Under the heading of Cool Writerly News….
A friend of mine has a short story coming out in the most recent issue of On Spec.
Another friend of mine is working her way, word by word towards the completion of her NaNo goal!
Yet another friend of mine is good at reminding me of the simple joys in life.
Another friend is juggling family, school, and NaNo with Lucille Ball-like aplomb and I admire her for it.
I am still out there seeking writerly work. I can’t seem to settle down on my most recent of projects, so I’m sending out feelers for revenue enhancing work. I checked out a book on how to write proposals for grants. I’m going to research classes on that.
I think I am restless because I want to know there is a real paycheck coming in. And while there is money coming in now, it’s not going to be enough to cover everything and it’s making me nervous. But what is coming in is as much or a little more than what I would be making at a minimum wage job and I get to write and look for the right job in the mean time.
I called my sister for a booster shot of encouragement today because I keep hearing from people “why don’t you work at Borders for Christmas or Starbucks or …”. I am not twenty years anymore. I am NOT anybody’s secretary, receptionist, bookshelver, administrative assistant, or barista. And at this point if I was, I’d scream at someone and blow it in a week, because I don’t have that kind of patience anymore. I am a professional writer, copy editor, and proofreader. I am 43 years old and I’ve been at it for almost a decade at least. That’s my profession. That’s what I want to do and it’s what I’ve wanted to do all my life. Maybe I can’t write fiction for a living (yet), but I can write research content, book and movie reviews, technical documents, grants, resumes, cover letters and other copy for a living, as well as edit and proof for other people for a living. And it is up to me to take this chance I’ve been given and honor it and not piss it away on just one more deadend retail job. So there.
So, today, I made myself do all those hard things I’ve been putting off (calling credit card companies to make arrangements, sending out “cold call” resumes to places that aren’t necessarily looking for freelance writers or proofreaders yet, but might look at my resume anyway, speaking with government agencies about this, that and the other - you know - the hard stuff). Also made my cranberry relish for the upcoming Thanksgiving Day feast.
Tomorrow I have errands to run and appointments to go to, and then maybe I’ll feel settled and ready to tackle this last writing project. Looking over my most recent goals and objectives list, I realize that just in this last week I have met at least one of my writing goals as well as other goals in my life.
After Thanksgiving, Christmas will be coming down out of the cupboards and then you get to hear about that adventure.
So, that is my cool writerly news of the week.
(Oh, and I’m crossposting this in several different places as well.)
1 comment:
Continued good luck. I know what you mean about not having the patience anymore. I never had a huge helping of it, but what I did have has leached away over the years in the face of repeated whining from students.
Post a Comment