Affluent White Person Problems Make Me Grouchy and Unproductive

Comedian Louis CK has some great bits about "Being White" and "White Person Problems" and "Everything's Amazing & Nobody's Happy" that I cannot do justice to, so look them up.

However, they were on the forefront of my mind for most of yesterday and Monday ALL LAST WEEK as I threw my (fortunately high-impact-secure) cell phone across the room and cussed to make my Mom blush at my land line and Internet service. (At least I had the decency to not cuss directly at the people despite being walked through the hard restart of my modem and my laptop as if I were an idiot AFTER I had explained that I had already done so.)

[Addendum: I wrote this last Wednesday and have since had continued problems until (HOPEFULLY) today when my modem was replaced and reset with a whole password thingy.  Needless to say, I've lost a week's worth of tutoring wages.  Now, for the below paragraph, I'm not likely to lose my house or anything, so my point still stands  OTOH… that's a week's worth of wages!]

[Addendum 2:  Also, the Husband-of-Awesome lost a day of work (and he makes WAY more than I do) and several nights of work trying to get the Internet to work, replacing the modem--TWICE!--and still cooking me dinner so I could get other deadlines done at Panera Bread on their free WiFi.]

I just want to add to the comedian's parameters that these are not necessarily White Person Problems; there's definitely more privilege involved.  They're definitely Affluent White Person Problems.  Not to say such affected people don't stress over money problems each month--we certainly do!--but more that the stress is: "Can we make payments on all of our various debts without ruining our credit?" as opposed to, "Can we survive better without electricity, heat, or going grocery shopping this month?"

In any case, I was having a pretty sh*tty past few days WEEK because I couldn't do my job or get work done.  [Addendum3: I just barely made an article and grant deadline… while at Panera Bread.]

You know, because not having this magical connection to the rest of the world at my fingertips in an immediate fashion is such a HUGE DISASTER.

It's not like I had healthy well water on tap, [Addendum 4: Ok, my faucet IS leaking pretty badly, but still, I have the water],

gourmet coffee I could make while waiting between calls to service people,

a cushy chair or yoga ball to sit on,

a pretty decent roof over my head,

a legal husband-of-awesome who has me on his health insurance and who I can kiss in public without worrying about potential hate crimes,

food in my refrigerator and pantry,

a job that, while I will struggle to catch up, isn't something I'm likely lose at the drop of a hat,

hell—a job and career I LOVE,

and, to top it all off, an adorable, beloved, money-eating HORSE* that I own and can escape to.

Sooo, I added another whole layer of craptacular guilt for feeling sh*tty on top of the general sh*tty sentiment that you really can't rationalize away because, after all, humans are selfish beings who, once they taste a certain level of comfort, feel entitled to it.

[Addendum 5: The fact that I lost a week's worth of wages adds another dimension that doesn’t quite stack the same way.]

On the other hand, this level of objectiveness, as flawed as it is, is still useful in understanding character motivations.  So, at least on a writing level, things were useful.  Gotta stay positive, right?

At the very least, it makes for a comic goldmine of contradiction.  Right, Louis?

In any case, my phone is fixed, and the Internet connection seems to be working.  I can return to being a more productive relatively affluent, white member of society. (Or so I hope!)

* What, you didn't know that money is the primary diet of the domestic equine?

Fundraising Friday

It's a misleading title. 

Though, if you want to send me inspirational money to get more work done on my fiction or webcomic, you can PayPal donations to me using any of my emails or from my website www.anovelfriend.com/fiction.htm  Use any of the PayPal buttons.  I'd love you forever… ok, many of you already have that designation.  But really, I'd appreciate it very much.

What's been on my mind (besides wanting/needing more money – particularly with my beloved but costly equine companion) is how many other blogs I've seen talking about more ways to make money or enhance your income or save time so you can dedicate more to making money.

Makes me wonder.

I've thought about "affiliate marketing" but that's an awful lot of work or aggravation in some cases.  On my blogger version of this blog, I do that with Amazon and every so often I get emails from them about ways to sell more – which basically are thinly veiled requests to do more marketing for books on my blog.  That's not what I do on my blog.  The other places I mention regularly, like Sturbridge Coffee House or Sturbridge Coffee Roasters or Isador's or Generations … all independent and local companies who don't do affiliate marketing and, well, you readers who don't live in Worcester County can't get here easily anyway.

Another thing I see a lot are collections of pre-written blogs or blog ideas.  I'm a writer.  I seriously am not lacking in ideas for blogs.  I do lack the time and motivation to post, though.  If I had "pre-written" blogs, well, how does that promote or give people an idea of my writing?  Totally useless to me. 

Ditto for ebooks and stuff.  Yeah, I know how to write.  It's just finishing an ebook… and then the time to promote that.  I could be working on my fiction and stuff I want to do and trying to sell that.

Try a podcast!  Um… already doing that and the vast majority of "lessons" I found online and even paid for entirely don't apply to me and what I'd want to do with the podcasts I run.  Some sort-of apply to the 2nd episode of the Broad Pod I'll be doing, but most are thinly veiled disguises for people selling products to advertise themselves.  Um: no.

So, basically, as a self-employed writer, most of these things won't work for me, and I'm left to… keep on doing what I'm doing. 

For now.  Till I get more published.

Unless you want to donate, of course, then I can get more writing and possibly some art done.

Overtired…

I am not superwoman. Not tonight. I have no desire to wear a red cape and goggles while blogging…

So, this past week I've accomplished:

4 blogs (rather than 3 - did you see my writing & $ guestblog at damcphail.livejournal.com?)
Novel Chapter synopses for NaNoWriMo with Christy
Officially signed up for NaNoWriMo (novelfriend)
2 deadlines
Most of my cleaning goals
Using all 5 of my extra Lead hours to try to catch up on team evals & new trainee
Few more updates to my website done with my webmistress
lugged & stacked a flipping car-full of tree for NEXT winter (green => needs to cure for a year)
Made some $ and donations for Bay State Equine Rescue at the East Meets West Holistic Happenings today.
Got a mini-massage, Reiki healing, and Angel Card reading also.
I also won a free consultation with this wonderful therapist I met. Maybe I can learn some better behaviors regarding procrastination, organization… oh, and exercise.
Edited one friend's short story who is on a very tight deadline.
Caught up on my analog writer's group critiques & submissions

What I didn't do:

Maintain my 1 market research/market submission each day (Not trying to make up my backlog. Totally doing a "Start over on this one!)
My beer blog with the research from the article from a couple weeks ago
Finish cleaning around my desk
Address any critique on my work that I've received & have piled
Make it to the rescue
Manage any exercise outside of cleaning and wood moving/stacking
Make any edits to Kyra
Write anything new on anything
Keep a reasonable sleep schedule.

And I'm starting off this week in the sleep hole again… so… there's my blog.

I gave a reading to a woman that said sometimes, you have to let yourself fail and be ok with it.

I need to take my own advice sometimes.

Maybe we all need to be okay with letting ourselves fail sometimes?

Value in Lies AND Truth

Writers know that all good fiction is a pack of lies that tells the truth.

However, the truth about fiction is not an easy way to pay bills - for many, it's damn near impossible!

But you want to be a professional writer! An Author!

Try your hand at some non-fiction.

Non-fiction writing not only makes money, but it helps you write better and better sell your fiction.

Money

Writing non-fiction articles is what has afforded me to write speculative fiction. There are far more markets for non-fiction, and the pay is better.

Most magazines average a dollar a word - a DOLLAR! - some as much as $2 per word… though some as low as 20 cents per word. But 20 cents is four times the average fiction professional rate! Trade magazines can average between 20 cents to $2 per word, depending on how much experience you have in the trade.

But what about novels, you ask? From every convention I've gone to and the many agent & editor blogs I peruse, Firsttime Novelist, gets less than $5,000 for an advance (often much less) If you’re a first time, it's also probably taken years of work to write, polish, sell, and get this published.

Now, time for word problems. (Didn't you just love those in school?) If magazine writer writes mostly 1200 to 2000-word articles at the average magazine rate, how soon can s/he make that? If they also pepper their main income magazines with smaller pieces from smaller publications (see my guest blog tomorrow at damcphail.livejournal.com for more on this), how quickly will s/he make that $5k? And if some months, they sell articles to the really high end magazines?

'Nuff said.

Better Writer

Writing non-fiction articles teaches you research and interview. Every writer should know how to do this. Every book should have some level of research, and in almost every book you'll have a character looking to get information from another character. I've got more articles planned that go into both these things in more detail… but know that you need these skills.

Non-fiction writing also imposes word counts and deadlines. Copy space is vanishing real estate due to advertising and short attention spans, so writers need to make their point clearly and quickly… and ON TIME! Professional authors need to meet editorial deadlines, so get used to it.

Working with an editor and getting used to changing things - or having things changed for publication - is also an important skill. It's a business. Like with children, other people will change and mold and criticize your "baby." It is never entirely yours, nor will it be - unless you only plan to write for yourself and share with no one.


Selling Better

If you can attach your name to several established magazines or newspapers, people know you can write, meet deadlines, and work with an editor - and that's a good thing.

I'm not saying this necessarily belongs on a query letter - or even a cover letter… there are much better blogs and resources that give you query/cover letter tips. However, if you get a chance to speak with other professionals in publishing and they ask you what you do - mentioning the best places you've been published gives you credentials above someone who's never been published anywhere. If you get a request to send your work, you can re-identify yourself as the person who writes for "____"

More globally, writing freelance non-fiction helps you hone your overall query and selling ability. You need to pitch articles to your non-fic editors, first of all. You should also be able to make your point in few words, which helps you write a better synopsis or blurb (in theory, at least - I'll let you know when I sell a novel). And the research and interviewing experience helps you find and screen which agents and editors would be the best matches.

Non-Fiction Markets

Have I convinced you to look more into selling non-fiction? Cool! Where do you start?

What magazines & newspapers do you enjoy reading? What do you pay to receive? Start with their submission guidelines.

Next: What interests you? Do an Internet search for your favorite things to see if there is a magazine dedicated to any of them. Writing is your life, you say? There are plenty of writing magazines that pay - but keep in mind competition is stiff.

Exhausted all those options? One of my favorite one-stop-shop places is www.fundsforwriters.com C. Hope Clark is a fabulous resource for markets and advice. I also highly recommend her regular newsletters. The paid subscription always makes its money back for me, but the free ones are still great. You can also peruse www.craigslist.com, but there are a lot of people there who expect free writing there. You may need to do a few free non-fiction pieces (blog entries do NOT count) to get "clips," but once you've got some pay pieces, don't work for free (that's what blogs are for). There are even more tips and hyperlinks at my website, www.anovelfriend.com

Now, get out there and start earning money for your writing!