this woman’s work

You are browsing the archives from 2007 August.

I finished my job! Finally! Sweet relief! `

I think I want to go thrifting.

I wish I had something interesting to say. I’m sorry I keep coming up empty these days.

Like this — boom! And so it was written! But it would be an unpopular essay so I have to see if (should it prove worthy to be published) I could stomach the response. Then again I fixed the part that sounded more judgmental than I intended but it does have to be a little opinionated, of course.

More about “so what” in regards to this essay.

So I pretty much think that an essay that tells a story or simply entertains isn’t an essay I’m going to write. I just don’t have it in me. When I’m writing an essay I’m always writing to an imaginary reader and, not to be too precious, I’m writing in service to that imaginary reader.

It’s one thing to spout out loud here on my blog but anything I think would be worth sending in has to have a point. It has to offer opportunity somehow. It has to say, “This helped me, maybe it’ll help you.” Not that I’m setting myself up to be boss of the world, especially since my best work is hard and often humiliating to write. My “so what” answer always has to do with whether or not the reader gets more than entertainment out of it. On paper, I’m not so entertaining. (I hear I’m fun at parties but that’s just nerves making me giddy.)

God, I’m totally in avoidance mode over a job but I can’t spin this entry out any longer!

My favorite Looney Tunes are the ones where Daffy Duck is interacting with the guy drawing him. This is similar but with more of an edge: Animator vs. Animation by *alanbecker on deviantART

I had a meeting this morning at 8am and had trouble sleeping last night. I’m too tired to keep track of things.

The meeting was good. It was a “welcome new members” for NAWBO and I talked for awhile with Wendy Goldstein who owns Costume Specialists. She’s the nicest woman. Every time I’ve been at a meeting with her she makes an effort to connect with all the attendees. Today I talked to her some about how life sort of makes your way clear but that usually that only seems obvious in hindsight.

I definitely feel in limbo. I’m throwing out a lot of broad effort and trusting (hoping) that what comes back to me will also lead me to the next thing. I know that one of the things I’m good at is seeing connections between disparate things and finding a way to bring those things together to make a more cohesive package. In regards to marketing, I can see what message a person/company is projecting (because once that thing exists, it has a brand and then you can really only shape it but sometimes the shape of it is more flexible than people realize) and I can see what serves that projection and what doesn’t. But I don’t really know how to “prove” that I can do this and I don’t know how to turn that into a service and I don’t know if that’s what I should be doing.

I think about these things as it relates to creative work, too, and it’s become much easier for me to see when a project would serve me and when it would be better to walk away. Like it is in everything else, I think the key to having a fulfilling creative life and a prosperous one is balance.

I’m also still learning how to work with the up-down of full-time freelancing whether that’s keeping my spirits up on a day like today when they’re really dragging or it’s facing down the scut work of forms and files. It’s getting easier but it’s still not easy.

I got further in my sample chapter and then got stuck because I want to do an overview of the book in the latter half of it and I’m not really sure where the book is going. It doesn’t need to be set in stone but there are some major path choices I haven’t made yet. I’m not letting myself begin editing the half I’ve already done because I know I’ll use that to avoid addressing this next big chunk, besides which until I know the book’s trajectory I don’t want to do any substantial edits because what I want/need might change. But I was pleased to get the draft done.

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