A backup career, and planning the piece

 Well I'm feeling more inspired to write now. Just writing about writing helps, I suppose. But I have so many books to read now. So much to do! It's crazy. I'm looking at all the backup jobs I can fall back on to if the writing doesn't work out. Its interesting to see how scared I've always been of trusting the process. But the thing I'm getting to understand is that I can only be me. I couldn't have been or done anything other then be me or do what I've done. Perhaps this is what wisdom turns out to be.

I remember thinking that Tommy Lee Jones graduated in law before he became an actor. And I think that's so with many actors. They may not have money or connections, but they have the confidence in other ways. They know they can fall back on a secondary career.

So I've been listing all the other things I can do to make ends meet if investments fall by the wayside, or the book doesn't sell, or I don't make a great living as a writer.

But the thing is, I can. That's the amazing thing. I'm sitting here at a computer that's connected to the internet, and these words can be published seconds from now. I can be connected to the internet and an investments site, like one of the online trading platforms, Etrade or Fidelity or one of the many others. And I can shuffle money around from all around the world. We live in incredibly exciting times, and when you've mastered something, or have a sound basis for something, whether it's investing or writing or sculpture or some other craft, you become a useful and valuable commodity. Knowledge is a commodity. Education and reason are commodities. To have mastered logic is a commodity which can be used in the marketplace, whatever marketplace you pick.

I'm planning my novel and some other projects over the next days. I'm understanding the importance of outlining the story, or article. Basically, I have to plan what I'm going to say before I say it. There's no use just starting writing at the beginning, as it were.

That in itself is a profound new thing for me. You see, I was never taught that. No wonder I failed so abysmally at school...