Breakthrough

I’ve been struggling these last few days. I got my first cheque from my writing not too long ago and it felt great! It was only a few hundred Euros, but it felt good to be earning again. The only thing is that I now felt quite a bit of pressure to at least maintain that income. Coincidentally, that was the time I seemed to hit a brick wall in terms of creative inspiration. It never rains…

So I was getting pretty worked up. I’ve even neglected this blog a bit. I was too preoccupied to keep this going at full pace. It was all a little much and I was wondering whether I really had a future as a writer. Reading about Mbeki’s writing prowess and general brilliance didn’t help either. It left me feeling more than a little jealous and a bit pathetic. I know, a little over the top.

Anyway, I was in the library today to do a little reading. Being the great procrastinator that I am, I decided to start by going through the newspaper. I found an article there I disagreed with so strongly that I whipped out my laptop and in about three quarters of an hour had my first draft done. I’ll polish it up over the weekend and email it to the boss on Sunday evening.

I literally feel like there’s a weight that has been lifted off my shoulders. Now I can deal with all the things I’ve let slide. And in a couple of days, I can start to worry about the next article. My life certainly isn’t boring!

Money, money, money, MONEY!!!

Financial security is a big deal to me because I really struggled when I started working. As stupid as it sounds, I tried to maintain the lifestyle I enjoyed in my mother’s house. You’d think that being broke halfway through the month on a consistent basis would have made me realise something was wrong. Not a chance! But I was living in a country that was falling apart, with record inflation and a dodgy economy. That was the problem, not me.

 

I then moved to a country with a very healthy economy and guess what happened? My financial situation got worse! Yes, there were some extenuating circumstances, but my handling of money just made things worse! I had to let go of a lot of stupid assumptions and learn to be smart about money. It has been a slow and painful process (why does instant gratification have to hurt so much in the long run?), but stuff like this helps. It’s from John Scalzi’s blog Whatever. Check it out:

 

“Why am I offering this entirely unsolicited advice about money to new writers? Because it very often appears to me that regardless of how smart and clever and interesting and fun my fellow writers are on every other imaginable subject, when it comes to money — and specifically their own money — writers have as much sense as chimps on crack. It’s not just writers — all creative people seem to have the “incredibly stupid with money” gene set for maximum expression — but since most of creative people I know are writers, they’re the nexus of money stupidity I have the most experience with. It makes me sad and also embarrasses the crap out of me; people as smart as writers are ought to know better.” – read on

The Next Step

I’ve had another article published and I’ve got a semi-regular thing going with one of the national papers. It’s amazing how as soon as you get to one summit you suddenly start to see others instead of taking time out to celebrate!

Why aren’t I celebrating? So far I’ve made a couple of hundred Euros in about 4 weeks. I need to start using the articles I’ve had published to get more work. As things stand, I can’t make a living. That said, I’ve made money doing what I want to do. If nothing else, it shows there’s potential for me to make a living writing. I had planned to give myself 6 months to come up with a tangible plan. Based on what I’m spending and what my wife and I need to cover bills, I need to be earning at least six times what I’m earning now by about July. I guess that’s the challenge.

Now, the ‘work’ part begins. I need to call people who I think may have a story to tell and interview them. I need to get in touch with as many editors as I can and try to sell myself. I’m even planning a trip out to Sierra Leone – a friend knows a government minister there. It all sounds great, so why am I terrified?