Warning--this post may sound bitter.
That's not my intention.
Let's drift back to that holiest of references for a moment, the business practice called "cost-to-serve." I'm going to couple that concept with communication connecting. Let's look at both of these concepts in terms of writing for an audience as thus:
- Cost To Serve: The act of producing something where the effect meets or exceeds the effort put into the endeavor
- Communication Connection: Writing for the sake of producing something that the reader can relate to, learn from, or gain relief in some way from
These two concepts have come strongly into play over the past couple of months for me in two aspects of my creative life: Notes From Sea Level and my writing groups. Most of my time during this period of unconventional employment has gone into one of those two categories--every day I'm working to find some way to market the blog, market me, or market the writing group. A part of me had hoped that if I go to every group meeting and if I write the blog and promote it four days a week I'll have incremental growth and I'll be a better writer.
It hasn't worked out that way.
The beauty of it is, I had time to try it out. I had seven free days a week to persist. The wise woman knows when persistence isn't enough, and a friend of mine wrote on just such a topic last night, which I discovered this morning. I'd already been churning this in my head last night, probably while she was writing her piece. I'm poetic and I'd like to think it happens that way.
For those readers who have "liked" my posts on Facebook, who have told me their comments off line, have commented on the posts in front of others--thanks for your feedback, keep it coming, and this love letter to you isn't going away. It's just being scaled back a little. Soon the fairy tale will end and I will have to earn a living the conventional way again, and a job probably isn't conducive to blogging and marketing that blog four days a week. But it will exist on a smaller scale, one day a week, probably Mondays. I want to focus more on getting a paying gig now and to focus more on writing short stories for FUN, not because it's on a checklist and at the end of the day I'm too tired because I've already cranked out four blogs and spent four hours searching for a job. For those who follow me on Facebook, you'll probably only see me on Mondays, unless you post or like something I do, or message me there, in which case my little phone alerts me. For those who follow me on Twitter, it will probably be a visitation of Monday and maybe one or two other days--Twitter gives me job openings, so I'm a little more faithful to it.
As to the writing group--I am cutting back on some of them. Once one of the hosts returns, I can cut two of the meetings out of the line-up. I can maybe take a class of my own--we'll see.
I'm taking Monday off since this post is occurring today, so I'll see my readers in a week. Hopefully it will be some phenomenal writing for your wait. Thanks for tuning in.
Onward, dear reader.
If you're feeling uncomfortable, it's probably natural. Transformation isn't easy for people, corporations, or governments. Look at all the ink that's spilled over the process of change.
ReplyDeleteBefore I retired, an acquaintance who was also changing careers told me that the best advice she'd been given was to contact people in her newly chosen profession and ask if she could take them to lunch and talk a little bit about their jobs. I'll admit I scheduled only one interview, but it was definitely worthwhile.
Why not contact someone like Paula Herman, who was once the event coordinator at Book Passage? In 2005, she founded Paula Herman Book Events, which is a speakers' bureau in Novato. If nothing else, it would be a scenic trip, right?
A little closer to you, in Emeryville, are the folks who publish Memoir (and). I know you'd like their magazine.
These two suggestions might be a little off target, but you get the idea. Sometimes you can get where you want to go faster by taking the road less traveled. Surely there's a story in it, at least.