There is a second tier though, and that are things that aren't immediate, but are a result of my obsessive personality. I play my accordion every day because I need the practice. I read my Bible every day because I really need the practice. There are certain people whom I pray for every day (one of them is named Katherine) because I made a commitment in that area, often years ago.
The third tier are things that would be nice to do, and eventually do need to get done. My property is a monument to unfinished , non-urgent projects. There is a swimming pool that needs to be assembled, and a lawn tractor that needs a new carburetor. The chickens are escaping, and somebody needs to fix their pen. You get the idea.
The fourth tier ( but who's counting) are simply things that I would like to get done. These generally are creative projects that are being done for no real monetary reward. This blog is one of those. In addition to this, I am writing, in bits and pieces, at least 3 books. I also am an artist, but more on that, in a moment.
I am laying all this out there because I want to make it clear, I'm not a procrastinator, I'm actually an obsessive perfectionist work-aholic who happens to be very lousy at finishing anything because all of these tendencies tend to work against each other. I also want to give you an example of not finishing something because I just can't stop fiddling with it.
A few years back, I decided to do something with my art, and picked up a long-neglected project, transforming it into a webcomic. It was fun, and I had a small following, but soon became overwhelmed with the pressures of putting out an appropriate level of quality on a semi-regular basis. After all, it was being done for free, and at the time I was working 2 jobs. I walked away from it, for the time being.
Years passed, and I decided one day to look into the viability of picking up where I left off. I looked at the success of comics on Kindle and went "Yeah, I could do that, and even make a buck or two". The first step was to look at what I had already done. Big mistake. It was horrible. The art was bad, the writing was stupid. I was embarrassed that it had ever seen the light of day. Notice that I am not linking to it, it really is that bad. I decided the thing to do was to start afresh, incorporating everything I had learned since then.
So I redid the characters, changed the backstory, updated the look. I then found myself obsessively drawing and designing every little facet of this world I was creating. The reader would never notice, but I would, and that was reason enough. I was in 'the zone'. From doorknobs to lightbulbs, everything had to look just right. As fun as that process is, it doesn't lend itself to actually FINISHING anything. The alternative appears to be settle for a work that is slightly less than the best I could possibly produce, and the very thought of such turns my stomach.
This is how I go from this:
To this....
And eventually this....
Am I the only one like this?
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