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Dead of the Morning
Author: Jenn, Category: Work
Thought of the Day:
Jenn says 5am start times for work are awesome… or at least they would be if it meant getting to stop at one o’clock. No such luck today, so just awesome-ish.
I’ll Be Groggy in the Morning
Author: Jenn, Category: Work
I don’t know why exactly, but I’ve noticed that I seem to be up pretty late every Sunday evening, just like tonight (technically Monday morning by now). I’m not up just goofing off. I’m not up relaxing before a hectic work week.
I’m up, because I’ve spent the last 3 - 4 hours working.
I think I just have an aversion to busy Mondays. Can you blame me? Who wants to start a new week on a sour note with too much going on and not enough hours in the day?
So I tend to look at Monday’s work list Sunday evening, and get as much of it out of the way as possible (it helps that I tend to work most productively in the early morning and very late evening hours).
Tonight I actually cleared up all of my “required” client projects scheduled for tomorrow. If I had done the same work tomorrow, it could have taken me twice as long (everything seems to take twice as long through the afternoon hours). The good thing is that I’m waiting on final details for a few small projects, so if that comes through tomorrow I’ll be able to get on them right away. I also have a few larger projects (both for clients and for myself) that I’ll now have some unplanned time to devote to tomorrow.
I’d consider doing this every day if I didn’t need my evenings for my own non-work-related projects.
I suppose I should eventually try to sleep.
In Search of the Perfect Title
Author: Jenn, Category: Work
We all have our quirks. One of mine is that I can’t write anything without first having a title.
I’m like that with e-books, the books I’m working on, blog posts, and today I’m having that issue with a white paper I’m starting on for my business.
Now, I don’t always keep my working title for the end product, but I must have one, or I can’t make progress. I don’t know why that is, but it’s a habit I’d love to break.
Today, for instance, I know the material I need to outline for the white paper and know who I need to contact for interviews. Yet I can’t bring myself to do it until I have that title just right.
Anyone else have this issue? Or better yet, share some of your own “odd” work-related (or non-work-related) quirks. Make me feel a bit less silly today. 
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Sidenote - Even for this blog post I had to have a title before writing - and then I went back in and changed it - why must I commit to one from the start? *sigh*
Beggin for Love in the Blogosphere
Author: Jenn, Category: Work
It seems it’s time for nominations to Michael Stelzner’s list of the “top ten blogs for writers.” This stuff always makes me cringe.
Let me preface the bitching with this:
I love Stelzner to bits. He’s one of very few people I ever defended over at NakedPR.com after a little incident of comment censorship. Looking back at that post (where you’ll find my disdain of top ten blog lists is nothing new), I suppose this post is my “choosing to cast stones later.”
On to business…
In this post I’m not going to rip into Michael (What can I say? The guy got lucky again!). Instead, I’m going to rip into all of the little me-me-me BS posts coming from the bloggers in the writing niche (one that I’m very active in myself, so I take it personally when I see otherwise decent bloggers slumming it up).
What royally pisses me off is when these “nominate your favorite blah f*ity blah” things come up, and bloggers in the niche (big and small) start coming right out and asking their readers to nominate them.
IT’S PATHETIC!!!!!!!
The funny thing is that most of the ones doing it that I’ve seen already don’t need to! But it’s like a game - since so many of them share the same reader base it’s a matter of who can whore themselves out with the “Look at me! Look at me!” crap to the most eyes before anyone else (since readers can only nominate one blog).
I don’t know. I’m so annoyed by the behavior from folks I actually respect - no, I’m disgusted - that I can’t even rant properly anymore - probably because this is right on the heels of the most ass-backwards bullshit PRWeek blog competition. In that case, I lost respect for someone I was finally starting to appreciate (he’s back on my industry shit list for now), gained more respect for someone I’ve loved in the industry since college, and was at least thoroughly amused by the self-promotion and false modesty of two of the worst drunkards in the PR blog party. But that my friends is not for here and now (god I miss my PR blog).
If you want to know more about my thoughts on rankings, you can read more about the various types that I’ve ripped to shreds (or at least poked some holes in with a blunt object) here:
- Blog Censorship: Where do You Draw the Line?
- Social Media Index is a Joke
- Alexa and the Power 150: What are they Thinking?
Things like this make me feel like the entire blogosphere really just deserves to implode. I think all the inflated egos kill any shot of that happening.
And I thought the politicians were bad….
I love storms. I mean I really love storms. I love watching them. I love hearing them. I love the “feeling” in the air during a good one. But really - it’s starting to become a bit much.
I blame myself. Last year I complained about not getting enough (we had plenty of rain; just not a lot of storms). Now, this summer, we’re getting slammed left and right by some pretty vicious little buggers.
When the skies are gray, I actually work more productively - something to do with it always looking like the early morning hours I imagine. But unfortunately, when the weather gets bad enough, I have to shut things down (I’ve fried multiple hard drives here during weather like this, even with surge protectors, so I err on the side of caution these days).
I thought Mother Nature got it all out of her system over the weekend. Apparently not. More rumblings. More lightning strikes. Oddly enough no rain yet.
Well, at least it’s better than the disgustingly hot and humid weather we had just a few weeks ago.
On that note, off to get some “real” work done before I have to shut things down for a bit.
I’ll tell you when a long weekend isn’t such a good thing:
- When it’s unexpectedly forced on you, so you don’t have time to make plans to enjoy it.
- When you wake up one morning during that long weekend to crippling back pain that lasts for days.
- When you find out more than one instant messenger account of yours was hacked.
- When you get emails from your Web host threatening account suspension, when even they can’t really figure out what the problem is.
I could go on. I’ve been “off” of work since Thursday, and won’t be back to normal until Tuesday. This is because we had some incredibly nasty storms on Wednesday afternoon and evening (not terribly common for my area, although these past few months we’ve been hit unusually hard).
The storm led to some not-so-mild leaking in my office area - above where I sit (as in a trampoline-sized water spot over my head) and over a section of my desk where I tend to keep my notes and files for projects I’m working on. I’m just thankful I caught the leak in that area quickly enough to move files before much was damaged.
So I took off of work Thursday to clean up some of the mess and start moving some of my office stuff - also thinking the maintenance guys would be in to take a look at things. They weren’t able to actually do anything that day, so I was told they’d be back Friday. A guy came Friday, and I had to take off due to them having to fix the ceiling interior (the fumes of the sealant they use overpower the whole place and made me violently ill (sorry for the image) this past spring when they had an issue in the exact same area.
Well, they fixed the ceiling, but weren’t able to go up on the roof - they’re supposed to do that Monday. Well, that would have been OK had a nice weekend been planned. But no - Saturday night and then again Sunday we had more crazy-assed storms. So I had more leaking in the area (yes, the area that they just fixed). I had to have a maintenance guy called in on his day off (yeah, I felt bad about it) to have them put a drip pan in the little attic area to at least stop more water from getting into my apartment. They’re still going to fix the roof on Monday, and they’ll now have to re-fix the ceiling, which means I’m off of work on Monday as well, again due to the fumes that will keep me out of here for several hours. Lovely.
I’m not blaming the maintenance guys or anything. And I even love storms. But this just has me going a bit nuts. If I’m going to have a 5-day weekend, I wish it were planned in advance, so I could have spent it actually doing something. Instead I spent it in pain, relocating all of my office electronics to another room, and re-positionaling bowls, pots, and glasses to catch the water that’s so insistent about getting into my apartment.
I won’t even get into the other drama of the last few days. It’s all working itself out (except for my hacked AIM accounts, but ranting about AOL’s lack of customer service and apparent support of identity theft would take far more energy than I’m willing to expend right now).
Update: My ceiling is finally relatively “fixed,” they claim to have found and fixed the leak up on the roof finally, my back’s doing much better, I was able to recover one of the hacked accounts, and my host fixed the issue I was having with them, even apologizing saying it was a mistake on their end. So joyous day. We have a happy Jenn again.
Pouring a rum and coke or two - or three. Lying back in bed, reminiscing about loves lost with a combination of sappy love songs and those empowering female anthems playing in the background while you occasionally belt out the tunes at the top of your lungs. Sounds depressing, right? Or perhaps more pathetic? That’s how I would summarize my last few evenings.
No. I didn’t recently go through a breakup. I’d need a new boyfriend first for that. Instead, I’m working.
I’ve been repeatedly forcing myself into my past - past boyfriends and the corresponding breakups, all for the good of a novel I’m working on.
The working title of the book isThree Weeks. Ironically, it’s a comedy.
The book deals with a character not terribly unlike myself - nearing 30, and progressively more tormented by the thought of dealing with that all-too-common stigma on single women over 30 (I don’t care what those “40 is the new 30″ folks are saying just to make themselves feel younger - it does still exist).
The novel is actually broken down into a series of 15 shorter stories (after the outlining, I’m expecting to drop a few - maybe 10 in the end), each detailing a past failed relationship. We’re not talking about long-term, serious beaus and we’re not talking about one-night stands. No. Jillian (the lead) is looking back on those more fleeting romances - realizing that most “went sour” in a revealing three-week period.
Whether the relationship ended after three weeks, or the three week mark was simply the point of no return, she realizes that’s her “magic number” - apparently all the staying power she has.
While progressing through the book she works to come to terms with her singledom while evaluating what she’s learned from those past relationships - what each of those three week periods (at least should have) taught her.
The structure of the book itself involves an introduction, and then a chapter for each relationship, broken down into five segments / scenes - how she met the guy, week one, week two, week three, and how the relationship ultimately ended. And of course we’ll have a closing section for the novel as a whole.
I’m currently outlining the novel (and I’m expecting to complete that by the end of this coming weekend - about a two-week outlining process). While I’m coming up with these relationship scenarios, I’m forcing myself to become Jillian by re-living my own past relationships in my mind - trying to recall the emotions most people would prefer to forget.
So for the sake of humour, I have to delve into the more depressing side of my past. I look at it this way - perhaps my exes will finally be good for something.
(Note: None of the male characters in the book are actually based on specific exes of my own - that would make for a far more boring story)
And now I’m off to ponder past boyfriends, good booze, and the lighter side of having your heart broken.
Helping the Seemingly Helpless
Author: Jenn, Category: Work
Today I want to talk about something that really rubs me the wrong way - people who ask for “help” when what they really want is for you to give them a complete blueprint for success, or some step-by-step guide with guarantees. I’m talking about business today - specifically two types of people: those looking to become freelance writers and those looking to make money blogging.
I do both.
I write about both.
I give people tips on how they can successfully do both as well.
Still I get emails from people essentially saying they want to make a full-time income this way working from home, but have absolutely no idea where to start. Then they ask me to tell them how I do it.
Sometimes I feel for them. More often, it makes me want to scream. I used to try to help them. Now I generally just link them to one of my blogs and let them research everything I’ve already laid out there.
These folks frustrate the hell out of me, but they do get one thing right. At least they’re trying to learn - that’s much better than jumping into something like a new career while you’re clueless.
What they get wrong is that they expect someone to hold their hand through the process or tell them how to exactly replicate their own success.
What’s worse is that when I do tell people how to succeed at it (my blogs and such aren’t making me “rich” but I do very well - I’m working towards full-time blogging by the end of ‘09 if things keep going as planned). Here’s what I tell them:
- Choose a specialty or niche (both for freelancing and for blogging) based not only on what makes money now (as that always changes), but on what you know and won’t get sick of in a few weeks or months.
- Start researching the basics of getting yourself set up (for blogging that might mean getting a blog physically set up and hosted; for freelancing that might mean learning about the administrative duties you’ll be responsible for on top of client work).
- When it comes to freelance writing, learn how to set your rates properly from the start (and don’t accept ridiculously low rates just because others tell you that’s what new writers have to do - those people are clueless).
- Learn the basics of effective marketing before you get started. That does NOT mean learn the tactics everyone else is using - it means learn the fundamentals that serve as a foundation in understanding any and all potential marketing tactics, as well as helping you understand your own target market (if you don’t know who they are and what influences them to buy, click on ads, visit your blog again, spread the word, etc., you won’t make it very far).
- Start networking! This is true whether you’re writing for clients or managing your own blogs - networks matter. These are people that will link to you, refer gigs to you, and more.
- Work your ass off. If you don’t treat your blog or your freelancing as much like a business as possible, chances are that you won’t come close to the rewards you’re hoping to receive in the long run.
- Speaking of the long run, don’t expect to immediately get rich. It just doesn’t happen often, and you should never bank on being an exception to any rule.
Essentially, my response is to tell them that they need to educate themselves, build their networks, and work hard. Of course, that’s not what they want to hear. They think I have some magic want I can wave to make them an instant success. But like it or not, it’s good old fashioned work that builds a sustainable and solid income stream - even online.
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