{"id":147,"date":"2019-08-28T17:41:09","date_gmt":"2019-08-28T17:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/miketorr.com\/writer\/?p=147"},"modified":"2019-08-28T17:41:09","modified_gmt":"2019-08-28T17:41:09","slug":"the-work-ethic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/miketorr.com\/writer\/2019\/08\/28\/the-work-ethic\/","title":{"rendered":"The Work Ethic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Let us rather run the risk of wearing out than rusting out. <\/p>Theodore Roosevelt<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This time last week I had just arrived back at my flat after a three-week absence, and I was dog-tired. The final week of those three had been spent in Dublin, at Worldcon, and was packed full of new ideas, new people, and various confidence-boosting activities; it had left me riding high on a wave of excitement about writing. I felt as though my elevated state could carry me over any obstacle or adversity.<\/p>\n

Of course, as an armchair scientist of some thirty plus years, I know that kinetic energy doesn\u2019t persist indefinitely in a system containing friction. And I don\u2019t think I need to highlight just how much friction is currently burning our world \u2013 not to mention our forests. I might have made it to Monday unscathed, but the combination of the usual stream of muddy news items flowing through the Twittersphere, along with my own bad luck in having picked up some virus at Worldcon (unusual for me, as I generally don\u2019t fall prey to such things), knocked me out the moment I\u2019d unpacked.<\/p>\n

I was supposed to go to work the next day, after which I\u2019d be away for four days at a festival in the Ashdown Forest (home to Winnie the Pooh, among other things). Of course, it didn\u2019t happen. I didn\u2019t get to my age (42 in base 13\u2026) without knowing when to step back and get some rest, and it seemed this was the moment. I cancelled the festival trip, took Thursday off work sick, and spent a couple of days doing nothing but rest.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t long before the Muse was bashing on my door, demanding to see me. She can be annoyingly tenacious sometimes. So of course, I had to let her in. I figured, while I\u2019m not doing anything else, I should get on with my book. She seemed to be in a good mood, and I got chapter two done at last, ready for my editor. And I turned to chapter three.<\/p>\n

Then, an interesting thing happened. I got an email back from the editor, telling me that she was almost fully booked up until March \u2013 and I had a decision to make. The thing about my book is that it has an unusual structure that makes it hard to edit all at once. Because the first nine chapters are essentially disparate stories in a variety of genres, and because chapter ten involves bringing all the main characters from these stories together, I have been resisting even drafting chapter ten until I\u2019m sure who these people are, and what they want. This means waiting until the first nine chapters are edited and ready. It would be awful to write a complicated plot for chapter ten involving these nine characters, only to discover that one of them had to be someone completely different because their own story chapter wasn\u2019t working and must be re-written. You see the problem. So, I got a little worried at the news. If I\u2019d had to wait until March before finishing the book, would I still have the passion and momentum that has carried me this far?<\/p>\n

It was at this point that I made a decision. I asked my editor how soon we could finish all nine chapters. I didn\u2019t make this decision lightly, because I have a very busy couple of months ahead of me! There\u2019s work, parenting, and generally managing life \u2013 but in addition, I have booked myself onto a course in climate science in September. And then there\u2019s the flat to tidy up, stuff to sell, the apocalypse bunker to stock with water and dried goods\u2026 you know the sort of thing. The usual 2019 stuff. Would I be able to fit in the final revisions of all of the remaining seven chapters in whatever time was available? I hoped so. But more than that, I told myself I would.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t often use the term \u2018work ethic\u2019, but it\u2019s entirely applicable in this case. No matter how busy I think I am, I can usually recall several evenings in the past week when I\u2019ve watched a DVD, or got lost in the YouTube labyrinth. This is time that could be spent doing other things\u2026 working for myself. And when I say \u2018for myself\u2019, I actually mean \u2018for my future self\u2019. When we avoid procrastination and get something done, we\u2019re literally working for the sake of our future self. And \u2013 I ask you \u2013 is there anyone more worthy? That\u2019s for each of us to decide, but I\u2019m hoping you consider yourself at least worthy of some hard graft by your antecedent consciousness.<\/p>\n

As an aside: I consider past and future versions of me to be literally different people \u2013 I find it helps in two distinct ways. First, it can assuage any excessive guilt over past mistakes; second, it helps remove pressure to become someone you can\u2019t imagine becoming: you can instead simply nurture your present self, and watch as it grows into your future self effortlessly. Well, that\u2019s the theory, at least.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"Me<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

So, my editor got back to me and gave me a schedule that takes us to the final edit on all nine chapters by the middle of November. My reaction to this was elation, mixed with dread. Of course I was pleased that I might be able to spend the winter finishing my book, but I also knew how much work this would bring me.<\/p>\n

I said yes. The reason is simple: I knew that my post-con Blues was like being stuck in mud. And the way to get out of mud is to pull your feet up and then keep moving.<\/p>\n

I wish you all a mud-free September. I\u2019ll report back soon with more news of how it\u2019s all going. Right now, I have a chapter to revise!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\nSome thoughts on getting back to The Future after post-con Blues.\n<\/div>\n
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