Never Say Never But Just Say No
By Alison on Feb 24, 2011 in goals, writing | comments(3)
My biggest problem is that I can’t say no. I want to do everything. I want to say yes to everything and be involved with it all.
I want people to like me. It’s almost a compulsion, this need of mine to have people tell me that I’m great, that I did a good job. That I am fulfilling (my destiny) their expectations.
I love writing stories and posting them on my LiveJournal because I know (hope) that I will get comments on my writing. I hope that someone will love my work so much that they have to gush about my interpretation of character or my turn of phrase.
This need to be liked (loved) leads me to overfilling my dance card and leaving me little time for myself. For my own writing.
I am a very active member of the Romance Writers of America- three local chapters at the moment, all of which I volunteer with. I am a board member for one. This takes up way more time than anyone wants to admit to you when you first get involved.
They tell you that it won’t be much, just a few hours of your time but it morphs into something bigger than you every imagined and suddenly those hours that you had planned to devote to your novel are spent folding renewal forms or creating spreadsheets for online classes. And you get it all done but you look back and you wonder just where your day went and why your word count on that novel hasn’t even MOVED.
But the thing is, when you get involved, people like you. They learn your name (in their e-mail inboxes) and they learn your face (from all those meetings) and suddenly, you’re part of the group. You are included as one of the cool kids.
Which is exactly what you wanted.
So you keep saying yes.
