Monday 24 June 2013

Shaking off the holiday feeling

I've had a family holiday for the first time in nearly 5 years. It was meant to be just my mum and I, but at the last moment we asked my brother (not expecting a reply) who said yes after he got his passport sorted out. It was a week's inclusive at Lanzarote, warm weather, not too much sunburn and plenty of duty free alcohol. Well, when you go on holiday with your mum and your brother there won't be much heavy drinking going on but we went for a nice steak a couple times and thoroughly chilled and relaxed.

This brings me to the conclusion that holiday is not the best place to do any kind of writing beyond writing rude words on your friend's back in sun cream. I took my laptop (mum argued the ipad mini was worth too much and my netbook was too slow) and paid for wireless in the room. So did I get all of the work done early on? 

I probably spent more time reading over my novels than anything else. It gave me some ideas for the editing etc, but my brother also borrowed my laptop for a good portion of the time. He achieved a fair amount of creative writing, more than I have in weeks. I got it all done in time, but on the last day of course. I'm a deadline writer, I need someone standing over me with a threatening look and a hot cup of coffee they might just threaten to throw over me.

The last few days were hectic, squeezing in to see friends and working at my care job, but today, I woke up feeling a bit 'blargh', but have knuckled down and achieved a few emails at least and half organised my bedroom. The holiday feeling has gone, but not one I miss to be honest, the passive aggressive stress wasn't nice, and it's good to get back to my life.

I've been thinking about the purpose of this blog and where I want to take it, I need to start marketing my creative writing better, so many people are doing it successfully these days. 

Friday 7 June 2013

Why freelance doesn't always equate to professional

I've read a few guides on how to start off as a freelance copywriter, these were books I downloaded from Amazon written by authors who managed to launch themselves into a great career within a few months. I learnt a few things about how to pitch articles to people and about the general lifestyle and motivation needed by people to be self employed.

Motivation is a key factor for many people, and for many copywriters that driving force isn't always because we love what we do, but because we need the money. Motivation is something that gets us up in the morning, it makes us go about our day with some purpose (well, that's how books sell it.)

I watched the latest episode of the apprentice last night, and my god, I was surprised how bad this year's batch are. It's like they've let a good looking bunch of fourteen year olds loose in business themed theme park. These kids are out for the free pass and all they want to do it just run about pretending to be adults. They can go on a ride occasionally, pretend to walk and talk like a business professional. 

You know when you can hear something talking, but at the end of it you don't have a clue what they really said? One woman kept doing that for the whole day, trying to justify why getting some corporate people to decorate cupcakes was meant be 'team building'. 'But it was creative!' she cried at one point. Yes it was creative, but decorating cupcakes is for children, not to help banking professionals learn to communicate properly.

I wasn't surprised when the companies asked for a refund from the Apprentice teams, I'd have asked for a memory wipe of the whole day and the 60 minutes I lost watching the program. 

Working from home makes me feel like I'm not professional at times, but when I look at the people lined up on 'The Apprentice' it makes me feel I can be much better. But could I? I wonder if its an attitude cultivated in an office, which is something I am sorely lacking. All of my 'professional' experience is standing behind a bar learning how to banter and get a thicker skin.  Freelance work means I can't banter, and I am sort of laid bare, how am I meant to relate or cope with the demands of my clients?

The short answer is I have to just deal with it professionally. Not run around in sumo suits trying to say how to avoid conflict-oh let's just decorate a cupcake, it's more fun and creative and it might motivate me to do something constructive.