In the interest of having a less woe-is-me experience at the paper, I decided to talk to my editor today about taking on more hours and more responsibility. I will now be adding about three hours a day to my workload, taking me to 7 hrs a day, five days a week--in theory, the last step before becoming salaried. I realized that I wasn't really giving this position a fair shot because I wasn't giving my all to it. I instead lamented that it wasn't something other than it was.
I still feel a little like I'm wandering around in a foreign land. In reality, I am--I'm wandering into unfamiliar territory here. All my writing training was in the realm of professional writing, not in how to be a reporter. But maybe it'll keep getting better?
So we'll see where my writing goes from here. Seeing that byline on my editor's screen really did have the effect that a fellow journalist said it would: things change when you see your name up in print. (I missed the last thing that I wrote, and it never made it to the website because it was so boring, so this was the first time).
Things are going well with the music studio. I'll be getting four new flutes at the end of the month off another woodwind teacher who wants to free up some space. That'll take my studio up to a blazing twelve, which is only one-third of the way full. Other teachers keep assuring me that if I just hang in there until September, things will miraculously pick up. I'm hopeful that they're right.
Adjusting to the real-world implications of a double life as musician-writer has been tricky this summer. I feel like I'm always stressing out about them but never really accomplishing anything towards either of them, but after my meeting today I feel a little bit more hopefuL
I'm doing the "write a novel in a month" thing starting September 1st. Friend and fellow blogger Linny Jane will be participating, as will friend and commenter (and web editor) Eddie James. I'm looking forward to it, as I've only just started to get back into creative writing after producing almost no creative work since I was 14. I have the BEST setting ever and am mentally beginning some character sketches.
This, of course, takes a back seat to regular productivity for Mind Sprocket. Best wishes to its editor on his new life adventure in Georgia!
