Sunday, July 23, 2017

Type A or Type B?

We've all heard about the different personality types, A and B. And we probably get asked which camp we fall into at least once in a while. So, I've taken the time to delve into this, especially this week. Here are my findings: 



According to Wikipedia, Type A individuals are outgoing, ambitious, rigidly organized, highly status-conscious, sensitive, impatient, anxious, proactive, and concerned with time management. People with Type A personalities are often high-achieving "workaholics." They push themselves with deadlines, and hate both delays and ambivalence.



Type B individuals are sometimes attracted to careers of creativity: writer, counselor, therapist, actor or actress. However, network and computer systems managers, professors, and judges are more likely to be Type B individuals as well. Their personal character may enjoy exploring ideas and concepts. They are often reflective, and think of the "outer and inner world. 

When asked the question, especially since retiring from a 'real' job, I always answered that I was a Type B personality. After all, I'm now a full-time writer, creative and reflective, so it seemed to fit. And this year, with no publishing commitments other than a manuscript that's been in edits since January, I was rolling blithely along, working on a story that I will finish before the end of the year. 

Then, this week, all hell broke loose. I accepted a ghostwriting job where I need to crank out 30,000 words in a month's time. I'm still trying to finish the story I'm working on before I lose the thread of it. I got an email from a publisher I'd contacted nearly a year ago asking if the manuscript I queried them about was still available. It is, and if it's accepted, it's the first of a trilogy and of course, books 2 and 3 have not been written. I'm still waiting to hear about another manuscript, a Regency. If that one is accepted by my publisher of choice, it's the first of 4 books, none of which have had more than a paragraph of my time. I should be panicking at this stage of the game, but instead I'm kind of jazzed by the looming deadlines and all the work exploding around me. Maybe I am a Type A after all. 

What about you? Type A or Type B? 

8 comments:

  1. Congrats on the successful query! When it rains it pours, although that analogy probably isn't what you'd like to hear after your previous post. :)

    I'm more of a Type A than a Type B--I have a bit of both. I suspect most of us do!

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    1. I still can't tell if they want the darn thing or if they were just asking a question, but will follow the trail. And now that the basement's fixed, it can pour all it wants, both in the weather forecast and in my writing life.

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  2. It sounds like you have a lot of exxciting things coming up!Congrats! I'm Type A for sure! Except the out-going part...I still get nervous about the NEORWA meetings!

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    1. I think we all are Type A to an extent, especially folks like you and Marin, who have jobs, families, etc to contend with along with finding writing time. Otherwise, how would you get through the day?

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  3. I was a Type A when I worked, but retirement cured me. Now I spend my days drinking ice tea and reading novels. Living the dream.

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    1. You logged in a lot of hours as a Type A and deserve to be living the dream now. Congrats!

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