A SMILE TODAY

I finished my short story today. Well, in reality it is more a flash fiction story, as it only consists of 643 words. It was a lot of fun to write, considering that it was my first attempt at a short story and it was my first time writing in the third person too, so I am very proud of myself. Though, it was a horror story. My paranormal romance stories tend to be a bit on the dark side anyway, so maybe I can play around between the two genres.

How is everyone else doing? I would love to know.

BLAH, BLAH...BLAH

On days like today, I rather wish that I kept my whole writing life a secret from my family (even though it would be impossible). If only I could have kept my querying a secret from them too, then I would feel so much better. But we as writers have to believe in ourselves, no matter who says what. We have to stay strong and keep at it.

Thank you to all my blogging friends for all your invaluable support.

TIME TO BREATHE

Hi everyone! My crazy week is turning out to be a lot crazier than anticipated, but do you know what? I am completely fine with that. Thanks to Carole Anne Carr's (http://caroleannecarr.blogspot.com) wonderful suggestion to use my zombie feeling for inspiration, I am suddenly feeling ridiculously inspired and the new ideas just keep on coming. Nothing like laborious work and sleep deprivation to get the creative juices flowing.

I have an idea for a short story. Bare in mind that I have never written a short story, ever. My work always tends to be novels. But I really think I can do it. Unlike my other work, it will not be written with a first person point of view, which is also new for me.

My cousin let me borrow Stephen King's book On Writing and I absolutely love it. I definitely have to get me a copy as well. He has such an honest voice and there is nothing pretentious about his words at all. He tells you things like it is, even if it hurts, which I love.

Hope everything is well with everyone. Have a great week and as always, thank you so much for stopping by and stepping into my crazy world. Your comments always gives me strength.

CRAZY WEEK AHEAD!

Firstly I want to apologize if I came across as whiny and ungrateful in my previous post. I do love my job, which is writing.

On to today's post. We are finally renovating our kitchen, which has been on my families to do list for about 15 years now. It is a full renovation people which starts with the levelling and tiling of the floors. Installing actual horizontal support beams for the one wall as well as re-plastering the walls. The kitchen cupboards will be removed and after all the work has been done the old ones will be reused or something like that I guess.

It is going to be a crazy week people. Amongst supervising the contractors I will have to fit in my writing and still work out an actual schedule for all my writing and blogging as well as how I will go about to fit in reading and personal time. So I apologize if I will be absent for a few days again. I am doing a lot of apologizing today hah?

Oh and the best part is that I will have to keep my mom calm too while the whole renovation project goes on. She hates having strange people in her house, which I completely understand and she hates a dirty house. Right now the kitchen's content has flooded into most of our house. It is amazing how much stuff you accumulate over the years.

Right now I am feeling like a zombie...without the craving for human flesh of course, but I truly do feel out of it. Reality seems like a big joke right about now.

I hope everyone has a super fantastic week.

THERE IS A DIFFERANCE FOLKS!

I have always wondered how my life would change if I became a paid writer. I had this romantic idea that nothing would change and that I would still be giving just as much time to my works in progress as I did before.

I have been a full time freelance writer for almost three months now and I am sad to say it, but there is a huge difference between writing for yourself and getting paid for it. For instance, if you get paid for your writing you suddenly have deadlines and you have to give those assignments your full attention. When you do it for yourself you write when you want and as many times as you want. If you didn’t complete a certain word count for the day then there is always tomorrow. With paid writing you do not have that luxury.

I still love my job, don’t get me wrong. I feel happy that I can do what I love. But now I have to become one of those many organized writers who have a writing schedule and posting schedule, as many of you will have noticed, I do not get to blog as often anymore. Sorry about that.

Another thing I realized is that freelance writing does not pay a lot at all or at least the company I work for does not pay me a lot. You do a lot of research and effort for a small fee. I am not complaining or anything but just to help some of you aspiring freelance writers out with some information...I get paid 38 cents (R3) for every 150 word article I write. I write about 300 articles a month, each consisting of 150 words which gives me a grand total of $114 (R906) a month. So as you know I have to write a lot of articles if I want to make ends meet. But I figure at least I get to add some writing credits to my query letter. Plus I get to work from home.

I just thought I would tell everyone about what I just realized. It is a good thing I am not just doing the writing for money. I just so happen to love it, but the money is a realistic plus.

ANOTHER AWARD!

So I won another award. The Versatile Blogger award, but I have already received it before and because I am such an award hoarder I will accept it anyway. I mean you don't see people say no thank you to another grammy do you? I didn't think so.

Moving on...

This award does come with rules so here goes.

1. Thank and link to the person that nominated you.

Thank you so much Nicole, http://theworldofmyimagination.blogspot.com, for this award. I am very grateful. You are just awesome.

2. Share 7 random facts about yourself.

I have a tattoo on the inside of my left wrist.

I just love animals.

My eyes are sensitive to bright light.

I can't eat meat.

I get car sick.

I am afraid of heights.

I am a very picky reader.

3. Because I am such a natural rebel, I am going to simply post this award and whoever hasn't received it yet is free to take this award. Yes, I am serious.

TRUST IS IMPORTANT

I think that it is essential for all writers to trust themselves and their work. Believe that your work has potential. How can you make others believe that if you do not? I know many times we feel unworthy of that kind of assurance, but always doubting yourself and your writing is just too exhausting on the long run. I am not always as confident as I would like to be, but I try to remind myself that my creative efforts are a huge achievement. At least and I can always improve and correct most errors through editing. As a writer self-belief is essential. You need to believe and trust in yourself and your talent. You just have to.

Thank you, Alex J. Cavanaugh for creating the Insecure Writers Support Group. You guys can visit Alex over at http://alexjcavanaugh.blogspot.com.