One of the
advantages of self-publishing is that you get to call your own production
schedule. You decide when and how to market and promote and how often to
release titles.
I seem to be stuck
on park and this creative car is not going anywhere at the moment.
This doesn’t mean
that because I have not been writing that I am been completely idle. I have
been gathering research materials for one project and slowly working towards a
translation of another.
Of course, it occurred
to me as I gently evoked a scene I’d witnessed – that must become a scene of
something, a short or a larger work that is as yet undefined – that being stuck
in a rut depends on the living situation. I am living in limbo, surrounded by
uncertainty, and that is what fuels creativity (the living, I mean).
I walked about a
mile last Friday, something I have not done in quite some time. In that stroll
I caught smells and sights and three weather changes that made me hyper-vigilant
of the details that framed the experience.
When I sat at the
crack of dawn, with iPod in hand, and dictated the story, it occurred to me
that only in this specific time would it be possible to carry an enormous
library in a device that weights less than a pound, including audiobooks, my
own works and now files for new works – I can research in this tiny thing and
even edit as I wish.
But there was
another realization made a week ago as I interviewed for a very interesting
job: if I have to rearrange my priorities because my schedule changes, it just
means that the next project that gets released may well be the Latin American
cookbook! (Especially because the job is physically just blocks from Little
Brazil and I’m eagerly awaiting the opportunity to research that cuisine… Oh, the
things I am willing to do for my art!)
There is no lose
feature to this, it’s all win-win.
Self-publishing
makes me a better person because it allows me to look at any situation, reach a
compromise or a new commitment that always opens the door to the silver lining
in every opportunity that presents itself.
Life is a tool for creativity. So is the iPod Touch!