Losing it

[Joe Williams]

Gotta agree with Mizzou. We ALL hit a wall. Athletes, writers, porn stars. Happens to the best of us. Just look at Ron Jeremy!

I'd rather not look at Ron Jeremy, thank you.

Bad enough to hit a wall as an athlete or writer. But when Ron Jeremy hits the wall -- Ooof! That's gotta hurt!

 

[Platyrhynchos]

Thanks for the advice. I think Sixtoe nailed when he pointed out my sentence regarding having more crap piled on me now than five years ago.
And I'll Never Tell, that suggestion has also surfaced in my mind.

It's mostly, though, perhaps, the fact that I'm at a small paper and can't focus my efforts on one specific task. I have a hand in so many different things and can't give each my best effort, unless of course I want to be at the office 25 hours each day. My writing is suffering because it is being diluted by all the other crap I'm doing. Features are different, though, for some reason.

 

[SixToe]

Take MacQuarrie's advice, grab a couple of rods and some beers, and find a good creek somewhere.

 

[HeinekenMan]

Shoot, kid, imagine how you'll feel in 10 years with 2,000 more bylines under the belt. With a wife -- and maybe an ex, and maybe Wife No. 2 -- and a kid. And a mortgage. And with the new crop of 20somethings dreaming in html and direct-to-web cameras glued to their foreheads.

It has got to be about the love of words, te love of the process, or both Awards? Pish posh. Recognition? Ha! I am still waiting for them to put up the statue of me out front. But what keeps me plugging away is the process of the daily miracle, and knowing that my next great story (or maybe my first, depensing ...) will only come if I keep banging away at the keyboard.

Chin up.

RB

You're hired!

...as my personal assistant.

I loved your post. It's one of the best I've read around here in recent months. After posting here and wondering if I should change careers or drink heavily and walk out into traffic, something magical happened.

I realized that I have a great career. Lots of people would trade a limb (Ron Jeremy?) to do this. Rewards and recognition are great, but they don't come from editors; they come from knowing that your family appreciates your hard work, that your Cousin Joe admires you, that the neighbors are envious when Mom tells them her boy covers Major League Baseball.

Sure. We want the satisfaction of picking up the morning paper and seeing our byline on the front of the sports section. But we shouldn't let it tear us apart when our story is buried on page 5. That should motivate us. That's truly what separates the winners from the losers. The winners know how to use that anger or frustration to their advantage. Also, we should remember that lots of folks admire the guy who bangs out copy day in and day out for a number of years without ever complaining. We admire them because we know it's damn hard to do that for so many years without suddenly deciding that you should be a senior editor at SI.

And so I wrote a very basic gamer last night in 20 minutes. I poured my thoughts right onto the page. I asked all the right questions. Sometimes we just need a little reaffirmation. Thanks for the shove.

 

[Bob Slydell]

Because you're good enough, smart enough and doggone it, people like you.

 

[Football_Bat]

I've discovered the older you get, the more you gravitate toward just doing the basics. That's not all bad. There is such a critter as "overwriting" and I cringe at some of my earlier stories in which I strived for a Pulitzer for a fastpitch softball feature. Just save your best stuff for when it's called for. That is all.

 

[HeinekenMan]

I've discovered the older you get, the more you gravitate toward just doing the basics. That's not all bad. There is such a critter as "overwriting" and I cringe at some of my earlier stories in which I strived for a Pulitzer for a fastpitch softball feature. Just save your best stuff for when it's called for. That is all.

That's a great point. What I think tends to happen for me, though, is that I become entrenched in that mode where you just do the basics more and more often, including when you need to be doing something a little extra.

 

[Birdscribe]

You're going to pull out of it next week, Platy.

I can see it already. The subject matter and adrenaline will take you out of the power-dive burnout you're in right now.

At least for a while.

 

[Armchair_QB]

Dammit, you're still good enough to work at the Plain-Dealer.

 

[Ace]

Dammit, you're still good enough to work at the Plain-Dealer.

Not that good. Get in line, pal.

 

[Rockbottom]

Shoot, kid, imagine how you'll feel in 10 years with 2,000 more bylines under the belt. With a wife -- and maybe an ex, and maybe Wife No. 2 -- and a kid. And a mortgage. And with the new crop of 20somethings dreaming in html and direct-to-web cameras glued to their foreheads.

It has got to be about the love of words, te love of the process, or both Awards? Pish posh. Recognition? Ha! I am still waiting for them to put up the statue of me out front. But what keeps me plugging away is the process of the daily miracle, and knowing that my next great story (or maybe my first, depensing ...) will only come if I keep banging away at the keyboard.

Chin up.

RB

You're hired!

...as my personal assistant.

I loved your post. It's one of the best I've read around here in recent months. After posting here and wondering if I should change careers or drink heavily and walk out into traffic, something magical happened.

I realized that I have a great career. Lots of people would trade a limb (Ron Jeremy?) to do this. Rewards and recognition are great, but they don't come from editors; they come from knowing that your family appreciates your hard work, that your Cousin Joe admires you, that the neighbors are envious when Mom tells them her boy covers Major League Baseball.

Sure. We want the satisfaction of picking up the morning paper and seeing our byline on the front of the sports section. But we shouldn't let it tear us apart when our story is buried on page 5. That should motivate us. That's truly what separates the winners from the losers. The winners know how to use that anger or frustration to their advantage. Also, we should remember that lots of folks admire the guy who bangs out copy day in and day out for a number of years without ever complaining. We admire them because we know it's damn hard to do that for so many years without suddenly deciding that you should be a senior editor at SI.

And so I wrote a very basic gamer last night in 20 minutes. I poured my thoughts right onto the page. I asked all the right questions. Sometimes we just need a little reaffirmation. Thanks for the shove.

Word, brother. I have to give myself pep talks all the time along that vein, because the journalism/SE combo (and believe me, being an SE only sometimes bumps up against journalism) can be a grind. I have trouble telling people what I do -- other than "I help make that, every day". And it beats digging a ditch or laying a roof. Those ****ers have real jobs.

rb