Times are a-changing

Well, NaNoWriMo is coming to an end.... and I've got a grand total of less than 2000 words written. A lot happened in my life that kept me from writing but that's okay; I knew going in that I wouldn't make it this year because of everything on my schedule. I won't give up on my novel because of it.

Writing has become difficult.
I feel alone. And I hardly believe in my stories anymore. They all seem so... stupid. So obvious. But I've realized I might have set the bar a bit too high... I was aiming to write novels I was proud of, novels that resembled me. In short, I was trying to write great stuff when in fact, I should have tried to simply.......write.

I'm done searching for excellence. It is quite tiring in a world where so many people have voices now that what some may deem excellent is quickly shot down by others. Excellence has become impossible.
Instead, I will aim for fun... and a deadline.
I will try to write a little every day, no pressure, and have fun while doing it.
If I ever perfect myself over the years, it will be through practice and in an subconscious way. I will no longer try to consciously improve my writing. In fact, I will just go back to basics and do what I wanted to do when I started this career, what it is that made me fall in love with writing: I will tell stories.

Everything else is out the window: the worries, the perfection, the questions, the planning.
I no longer wanna "work" as a writer. I simply wanna entertain, tell stories and have fun.

My head is so full now of advice, of how-to's on absolutely ev-ery-thing!
I mean, daily, I worry/think about:
- Posting on Facebook (1 personal account, 4 different pages that I manage).
- Posting on Instagram (2 accounts).
- Posting on Pinterest.
- Tweeting something on Twitter (2 accounts).
- Checking and replying to emails (on 5 different email addresses)
- Writing (which includes planning the story then thinking it's stupid, worrying about if I'm gonna make it, if ppl will like my stories, etc.)
- Going indie (which includes reading the how-to's of people gone down that road, learning how to format an e-book, learning the steps to indie publishing, the "rules" and how-to's to Smashwords and Createspace, glancing at the IRS forms I'm gonna have to fill for a tax exemption, thinking about or searching for potential book covers I have to choose or make or pay for, etc.)
- Writing interesting blog posts (which I think I still fail at) and giving them proper titles to increase traffic according to this Blog Tyrant guy...
- Checking the stats for both my blogs and both of my websites through Google Analytics and trying to improve them.

And these are just career stuff! I have personal stuff added to that list too!!!
Yes, I can hear you: everyone does as much as me these days if not more! But the difference is I can't handle it anymore...
I'm gonna have to simplify. I need to simplify because I spend more time managing all this than I do creating! It's bad and it's urgent.

So I'm telling you, starting next year, things will be different.
I will simplify and I will have fun.
Life is too short to not have fun.
In the wise words of Smash Mouth: "Your brain gets smart, but your head gets dumb."
So have fun! :)