Absence makes the heart...

Yes, it has been a long time since my last post. One would think I'd actually given it up for Lent. My writing has not been as much a priority as it should be, I will admit. But almost daily I am reminded of the fact that A) I am getting older B) stories don't write and publish themselves and C) If I don't pursue my dream, I will regret it for the rest of my life.

One of the major stumbling blocks to my writing is.. well... my writing. At work. My job is to write content for hotel websites. I add keywords so they get more internet traffic while maintaining readability and accuracy. My wife believes that I hate my job, but this is not true. I do enjoy the work, but there are times when it gets... tiring. Recently I have actually been able to open up my writing technique at work, adding variety and ingenuity to what would otherwise be a drab, repetitive process. I've even used words that my editors have had to look up, which is both good and bad (often they change them, since most people don't want to look words up, but darnit, everyone should know the word "replete!"). However, this is not really enough... I'm too creative. Now, under normal circumstances, I would have no problems working 8 hours a day and coming home to write. My problem is that I have almost always been 1 hotel behind, and catching up is DIFFICULT. It means sacrificing time to try to catch up. Add on top of that the fact that my ADHD makes it hard to focus at work and suddenly I'm working extra hours and never quite catching up. Two weekends ago I got sick. I went to the ER because of it and lost two days of work, which really became 4 (having to redo the research). So now I'm SIX hotels behind. To catch up, I've been given only 2 hotels to do next week instead of 4 (so, since I'll do 4 hotels in reality, I'll have caught up by two). What about the other 4? Magic, apparently. I am always behind, and this means I work at home and on the weekends.

So when do I find time to write my own stuff? So far, I haven't. Since I got sick, I haven't played any games, read any books, or watched much TV (more than I should have, though). Even practicing guitar has taken a hit. I have actually managed to write a little (at least, do research) late at night. If my bosses and I can't figure out something to catch me up and get rid of all this unnecessary stress and work, then I will have to consider drastic changes.

In my writing, I have completed the research (so far) and am now ready to actually start writing it. I have to do it soon, though, or I will forget the research. Frankly, writing down everything I discover, forgetting it, and having to read what I've written later to rediscover my research will NOT save me any large amount of time. Normally my goal would be to write it this weekend, but work and other obligations will likely get in the way. Perhaps I'll be able to finish it by Thursday but I'm willing to bet that it won't really get done for two weeks (work + Easter = no time).

In the meantime, I've considered what else to use this blog for. My brother has been doing movie reviews, and I could do those as well. I've also considered writing an episodical story one chapter at a time. Many of my ideas would work very well in other media, such as movie/animation or comic formats, but it is apparent to me that these will never happen (at least no time soon). Perhaps I can post the ideas here and see what happens.

Anyone have any suggestions? Anyone interested in reading a story in chapters? If so, any desired genre?