Saying you’ll do it is easy. To do it reveals your character – and your creativeness.
When I started this blog, I said I’d take five daily steps toward completing my memoir. Any project has tasks that must be done, like, in my case, the actual writing and editing. Some things are important to do, but at a pinch, if I didn’t do them I could still finish the book, e.g. reading current memoirs and those by past masters. Finally, are things that add value to the project, but if left undone readers wouldn’t notice, e.g. reading books on the writing craft.
While the musts deserve top priority, today I discovered a new angle that taught me things are not straightforward.
To celebrate Easter Monday, my patron and I joined his family at the Easter Fair at Meadows, in the Adelaide Hills. The day was spent wandering through stalls at markets, drinking more cups of tea than I care to count, eating almost from the time we got there till the time we left.
And as we drove through the Hills to visit friends on the way home, via Hahndorf to find a genoa Christmas cake for afternoon tea, and invest some more time in a secondhand bookshop, I arrived home not feeling keen to do my regular five things. So I took the easy way out.
I read four chapters of the memoir I discussed here, and then blogged this article. While some tasks lead more directly to my finished memoir, some allow me to maintain my sanity and keep my commitment on a busy day. In short, sticking to my agreed discipline is sometimes going to involve flexibility and creativity.
