Where have I been?

Summer is in full effect for me right now. That means more time outside with the family and going places just for the hell of it. Little time is being devoted to things like writing. I’m still working away on some things but I have no self imposed deadlines.
Once school goes back, I plan to gear up with a few projects and get into a better routine.
Till then…

Yawn!

I think my biggest challenges right now is time management.With my everyday job I am a slave to shift work. Not the most glorious ways to make a living but as they say, it pays the bills. The shifts I work are twelve hours long. It makes for a long day. I end up working less days. Unfortunately on those days there is little time for anything else. I end up spending a good amount of my days off catching up on the things I have neglected to take care of while at work. Less time to pursue things like writing. It also hinders my ability to write on a daily basis.

So what do I do?

That’s a question I have been working on this past month. I don’t think I am any closer to solveing the problem. Anyone have any ideas?

Sunday Update #1

Yes I know it is Tuesday. But it was a holiday here in Canada so I can be a day or two late with this post. The law says so. It’s in the books somewhere.

In an effort to get the ball rolling I thought it would be wise to review my college Journalism notes. With trends moving toward online from print, I was wondering how relevant my old notes are. It has me thinking that maybe I should take a few refresher courses. It couldn’t hurt.

In the meantime I have been reading  job postings looking for gigs that would fit into my schedule. I want to avoid spreding myself to thin. Over the next week I’m going to work on a few items to update my portfolio and have writing samples that are current. I’m in no hurry at the moment. Just plugging away and things will start to fall into place.

Time to get out my recycling bin.

In an effort to get this blog rolling I have been brain storming like mad. I have bits of paper filled with items, a moleskine notebook with pages and pages of ideas, and I think I should go through that pile of papers in the corner of my desk. I know there are some ideas I jotted down in there somewhere. And then it came to me.

I have no idea where to go with this.

A friend of mine had a look at my first two posts and said “meh”. Well, not really. But he pointed out that It was all over the place with no real agenda. One of the things I want to avoid. That got me thinking about a mission statement. But that seems a little formal for something like this. Then I remembered Problogger. This guy makes about a trillion dollars a month with his blogs. Well not quite, but its still a good chunk of change. He recently started a workshop called 31 days to a better blog.

The first task was to Write An Elvevator Pitch for Your Blog. Which seems to be an exercise that I should try out. It simply makes you figure out a way to explain what you are doing and who you are doing it for. If you think about it those are two factors that you need to keep in mind writing for any publication. A writer needs to always be mindful of his audience and the style of the publication or the piece will fail. Having clear idea of who your writing for helps you create a story that is relevant to your reader.

Elevator Pitch Short Version:

To chronicle my experiences and challenges becoming a full-time freelance writer.

Long Version:

In order to help develop a daily writing routine, I am chronicling my efforts about the challenges I encounter and the insights I gain while I work toward freelancing full time. It is a place that I will gather and share resources that I believe will  be helpful for writers looking to leave the 9 to 5 world. I am not an expert but a writer who believes that sharing information with peers leads to a better understanding of the language we love and provides a sense of community to a group of people that practice the solitary creation of writing.

I like TED

I have been enjoying the TED website for a few years now. I really enjoyed this talk.

Elizabeth Gilbert On Genius

What am I Waiting For?

Over the past few weeks I have been debating over a number of ideas for this blog. I despise blogs that seem to be no more then collections of random posts will no thought to theme, audience or outcome. I also hate blogs from so called experts. Just because you work-out or mess around with cars on your spare time does not make you a well of knowledge that we need to be graced with.

Saying that, I have an idea what I don’t want this blog to be about. That still leaves the question-

” What the hell am I going to write about?”

That has been my stumbling point this past month. Actually, its been more like ten years. I’m an indecisive person. If I can’t nail down exactly what I want, I won’t bother. My biggest issue is the fear of messing things up. I hate making mistakes. If I mess things up I walk away. Rarely do I try to fix the issue. In my head I make it too difficult or embarrassing. If I plan to start freelancing again I need to get over these habits.

And that leaves me here. A place I am going to experiment, play with and have fun with. I have a rough idea were this blog is going. If I wait to come up with a solid mission I’ll never get started. So I will write and edit and delete if necessary. I will make huge mistakes, embarrass myself and learn the whole time.

Help is On the Way!!

Stay tuned to this space for ….. ?