Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Getting What We Want: Not All It's Cracked Up to Be

You know how sometimes when you get the thing you want or were looking forward to, all of a sudden you don't know what to do with yourself? I've been having that recurring feeling all week.

For instance, I finally got to Muncie for the writers conference I've been looking forward to for months, but the moment I checked into the hotel, I realized something: it has been too long since I've lived alone. I don't know what to do with myself. I didn't have internet access at first and it drove me crazy.

I just got a new freelancing job that I am soooooooo excited about. The moment my editor told me that he wanted the articles ASAP, I totally blanked, not sure what to write about. I mean, I knew what to write about, I just didn't know how to do it. That's never happened. My mind was a blank slate. Finally, after three tries, I finished the first of the articles. I don't love it. I'm not even sure I like it. I'll have to edit it tomorrow after the conference.

I'm sure tomorrow I'll be so excited about the conference I'll have plenty to do. Besides, the schedules packed. And I'm sure that next month, I'll have plenty to write about - a whole month's worth of research instead of three days of research. Time makes a difference.

Still, it makes me wonder how I can want something so much and be so completely surprised at getting it that my functionality drops below zero.

4 comments:

Melody said...

Hope the conference is going well - glad to see you managed to find internet.

Unknown said...

I think my mom's at that very conference.

Robin Marie said...

Really! That makes me so happy. I flipped through the huge long list of other writers here and noticed some from Warsaw...

Melody said...

You're hilarious. I have no idea why that makes you happy, but I can imagine just how you would say it and that just makes me laugh.