Nothing rubs that in like some of the profiles Duane Swierczynski ran on his Secret Dead Blog under the header Legends of the Underwood. Richard Bachman (Stephen King), Richard Matheson, Gil Brewer… these guys wrote novels in three days.

On typewriters.

Now that’s dedication to the craft. Here I am with an $1800 laptop, fancy word-processing software, and a laser printer, and I haven’t produced a complete novel in three years. A comic script and a novella or two, sure, but not a novel.

I’ve been sitting here trimming the DVR list, figuring out which programs I can do without. Meanwhile, these guys probably never turned on the TV. They put their asses in the chair and put their fingers on the keyboard. Clickety-clickety-clickety for hours on end, take a nap, repeat.

At least now I’ve got work due. I signed two contracts this week, which means there’s people expecting work. It means if I lock myself in my office, I’m not wasting time anymore. It’s something.

Is it enough?

Time will tell.

At least I know artists are in the same boat: Jack Kirby practically had his pencil grafted to his hand. Draw draw draw, take a nap, repeat.

It worked so well that a week later I set up a to-do list for my writing in my Moleskine. The notebook is with me all the time (unlike the Palm), it keeps my job work and writing work separate, and it’s faster than flipping through all my notes (or the index I adopted over the summer) to see what I’ve got cooking when my mind goes blank.

The only problem is these lists look rather daunting at first. I wrote my to-do list on a right-hand page near the back of the Moleskine, thinking I’d have plenty of room. Wrong! I filled it up in about two minutes and if I add anything more I’ll be overflowing to the left page. Why is it so easy to forget how busy I really am?

I’ve long thought organization is a big part of my problem. I’m just scatterbrained by nature. I obsess about new tasks and forget old ones. I’m lucky if I’ll be able to finish this blog post if something shiny catches my eye while I’m working on it. I looked into the Getting Things Done (GTD) system, but I don’t want to make this a religion, nor do I want to spend time learning (and obsessing over) a whole new system. Just cursory looks at some of the GTD-oriented software was enough to realize I’m not near anal enough for GTD.

A simple to-do list I can handle. Everyone knows how a to-do list works: you make a list and cross things off as you accomplish them. But it turns out there’s a little bit of art to it, too, as shown in this Lifehack article. Most of it is just tips on handling your to-do list and how to make sure you don’t just put it aside and start another one the next time you’re feeling overwhelmed.

Yes, a lot of it is common sense. But think about it: how much of it do you actually do?

I don’t know that something as simple as a to-do list will make 2008 my “best year ever,” but it’s a start.

In the fitness routine, my weight’s been stable for a month or so. Suddenly I’m seeing a drop again, and I finally lost another five pounds to meet last month’s goal (missed it by a day). It’s gone the same way since May: I’d shed a few pounds, then float, then lose a few more pounds, then float again. In the long run that’s a good thing, because it appears the slow weight loss — the stuff you work for — tends to stay off more than a diet that you start and stop when you feel like it.

Money definitely has its ups and downs. I’d be getting ready to tighten my belt when a contract or check shows up. I just did a small job for a friend and have a royalty check showing up any time, but then I got the news about the insurance rate increase at work.

Speaking of, the same goes on at work. I got caught up from a few straggling tasks from the start of the school year and had some time to work on some projects, then a teacher discovered some major crisis. I resolve that, skate a bit, and learn about a state database issue that has a deadline in two days.

Last but not least is the writing. I’ll go a month or so with no real news, then hear from an editor. For example, this weekend a mock cover for the German edition of Deadliest of the Species showed up in the inbox. I’ll tap away on To Rise from the Ashes one weekend, then not touch it for a while. I’ve got several other things I should be working on, too, but I’m letting To Rise gum up the works.

I’m starting to realize I have a real problem with time management.

On the face of it, it doesn’t appear weight loss or income could have anything to do with time management. But when applied to the fitness routine, or the amount of writing-related work I actually finish and turn into money, proper time management can have a huge impact. Keeping a better workout routine (between karate classes, that is) could make the weight loss more consistent. Finishing To Rise and a few other projects could set up some additional work and bring in some moolah. And that, in turn, would make it a lot easier to stomach the insurance increase, if not provide a little more stability to the monthly account balance.

So what do I do about it?

Accountability – I need a way to track my writing and make sure I’m doing it. It’s been working fairly well for the fitness with the Weight Tracker the last eleven freakin’ months. One would think it would have dawned on me to apply something similar to the writing. Dumbass.

Motivation – I’ll start with the important question: do I want to be a writer, or do I want to have written? The bibliography says the former. Should I think about the money? Wow. I can’t believe I typed that with a straight face. No, this one’s a bit trickier. I need to get some more stuff out there. And to do that I need to write more. See the problem? I could try to convince myself I’m doing it for the love, but then I’d be full of shit. In fact, anyone who says they write for themselves is full of shit. Writers need to be read. Period.

Distraction – Distractions abound. I need to cut out several of them, and stop overscheduling myself. In fact, I think I’ll talk to the wife right now about keeping next weekend wide open. With Thanksgiving and Christmas coming up, I better take advantage of free weekends while I can.

And now that I figured all that out, maybe it’s time to shut the hell up and actually do something about it.