The Trap

I’ve spent the last two weeks throwing up this website as a “break/procrastination” from a major client project. It has consumed me.

• I found older journals, notes, and random thoughts to upload on github.
• I paid $7.88 to create my domain name based email inbox again, hooked it up to GoogleSuites, and used my resuscitated email to re-access my old Twitter, open a Medium account, and set up a ConvertKit account.
• I spent hours creating the landing page, playing with the Tarot card images, and more hours writing that iambic pentameter poem.
• I figured out how to create an inline javascript form on my Hugo site.
• I wrote and rewrote and edited and revised my bio, which is now on the landing page, Medium, and the “about” page on my Hugo/Github blog.
• I wrote the “thank you for confirming” page and stuck it on the date I walked into the ocean on my honeymoon in Tofino seventeen years ago.


All this is to say – I have spent a lot of time on setting up a web presence that I probably shouldn’t have because… priorities.

What am I going to do with this? Am I really going to “build an audience” under my pseudonym here before I’ve truly written any fiction worth reading? 


Or am I falling into the trap again? The trap that messed up and ruined GFP 2.0?

Where I spent way more time running a group, moderating it, working on the podcast, the blog, the covers of the podcast in Canva, the audio editing in Audible, the unnecessary entries, the management of Discord, the Sheets where we tracked stuff… the months I spent looking for new members after Nicholas and Dogwood left… and after the whole insane Jared fiasco, but where I got Olivia and Anthony out of the deal… and then I recruited Bryan, and we found Alex, Dave, John, and Lauren… oh my god, and then the critiques. The longass critiques and keeping everything coordinated logistics wise.

ALL THAT EFFORT AND ENERGY to do anything BUT the actual THING I’m looking to do.


That is “The Trap”.

The trap of avoidance, distractions, evasion, busywork, excuses. Doing everything around your dream goal, but not actually doing said dream goal.


I hope not.
 I hope this hurricane of activity was really, purely just procrastination and a release valve from the client project. I hope I don’t fall into “The Trap” again.

I don’t need to create “content”. I don’t need to do any marketing (I don’t have product). I don’t need to get more exposure, and build out an email series, and brainstorm things things to write that’s not directly my story.


Let’s look at the future activities that have intrusively sprang up in my mind:

• Writing story breakdowns
• Writing book reviews
• 
Writing discoveries on creativity
• Turning all of the above from Medium articles and email newsletter into 6-12 pieces of social media content.
• Actively networking with other authors
• 
Build a list
• Create a freebie/bribe to build that list

Basically, no. No, Jinn, no. Do NOT do this.

Don’t do the stuff “around” the actual craft you want to master.

Don’t chase activities that don’t directly, actively impact your craft.

Don’t market or build a list until you actually have product to sell.


Here’s what I should be doing with every spare minute that’s designated for this craft…


• Read history books and take notes
• 
Break down films and stories, and only post/share as an afterthought
• 
Don’t write book reviews, write scene studies, and only post/share as an afterthought
• Turn seeds into outlines with a central dramatic argument (CDA).
• Write out scenes. Draft stories. Rework them. Set deadlines.
• Block off time to do the above. 4-5 hours a week. Wake up early if you have to, go to cafes if you have to, drop things if you have to… commit. This is the principle of dispersement, of JOMO, of Deep Work.
• 
Have one, two max, clear goals the night before any one of these sessions.
  • Can be one chapter of notes for a history book.
  • Could be figuring out the CDA and outline for a short story or novellette.
  • Can be writing out one or two scenes.

And in order of importance and priorities right now… focus on the history notes first. Build your world. Get ideas down. Sketch out characters.

But focus.


Don’t spend too much time writing about writing. Dash off thoughts and reminders and lessons… but don’t linger. Remember, the actual craftwork is the most important. Everything else is irrelevant.