When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Writing

You may wonder at the title but the fact of the matter is life does get tough and sometimes the only response is to write. Writing can help us through the bad patches even if that writing is just a moan about things not going as we had planned. 

On a brighter note it is good when friends recognize something that you have done and leave you a great comment. The other thing that I have found is that writing through the tough times can often add power to your writing and that in its turn makes you write more because the writing is good.

The Freelance Writer’s Life

Freelance writing is a great way of earning a living but sometimes the project is tough, i.e. fifty articles on the same subject. When this happens most freelancers procrastinate by reading other people’s blogs or by updating their own. While this does need doing it can also be an excuse for working on creative stuff rather than getting on with the job.

It is very easy to think that you have more time than is really available and unless you discipline yourself to work through the bad and boring times in the same way as you do the enjoyable times then you won’t earn very much. This is a sad fact of the freelance writer’s life.

Freelance Writing Updates

Writing Blues

These last few days I really have had the freelance writing blues, this past week in fact. Life is not always kind to the working writer and I still haven’t signed up to nanowrimo as a result. Due to these problems I have spent the last few days catching up on work that was corrupted/couldn’t be opened/couldn’t do. I am now beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel – hopefully this means I will also be able to catch up on all my blogs.

Professional Writing and Research

Professional Writing

Professional writing or freelance writing has been a big part of my life this last year, largely thanks to people like Sharon Hurley Hall, Gracepub and Dana. Like so many freelancers on the net I write webcontent as well as other writing assignments that come along.In the last few weeks I have been busy setting up a website for freelance writing and research but because I am new at this it is taking quite a while. I’ve also had a number of computer problems this last week or so that have interfered with my work at all levels.

Research

Some of my work involves contract research for different organizations, including early years providers and Local Government offices. With reports on including Black and Minority Ethnic Groups in the Childcare Workforce and Faith and Young People’s Substance Misuse respectively. My latest project is being undertaken in partnership with my son’s graphic design business and the Hub agency. So things can get quite interesting.

At a more personal level I teach a creative writing course and along with others contribute to the forums and topics at inspired author a site with free resources for writers. I have an ongoing interest in issues of domestic violence as I wrote my thesis in that area. Domestic violence is also a central element in the plot of the thriller I am writing entitled “Two Women A Week”.
 

News Flash: Insanity or what

News and news flashes are becoming increasingly bizarre. They are a window on the contemporary world which seems to be dissolving into insanity.

On the lunchtime news here in Britain a woman drug addict has been jailed for nine years. Her crime, feeding her young son heroin and crack cocaine from the age of nine! How crazy is it getting out there?

Life, Love and Laptops

You may be wondering what life, love and laptops might have in common. Well the fact of the matter is that laptops have a habit of taking over one’s life. You sort of sit at it and sit at it. Hoping that what you write will be read and appreciated by someone.

Allowing a laptop to take over your life in this way can seriously affect your relationship with the one you love. You are always too busy to go out. Or he wants to talk just when you’re trying to write. So now you get the picture. If you write for a living, or even just for pleasure. Laptops can come to rule your days and spoil your love life.

Technorati

Technorati is a site where you can register your blog. The site has a system that you ping when you’ve updated your blog. It can bring a lot more traffic to your site because of its search facilities check it out.

Woman’s World

It seems to me that whenever I sit down to write, somebody, somewhere, wants something. If the phone rings I’m supposed to pick it up. Writing, whether it’s having a moan, working on a story, or a chapter of your novel (I wish I haven’t touched mine in aeons), or finishing off a report is not seen as important by those around you. That goes double if you are of the female persuasion.

As a person of this persuasion, I live in a woman’s world, which means that any writing time I am able to find is seen as invadeable. Grown up kids want to stop by and chat. My husband wants to speak about something important, and the dog wants his stomach rubbed.

I have tried writing into the night with a glass of wine, but the wine makes me waffle and whine when I’m tired, and interuppted by calls of “when are you coming up”. Is this everyone’s experience, or does it only happen in a woman’s world?