I Made a Task List

After a very relaxing day watching Season 5 of Buffy, and realising how obsessed I'm getting with it, I decided to write up a small task list. Four things on it, including this blog post.

I figured it was about time I did some work, even if the work is about the same sort of stuff I normally do. The first item on the list was to deliver on a Fiverr gig. There's a timer on it, and it's made me a tiny bit of money, so I figured it needed a priority spot. It was also one I knew I could do in less than an hour, which is a plus.

After that, I had to type some poems. I'm submitting a bunch to a magazine/journal tomorrow, but a few of those hadn't been typed up. It's a necessary, albeit boring, aspect of submitting that could - in theory - be eliminated if I typed all my poems in their writing, instead of hand-writing them. Oddly, though, I feel much more comfortable writing poetry by hand. The words come out easier.

The opposite is true when I'm writing fiction. I think that's because I like to know how much I've written in terms of a word count. With poems, I can judge the length just by looking at it on the page. That doesn't always stop me writing a long poem, but it does make it easier to figure out how long of a poem I'm writing, and I can make a judgement call on it then.

Anyway, I'm currently on number three on the list. After I write this post, I have to address a task sheet I was working on months ago but never got back to because of exams. I'm thinking it'll be an ebook, and released soon if it is, so that'll be fun. I love these little projects once they get going.

The productivity is fun, though. I like being able to work like this, and feeling like I'm actually accomplishing something. (I even wrote little things beside the already completed tasks as motivational and celebratory cheering.) It's the sort of feeling I've needed for a while, now.

That said, I did enjoy relaxing a lot. I think I'll keep that up in the future. I need to balance work, R&R and socialising (even with my family), and I'm on the way to making that work. I still need to work out the kinks, but I'm getting to the point of being "normal" without giving up anything I'm passionate about. (So, instead of spending all my time watching Buffy and reading comic books, I'm also spending time talking to my family and doing work. Yay me and my weird-but-normal life!)

Anyway, coming up to 11pm, and I need to write a Thing for the task sheet. Hurray for a couple of productive hours!

How Did FUFDay Go?

On the second time around, Face Up to Fear Day was less successful. However, that said, I forced myself to do a couple of things.

The big one was to record a poem for my YouTube channel that'll serve as an introduction to who I am. I figure that was something I should probably do, even if it meant having to put my face out there again, and try to figure out what to say. Since I plan on putting up a fair bit of poetry on the channel, I figured it was a good idea for a video. You can watch it below.

I still cringe at how up close it is, and how poor the quality of the camera is. One day, I'll be able to replace my set up.

Incidentally, the other bit of work I did today was to write the copy for a couple of gigs for Fiverr (which has just updated its model, so not everything is $5.) I'll be launching both gigs (as they were called the last time I checked) tomorrow, and I'll probably have to create a web-page to support them both on my website, as a way of driving traffic to them in some way.

I've avoided doing it in the past, for all the usual reasons, but I think I'm finally ready to do it. Plus, with my current working situation, I have plenty of time to address this sort of stuff.

While I didn't get to do everything on my list (again), I think the last-minute work I did tonight (after a less-than-exciting day) has paid off towards something. In the spirit of the day, I'll keep on working tomorrow. That's the point, after all. I'm supposed to be doing these things all the time, and for whatever reason, I haven't been able to of late.

Tomorrow's another chance to get things right. I wonder how many super exciting things I can get done in the space of a few hours.

Ideally

Worked sucked today. I mean, there was nothing different about it, except that it was unusually hot out. I just didn't want to be there. It's not the first time that's happened, mind you. Every time, it makes me think about what I'd prefer to be doing.

I think you know where this is going: I'd prefer to be writing for at least the money I'm on in the shop. I think the key words there being "at least". I'm not exactly earning a huge amount each week in that shop, even when I work the bank holiday. It's definitely not enough to move out of my parents' house on.

This is where I spend a lot of time planning, how to actually follow through on my dream to write for a living. Being a novelist isn't exactly the gold-mine that a lot of people think it is (and by that, I mean if you have a traditional publishing deal!). So, I'm focusing on a couple of different areas:

- Freelancing. I've been putting it off. Fear of rejection, etc. etc. You know, the usual crap that stops people doing things they actually want to do. However, if I get past that fear and get into freelancing and receive anything close to what I did for my Writing Magazine article (publishing back in the October issue), four articles per month would be worth more to me than my job right now.

- Publishing. It's a ball that's been rolling for a while, but it's really picking up this summer. However, as with all things writing, there's going to be a fair amount of uncertainty around it for a long time. I won't have an average earnings report (for myself) until about six months of publishing a higher volume of titles. All I know is, I need to sell a fair few books each month to match my income from the bookshop.

- Fiverr. I'm tempted to get really serious about a couple of ideas there. I know I can do a couple of things quickly enough that charging $5 for them won't kill me. If I did it for even a little while moderately successfully, I'll be earning a happy little income.

- Submissions. Less certain than anything else so far. I mean poety. I mean short stories. I mean novels. And editors are looking for the best of the best. It's not that I don't think I've written anything worth publishing. The problem, as is the problem for every capable writer, is in finding the editor who wants to publish what you've submitted.

- Advertising. I'm starting a couple of new blogs in the coming months, which will be ad-supported. At the same time, I'll be picking up on my YouTube channel (which now has ads enabled). It's an uncertain earner, but it could - in the long run - provide some sort of financial help.

The only other options I can see right now are getting into affiliate sales more seriously than ever before, or finding a new job. The latter's been on my mind for a long time, now. Almost six years in the same shop, working only weekends, wasn't so bad when I wasn't actually qualified for anything. While I don't plan on teaching for at least a year, I have to consider how to put my degree to use in other ways.

What it all comes down to, though, is making the job I have less...sucky. I think the fact that I'm dependent on the money and there's not much of it - or much responsibility in the job - is bringing me down. If I wasn't tied to this one place as my only source of income, I don't think it would bother me so much. And if I actually  took the chance to get into the sun while it was here, that wouldn't hurt, either.