Priorities

Before embarking on my staycation, a weeks ago, I ordered my priorities and believe they are best for my life. I know I’ve talked about priorities before, but I think it is prudent to revisit them frequently, in part, to make sure they haven’t changed. Two things greatly impact my life: I work a full-time, high-stress job, and secondly, I live alone. That means there is no one to help or pick up after me or even to care for me when I am sick. None of the priorities will be met anyway except through my own abilities, time and will-power. To a smaller extent, my life is impacted by living with four cats, which makes me feel less alone, and by my gardens, which mainly effects the warmer half of the year.

I must juggle all these things. They cannot be put off indefinitely. I frequently put them off, so that I can write and meet the deadlines I set for myself mainly in reading at as many of the writer’s meetings as I can attend. My fellow Scribes have enabled me to get as far as I have. I have almost finished a rather long book that I have wanted to write for at least 25 years. That’s a long time. I am continuing to make slow progress. I would like to write more and have more writing time, but the things mentioned above prevent it. Every now and then, life reaches a critical point where the yard and house become overwhelming. I have let things go too long, then I am grateful for some time like a staycation from work to enable me to get caught up again. I’m not sure it will be enough time. It doesn’t feel like it.

I sorted my priorities into 3 levels: things I have to do to survive, to maintain, and that I enjoy and want to do. Writing falls into the last category. I have to work, pay my bills, maintain my health to survive. Those things must come first. Email fits into that category because many bills and important notices are sent that way. Maintenace includes repairs, cutting the grass, keeping the weeds down, trimming bushes, exercise. Enjoyment includes writing, family, friends, flowers, genealogy. I have to do the first two categories, though sometimes I put them off. I think a lot of people struggle with keeping up and getting everything done. Our lives are all quite full.

I try to come up with a system of doing a little of each most days, but it doesn’t always work out. Many times, it doesn’t. I wish I could say it was different. I’m grateful for the time to get caught up. Grateful for friends and family. Grateful for having what I do have.

I have still been watching courtroom dramas, mainly the ones mentioned in the article I talked about a couple of posts earlier. I’m learning a lot about the construction of courtroom dramas. There are quite a few variants. I believe, as I said that I know what I need to do. The story should build to the point of the courtroom decision, then characters must learn to live with the results (conclusion). The actual courtroom scene doesn’t need to be portrayed in the book. An author can choose to show only parts of it and to summarize the rest. Some stories like the one I watched last night, Inherit the Wind, are mostly about the trial. To Kill a Mockingbird was a nice mix of courtroom testimony and real life. It is so well plotted and comes together in astonishing ways. I think in my own book, I will cut more of the trial than I originally planned and condense witnesses into fewer people. But I haven’t actually done it yet.

Enjoy the day!