Wednesday, October 13, 2004

I’ve found that it’s much easier to take on a big challenge if you’re a member of a group that’s all doing the same thing. Ever noticed that, when someone relates a successful weight-loss story, they usually mention joining a class or running with a friend or otherwise losing weight with somebody? Ever noticed how many successful CEOs are members of various sports or business clubs?

I’m taking this observation to heart by joining a couple of groups through Meetup.com. Tuesday evening I went to the first meeting of a science fiction writer’s group. It was literally the first meeting; earlier attempts to organize a group had failed, so we were all doing this for the first time. There were only three of us; myself, a guy who’s had one story published, and a woman who hasn’t even submitted anything yet.

We chatted and read each others’ work for an hour and a half, easily trading advice and stories. As we walked to our cars, we joked about a group photograph of us all literally tearing apart each others’ manuscripts. It was grand.

And now, I want to write.

(And I did, writing nearly 500 words of animation script tonight, despite exhaustion.)

Why was I exhausted? Because I forgot to eat dinner before the writing group, only grabbing an energy bar before meeting. I went to the grocery store on the way back and picked up some Chinese food, but didn’t eat it until 9:30 p.m. So of course my body was sated with food and crashed hard, but recovered and kept me up until nearly 3 a.m. Arg.

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