When I quit doing web developments a few years back, there was sheer relief and a rewarding sense of freedom, of being able to breathe, again.
Then I closed all but four of my own websites, allowing only zentao.com, dlkeur.com, ejruek.com, and thedeepening.com to remain active, thedeepening.com changed from promoting other people’s books and novels to its original intent. More relief, more freedom, more space to breathe and try to follow my own projects.
This year, I began to ease back on doing professional graphic art. I retained a handful of good clients, but, mostly, I say “no” to the requests I get. First off, it’s a real pain to have to deal with people who, not having a real grasp on what they actually want, have set ideas on what they think they want. Then, when you produce that, after they approve it, they decide months down the road that it’s actually not what they want, and they get all sorts of upset when you tell them they’ll have to pay for another design to be conceived and completed. It’s pure drudgery with not much reward for the soul, regardless of how well it adds to the bottom line.
Now, I’ve turned my focus to my true love in life–writing novels–and, while there’s still some drudgery involved–reading and editing that manuscript yet one more time; promoting what’s already published–there’s sheer joy and happiness for a story well-told and appreciated.
Truly, I’m almost as happy writing as I am riding. Only being with Forrest trumps it all.