An Open Invitation
As some of you may know, I’ve been (perhaps half-heartedly) trying to run another site, http://ChocolateForDogs.com/. It’s aimed at being a writer’s community site, with the goal of helping writers get their work out and share ideas and tips with other writers. There’s a few great submissions up there right now — feel free to check it out — but the overall site just isn’t what I’d planned on creating.
If you’re familiar with any kind of web development or general web interfaces, you might notice that it’s a Joomla-based site. Joomla is a content management system (CMS), pre-canned and pretty customizable. (If you don’t know what a content management system is, think of a blog on steroids. That’s not quite right, but it’s close enough.) I thought I could tweak it enough to help get the site up and running — and I have, to some degree — but it’s not where I want it. It needs too many hacks to get it where it needs to be, and I’d rather not do that.
What I’d like to accomplish with ChocolateForDogs is creating an environment where writers are comfortable submitting their content, where they’re able to get feedback from other users, and to make it accessible to all writers — not just those with ambitions of becoming the next Stephen King or Stephanie Meyer. I’d like to get high school kids involved where possible, or college students. Not just fiction writers, and not even just writers — there’s no point writing something if no one else is going to read it, and the vast majority of readers out there have no major desire to become writers.
Someday, I’d like for the site to grow large enough to where it can help support community involvement in writing and the arts, but we’re talking years down the road and lots of legal crap beforehand (I looked into some of the requirements for going the non-profit route; it’s not terribly difficult, but even the Wikipedia article had too much legal and business jargon that I got lost).
Right now, however, my main goal is just to get the site self-sufficient. It needs to pay for itself, and it needs to have enough left over to where I can help pay some of the bills around the house. I need to create the new backbone for the site — which shouldn’t be too difficult, and only a week or two worth of work — and I have a couple of features in mind for the new version that could generate some (not a lot, mind you) revenue. I need to get the Google Ads off of it, because they’re not doing a damned thing anyways, and I personally hate seeing ads at a site (no matter how non-intrusive they may be).
What’s in the Stars
So here’s what I’m planning on doing with ChocolateForDogs.com in the long run:
- Redesign the Interface. This is pretty much necessary, because moving away from Joomla will give me much more flexibility and I’ll have to recode it anyways — why stick with someone else’s template?
- Easier Submission Process. Right now the site is set up so that users must upload their content, I review it, and then manually put it into the system (copy and pasted from the file the user uploaded). This needs to change. Users should be able to automatically submit their content (and possibly even have it published immediately — the jury’s still out on that one) without having to upload a file. It’d be nice to allow other users to review submissions as well, because I may not be able to get to one right away.
- Writer’s Notebook. This is one of the “premium” features that I’m planning on charging for (though I still haven’t figured out the best way to handle the charging — per project? Monthly subscription? Don’t know right now…) Even then, the main reason I’d charge is because, like I said, the site needs some revenue; if I were independently wealthy I would have no problems opening it up. But this would be a section where writers could keep track of their drafts, invite others to review their work, and perhaps it would include other organizational tools as well (i.e. character details, scene notes, to-do items, etc.). This would be integrated with the main content submission process — users could submit content directly from this section (though they don’t have to — “regular” submissions would always be free).
- Freelance Writer’s Planner. Another premium feature, and might be integrated into the Writer’s Notebook. It would give the user the ability to track assignments they’ve been given, when it’s due, how much they’re going to get paid (if any). Might also have a student version for homework assignments too; not sure.
- Networking. Now this is nice and fuzzy
No real details in mind on this, but the plan is to let writers work together, communicate with each other, set up events (like book signings or interviews), have discussions, etc. Really important, but not top priority right now.
Okay, those are most of the plans I have for the site I can think of off hand right now. If you have other ideas, I’m all ears.
How You Can Help
Of course, the whole reason I’m putting this out here is because I need help with getting this thing off the ground. Otherwise, I’d just do it and tell you about it when it’s ready — surprises are much more fun (well, most of the time). Here’s some things you can do to help get ChocolateForDogs.com off the ground and get it to the point where it can start helping writers around the world:
- Donate. Yes, money is the main thing necessary to get it off the ground. I hate it, but it’s a necessary evil. The site needs funding for marketing purposes, hosting, and I have to pay bills and put food on the table for my family. I’m not doing this to get rich — if I can average the equivalent of full time minimum wage, I’ll be perfectly content. If you have a PayPal account, you can donate from the link at the ChocolateForDogs.com site; if not, contact me and we can discuss the options.
- Freelance Projects. I have no problem working for a paycheck too, and if you don’t want to just shell out money for nothing, I might have services I can offer. I’m (obviously) a freelance writer, a web developer, and a software developer. I can do editing work too, though I don’t have a portfolio to show for it. If you have other ideas, I’m open to suggestions. Either way, just contact me and we can discuss it as necessary.
- Sign Up and Submit. Even though I plan on making lots of changes to the site (when possible), ChocolateForDogs.com is still open and accepting new users and submissions. Everything on the site is free — just register and start submitting!
- Spread the Word. You might not have the ability or desire to do any of those, but maybe someone else you know does. Post a link to this site, or to ChocolateForDogs.com, or tell someone you know. Read through the various submissions on ChocolateForDogs.com and share some of them — they all have links allowing you to tweet the submission, buzz it (Google buzz), or “Like” it on Facebook. All of those help let others know about the site, and maybe they’ll want to join or submit their own content.
And, like everything, I’m open to suggestions — if you have some other way you might be able to help, don’t hesitate to tell me!
Okay, I need to get back to The Search. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to post them here or contact me. Catch you on the flip side.
–Matt
Wanting to Clear Things Up a Little
It seems there was some confusion after yesterday’s post, and I want to try and clear it up a little bit. First off, let me just get this much out of the way: I’m not giving up on writing. At most, I’m putting it on the back burner for a little while. Even then, I’m mostly just admitting what’s been the case for a while now anyways — if not to everyone else, then at least to myself. Let me try to put it in a different perspective here, and even if it doesn’t help explain this at all, maybe it’ll give you a bit more insight into the kind of person I am.
Several lives ago, I was a pianist of sorts. Not professionally, not by a long shot. But I plinked around, and by most accounts I was pretty good at it. Wrote some music, learned some pretty high-level pieces. It was more than just something I’d screw around with on the weekends, but it wasn’t a large enough part of my life where I could’ve gotten a full scholarship to Julliard, for example. I took private lessons off and on for several years, and most of the time I’d do my homework the way everyone does homework — work on it until you get it done. Like English or Math homework, it was pretty boring, and mostly because it was of the “have to” kind instead of the “want to” kind. When I worked on the pieces I wanted to learn though, most of the time it was quite different.
Generally speaking, the way I’d approach a “practice” session was like this: I’d be sitting around the house, bored to tears. I’d go back to the piano, pull out a book of sheet music, and thumb through it until I found something that looked like fun. I’d then play as much as I could of it — sometimes all of it, more often maybe a page or so — until I got frustrated or bored with it. Then I’d find a different piece to play. Rinse and repeat. Rarely did I learn a piece in its entirety; most of the time, I’d learn a fair amount of the main melody section and give up when it got to the really hard part that I just couldn’t figure out. Basically — and this is the key point here — if the piece didn’t just come to me, if it wasn’t “easy”, then I’d scrap it and move on to one that was. Given the tastes I had in piano music, which included some of the most difficult pieces around, it should make perfect sense that my repertoire was quite small.
This is, obviously, a very ineffective method of learning an instrument. But it worked for me — at least, it worked well enough to where most of the people who knew me during that time still wonder why I’m not pursuing it anymore. By the time I “gave up”, I was quite a capable pianist.
Now, what I mean by the piece “coming” to me, or being “easy”, is not that the notes just happened to find their way under my fingers when they were supposed to. There was a lot more to it than that, and I did spend a lot of time practicing by “rote”, where I’d just sit there and work on the same measure or two for twenty minutes before moving on to the next one. But at those times, working on those two measures came easy to me. Other times it didn’t, and it was a matter of just sitting there, forcing myself to try. I’m sure you’ve been in similar situations — you have something you want to do, and you’ll do what it takes to get it done. At other times, even if its the same task, just thinking about it makes you miserable. If you’re a writer, I’m sure you know this very well. Sometimes the words flow like water; other times, you don’t feel like writing a shopping list.
Most people — at least, most of the ones I’ve heard discuss this matter — force themselves to work on something even when they don’t want to. I’m not talking about “work” work, like going to the office and shuffling papers for eight hours. I mean the stuff you can forget about doing for a week and it won’t make one bit of difference — you won’t get fired, you won’t lose your house; nothing will happen if you just “don’t” do whatever it is. Working on your novel, or your symphony, or your video game. Hobbies, basically.
I’ve never been able to do that, and that’s probably why I’m not on the New York Times bestseller list, or performing at Carnegie Hall next weekend. If I want to do something, I’ll attack it like a pit bull, damn the torpedoes and full speed ahead. If I don’t, then trying to just builds resentment and stress. If I’m in the mood to write, then I can take on a full novel in a matter of weeks — I’ve done it twice already. If I don’t, but feel I have to, then I stare at a video game, angry at myself for not getting it done.
Is that the way it should be? Is that the key to success in this world? Hell no, not by a long shot. Success comes from years — sometimes even decades — of consistent hard work. In the same breath though, is it worth it to drive y0urself crazy worrying about it? No, it’s not. It’s better to just be honest with yourself, and admit where you’re at. You either want it bad enough to where the work is irrelevant, or you don’t. There’s nothing wrong with not wanting it bad enough — maybe next week you will, or next month, or next year. Or maybe later on things will change to where the situation levels out better with how bad you want it, and you won’t have to try quite so hard to get the same result.
Maybe this makes sense; maybe not. Regardless, I’m not giving up on writing. I don’t know when — or even if — Shattered will be finished to the point I’ll be happy with it. I don’t know if there’ll be another book after it, even though I have a lot of stuff in mind for it. Maybe I’ll write another book that’s completely different, with different characters and maybe even a different genre. Maybe not. Maybe I’ll get a job bussing tables tomorrow, and I’ll be content enough with it that I’ll be able to relax and focus on writing. Maybe I’ll write twenty short stories this weekend, or maybe it’ll be a couple of years before I come up with something.
Right now, I don’t really know, but I’m okay with that. I don’t have to know. If I can get myself to accept that, then I can move on to the next battle
–Matt
A Time to Change
I haven’t said anything, because it isn’t really anyone’s business right now, but I’ve been unemployed for almost two months. It still isn’t anyone else’s business, save for me and my wife, but it serves as a good starting point for this post, so there you go. I’ve been sitting around the house for a month and a half trying to think of ways I can make a buck, using the talents I have, and driving myself batshit-insane in the process. (Yes, batshit-insane is the technical term; look for it in the latest DSM.)
In this time, I’ve been doing freelance writing to make some extra cash, but mostly living off of my wife. I’m honestly quite ashamed of that; it’s my fault I’ve been out of work, and not because I just screwed up and got fired. I quit. Or resigned, if you want to paint it up a little. I quit because I didn’t really care for where I felt the company was going, and also because I’m Me, and I Can Handle It. Yes, that fine touch of arrogance that makes one think little can go wrong since they’re the star of the show.
That arrogance is an old friend of mine. Its gotten me into trouble many times.
I don’t say this for some self-effacement effect; I say this to just lay the cards on the table. I fucked up. Plain and simple. Contrary to popular belief (and what some genetic tests may say), I am human. I make mistakes.
Since I resigned, things have happened to put things in a different perspective. I thought I’d be able to support us with the freelance writing until something else came along; I know now that I can’t — at least not in the way I was trying. I thought I’d be able to get a few of my web site ideas off the ground to support us. I know now that I can’t, because it takes money to make money, even if that’s just to support you until you start making it on your own.
Shortly after I quit, my wife and I found out she’s pregnant. On one hand, this is absolutely wonderful news. We’ve both wanted children for a long time, and started trying shortly before I quit. On the other hand, I can’t support us right now; how the hell can I feed another mouth?
A little over a week ago, I received horrible news. I’m not going to discuss it, but it too has put things into an entirely different perspective. It’s one of those life-changers, and its one everyone will go through at some point. But its something that I need to deal with, and I can’t just sit around and play house-husband anymore.
Even though I can’t do a damned thing about it, I also can’t lean on my wife any more than I already am. She’s pregnant and supporting us; she doesn’t need the added stress. Hell, she doesn’t need the added stress of just supporting us, let alone if I were to try and pawn my problems off on her.
So I need to get a job. I need a paycheck, and I need to get out of the house. I need to take the load off of my wife’s shoulders — some of it, at least — and carry as much of it as I can myself. That way, maybe I can lean on her — ever so slightly — with this new problem and any others that come around.
I’ve been lying to myself for the past couple of years. I thought I could handle a job and a home life and a fledgling writing career. And maybe I could if I wanted it more; maybe that’s the problem, that I just don’t want it bad enough to put in the extra time it takes. But whether or not that’s true, I simply can’t do it. Not right now at least. And I can’t handle trying to make money by doing my own thing; it is simply too much stress, and it’ll just drive me crazy.
I haven’t written anything new in well over a month, and that was after a year of nothing new. I’m unable to focus on Shattered, and it still needs a lot of work. I already emailed my publisher to see what they want to do about it — it’s contracted, so I don’t think I can just bail, but I can’t bring myself to do anything else either.
The worst part is that it isn’t very likely I’ll find a job of any kind anytime soon. I spent too much time bouncing around to be an attractive candidate for anything that pays halfway decent. I don’t have a degree. I’ve spent ten years programming computers and websites; there’s no such jobs here in El Paso, and we aren’t willing to relocate. Any other position, and I’m pretty much entry level. Hell, I even got turned down by K-Mart as a sales associate. (Several others if you count the ones who simply didn’t respond.)
But I need to put writing on the back burner for now. I need to put my “killer website startup” attempts back on the shelf for now. I need to be able to put food on the table, gas in the car, and make enough so my wife can pay her copays the insurance leaves her with.
No comments on this one.
I need to get some dishes washed.
–Matt
Great First Day – Keep ‘Em Coming!
Well, today was the first full day for ChocolateForDogs.com, and all told it went better than I expected. Got some users signed up, ran into a snag with GMail accounts (can’t have everything now),and got the first posts up that aren’t from me!
Also, today we setup comments and social bookmarking options for content, so you can give the writers feedback and share your favorite posts with your friends on Twitter, Facebook, and Google Buzz.
So, for the first day, it went great! Hopefully tomorrow we’ll get some more users and some more content. I’m also looking into setting up event calendars for authors and maybe some other odds and ends too. If you have suggestions, don’t be afraid to mention them! And if you want to join in, go to http://chocolatefordogs.com and sign up!
Catch you on the flip side.
–Matt
Writers Wanted!
ChocolateForDogs.com is now live! We’re looking for writers — all backgrounds and genres — ready to send their content! It’s a great way for you to help build your readership if you’re an existing author, and a great way to get started if you like to write and just haven’t done anything with it.
And seriously, I do mean anything — one of the upcoming submissions is details of a dream! I’m going to be adding software development tutorials once I get things leveled out a little bit, and I’m going to be adding some of my short stories too. What can you add?
Registration
For right now, we’re having a two-step registration process for authors. The first is “regular” registration, for the site in general. In the second step, available once you’ve registered, you’ll submit information about you as a writer — this will be used to build your Author bio page. I’ll review that information, create your bio page, and give you author access. Then you’ll be able to submit your content!
Submissions
To make sure people are just submitting random junk (read: spam), the submission process is slightly different from what you might expect. You upload your submission — plain text, rich text (RTF), or MS Word format — and I’ll review it. I do some copy editing and maybe make some suggestions about the submission — you can take those as you wish (but I’ll try to be helpful, not just critical, and explain the suggestions as best as possible too). Then it’ll get posted to the site, and you can sit back and relax. Or work on your next one. (Or stress out about random stuff in general, if you’re anything like me…)
Now, I know there’s little content there right now. I know the site looks dull and boring. That’s because it’s only been open to the public for a day And I really need your help — it can be great, but not if it’s just me posting random junk up there (like this site, come to think of it…). So get in there — http://chocolatefordogs.com/ — look around, and start submitting!
–Matt
ChocolateForDogs.com Author Pre-Registration
Alright, for all you writers who are interested in building your readership with the new ChocolateForDogs.com website, check it out:
I added a pre-registration form for you to fill out. The site should be ready to launch sometime this week, and I’d like to get you set up and ready to go with it. I’m still working out the kinks — and probably will be for a while, I’m sure — but we can get you started and get some of your submissions ready to go when it launches.
Fill out the form, and I’ll get back to you ASAP. We’ll work out details like your bio, links, etc., and you can give me an idea of where your writing will belong (i.e. genre, category, whatever). In the beginning here, it’s gonna be a lot of “play-by-email” work while I’m getting things straightened out, just to give you a heads up. But we’ll work it out, and hopefully it won’t be too long before we’re able to automate most things.
Anyways, it’s late and I’m blabbering on, distracting you when you should be filling out the form. Catch you on the flip side.
–Matt
ChocolateForDogs.com Down to be Revamped
You may or may not know of my other site, chocolatefordogs.com. It is – or rather, was – where I’d post programming tutorials and tips.
Well, it’s done. With that, at least. There’s nothing there right now, but soon – hopefully within the next week – therell be a new site there where writers from all backgrounds, styles, genres, and formats can post their own content free of charge.
Right now I’m working out some of the main details – submission workflow and author access rights especially – but it should be moving along pretty well. To get something up and running, I’m going to be using “off-the-shelf” software. We’ll use that for a while, and see how it stands up to the task. When people start using it, there’s sure to be changes to make it easier and better; hopefully what I’m using can accommodate those easily enough. If not, then I’ll look into doing a custom site and see how that pans out.
And, FYI, the site will be completely free – no fees, at least to start with (and I don’t see any reason there will ever be a need to charge).
Keep your eyes on this site for updates!
–Matt
Calling All Writers!
I’m looking for all writers — fiction and non-fiction, all genres/areas of expertise. I’m in the process of starting up a new community site, and I’m looking to see who’s interested. It’s still in the planning stages right now — looking to get it up and running here in a week or so — but it’ll be one more place you can get your content out to the world and help build a readership! You’ll be able to submit your content of any kind, and we’ll edit it for you and work with you regarding the edits! You’ll get feedback on what needs to be changed (if anything!) and why, not just accepted (and possibly changed), or rejected with no reason. You’ll keep all the rights to your work, and we’ll take it down whenever you want it taken off.
If you’re interested, let me know, either via the comments here or by sending me an email at the address on the contact page. If you know someone who likes to write, send them along.
Gotta run — catch you on the flip side.
–Matt
Organizing Your Freelance Writing Projects
I’ve been trying to do basic freelancing for about a week now, just to get the hang of it. Already I’ve come to one conclusion: like any project, decent organization is the key to writing a successful article. Okay, maybe it’s not much of a mind blower, but it’s still true and it’s still something that I know a lot of people over look.
A lot of freelance writing jobs — the ones I’ve been working on, at least — are really small articles, normally less than 500 words. When you’ve been writing for a while, it’s easy to get arrogant and think “Hey, 500 words ain’t nothing; I can do this with my eyes closed.” Then you dive in. I got lucky with a few of the first articles I wrote; they were on topics I already knew inside and out, backwards and forwards and sideways. I thought I could keep going like that, but I quickly got in over my head.
Right now, most of my freelancing work is through DemandMedia (opens in a new window). They’re a content provider for several sites; the main ones I’ve been writing for are eHow and Answerbag (those both open in a new window too). They’ve got a decent back-end for writers: several formats to choose from, each with their own requirements, and a reasonable layout for organizing your articles in sections. The general site is pretty good, and, for the actual act of writing, it gets the job done. But this article is talking about organizing your freelance article before you start writing it.
What You Need
There’s really only two tools you’ll need for this, and they’re pretty easy to come by: a pen and a set of index cards. Yeah, I know, we live in the digital age, and everything needs to be online or at least on a computer. Here’s why I prefer the old fashioned route for this:
- Portability. Yes, I have a laptop, and I have a Motorola Droid, so I can do a lot of this anywhere. But if I drop an index card, I can pick it back up, dust it off and not worry about it. If I drop my phone, I’m out a lot more money than I really care to lose right now. Also, index cards don’t need to be charged, and they don’t need an internet connection.
- Freedom. Personally, I like the ability to write free-form. I can add a note off to the side of an index card much easier than trying to add and format a new line on a computer program. I can scribble, doodle, scratch things out and mark them as okay later, so on and so forth.
- Price. You just can’t beat it. For less than ten bucks you can get enough pens and index cards to last you quite a long time. For the price of a cheap laptop, you can kill a forest. Not that you should, or anything, but…
- Quick Switching. If you have a lot of projects you’re working on (and if you’re trying to make a living as a freelance writer, you should), you’ll want to go back and forth between your notes sometimes without really losing your place in one project. For example, if you’re outlining an article on hybrid cars, you may come up with an idea for your article on the future of corn farms. Going back and forth with notes in a computer is (for me at least) a little more tedious than switching an index card.
The main reason I suggest index cards over a full notebook or letter-sized paper is explicitly for the size. To start with, at least, we’re looking at just getting rough ideas lined up, not going into too much detail. One sentence, maybe two max. But I’m getting ahead of myself, so let’s fix that right now.
Planning Your Article’s Sections
I’m assuming that you have at least one assignment to work on (hopefully lots of assignments, and if that’s the case, congratulations ). You already know the topic, and maybe you already have a title to build from — that’s how DemandMedia works: you’re given a title to write an article for. If you don’t have a title yet, no worries. Come up with something to identify the project. Maybe the subject and style of the article — “List Five Types of Alternative Energy Sources” — or maybe just something random. When I started Like Glass, I named the project “Cyan” just because I needed something to refer to it by. No real reason for the choice, just a random word. Put that at the top of your index card.
From your title or subject, you probably already have a few key points you want to cover. List those under neath your title, one to a line, and you probably want to indent them a little too — that will allow you to number them for ordering, or renumber them, or mark them however you feel necessary.
Now look through your list. Do those points cover the topic in question? For the example topic of the alternative energy sources, I can come up with four off hand — wind, solar, water, and bio-fuels. I’ll need to come up with another one, but that’s okay. I can move on to other index cards — other projects — for now if I’m stuck, and come back to it later, or I can go online and do a quick Google search and finish it up now. Either way, it doesn’t matter, just as long as we get them filled out before we submit the article. Each of these are your article’s sections. They may not be formally defined as such in your finished product, but these are the areas you’ll need to flesh out.
Fleshing Out The Sections
Once you’ve gotten your key points outline, now you can delve into fleshing them out. There’s a couple of ways you can do this, depending on how comfortable and familiar you are with the topic. If you’re really familiar with the subject, you can probably get past this part fairly easily just going the seat-of-the-pants route. Even if you are though, you might want to give this a try anyways just to see if it helps.
The tip? Same thing, basically: take your key point, and make that your subject/title. Then add more key points — or sub points, if you’d rather. I know, a little anti-climatic, huh? But by organizing your article this way, you keep yourself focused on the relevant details of the article and not the additional fluff that finds its way into a lot of free-form writing efforts.
Of course, if you’re comfortable enough to start writing from here on out, by all means do so. If not, you can keep going to whatever depth you want — just turn a key point into your title and add sub points to it. If you start getting a little far along in this process though, you’ll probably want to compile all of your notes into a full-fledged outline document. Of course, this takes away the benefits of using index cards, but at that stage your project is no longer a 500-word article anyways, so you’ll need bigger guns.
Incorporating Research
Another benefit of organizing your article in this manner is that it makes it really easy to associate your research sources with your key points. You can handle this two ways, depending on which is easier for you and which suits the size of your project better.
- Direct Reference. This is pretty simple — just add the reference information directly below the key point. This is good for smaller projects that aren’t going to use a lot of references, or if you’re positive you’re only going to use a reference once.
- “Referenced” References. This is useful if you’re using the same reference frequently, or you have either a lot of points or a lot of references and you don’t want to get caught up in writing each reference with each point. Still pretty simple: write your references on separate index cards, and refer to them next to your points. Easy way is to number the references, then mark the point with the number. If you have a lot of references, you’ll probably want to group them somehow to keep the references organized as well. Try to keep it simple though, or else you’ll spend more time working on organizing the references than you’ll spend organizing (and writing) your article.
Productive writing is difficult to get started, but getting organized is the first key to getting productive. Is this the only way to do it? Of course not. It’s probably not even the best. But it’s working decently for me. Give it a shot if you’re having a hard time keeping your freelance writing projects organized, and see what happens. You can always build off of it, change it, or scrap it and move on to something else.
Feedback
I want to hear back from you. What works for you? Have you tried this method before? What hasn’t worked for you? Any thoughts, comments, questions, suggestions, etc. are more than welcome — don’t be shy!
Catch you on the flip side.
–Matt
Freelancing for Sanity
Well, it’s mid-June in El Paso, which means one thing: it’s hot. Plain and simple. I’m sitting in the shade on my lunch break, and it’s just miserable. Sure, I could go back inside where it’s slightly air conditioned, but I’d miss out on my only chance to smoke during the work day.
Anyways…
Yesterday I spent some time looking into finding freelance writing gigs, and it was a lot more difficult than I expected. I did find a couple of sites that seemed reasonable and signed up with both of them; we’ll see what happens.
There’s two reasons I’m trying to get into freelancing, and they’re vaguely related in the “if you squint really hard you’ll see what I mean” kind of way. The first is obvious – I’m terrible at “regular” jobs. You know the kind I mean: get up, get dressed, go to the office, put up with crap all day, come home so you can rest enough to do it all again the next day. I’ve never been any good at that, plain and simple. I always start a new job gung ho, ready to take on the world, and before long something inevitably happens that knocks the wind out of me.
Along with such jobs comes the mental (and physical) energy expenditures. That leaves me bone dry, and most companies – all the ones I’ve worked for anyways – frown upon taking time to rest yourself unless it falls outside of the hours they decide you’re going to work. Makes sense, and I can’t argue with it, but it doesn’t work well for me.
The lack of mental recuperation (and therefore energy) leaves me pretty much useless when it comes to doing the stuff I love. Writing, spending time with my wife, music, anything. The first two are most important to me at this time (not in that order; my wife’s happiness is far more important, but that’s a topic for another time), and those two are the ones that suffer the most.
Aside from addressing the mental drain, there’s a much more practical reason. I’ll be able to (hopefully) support my family by doing something that can only help improve my writing abilities, and that in turn could lead to better (and therefore more profitable – let’s not gild the lily here) artistic pursuits, like novels and stories.
Will I make a fortune with it? Probably not. But it’ll be a foot in the door and it could very well get me out of the computer industry. Right now that’s definitely a major consideration as well.
Anyways, I need to get back to chain smoking for the duration of my lunch hour. Catch you on the flip side.
–Matt
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