JPF Home Page Forums General Messages Brian Austin Whitney Blog Friday, June 1st, 2007

Hi Folks,

So I've spent about 14 hours today working on an article for Songwriters Market and I am not happy with it at all and it's only 2/3rds done. I've gotten way off track and now I need to reel it all back in. I may actually trash everything I have written and start all over again. I made a half dozen phone calls to people to confirm info and not one of them called me back. Argh! It was/is due today and this is already an extension. I even spent $100 bucks to stay in a nice hotel room so I could work but it's all for naught.

I don't have writers block, I've got way too much to say and not enough space to say it in. And I've written several in depth articles about small portions of the overall article and there's no room for it and I went so deep I need to verify some info before I could let it go to press. (I, unlike many major newspapers and magazines.. actually verify my info/sources before running an article.. but don't get me started on that topic...). I also got distracted for about an hour watching the Godfather on TV. I needed a break to clear my head and next thing I knew 75 minutes had passed. Now it's 12:30AM, I have interviews to do early tomorrow and have to check out and get to the show and I only got 5 hours of sleep in this really nice hotel room last night. Have I complained enough?

There's a lot that goes on behind the scenes with JPF. Normally I can stay on top of it. But I am finding it very hard to do daily stuff while on the road. Email's alone are 5-6 hours of daily work. Then I try to keep up on the message boards and lose time as well. I also lined up mentors to cover the Mentor Critique board for June (Sara Light of SongU is doing Week 1 & 3, Harold Payne Week 2 and John Braheny Week 4).

A Cowboy's work is never done! = )

Brian

Hey Cowboy,
Sounds like you're doin' some pretty rough trick ropin' of your time and energy! When there's more to do than there is time in which to do it, the trick is always to economize your energy. You take on so many things. I can almost picture you walking a tight rope with boulders on your back!

Can you make a list of your bullet points for your article and then somehow summarize those points? In physics, if you put too much energy into a small space, the space blows up. So, you either have to get rid of some energy or get a bigger space.

You have your work cut out for you. It's too bad you don't have several assistants who can be "Brian" clones. Seems like you need them.

Hope you get some relief from all your activities soon so that you can enjoy at least some of the rodeo!

Take care, Cowboy! Don't ride 'em too hard!

Heidi

Heidi,

I like the physics analogy. A list of bullet points is good to get the focus.

Brian,

I get the feeling that even though you are 'complaining', you are enjoying being busy. I can see how there is so much information to put into an article because the music business is changing so rapidly. Good luck with it. No typing while driving.

Vondelle

Hi Vondelle,

I notice you're creeping up on hitting the Top 100 Posters! Just a few more to go!

Brian