Wednesday, December 8, 2010

What Not To Do on Putting off Till Tomorrow...and Tomorrow...and Tomorrow

MACBETH:

To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,


Oh, my little grasshopper, you would think after a few years in the writing business, I'd run out of What Not To Do's. And yet, I still manage my fair share of blunders, mishaps, boo-boos and abject failures.

I'm not sure where procrastination falls in that list. It seems more than a boo-boo, but perhaps not quite as bad as abject failure. I mean, putting off blog and website maintenance won't cause the fall of the Cathy C. Hall writing empire. Or will it?

What if an editor wandered in and found links that were no longer active? Out-of-date clips? Or headings that made no sense because a certain writer started making changes then got sidetracked? Would that editor think a. Cathy C. Hall is terribly busy? Or b. Cathy C. Hall is terribly lazy?

And when I think that I've had a note on my bulletin board since MARCH, reminding me to stay on top of website and blog maintenance, I have to accept that what was just a boo-boo in May is kinda ridiculously HUGE in December. Which is why I've finally fixed a few things around the old Hall of Fame. Actually, if I'm being perfectly honest, it's a work in progress. But at least I'm progressing.

So, don't put off till tomorrow...and tomorrow...and tomorrow what you can do in May. And then again in August, and again in December. Update your clips, check links, and stay on top of your writing career. You want folks to notice your brilliance-not your boo-boos.