Slipping Gears

Ergh... Be forewarned, this is another pointless, potentially whiny post intended to allow me to procrastinate rather than do something useful.

Well, March is almost over already. I can't say I accomplished much more this month than I did last month. Unfortunately, I can't use the February Bug as an excuse this time. Just can't seem to get my brain to lock into a gear.

Story editing has hit another lull, as I grind back and forth between actually editing my rough draft and simply rewriting it in scattershot, first-draft style. I keep telling myself that it's a necessary evil, to patch up serious plot structure and pacing issues, and not me falling back into old habits as a crutch, but I'm not at all sure that's the case. I want a finished second draft by November at the absolute latest, but the more I waver on whether or not I'm progressing, the less actual progress I'm making.

My sketchbook's stagnating, with barely a page a day getting filled; I want to be drawing more from my mind, maybe nail down a few book scenes and characters, but once again I find myself wavering between teach-yourself-to-draw studies and lousy-crud-from-the-imagination thumbnails. Neither seems to be getting me far. Right now, I've given priority to a project that has an actual deadline (it's for someone else; the annual camp logo - a.k.a. my annual skirting of potential copyright infringement hell.) Unfortunately, the theme is nothing to make the ol' pencil leap and dance across the paper. Sometimes, I wonder if the staff deliberately picks ideas without a smidgen of inherent interest. But, a job's a job, a theme's a theme, and like it or not it needs doing. Once it's done, I tell myself I jump back into my sketchbook with a vengeance, to make up for time lost wrestling with a theme that makes "Watching Paint Dry" seem fascinating and dynamic.

As for my other hopeful March projects - sprucing up my websites, rearranging my room, fooling with my budget program, researching Etsy, and so forth - well, somehow they all ended up piled on the back burner. How they got there, I don't know, as I honestly can't say I see anything significant on the front burner to displace them. But there they sit, cold and congealed, frosted with dust and specks of mold.

Hmm... maybe I ought to move cleaning the kitchen up a notch on the priority list...