It's time to fill out my self-evaluation at work. Yes, such is the life of a corporate drone. April sort of sucks thanks to the end of that fiscal year. Boo.
I stared at the blank form, desperately resisting the urge to fill it out in verse, and began to think about what my self-evaluation as a writer would look like (my mind tends to sink into wanderlust as I sit in my cubicle...) What are my objectives for this next fiscal year? Flesh out those characters? Find my voice? Flesh out that main character? Work on that pacing? Learn some freaking grammar?
What did I do write (ha. ha. get it?) this past year? Where did I improve? What could I continue to work on? What didn't go exactly as planned?
Well, a lot didn't go as planned. But that could be a good thing or a bad thing. One of my favorites parts of writing is the unexpected. Uh, where did that character come from? How did that plot twist suddenly pop into my head? OH! OH! OH! New SHINY IDEA!
Then again, the unexpected could be bad. This, for me, usually pertains to timing.
"I'll get the first draft done in November and revise in December and January and be ready for a quick polish at the beginning of February and then query time! Woo Hoo!"
Massive amounts of plot holes poked at my writing road and rejections and life and pressure that I put completely on myself brought me down. I've taken that pressure away and I'm much happier. Why did I do that to myself?
Note for improvement: Lighten Up, Lisa. Lighten Up!
Bottom Line: As long as I keep improving and learning, everything's okay.
Note for improvement: Don't forget to go outside every now and then. Look at the sky. It's very pretty this time of year.
I agree. You have to get outside once in a while, but it's difficult to look up when you love writing so much.
ReplyDeleteHey Lisa! Thanks for stopping by my blog. I hate performance evaluations! Remember to write in that you really don't see room for improvement in your position as you have hit a performance cap.lol
ReplyDeleteI like what you said, "As long as I keep improving and learning, everything's okay." So true! Sometimes we can get so bummed about where we are right now, but what matters is that we're going to get so much better at whatever we do (in this case, the craft of writing) by learning. Nice post.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I left you an award on my blog. :)
barbaraannwright - It's tough, I know!
ReplyDeleteMarsha - I like your blog! You've got great posts. And I am very tempted to do that...but performance evaluations are a perfect way to work on my fiction writing! He. He.
Shelley - How could have I missed this! Thank you for my first blog award! AWESOME!