Today's chapter: Bye for now
6:14 p.m. :: 2003-04-21

It's time.

I was talking to a well-known author yesterday and explaining to him how I've somehow failed to find the magic 'something'; the something that would help me move from a hobbyist-wannabe-writer to a professional. He promised to give me the secret password if I paid him �500.

It was a good conversation. That, and several others like it this weekend. Plus the writing workshop ran by yet another author, in which my story was used as the example of how to do it right. I would have fallen off my chair, had I not already been sitting on the floor, furiously tippy-tapping into my laptop.

I turned red instead. But it was the good kind of 'ohmygodohmygodohmygod'- red.

I've been thinking about things with a fresh outlook for some weeks now. The biggest change has been starting Karate again. As ridicilous as that sounds, somehow re-discovering Martial Arts has made me more confident, less introverted - and clearer in my aims.

I know what I want and I know how to get there. The rest is just time management and hard work. Most importantly, for the first time ever I genuinely believe that I've got what it takes.

This will require some drastic moves.

I will not be continuing as a diarist for the foreseeable future. I will not start my own business (some of you may know what this is in reference to) for the moment, though it will be realised later. Just not now. I will put a temporary halt on Interview and DiaryZine. I will not be spending so much time on the Net, I will not be watching as much TV and I will not be devoting so much of my free time to stressing out about work.

Instead, I will be re-writing a manuscript that ought to see the light of day as a finished mainstream novel. I will be finishing off all those science fiction and fantasy short stories I've started. I will also be working further on art and illustration - in a hope to continue from the success I've had this year with book covers.

I am going to be professional and stop making excuses.

This is goodbye for now. Wish me luck. I hope to see you on the other side.

�

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What's left of it - the (selected and last few) entries:
New - 2005-02-11
Bye for now - 2003-04-21
butt - 2003-04-06
karate-ka - 2003-03-21
ridicilous - 2003-03-20