Sustainability
This is a reprint of a column I posted on my old website in August 2011. It’s good to reflect back on this stuff and maybe take it seriously this time, huh? 🙂
As you may know, since you’re reading this on my Web site [back then it was on my website — you’re reading it on this blog now, obviously], I have five blogs. [Strange, but true!] This wasn’t part of a big planned marketing strategy. I started out with one and kept coming up with more, based on what I perceived as my needs at the time.
I’ve managed to develop a schedule for updating each one, pretty much. Except for two blogs: My Life on the Mid-List [a blog that no longer exists], where I market my books and myself as an author; and Green Reality Check [another dead blog], where I seek “to discover what it really means to be green and sustainable — or not.”
I’ll let you guess which of the two blogs has suffered the greater neglect due to lack of a regular scheduled day for putting up posts. It doesn’t take a genius to figure it out …
To say that I’ve thrown myself full bore into marketing my books might be understating things a bit.
And I’ve tried to focus my attention and energy in directions that will provide the greatest payoff with the least effort possible. Because, unfortunately, due to my dystonia, I cannot afford to waste effort on useless tasks, because I can barely type as it is. I can’t, in short, bitch about stuff online endlessly, email people all the time, reply to people constantly, Facebook everyone about everything under the sun, and on and on, ad nauseum.
Now, keeping up a daily pace of blogging and writing takes a toll. Especially when your limbs are relentlessly twisting against your will. The routine tires you out. It drains you, physically, emotionally and mentally.
The question has become: is my marketing approach unsustainable? Here’s the thing. Dystonia has caused some secondary problems with my hand. I’ve developed a bunion-like growth. I’m getting acupuncture to help with the swelling, but the deformity is there for good. Could it have been prevented by seeing an acupuncturist sooner? Who knows? Thanks a lot modern medical science for all your help! (Yes, I was being sarcastic.)
So, now I’m starting to feel a difference in my hip! When I walk, my balance is thrown off, due to my clenching left foot. And I can feel it affecting my body all the way up to my hip! Well, excuse me, but that scares the living sh*t out of me!
Anyhow, I’m beginning to rethink my priorities a little. I’m (ironically, perhaps) wondering if I should pay a bit more attention to my sustainable living blog. Maybe I could learn a few lessons from it, huh? ☺
Meanwhile, I will keep showing up every day and doing what I can. Even if it’s just typing 350 words of my next novel or other work-in-progress. Because some days, that’s all I can manage. If I push myself and focus more on the writing and less on marketing, I can probably produce a higher word count. However, like marketing, fiction writing takes effort, concentration and creativity (used toward a different end, of course).
In any case, I end up feeling spent and frustrated. Especially since I used to type more than 75 words per minute without a thought before I got dystonia.
I’m not saying this in a bid for pity. I just want to emphasize that writing isn’t a competitive sport or I would have lost ages ago.
Sure, there are days when I feel like a snail in a world full of cheetahs. But if I can write at least 350 words that day, I’ll feel better in the knowledge that I’m at least 350 words closer to my goal. And that’s something, isn’t it?
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PS: All still true. I’ve taken steps to improve the situation with my foot and leg through exercise, but my hand is as bad as ever, depending on how long it’s been since my last treatment. Only now I’m writing books and screenplays, which is simply insane but awesome!
Originally published at http://randomandsundrythings.wordpress.com on February 18, 2022.
