When Baby Steps Veer

In my day job, I work amongst the computers. Computers are dumb but they are sensible and only do the things that you tell them to do and in the order you tell them to do them in. This is very comforting and I would quite like my job if it weren't for the overly punctuated emails that I get eleventy million times a day (seriously, what's with the extra question marks? Is it more inquisitive?? forceful??? if you? include? LOTS!! of question marks????? Because, really, it just makes me kind of hate you for a few minutes.)

Life, alas, is less orderly than your dumb computer. Life is, instead, a process of just taking a fucking stab and hoping you land in the vicinity of some nebulous notion of what you meant to do. Since I am not Data (which I capitalize since I am referring to the awesome yellow-eyed character from Star Trek and not, you know, information), I grok this fully and will not freak out too much just because I find myself veering sloppily away from The Plan.

To wit:

I had a plan*. I wrote a book. I wrote a second draft and then I decided on some baby steps which would lead, inexorably, to getting the damn thing published. But, after some time away from the nuts and bolts of writing the thing, I'm pretty sure I laid those baby steps out all wrong. And, so I'm trying something different and if I'm wrong, well, I'll veer off sloppily once again and take another fucking stab.

So what happened?

Two things: First my friend, Jessica, who is smart and funny and pretty and kind and is only flawed in that she lives way too far away, read my book and gave me some really valuable feedback. She assuaged my worries about some things while providing some food for thought on where things didn't go quite like I meant them to. So I've decided a third draft is, in fact, in order. If I'm going to do this thing, I should do it right and if it means putting off the finished draft for a few more months, then so be it.

Second, I think it would serve me well to try and get my name out there in other ways. I had toyed with the idea of writing some stories and entering some contests, but, you know, I like to blog. I'm sticking with the blog and have an idea or three for some shameless self-promotion within the blogosphere.

So, my baby steps have slipped sideways. But that's OK. When I go into the office in the morning, I'll work on a user guide and take solace in its dull patterns.

* Nerd note: My plan was a lot like the Cylon's plan where I had a plan to have a plan that morphed into me hoping that no one would notice that I didn't really have a plan.