As some of you may or may not know, I’ve switched positions at Salesforce. Instead of doing technical writing, my new job title is, “Technology Knowledge Management Specialist.” Instead of generating content, I need to find other people and encourage, threaten, bribe and cajole them into generating content. I need to organize and find places for that content, as well as do training so people know where to put their content and the style and best practices for it.

It’s a whole lot of very different things.

There’s a lot of bleed through, currently. What I mean, is that with the old position, I’d finish with the day job and I’d never think about it in my “off” hours.

Right now, I have a lot of odd thoughts about the new position at odd times. There are a lot of issues and problems that I need to solve. It’s a huge undertaking, what I’m trying to do.

For example, I thought of a potential solution to this one piece yesterday morning before breakfast, and so sent myself an email to the work address, about half a page long, laying things out.

My back brain, where I do most of my problem solving for writing, is fully engaged with these day job issues. Which accounts for the bleed through: instead of odd story ideas popping up, I’m getting work ideas. It also accounts for why I’m not writing as much as I usually do. I’m not going to right now, and I need to be okay with that.

I’ve written about 1000 words tonight. I’ve got to finish this story. I think I’m at the final scene. I don’t know where it’s going, though I kind of do. Hopefully I’ll be able to finish the novel tomorrow.

In the meanwhile, I’m not trying to be disciplined about the bleed through. Maybe in a few months, once I get my feet under me, I’ll be able to train myself away from thinking about work during non-work hours, and be able to truly focus on writing. Until then, this is why I knew writing short stories would be so much better for me from now until the end of the year, smaller stories that I can pick up and put down, because my brain is already occupied.