Home Posts tagged "freelancing"

Tag: freelancing

I’m not writing this at 12:30a.m., noooo

We’ll just pretend it’s 12 noon because it is technically 12 noon somewhere, right? Le sigh. I didn’t forget this time, honest. Today just…grew legs and walked away from me. Let’s see. I had a dentist appointment at 11a.m. But see, I’d gotten to bed late (truthfully speaking, super late) the night before because work is madness right now (and so is my sleep disorder) so I ended up sleeping in a bit but still getting to the appointment on time. Yay me! Usual stuff there — no cavities, thank God, and I was back home. Worked a bit, then had to take our cat Hailey to the vet for fluids at 3p.m. A bit of a wait there. Not our usual time, since we usually go at 12 noon, but the dentist appointment required an adjustment. So got home, very quickly messaged a client about a few things that needed doing, put together a newsletter for her that needed to go out today, hubby came home, had dinner (leftover tacos, yummy), gave the cat her medication, worked a bit more, found out I didn’t have Esperanto today as my study partner had a power outage… Settled in to work on an editing job, a fun one, actually and…soon it was late. Very late. Oops. So here we are. Sometimes my days are like that. Rushing around, doing this, doing that. Sometimes I’m doing newsletter swaps, a type of free promotion, and because I do them in batches, usually I…

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Searching for Consistency in Chaos

Yeah, that’s basically been my life for…gosh…since August of last year? Not counting COVID, just business stuff, now. Somehow the editing part of my business exploded and I started getting jobs way more frequently than usual…one after the other. While this was totally awesome and lucrative, it required some adjusting — from the way I structured my workday to the way I scheduled each and every job. And, for the most part, it hasn’t really let up since. Which is awesome. And a bit rough. And then we also have COVID in there, and the usual life stuff, and my health crap and and and… So things have been seriously off kilter for awhile. So much that I haven’t written in months. One of my editing clients, who I routinely talk shop with, asked me the other day how the writing was coming along and I had to honestly tell him that I’d written 181 words in January and that was it for the year so far. And some poetry. And in years past I’d written every single day. My least prolific year back then was around 86,000 words, back when I spent a bit more time editing than drafting. My most prolific year? 399,000 words. Four standard novels, folks. But back then I had 9-to-5 day job. I came home, ate dinner, and wrote. Rinse and repeat. For years. It was not only a routine, but a comfort. I knew I could always go into my worlds and play.…

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No Fluff, Just Stuff.

I’ve been struggling with finding a subject for today’s post, and I still don’t have one. I didn’t want to wait too long, because given the way my brain has been lately, I’d probably forget to post. And I did that recently, and I didn’t notice until the following month, and I felt like a Bad Writer for forgetting to post her monthly blog. So. I could talk about COVID-19. We’re in the second wave here in Michigan, and our governor/health department just scaled us back again. We’re not on full lockdown yet, but that is coming if things don’t improve. Our case numbers are higher than they were in March when we had our first lockdown. People aren’t masking up or following protocols and it’s hurting everyone. Today when we went to the vet to get our cat fluids, we saw an older man approach the vet doors without a mask on. I approached, keeping my distance (because that’s what you’re supposed to do), and he took off. I think he felt my dirty look through my mask, or maybe my fury was coming off me in waves. Or maybe he had to leave. I dunno. But I was relieved because I didn’t want to be anywhere near him. And that sucks. We’ve been reduced to running away from our fellow man because he or she might be infected and we do not want to get sick. Never dreamed I’d ever be doing that in my lifetime. It feels…

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Looking Ahead and Behind

So, it’s 2020. A new year. A new decade. Let’s see what I was doing in 2010: ~I launched Turtleduck Press with Siri Paulson, KD Sarge, and Kit Campbell. With that launch, I published my first poetry chapbook, Life as a Moving Target. It was my first publication, apart from poetry in literary magazines, ever. ~I had entered into my nth draft of Pirouette (now titled Death Dancer), hoping that this time it will be ready for a literary agent. This is before self publishing took over, and I ended up setting it aside on the advice of my writer friends who felt I was too wrapped up in revisions. I ended up writing Fey Touched instead (and published that in 2012).~I started writing an odd, supernatural thriller thing that to this day is still waiting to be finished. I’m close. It is important because of how the idea came to me, and how the story has warped and changed over time. It is also a new genre that’s a bit out of my comfort zone, but that’s a good thing.~I had been married for one year, yay! And we’re still going strong. ~I had three foot surgeries, the most recent this past March. I am hoping that’s the end of ALL surgeries for awhile. So, pretty major stuff going on. In the decade, I’d release another poetry chapbook, four novels, a novelette, a flash fiction collection, and a nonfiction book. Unfortunately, none of it is Pirouette or the supernatural…

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I am a horrible boss

This year has been crazy for me. I had surgery on my right foot in March and then had months of rehab. I started having severely painful headaches and discovered that I had a pinched nerve in my neck, and by the way, I have several herniated discs in my neck as well. I’ve expanded my freelance business again. I’ve been trying to stay organized and efficient through all of this, and I think I might have succeeded except…my writing had to be put aside. I didn’t take this decision lightly. Anyone who’s known me for awhile knows that I usually write every day. I am always trying to reach a goal — a completed novel draft, complete a revision of a novel, or maybe an edit — and I work like hell to make it. I’ve always been this way. One of my main goals for the future was to publish at least one book a year, maybe even two if I could manage it. This was before my health got dicey again and I had a lot less time and energy to devote to it. I did start transitioning to dictation again, mostly to speed up the process, and I’m still working out the kinks. I had a deadline for Reaper Girl #3, The Vanishing. January 1st. Which would have been doable…had I had time to finish the draft and revise. I need at least three weeks minimum and that’s pushing it. My drafts change significantly in revision,…

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5 Lessons I’ve Learned From Freelancing

I recently hit the year anniversary of my layoff, July 28th. I was sitting in the dentist chair and I remembered how scared I was that my life was changing in a major way. I no longer had a job, a job I’d had for the past sixteen years. I grew up there—I was just twenty-five when I was hired. I was forty-one when I was laid off. So, if you’ve been reading this blog for awhile, you’ll know that I made the decision to work from home. Freelance editing and virtual assisting were my two main niches. I am now looking at freelance writing as a possibility, too. So what have I learned this past year? #1 Fear is a part of the process. There’s no way around it. It’s a huge change. I’ve spent hours just looking for clients with the ever-present threat of not having enough money to pay our bills. I’m happy to report that that has not happened yet. But the fear is real. Just not going to an office was an adjustment, too. Most people say we’re lucky. And we are. But after twenty years in office work, I literally had to relearn how to work. There are always distractions and things I never thought about because I wasn’t home. Now, things are different. Not bad. Just different. I was scared that I’d never be able to make the transition. That I was so hard-wired for office work that my brain wouldn’t be able…

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