Monday 5 January 2009

This Is the Morning the New Year Really Begins: Back to Work

Got to get back to work today. One of the advantages—or disadvantages—of being a freelance is that you can plan your own work schedule. When people ask if I’m free for a meeting, I often explain that I work always and never. Unless there’s a deadline looming, I can usually set things up to so I can make a meeting, say, next Tuesday at 2 p.m. with no problem. On the other hand, thee are few evenings when I don’t get in a couple of hours of work, even if it is only reading something for research.

The temptation, however, is to let things slide during holiday periods, and that’s what I’ve been doing these last two weeks. My industriousness has not been helped by the fact that I’m in the beginning stages of two major projects. Rather than sit down to spend several hours, staring at the keyboard until I can see where to go in the embryo of a novel that I’m beginning or the large, so-far unfocussed non-fiction book, it has been much more pleasant to take a walk, or bake some cookies, or write letters to friends. But that has to end as of this morning. And so to work….

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Indeed - I worked nonstop yesterday, from 6 am - could have finished the job before but had been in a blur - no, not too much holiday cheer; rather, stunned by Gaza. But yesterday mundane reality in the form of a deadline shook me out of that too-real nightmare and incessant e-mailing and websurfing.

see Canadian aid worker Eva Bartlett's blog ingaza.wordpress.com

But as you say, this afternoon I have time to go out for a walk on this mild, not too snowy day. I love your gate, by the way.