design of the website, and how much time it is going to take me to have it all set up, and how much time I will have to spend getting the fonts just so, and whether I even have a good enough eye to create a pleasing website, and whether I will just waste the $10 on the domain name because I will never update the blog, and … well you get the picture.

This morning I decided that enough was enough!

Therefore, I have written this post.

I am publishing it on my blogspot blog.

I will leave all the other worries for another day.

And the moral of this blog post is:

It is usually better to do something, than to only think about doing it.*

* which is nothing more than a longer way of saying, “Just do it!”

Disclaimer:

[So as to avoid being too vague here, I am referring mostly specifically to finishing the first book (PROTECTOR) in my fantasy series (Anniversary of the Veil). I’ve completed the first draft in December 2009. I’ve finally managed the revision by July 2011. I want it published by February 2012.]