Easy Come, Easy Go: Writing Job Woes

Six hundred-plus words written, possibly for naught.  Even in the world of freelance writing gigs that sometimes is a hard blow.  I was so certain that this one job that I got through a freelance writing site was going to deliver a steady few bucks each week. I don't mean that in a cocky way, just that I was offered a trial spot, was given a prompt and told to write something short. So, I wrote a 600 word article, sent it off, and....a week later I still hadn't heard anything back.

So I did a bit of poking around, and by poking around I mean I went to the website that had said they were going to hire me, but wanted to test my skills first.  There on the site I find an article with a theme similar to the prompt I was given that went up two days after they said that they were likely to hire me.  Now, opportunities come and go in this business.  Sometimes sure things are not so sure, some times you land something semi-steady.  Sometimes you see stuff dry up.  There are feast times and famine times.  I guess I would call this "food snatched off the plate times" if I had to put a name to it.  Funny thing is it would not bother me as much if I had been told by the client that they went another direction--like, incredibly short copy.

I wrote 600 words and spent a few hours on my article.  The article they went with on the site was roughly 150 and is something I could punch out in roughly 30 minutes. 

That kinda stings.  

Funny enough I put in that many hours, sometimes more, when I do an article for another freelance site where I am not even trying to do a contract.  You basically follow a writing prompt, put the work out there, and hope the client likes it.  Sometimes you wait weeks (or months depending on your place in the que) to here back on whether they've bought the post, seen the post, or rejected the post.  Maybe it is a pressure thing.  There is no pressure when I write those blog posts.  They may take it, they may not.  My feelings are not hurt either way.  However, I guess it hurts a little when you actually contact the person and talk to them rather than do all business anonymously.  

On to other projects I suppose.

The Junk Journals go well.  I think I've reached the end of what I can actually pare down in my home (for the time being) and now I have to take these numerous notes, essays, and observances and see if they work as well as I hope for self-help book to post on Amazon.  Maybe it will go well, maybe it will not see the light of day as sometimes happens with creative projects.  Either way, things are what they are.  I have my hopes for other projects, but I don't always want to talk about those things in a public way.  You have to keep some stuff to yourself until it is ready.  Right?

Anywho.  I'm working on another writing tips/advice article for tomorrow, so I hope to "see" you again tomorrow.  Talk to you then!

The Importance of Distraction While Being Creative

Crazy thought here, but I think it's important to have stuff going on around you while you are trying to get something creative done. Whether it's a sketch for tee shirt contest, outlining a story, painting a painting...or working on a blog.

Having distraction around you can be a good thing.  Whether it is a bit of too interesting music, a list of chores that you keep thinking about that needs doing, or a child that needs attention or whatever; having these things going on in the background can be helpful.  Now, I'm not advocating working in a full on hurricane, but what I am saying is that if you are doing something creative that requires a bit of concentration, having constant distractions can actually help you to grow in your creativity.

Between building up a movie podcast and blog with my brother, writing a kids book, trying to be diligent in getting content made for this blog, a gaming blog in the works, not to mention the freelance work I do here and there--things have been busy.  And the midst of that busyness there has been plenty of opportunity to learn this same lesson over and over and over again.  If you can't get the fun stuff done when the world seems to be blaring a trumpet in your ear, how can you be expected to do it in those craved for quiet moments?  And what if those moments never come?

You could spend all day pining for those perfect moments to be creative.  You might imagine yourself looking up from a drawing board, sketch pad, a notepad, or a laptop as you look out a window and think some grandiose thought about the human condition or what-have-you.  You pensively stroke your chin, knowing that a profound bit of artistry is on the verge of emerging from your ever fertile brain.  The only problem is that you've been waiting all day for this mythical moment and that bright, sunny light is a street lamp and the grandiose thought is actually you contemplating having a bowl of popcorn while binge watching something rather than working on the stuff you were planning on doing all day.  What's the point of trying after all, the best inspirational moments have passed.  They were gobbled up like so much else of your day.

The problem isn't really that you don't have the time though or that the "really good thoughts" have been used up for the day.  The problem is you didn't buckle down during the distracting parts.  Those awesome, chin-stroking moments were available to you all day long, you just had to not let the distractions win.

It's a constant struggle to get the ideal moment that we dream of. I'm not saying that they never happen, or that they are a rare thing.  What I am saying is that if you can't get yourself to thinking creatively, to be imaginative against the relentless press of the mundane--then how do you expect to have the discipline or ability to fully appreciate when the perfect moments do come along?  What will it matter to you if the sun is shining as you look out the window onto the most inspirational scene imaginable if that becomes the norm for your creative time?  Yes, we need to take full advantage when they come along, but we also need to be ready for the hard push that will come before those perfect moments.

I guess for myself I've started to learn to appreciate those moments a bit more and learned to push myself to be creative even when the world seems to be coming hectic and unglued.  If I hadn't started to learn to be creative during the distracting times, then the quiet moment like the one I am enjoying as I write this would seem less special to me.

Distraction is helpful.

Taking the Long Road to Short Trips (Part II)

      So, as I said before, I don't want to waste my life or the time given to me.  I want to utilize my ability to write both so I can engage in fun, entertaining creative endeavors.  I would also like to use my writing in a practical way to help provide for my family and put away a little at a time for my daughter's college fund.  To that end, I need to start "producing more product" so-to-speak.  I need to get more basic writing jobs and I need to work more on the creative projects that I love.  However, I have a huge stumbling block to this as I mentioned before, which is the knick-knack-paddy-whack-junk-and-stuff that is around my home.  So now that I'm over a year out from my last day at my retail job and have the opportunity to work from home, I find myself doing more work ON the home than in it, in a manner of speaking.  Why not just ignore it?  Why not get some work done that I want to get done?

     Well, this is the work I want to get done, because if I don't then I can't get work done.  Do you get what I mean?  It's not just a general lack of focus or drive, it's that I can't get from point A to point B without actually travelling over that distance.  For me, that distance involves my share, and what seems like several other people's share, of cleaning and de-cluttering.  I want to know that when I look up from my writing the only things that will be really vying for my attention will be my daughter's baby photos and a small (VERY small) collection of oddities that I have long used for inspiration while writing.  Personally, I feel like in the end whatever writing I get done won't feel nearly as fulfilling as it could if I know that I can't unwind at the end of the day because I have cleaning to do.  For the record, I know that with a little one in the house, there will always be cleaning to do.  But there are things that should have been dealt with a while ago that I could never get to thanks to the former job.  Now it may sound like I am laying a large amount of blame on that job for a messy home, and yeah, oh heck yeah I am.  This will be something I talk about in my Junk Journal book.  The truth is it agrevates me both at the old retail job and at myself for letting it get to me.  I allowed the old job to make me chase after countless doo-dads and thing-a-ma-bobs as a distraction.  Although I had a freelance writing job with a tee shirt company (an opportunity that I am still ever-grateful for), I never got in writing of any other sort.  I wasn't putting nearly as much as I wanted to into the career that I really wanted to follow.

So now that I have this opportunity to keep moving forward in my writing career, why choose to slow down for stuff that built the basis for holding me back?  Why occupy my time with this junk around me rather than writing?  Well, in one of life's ironic twists, I have something to write about as I come out of the experience.  I want to de-clutter and clean up, but I need the catharsis and closure that will also come with writing about the junk that I am donating and disposing of.  If I just toss it out whole sale in attempt to be done with it, I feel like that will be the old way, the old, terrible job winning in the end.  Not only would it have robbed me of time with my family, time building my career, but it will have given me nothing to show for it.  So I guess that is my writing lesson to be shared for the day.  All those cliches' about writing from your pain and frustration have some truth to them.

I could probably write a whole book about the daily struggles that my past health issues gave me.  I could do a mini-series on what it was like those final months leading up to the liver transplant that saved my life.  Maybe some day I will write more about that.  What I need to write about now is the long road that I am I taking.  Ah, the post title, now I finally get to it, right?  I am taking the long road of frustration and annoyance and heartache that will come from going through all this junk.  But I choose it because it is the only way it can be done.  In the end I will end up with shorter trips to the ol' writing table or whatever metaphor best fits here.  It may sound silly to keep thinking about how the former retail job pushed itself into my life, but it ate away at me just as much as my liver disease and declining health did. In a way, that retail job took much more and gave far less then my sickness did.  But whatever little good that it did, I am going to squeeze what I can from it and write about it as best I can.

   

Taking the Long Road to Short Trips (Part I)

I don't want to waste my life.  I want to get things done.

I mean, who doesn't?  I want to be able to enjoy my down time.  Again, who doesn't?  But the fact is that I can't get things done (things being writing projects) and I can't enjoy my down time to its fullest with the random boxes of junk that I have lying around my apartment.  Well, to be clear it isn't like they are lining the halls and spilling out of the closets.  They are tucked away in my bedroom and in the bedroom closet.  Safely out of site, and out of mind.

But they aren't out of mind.  Not really.  For a while now I've had these things sitting in the bedroom, taking up space, and generally just sort of being there.  It probably wouldn't bother me nearly as much if I was still working my terrible retail job or working the theater job.  (That one was awesome, so I won't knock it.)   However, now that I am doing writing from home as my full time job, my home is my office.  The dirty corners and untidy areas are my work space and my job site.  Okay, true enough I don't stuff myself in the closet with my laptop in order to get my writing done, but the mental effect the untidiness has on me does effect how well I concentrate on my writing and how much output I can expect from myself on a daily basis.  So to that end I've been spending more time the past couple of weeks working on my "Junk Journals" book project and de-cluttering my home.  Good.  A bit of irony with this continued work on decluttering is that I haven't had a chance to really do any "for me" writing.  Oh sure, I've been working on my job related copy writing things, gotta keep limber.  But I just haven't put in the time lately that I want to on getting writing things done.

I want to say more about this, but the truth is it is kinda late and I am tired.

Little Steps Closer, Long Ways to Go

Well,  I am a few steps closer to getting that blog on games started.  My wife did a much needed wipe and reset on my computer.  It was getting so slow, so buggy, so unusable that I'm sure it was only a few steps above using a typewriter than scanning the pages into a computer.  Which makes me sad really because it means that this computer is getting old.  I don't really feel like upgrading it any time soon since it is functional.  Not to mention, I have a fondness for this laptop as it is my first computer of this kind.  Oh sure, I've done writing on my home PC, but this is my my first laptop.  With it came a certain sort of freedom that made me feel like I did the first time I went driving on my own after I got my license.  Unlike having a license I never really needed to get away to go do something, in this case writing, but by being able to head out to a local eatery to eat and write is something I've wanted to be able to do for years.  And truthfully, the first time I got to do it was every bit as awesome as I'd hoped it would be.

Of Junk Journaling and Musing Thoughts

So, to make a long story short, it's late and I'm tired.  But I think I need to get some writing done. If in no other format than this one at least.  Not that I'm putting down this particular blog of mine, just that I've been working on freelance writing applications and blog article submissions this evening, so I need to some time to write, some time to stretch, so to speak.

I know that I don't plan on doing much writing right now.  I already did a bit earlier today.  I had some thoughts coalescing about some stuff a friend and I have been talking about.  I know, I know.  Pretty vague jabber for a writer, but I am a bit tired and don't know how to say what I was going to gabble about.  Sufficed to say I don't want to screw up the way I write what I am writing.

Anywho, it got late on me and I am suddenly too tired to continue this particular blog. Night all!

Time to Stretch

I don't just mean physically, although I could use a good deal more of that. Yeesh, have you seen my midsection lately? No? Good, it would terrify you, it does me. In any case, that's not the point of this particular post.
What I really need to stretch are those writing muscles. Not just the ones that pertain to the children's novels that I'm writing. Okay, have been writing. For several years in fact. Mainly I keep feeling like I'm just piddling away my God given talents at the current retail job that I work. I'm not trying to boast here, but really want to give God the credit. I've gotten compliments on my writing over the years. I was usually singled out in my writing classes as having a distinct, natural voice, and a talent for making what people read interesting to them. It's hard to think that all that was several years ago. No, this isn't an age thing, I can, and have been writing a several (dozen) page response to the notions that we have concerning aging and getting old and the wisdom that it supposedly brings. In any case, this post is about writing. More specifically the fight to get back into the habit.

Through the countless hours of web research (i.e. web surfing) I've read article after article that talks about how the best writers, the published ones, don't just languish. They don't sit idly by waiting for a big break, they go beating down the door to get one themselves. Yes, this is one of those kind of posts. It's not like me or my wife are strangers to having to do things the hard way. In fact, from being in debt to having to deal with my own catastrophic health issues a couple of years ago, we've been through a lot. She's fantastic for that. But here I am, after years of struggling through health issues and heartache, and I feel like I am starting at square one, whereas other people that I know are where I wish I was. It isn't really a jealousy thing, it's more of a weariness thing. I don't begrudge them, I guess I'm just tired of the long, hard road. But, if this is the life that God has made for me, then so be it. I will keep trying to do what it is that I feel that I am called to do. Be a writer.

However, because I am so weary, I've allowed myself to get out of shape in the writing department. I am surprised to admit this, but even though I love writing, it had started to become a chore not too long ago. I think that is why I've allowed myself to get so "out of shape" with it. The creative structure that I once prided myself on has atrophied. I sit here with lanky mental muscle after after nearly two years of only passing use. Sure, I write a character description here or there, maybe a snippet of something there, but it isn't the same as actually doing the stuff that progresses me towards a goal. Body builders probably have a goal in mind when they exercise, athletes who run marathons make it there goal to get the best time possible. So why haven't I been doing the heavy lifting? I guess that it is a bit of nervousness and anxiety. I think that there is too large a part of me that has allowed my heart to be affected by my current retail job. I mean, sure, millions of people out there just don't ever get the life they want or expect, so why shouldn't I expect more than the rest? I guess it's because it would be the same as having the world's most awesome exercise equipment, and just letting it sit there. I can't let this happen anymore. I know that some people talk about how they don't want to get to their 40's or 50's and wonder what happened. they can't conceive how they got to that age without having done more with their life. Well, I can't do that to myself, to my wife, or to these gifts that I've been given. I can't let another day, let another hour pass without trying harder to stretch out these writing muscles and get myself back in to shape writing wise.

Now, to be clear, I don't expect to be perfect here. I know that there are plenty of times in the past where I've "shown my resolve" and "really wanted to buckle" down, so I don't' want to place unrealistic expectations for an immediate, earth shattering change. Nor do I really want to let this new found enthusiasm simply go to waste.



I have to push myself, have to do the hard fight again.

And that's pretty daunting.