by drifter0658
Running For The Border
April 19, 2009 in Drifter's Tales by drifter0658
The Real Drifter
My heart is pounding. Palms are sweating. Hair is frazzled. No, I didn’t just wrestle my eight hundred pound bike around some wicked ‘twisties’. What I did was look at the calendar. Egads!
I have seventy-three days to create eighteen lenses. Don’t get your calculator out, that’s one lens about every four days. Oh yeah, I also have to make sure all the others are up to snuff as well. If I can swing the June 30 deadline, I’ll be able to wear the Squidoo Giant badge with pride.
Having a self imposed deadline has transformed my thinking. I will not violate my own personal standards on what I think are quality lenses, but I’m now looking at shortening up my creations. Cutting to the chase, this means I have to sell what I’m cooking in shorter recipes without diluting my craft. Can I do that? At this point it is not a matter of I can, because I will.
You may ask why is my heart pounding, my palms sweaty, and my hair frazzled if I am confident that I’ll make it? There is still that glimmer of hopeless fear when I work under a deadline. Every minute I spend looking for data I cannot find, or stumbling over a word, or maybe discarding a graphic I spent some time on could be the first minute of days without clear thought where to go next.
That fear and my horrible typing are my banes as a wannabe writer. I have to work on the spark, the emotion of the current thought. If I stumble away from what I am writing, it is dang hard for me to get that river flowing in the right direction again. So, I push myself.
When I get to June 30 and I’m happy with that journey, I’ll have two huge thanks to give. One is the awesome cheering thread in the So You Want To Be A Giant Squid discussion area at the SuidU Forum. That thread is my resource for motivation as I watch talented lensmasters that started Squidooing well after I did catch up and pass me. This is not depressing to me, no it is charging me. I will not be left behind.
The other help is coming from my Twitter pals. Sure, I have reaped a lens idea or two from the chatter, but more than that they are helping me keep my focus on who I am. Keeping me grounded, and that is the real quality in my lens art. My voice through the written word is all that really matters and my pals are helping me keep it real.
At the moment, I’m kind of stuck and it is starting to rain; so I can’t ride this one out. I think I’ll comb my hair, wipe off my palms and grab a beer.
[ratings]
Quoting allthatiscute: Diary of a rabbit owner. Ladies and gentlemen: the story you are about to hear is true. The names have not been changed to protect the innocent, because frankly I don’t care. —
Overheard on twitter...
Breathe. Relax. Squidoo is not all there is in life. (Or is it?)
Sorry I can’t have beer with you!
Don’t worry… You’ll be just fine. We are here to look after you. And push you. And cover your back. 
a_willow’s last blog post..Adding little by little…
Running with you. . . huffing and puffing. . .Oh, wait that is just me moving furniture from store to store. . .Whew
Great post!
lakeerieartists’s last blog post..Using Labels to Organize Your Lenses
BTW, Alex? Forgot to tell you: I’m going for Club 100 this turn.
And have 14 more lenses to make from scratch and publish! Besides all other activities I participate on Squidoo….
That’s what teams are for, right?
So, trust me – it’s not that bad! And no place for panic! We’ll figure out something!
a_willow’s last blog post..Adding little by little…
You’re a born Squid Giant, Alex. Your friends are here, and we’ll be here when that last little Dixie cup of support is handed out to sustain you through that final leg — and beyond.
MiMi’s last blog post..A Throwaway Childhood