Dealing with people

Time Spent: 2 hours, 15 minutes

One of the things I really like about this AST is that I don't have to work with that many people. I'm a shy person when I don't know someone very well and it hasn't gotten any better as I've gotten older; in fact, it's probably gotten worse as I find more and more creative ways to stay in my little bubble and can do so because I'm an adult. Heck, this semester all my classes are online, and it's so much easier to deal with my classmates from this side of the computer screen.

But all of this makes it more difficult when I DO have to deal with people for my project; after all, one can't live in a bubble and hope to submit work to journals, can one? I don't mind emailing others at all, but when I have to deal with a person on the phone or in person, I literally have to force myself to do it.

Today I talked to Allison Joseph, editor of the Crab Orchard Review, on the phone about doing a visit to COR later in the semester. When I got off the phone, I felt a true sense of accomplishment, even though she told me to email her and we didn't have time to set anything up over the phone. I was scared of making the phone call, and I did it anyway, and I was shaking when I got off the phone. But I DID IT. (I emailed her as well - though it took longer, it was much easier on my nerves.)

You might be asking me what I learned about making a stupid phone call. I learned that yes, I'm still scared of people, but that doesn't have to stop me from accomplishing what I want to accomplish.

I started story number two today, the one that had been molding in my head for a couple of weeks. After all this time, starting a new story really is still the most difficult part of writing.