33 Comments on “What My Day Was Like”

1. You forgot ‘let pets in and out’- that should have taken up several hours.

2. Realize it’s 4:30.

   Remember you thought about doing some writing today.
   

   So many of my days follow this pattern.

3. I was able to get to a fragment of my planned 2,00 words of fiction writing, longhand at the waiting room of the car shop (dead battery, despite AAA saying otherwise yesterday), and in the waiting room of LabCorp for my blood and urine samples to be taken at physicians’ requests. But also wrote 16 sonnets in the same time, above average, though hard to monetize. And discussed a corporate acquisition of an open source software company whose Board I secretaried, skewing me out of over $250,000 from the acquiring NASDAQ firm… Ahh, I love the smell of contracts in the morning. They smell like napalm.

4. Lol, that’s very much my every day as well. Occasionally code gets done, but mostly it’s the ‘keep things going’ train.

5. Now think about AAEADHD – Age-Activated Elder Adult ADHD
   In essence, it’s when you start to contemplate the HEREAFTER – you go from one room (or situation) to another and then wonder what you’re here after.
   With me, it started about age 62, just after I bought the motorcycle.

6. Yep, Scalzi – I have those kinds of days all the time any more, it seems.

   I have a Spy Guide I’m rewriting for Tammy’s editor – since we’ve already gotten part of the advance, it would be nice to actually get it done so it can be published and we can make more money off of it….

7. So, you’re saying that you need a Personal Assistant/Paralegal/Scheduler, then? Hmm. The way things are going with my current employment, I might be interested in applying. You couldn’t be any worse a boss than the one I’ve got now.

8. Obviously if you wanted to be more specific you would have done so, but I do wonder about what kind of questionnaire comes with a contract:

   “We realize you have a choice of publishing companies and thank you for choosing Tor for your writing needs. Please rate us from 1-9 where 1 is very good, and 9 is the gates of Hell.

   Please rate Tor for: Copy Editing …, etc.”

9. I’m hoping against hope that „Email overseas editor about thing that requires scheduling“ at this time of year means you might, just might, look in on the Frankfurt book fair.

   Yeah, I know. But a girl can dream, right?

10. Judith W:

    I was at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2011. Didn’t you see me there?

11. We do not live in a frictionless system any longer.

    Managing our time with the various people and systems we need to co-ordinate with takes up more time the more one scales up one’s activities.

    Life does not scale easily!

12. Personally, I’d have just show the electrician out. I’m imagining the sound of the front door handle jiggling softly from the inside…a multimeter rapping forlornly on your office door. I re-wired everything you wanted, Scalzi. Please, let me out of here. I need fooooood!

13. Dedication right there

14. Only if a beach is involved— My day would have been similar except; Start all those things, get distracted by something totally unrelated, eventually lock electrician in the house :-(

15. Sounds sedentary, nit-picky, and not much fun. I hope your tomorrow is better.

    I had a great today. I got lots of cool stuff in the mail, including an autographed book that Catherine Asaro very kindly sent me for the low low price of free. Gosh, I thought she was swell before; now I think she’s the bee’s knees.

16. My day,
    Wait for door installer.
    Take phone call from installer saying he is delayed.
    Repeat two more times.
    Take call from installer. He can’t make it today. Is tomorrow OK?
    It is now dinner time.

17. What kind of questionairre comes with an author contract?

18. my day.
    talk to students
    explain to students
    draw an example for students
    repeat….
    talk to students
    explain to students
    draw an example for students
    repeat…

19. I hate all the administrative stuff that comes with being an independent artist. Contracts I hate to the point of phobia. I have a skype meeting tomorrow with a negotiation coach, just so I can email a publisher back (the negotiation coach also happens to be a contract lawyer specializing in indie cartoonists and designers).

20. Nice of you to let the electrician out!

21. Like any working person, I can sympathize.

    As a fan, this makes me excited. A busy Scalzi means an enriched leisure time for me!

22. Ah, the life of the mind/an artist/creative class … Just chilling, waiting for the muse to wander by…

    Wait – it’s a business?

23. I took minutes for a meeting which is a dead cert to end in lawyers at 50 paces. Blood on the floor would at least have been cathartic. A day of emailing would have been much more copable with …

24. writing i think

25. John, yeah, I did :D And caught you probably-not-forever on not-film.

    But that was in 2011, that’s almost forever ago! Though I know us Germans have been lucky compared to the rest of Europe with that visit, I still keep hoping for a repeat. Maybe the American consulate will feel merciful and sponsor again at some point – as I said, one can always dream :)

26. Canada misses you too! Alas we are not overseas…

    My day’s plan – Code to be written
    Start Coding
    Interrupts
    .. Production Issue
    .. Meeting about said production issue
    .. issue investigated, fixed, delivered to customer test system
    Coding
    Interrupts
    .. Meeting about upcoming project
    .. make spec changes re upcoming project
    Start Coding
    Interrupts
    … you get the picture
    End of Day – not enough code
    ..

27. schedule … schedule … e-mail x n people about schedule … fill out forms … try to find last year’s forms … doesn’t matter, they’ve changed … hide from training people … make stuff up … feel guilty for catching up on Whatever (really, brain, it’s like taking a pause between reps…)

28. The most interesting thing was “Look at questionnaire accompanying second contract.” Please, please post it here. We will fill it out for you. Though that may not bring about the desired result.

29. I notice no mention of changing from pajamas to regular clothes, and I think that would be a rather nice perk in the life of a full-time writer. Sure, you probably did change, but the recent debates have taught me not to let little things like facts get in the way of my opinions.

30. Sounds like one of those days that Jerry Pournelle describes as being “devoured by locusts.”

31. How many contracts were for the electrician?

32. The exciting life of big time authors. Another one curious about the questionnaire.

33. Folks, I’ve sent questionnaires to authors. They’re really pretty boring, with a whole lot of “Can you do marketing’s job for them? Please list the ways how. And publicity, can you get a lot of publicity without our doing any work? Please explain.” kind of questions.

    The point is usually to quantify an author’s “platform” at that point in time, to see what connections and contacts and abilities that author has with respect to a specific work. Interspersed with that are questions about what the author expects the publisher to do, which can be deeply helpful or the source for hollow laughs, depending on the author and project. (“Top Media Targets for ‘Grooming Your Miniature Pomeranian: The Ukranian Method” — Oprah, the Today Show, American Idol, and Prime Minister’s Question Time. Please also give a mini-pom to President Obama and schedule a live grooming in prime time as part of a press conference.”)

    Assuming Our Host means a book-publishing contract, which isn’t necessarily the case. But I expect similar content-provider documents for videogames and other media aren’t substantially more interesting or exciting.