About a month ago, I turned in a 1500-word piece on all things green for a national business publication that took about three to four weeks total to research and write, then research and rewrite, then research some more then rewrite again. But the fact of the matter is, I did it all: arranging at least 15 interviews with a variety of renewable energy and green economy experts, interviewing the experts, transcribing the interviews, outlining the article, conferring with editors and rewriting the article. I did so much work that I decided to take a little break from doing work. Shortly after filing the green story, I was assigned a 500-word piece about audio technology and it's taken me forever to sit down and write the thing. Notice I didn't say I haven't been doing the research or the interviewing, just that I haven't done the writing. And trust, I've done everything I could to put it off from watching marathons of Law and Order: SVU (I love crime shows!) to reading self-help books about procrastination which only helped me to procrastinate more.
At five days past deadline (yes, I'll admit I completely blew off this deadline) while walking the dog, I had a flash of insight: maybe I've been having a problem writing the story because there is no challenge; maybe I blew the the deadline to create drama and a challenge in the first place. Needing reassurance and to talk to someone who's been in my position before, I called my good friend Allihost (that's not her real name, but for all intents and purposes, this is how her name will appear here, just like Quite) who hit me with a bunch of interesting questions about finding my passion and creating a way to live those passions and make money while doing it. While I don't want give up on writing completely because I feel like I'd be lost without it, I damn sure don't enjoy doing the same things over and over again. I also don't like easy things but tend to flounder when my goals are set mountain high. I'm becoming this weird wanna-be perfectionist that I need not want to be and I'm comparing myself to other folks who might've been big time eight months in. Needless to say I definitely felt better after our conversation, most of all, it led me back here to 'I'm Dating D.C.', a blog I created in January, but haven't contributed to since then. The point of this blog is to do two things: 1) to get into all kinds of fun foolishness while in the D/M/V and 2) to share that foolishness with you.
So here's my promise to myself and to you, my readers (is there anyone out there?): I'm going to break out of this box more often even if I'm by myself 'cause I don't think I can take doing the same old same old any more, and my relationships with my editors as well as my bottom line definitely can't take it. And I'm going to write all about my foolishness here 'cause what is 'I'm Dating D.C.' without getting out and about in D.C. in the first place?
Have you loved your city (and yourself) today?
DCer
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