helenvalentina

The wonderful Greenembers (check out his blog at http://greenembers.wordpress.com  if you haven’t already had the pleasure) has had the innovative and collaborative genius idea of creating the Rome Construction Crew (RCC) – a group of bloggers all with dreams, aspirations and aims, which – just like the wonderful city Rome – can’t be built or realised in one day, but through sustained effort, skill and determination.  If you’d like to join pop on over to his blog and let him know!

I happily joined the RCC as I have my own creative dreams and journey – in my case to publish some novels online, build a readership and as part of this to become part of a vibrant, creative community.

Check one box for the latter aim – being part of WordPress blogging is a delight and a constant source of inspiration, camaraderie and community.

But my journey on the other aims is only just beginning and I saw on Greenembers blog yesterday that many RCC members have been more prolific with providing updates on their RCC aims etc. When I reflected on why I hadn’t done anything yet, it occurred to me the explanation is really the best theme for my first RCC report : the issue of finding time to do all of this well.

So my challenge is this, how to juggle:

1. Dream of being a novelist
2. An active blog, and
3. A very demanding day job

And still have time for a personal life, some relaxation and so forth. Like most of you, I suspect, this is not easy to do, or at least to do consistently.

Right now, my status report on the 3 would be:

1. I’ve drafted 2 novels (first drafts done over a decade ago and only recently revived with the aim of self publishing). The novels have been professionally edited, and now I’m progressing setting up the business requirements to self publish. Next it will be cover designs and formatting. But then it’s the big challenge – marketing the book. Because although one part of me would be happy with a small readership – any readership is more than the zero readership the books have had languishing on discs over the past decade – another part of me does want a wider readership. I guess any author who puts the work out to the world wants the world to embrace it, but to embrace it they have to know it’s there, and so…marketing….
2. This blog is going well and is a source of great enjoyment. It also may build a readership for the novels amongst those of you who are not more exclusively interested in poetry. All of you who visit and like/comment are immensely generous and I treasure your support, and love reading your work too. But I follow many blogs now, and with limited time (see point 3 ) worry a lot of late that I might not keep up with you all, or might seem to be neglecting you. I really don’t want to give that impression because it isn’t my intent, but as to limited time…on to point 3….
3. I deliberately don’t give out details on my day job as I want that separate. But suffice to say it is a very busy job – 50+ hours a week plus often weekend work – and recently has gotten even busier because of a major change program I am managing. So I will have less time than usual over the next few months, so I would say this:

Please – if I do seem to be not keeping up with your work, it isn’t lack of interest, only time. I will structure my day to ensure I do spend time on my WP reader, but I may not keep up with everyone consistently, especially those who post at different times to when I can access it.

I will also always try to keep up with any comments you leave on my blog and to have that wonderful interaction and discussion. So I will be here, and will be trying to keep up, but it will be a bit more limited for a while.

Just prior to the major work increase I’d had more time to write poetry and I have quite a few poems scheduled in WP to post, 2 per day on average, over the next 6 weeks, so it may seem I’m here more than I actually am. I will try to come to the blog and reader at least twice a day, but there may be some days when I don’t manage it at all. Hopefully they will be few and far between.

Please bear with me on this. Your friendship, generosity and support – plus your wonderful writing, photography, art and so forth – mean so very much to me. I’ll try to keep up but I fear I won’t be able to do it as much as I’d like for a little while now.

Which leads me to an RCC inspired question – for those of you juggling similar demands, what works best for you?

Any wise counsel will be gratefully received!