Oh why?

Someone yesterday asked me why I thought that I felt that I was not going to make my goal of 50,000 words for the month. Quite honestly, I am just too far behind to catch up. And the world is just not cooperating with me either at the moment.

With what is starting to pile up on my desk, most of it lodge (Golden Dawn) related, it is easier to acknowledge that I am going to fail in this task than continue to pull my hair out.

Note that I am stubborn enough to continue working on it--I think that I can rescue part of it and make it into a publishable story. It is just realistically I have to choose which is more important--hacking out 50,000 words which I may or may not be able to use, or work on some Golden Dawn lectures that I know that I can recycle.

Considering Golden Dawn is my writing speciality, it wins.

Sooner or later, if you are a sucessful writer, you have to make choices like this. As a writer, and a businessman (I would use business person here, but it sounds tinny to my ear), you have to be aware of opportunity costs.

Opportunity cost for those who have not taken economics is defined as the best alternative to what you actually did. Before this opportunity to expand the lodge's lectures arose, the best alternative to writing the 50,000 words was to spend time writing for Helium, AC and CC--provided of course that writer's block or depression didn't raise its ugly head. And a few short submissions for the print market.

Now the opportunity cost if I continue to focus mainly on the 50,000 words will be a lost opportunity to expand the lodge's lessons (which I can harvest bits from to make a few dollars) and a good chance that my local Golden Dawn lodge can overcome its membership shortage. Considering that Bast Temple is my test field for my Golden Dawn writings, its membership is important to me. As is the SOM.

We are looking at the difference between a sure thing and a really long shot. At this point, I chose the sure thing. Mainly because it is a proved field for me.

Golden Dawn is one of the subjects that I can potboil. It is something that I am an expert on, that I can write rapidly, and that I have already established the setup for future PR campaigns. For me, despite the fact that a successful novel would result in more money, it is the better bet.

That is my logic. Besides it will be more exciting to attempt a whole novel in November; after all, November is term paper season.