Happy New Year - Thoughts and Plans for 2024

Hey y'all, happy flip the calendar day!

Coming here to jot some thoughts down.

I've been thinking about this a while, and clearly my overall output is not what it has been in prior years (2021 and before). There are a bunch of factors that I'll list at the end so you have a better idea of what's going on, and my thought process.

In the end they are excuses, and I should have made a pivot a bit early in terms of quantity. I have dozens of stories floating around now (and I know some of you are sharing them elsewhere but that's beside the point). SOme of them are trash, some of them are pretty good and I know rank among some of the favorites of the newer era of writers. I'd rather there be a bit more quality to *one* story than having to think of two half-assed ones that get stretched out longer than they should. 

ANd I know some of you have asked about revisiting unfinished ones, which is a symptom of the above problem.

So I think I will be shifting to slightly longer stories, but only pushing one per month. I think this is more sustainable for me and will also make sure theres meat on the bones for you.  This frees up a bit more brain space too as i can focus on the one story and not have to take copius amounts of notes to track more than one thing.

I haven't started this months story yet (I just woke up basically) and am happy to hear feedback about my shift, ideas, concerns, lambasting me, whatever!

But I hope 2023 was good to y'all and 2024 winds up even just a bit better at the least. Plenty of year left for that!

Cheers

fp

Reasons:

- i'm no longer in my 20s, so over the years responsibilities and time commitments have cropped up that take me away from writing. really this started when i took on more tasks at my gym, back in 2017, but the work was easy then. i ramped up training and chores and by the time 2020 hit I was a bit overloaded in terms of time, until it all went away.

- some will remember i worked a night job and i was able to write a bit more often then since most days i didn't have too much going on. unfortunately it really took me a while to recover from that (in some ways I haven't returned to my pre-grave habits), though the brain fog went away long ago, though I feel like I have a slightly worse short-term memory.

- during a lot of my early period i worked a very low-stress, low effort job that was enough to pay the bills (which weren't a lot for me during those years, but i wasn't making barely extra), but also afforded me a lot of down time. i used to write in the office a LOT. i couldn't tell you if they were watching my keystrokes (unlikely) but i sometimes wrote on my work pc, and other times brought my laptop in

- i no longer have a laptop (personal), and haven't for a few years now, which means that i have to bee at home, at my desk writing and at the moment can no longer be portable. There was a time where I would go to coffee shops or libraries to write without much distraction, but for the moment I don't have the flexibility.

- my current job really ramped up in responsibility fast--the first half year or so was pretty chill, and it comes in waves, but the waves are pretty intense. even though im only in the office 3x a week that's several hours where i can't write, plus personal stuff, plus commute, and even on my home days i find myself writing sentences at a time because things come up that i have to address. some will say that this is how jobs should be as you advance up into middle management, but this is long overdue for me and something i need to address.

- juggling 2+ ideas is hard. idk how these prolific writers do it (ghost writers, probably), but i think reducing the idea to one that i can run with will help. too many things get lost in the weeds. 

- i work a LOT more freelance as another side gig, and in the past I could just roll up at showtime but now they're giving me better roles and the call times are firm, so this is often taking up 4-5 hour blocks, or more. the other week i was at one for 10 hours--my entire Saturday shot. I get a lot of (joking) flak from them when I bow out on Sunday mornings so I can attend church and have some time for myself. 

- on top of that I'm stil training regularly and playing a rec sport 2x a week or so, though I usually try to play int he blocks where I was already training. but I'm also not 25 any more and I'm very judicious with my energy. At least I try to be. Sometimes, more often now, three hours of play will mean i will not try to do anything mental for a few hours, unless i have to go straight to work.

- not technically in the works but i am considering minor shoulder surgery which would take me out of action for a little bit, idk what the recovery time is but maybe a week or two without full use of the arm, which would make typing TERRIBLE. but as I said nothing that's actually tangible at the moment due to cost.

- as i said, a lot of "excuses" but some of you are old enough to know what Im experiencing now.