Tag Archive for Writer

All multi-tasking, no breathing just makes a mess

May 25, 2010 life, the 'net 4 comments
Old typewriter help
Image by ChepeNicoli via Flickr

I am a writer. I am an editor. I am the person other people call, several times each day, saying, “Do you have a minute to take a look at something?” Or, “What’s another word for ‘relevant’?” Or, “Can you fix this sentence? I’m stuck.”

That’s me. So glad that four years of J-school and 12 years of newspaper copy-editing and ad agency copy writing aren’t going to waste here in private industry. Really glad. Especially when I make a mistake.

Ai-yee, I have always hated mistakes, especially mistakes in print. We used to post-mortem each issue of the weekly newspapers where I was the editorial designer. Every error, every typo, every missed photo credit – 34 years later, I still remember those meetings and shudder. Now, on the web, mistakes are in pixels instead of points. But the parameters of the destruction are so much wider in web publishing. With the increased expectation that writers will be capable of independent self-editing comes tighter deadlines, bigger audiences. Ai-yee. Today, I hate mistakes even more than I did in print.

So here’s my post-mortem of yesterday’s work:

  1. I revised a cover letter I’d written two weeks ago and then .pdf’d it and emailed it to a prospective freelance writing client – complete with not one, but TWO typos.
  2. I asked my online editor why a piece I’d written hadn’t made its usual featured spot – trying not to sound righteously angry, but probably failing on that score. Editor: I don’t know, but if you let me know in advance I can fix the placement. I chalk it up to the cost of doing business – some days I won’t get the feature – and I move on. Until I look at my editorial calendar. I’d headlined the piece “Free rabies shot clinic tonight.” When I proofed it before hitting ‘publish’, I realized that the clinic was on Tuesday. I edited the article to correct the date – but never changed the headline, and published it early Monday morning, instead of holding it for the correct day (Tuesday.)
  3. I incorrectly listed a yogurt manufacturer’s production state. Corrected it when I found the error – and the content provider’s website never took the edit.

=sigh=  Third time (wrong) is the charm that breaks the curse, right? Three disasters – now I’m done for awhile?

I think I need that intervention for women who keep trying to do too much.

No more multi-tasking, no publishing tonight. I am going to meditate, do a yoga pose, and go to bed.

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All work and no play – working 20/7/365

February 8, 2010 life, survivorship One comment
The Twitter fail whale error message.
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Yeah – only 20 hours. I have to sleep sometime. ;)

One thing about building up my freelance business is that I spend most weekends and free moments either researching or writing content for all three of my blogs. I am spending so much time writing, in work and for my freelance gigs, that I often feel like I need the Twitter #failwhale’s personal bird-supported safety net.

In addition to Life Out Loud, I develop recipes and write about food over at Kitchen Jam. I’m also diving back into writing about training and living with dogs over at Dog Trainer’s Log, Research means reading – at least ten blogs every day that deal with either food or blogs. Then I need to cram in the writing – by staying up late, waking up early, and having mini writer’s marathons each weekend where I develop the next week’s posts. Focusing on my writing, making my freelancing a priority, is a lot of fun – but there are days when I’m clearly way over capacity. Unfortunately, i can’t put up a little message in my brain to ‘try again later.’

Then there’s promoting my writing – which for now means 15 minutes to a half-every every day networking with other writers, especially those who write about food or pets. Leaving comments on blogs, interacting on Twitter – I try to spend at least 15 minutes, but can’t really afford to spend more than a half hour on that every day.

So – why push myself harder and take on another writing gig? Well – because it’s there. Because it’s intriguing. Because it’s a paying job that I can knock out in two or three hours a week.

So two weeks ago, I took a gig as the Syracuse Dog Training Examiner, freelancing and writing content for the local (Syracuse) edition of Examiner.com. I’m incorporating a couple of short training bits into announcements about upcoming dog events and local news. Not a lot of cash for the effort, but good publicity, and the column features a link to my dog blog’s calendar of local events.

I am trying to pace myself, but weekends like this one – when I sleep through the superbowl because I was up all Saturday night testing a recipe and writing – they’re the ones that make me think I need a vacation from my weekends. Can’t wait for the next three-day weekend (Presidents Day.)

No one is so happy to see a Monday holiday as a freelancer. ;)

Have you ever worked more than one job? How did you manage to fit everything in?

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