Lucky and Cursed

Dreams come true and can be annoying

Deadlines and (Non)burnout

Dear Readers,

I’ve detailed here that, in general, writing OUT IN HOLLYWOOD #4 was a dream. Sometimes you get those as a writer. (THE SUMMER OF JORDI PEREZ (AND THE BEST BURGER IN LOS ANGELES) was also a dream!) Both took a bit to get going, but once I was in them I was so in them. I looked forward to opening that Word doc every day.

The thing is with books is you have to just keep working on them, so not long after I turned in the draft to my editor, I had notes to tackle, and a lot of work to do. I’m grateful for this work; I cannot believe how much better the book is compared to when I thought it was finished and might not need any notes!* Still, though, it’s so much to keep going through in search of that best version. By the time I completed it, no matter what a dream this project was, I was glad for it to be completed! I was cautiously excited about thinking about new projects! But also I had turned it in. I then shifted my focus, and before too long I also turned in everything else my editor and/or agent had asked me for. I was free! I was going to puzzle even harder! I was going to read books by other people who are not me! I was going to loll about in a general state of WHATEVERness!

And then FOR SOME REASON the copy edits for #4 showed up like a month early in my inbox and I was NO LONGER FREE. I made it like two and a half days, total, without a deadline.

Some of my friends worry aloud to me that I am too busy, take on too much, never relax, etc. I never know how to feel about this because writing is my dream job and also it’s true I maybe do not know how to take time off as well as I should except that I feel like I’m lazy all of the time?