As an introvert, facing lock down wasn’t as bad for me as it was for some. I was actually looking forward to having the time to get some writing done.
I had started a few projects but none of which panned out due to something I hadn’t planned on. The stress of knowing the pandemic was on our doorstep stopped me sleeping at nights, it also frustrated my creativity. Nothing I wrote satisfied me. It was also at this point that I was contacted by someone who offered to narrate one of my books into an audio book. A deal was struck and the work began, this was just before we all went into lock down.
Being an Indie author I am used to having total control over my projects, except for marketing which by its very nature has to be done fairly quickly to get things out and into the public eye and sustained exposure for the project, which I don’t have a problem with. Having that control means I get to say when things get done mainly because I’m doing them myself. If a project is late for whatever reason it’s down to me.
Relinquishing that control is never an easy thing, especially if, like me, you suffer from impatience. If I set my mind to do something I commit to doing it and if I have to work with anyone, I expect that level of commitment. In my day job, I get extremely frustrated when I have to work with others. Most of the time I work a press so whatever work goes through it is at my speed, I am in control. Other people tend to work differently, I find it difficult when they want to stand around talking about the work instead of actually doing the work. So when lock down hit us all I had to rein in my impatience over this audio project. Something else I wasn’t familiar with was just how long it takes to work on a project of this scale. To narrate, then edit an audio book is immensely time consuming and when you have to deal with everything that comes with a pandemic, it isn’t easy.
Life is a learning experience and so is everything you meet along the way, so this has been an experience I will never forget. Learning to live during a pandemic hasn’t been easy for any of us, we’ve had to learn to do things differently, we’ve also had to cope with losing loved ones too and if there is any good to come out of this I hope we have all learned to be a little more patient at least. Things have slowed down during lock down, they’ve had to, we couldn’t do things at the speed we used to, take shopping for example. Before lock down it was a simple task of going to the supermarket and grabbing things you needed, paying for them then going home. Time taken, probably half an hour, now it takes that long at least in the queue waiting to get into the store, then you have to observe social distancing, wait at the tills to pay and so on. Time taken possibly four times as long. With the time at home we’ve been forced to spend some of us have been able to learn a new craft or hobby, myself I’ve learned, the same as everyone that the government we elected isn’t up to the task, but that’s a whole other topic and I’m not getting into that here.
The audio book we are working on, hopefully will be completed soon and I can give you a date on when it will be available for release. I’m studiously watching my emails for any word from the narrator of when that will be and I’m acutely optimistic of how it will turn out. We have plans to bring others from the series to the public in this format at a later date once we’ve seen how the reaction to this one is received. We may have to tweek our presentation for the others, it’s just a matter of time.
As frustrating as this has been it has been an experience that has been rewarding in so many ways and I am looking forward to seeing it through to fruition. When lock down is finally ended I hope you are all safe and sound and you have come through with a renewed view on life and a better appreciation of what we all have. Let’s not go back to normal, because normal wasn’t working for us before so this time let’s try something new. The appreciation for our surroundings, for the essential workers who worked extremely hard through such difficult circumstances to keep us all safe and well and for the delivery drivers who helped keep supplies flowing, without these wonderful people this lock down would have been unbearable, let’s keep that feeling going and not go back to taking them for granted. Finally, let’s appreciate those entertainers who helped keep us sane at home with performances over the internet and also not forgetting people like myself who gave us all such fantastic books to read so we could be transported out of our own homes into lands of wonder and excitement, even if it was just for a few moments.
Master of Mayhem 