More Hard Work, More Celebrating, Less Daydreaming

I am beyond excited. Celebrations will be in order tonight. Bottle of bourbon in the cabinet, I’m looking at you. Prepare to be poured out and sipped upon. Alright, before my analogy gets too weird…

Whether you had seen other posts of mine or not, I had entered a story into the Launch Pad Prose Competition months ago. My story, “Darkness of the Ecuadorian Sunset” had moved on to the Second Round… then on to the Top 100 where it was featured on the site, and I could make a profile, and feature other works of mine… and now, it has moved on to the Top 50!

Like I said, beyond excited.

It’s funny because I am busy finishing up a separate large project of mine, with hopes of being able to include it on the site with my other works. Or to at least have it ready in case anyone reads my story and wants to know what other works I have. I took a couple days off from work to give myself plenty of time to finish with my edits and allow myself extra days of uninterrupted time to do so. I’m in the middle of the edits, trying to keep to a strict timetable to get it all done soon… yet I still should make time to celebrate.

It made me think of a couple things.

If You Want Something You Have To Work Hard

Absolutely. You have to work hard to achieve your goals. I’ve been someone who daydreams far too much. So much so, that I’ve told myself I need to stop. I create such specific daydreams that I’ve thought, “Well, now that exact thing will never happen because I thought it out in such a detailed way. That would be too much of a coincidence. It now can’t happen because I just thought it out of existence.”

I don’t know if that’s a thing. But also I tell myself to spend less time daydreaming so that I can spend more time working. I daydream about the success and relishing in it. But I want to get there. I need to spend the time working to get there so that I can actually get there.

I used to daydream a bit too much. And I had little work to show… duh. When would I have gotten anything done? The last few years I’ve been dedicating more time to my writing. Now, I have more to show. Can we say, Double Duh? But sometimes you need to tell yourself this stuff to actually, fully realize it.

I try to remind myself several times throughout the day… I stop and ask myself often… “What’s most important?” Yes, there are many answers that go beyond writing. Health and well-being and relationships and all that. But when I think of my personal goals, I think critically. Which projects are most important? What do I want to create? And then after identifying them, how do I reach those goals? By writing. Bit by bit. Day by day. Put in the work. Make sure to carve out time to work on these things. Eventually, I will complete them.

But also…

It’s Important To Celebrate Milestones

I want to create. I want to accomplish my goals. So, I have to work hard to get there. I have to set aside much time to write and edit and write and edit.

But I want to relish in these accomplishments. When I hit milestones like this, when I have something to celebrate, I should celebrate it.

I will attempt to stick to schedule today. I will be writing and editing much of the day for something that’s important to me. But I’ll set aside plenty of time to celebrate and bask in the glow of Top 50.

Also, I will do the same thing tomorrow. I will write much of the day (I took tomorrow off from work too) but then I will use the evening off to continue to celebrate my accomplishment.

But all of this made me think of something else as well.

Treat Every Project Like It Could Be The Big One

If you are a writer, you just got to keep writing. Profound stuff, right?

You may have your big project… your passion project… the one that you value above all else. Good. When you have other projects that you work on before, after, in between… value that too. You want to treat every single project like it could be the one that gets noticed.

Maybe you think your passion project is the one with the most intriguing premise. And it may be. But what if another premise you came up with is most intriguing to someone else? You should put 100% effort into all your ideas, even if you think, “That’s not even one of my top 10 stories.”

What if someone else thinks otherwise?

What if you came up with a premise that is just what J. B. Bigdeal is looking for?

I say this because, this story of mine, I wouldn’t have rated it in the Top 10 of all my ideas. I liked the idea and the story but I felt like I had plenty of stories that were far better. But I still put in the effort and I was happy with the end result. But I often thought, “This one turned out quite well. But I have some other stuff that’s a good deal better.”

The way this story came about… and this could be a tip for anyone looking to come up with new ideas… I texted my friend Josh, a big supporter of mine. I said, “Josh, give me a color, a fruit, an animal, and something in nature.” I mean, there was more to the text than that. I greeted him first. I’m not a jerk. We were probably mid-conversation about something else anyway. But for your purposes, that’s all you need to know.

Josh responded with, “Red, Kiwi, Ocelot, Quicksand.”

Thanks Josh.

I pondered these and decided I’d write a story that involved the color red and a kiwi. I came up with a story, “Kiwi of my Eye.” And I posted that to Vocal... and eventually Medium. Then, I’d write a story that involved an ocelot and quicksand. It became “Darkness of the Ecuadorian Sunset.” But it was too long to post on Vocal.

So, it just sat there in a folder.

For a while.

Until an iteration of this contest rolled around and I thought, “Why not submit it here?”

I didn’t expect this one to do so well. It wasn’t my favorite of my own but I liked it and I worked hard on it. And it’s apparently doing well enough with the judges of this competition.

You never know.

You could create something just based off an idea… off a prompt… or maybe one of your friends just gave you two words and you rolled with them. You know what you like best but you never know what others like best. Don’t half-ass any of your own work. You owe it to yourself to go full-ass on every project.

The next milestone I’ll await in the competition is the Top 10. Oh, how I’d love to make it there! But that’s also asking a lot. In the meantime, I’ve already won. My story will be promoted on the site. But I’ve still got work to do. I can promote more of my works if I finish them. I won’t rush myself but I’ll dedicate ample time towards them.

I’ll try not to daydream too much. I’ll work hard on my current project because the goal is to create, so I have to make time to create. And each project I work on, I’ll make sure to give it 100%-ass. No matter the project. But I’ll also set aside time to celebrate. I need time to appreciate my own work.