Ok, so I'll be the first to admit it. I've been slacking in the writing articles department. I haven't written religiously since, I guess, a week ago. I slacked. I got distracted, I got caught caught up with the NaNoWriMo thing and sadly that won't earn any extra money in the household.
Found out today that the "good" car, the family car, the only safe drivable car (which has been in the shop for over a week now) needs two front struts replaced. Cha-ching: $240. I guess that's cheap compared to some places, but that's not including labor either. Did I mention we also needed a pair of front tires also? Yikes. Luckily we have Grandma/pa's help in the vehicle department. We can occasionally borrow one of their vehicles.
So, this is where my point comes up: Living expenses? This falls under my category of: OH CRAP, "I sure hope you saved up for this kind of catastrophe" type of thing. I knew this kind of thing was coming, but when you actually see the bottom line it's like I've suddenly gotten a bit numb over the whole thing. I consider what I write at home "suplemental" income, it's not even worth mentioning, but at this point, I might as well pretend I'm doing good by writing that 150 word article for .74 cents (at least it only took 5-8 minutes to write).
When things calm down financially, I still would like to get my little novelette self-published. Maybe then I can get this pipe dream of being an author rolling. Sure, it may stall and putter as it goes, but at least I can say I made an attempt before I call out my defeatist mentality.
It sure would be good right about now to be living on a plot of land and have our own home. I always wanted to live closer to the homesteading kind of way, and for some reason that's kind of a comfort right now. Being productive in an apartment, in my mind, seems confusing for being self reliant. Ramble, ramble, ramble, stall, stall, stall.
Well, I can think on the positive side, we're still free from debt, Hubby and I. Treading water every month and always looking for ways to save a penny here and there. You'd think by now our frugal ways would actually account for something other than knowing we don't have a credit card bill looming over us that will help us go belly up. Then again, maybe our frugal ways were just enough and just what we needed to survive (with one paycheck and all). Can't complain, but can't help to hope and aspire for better situations in life.
Well, enough of me rambling, I got about 40 minutes before life sets in and I have to do some errands out in the real world. Then, when back home it's time to get back to the grindstone again.
I get the impression from... someone... that you're not supposed to drop *everything* for nano. Maybe set a daily goal for articles, and after you meet it, any extra writing time can be used for your story?
ReplyDeleteI actually did some writing ... yesterday. Wrote 8 articles in about 2 hours (short ones). I was chatting online with a friend and he was like " there are a bunch of super easy articles out, they only take like 10 minutes each". We got together and did a challenge- try to write 10 of these short crap articles in 2 hours. I only got 8, but that's 8 I wouldn't have had without the challenge.
Sometimes you just need a push and a little competition, right? Meanwhile, if you ever need someone to compete against, I'm lazyjayn on skype, or you can @lazyjayn me on twitter. Like word-war style.
I do like the crap articles that only take a few minutes to do rather than the crap articles that ask you to write about x,y,z while standing on your head while reciting the alphabet for only $1.75.
ReplyDeleteI had a huge NaNo writing spurt and then...(sound effect of bomb dropping)... I burned out. I keep telling myself it would be nice to write NaNo but I'm not caring about it that much. If I can squeeze out maybe 20 minutes a day I would be happy knowing I didn't give it up completely.
I have a twitter acct, Mrs_Gamer. Once upon a time when I was a raging WoW addict I used that mostly for just that, WoW stuff. Now I don't use it that much, so I'd have to brush it off sometimes.
Yeah, I'm doing a mix of articles and signing up on new article sites, and every once in a while a chunk of nano with write or Die. It's kinda busy over here.
ReplyDeleteMore really does get done, though, when I'm working with/ against someone else.
Also, have you tried writeraccess.com? the application is scary (I haven't finished it yet...) but the pay is better than TB.
I went to that other site you mentioned, took the screening test, and then stopped. If I read correctly you have the freedom to write any articles you want and then someone pays to pick it up?
ReplyDeleteHaven't heard of writeraccess, I'll give it a go. It can't hurt to give it a gander ;) I'm always terrified that these places are scams, but if you've had good luck on them, that's the fire under my butt that it's okay :)
High fives for smiley faces :)
I *still* haven't written an article for the one with the "test", but I do know people making money there- they just aren't me (yet). Likewise Writer access. I'm finding this stuff at nojobformom.com
ReplyDeletethere's a bunch of people commenting over there, and they can usually hunt out a scammy site pretty quickly.
Oh, yeah, constant content doesn't approve recipes anymore, also no fiction, poetry, or first person stuff. Otherwise, yep, whatever you want.
Wondering why I haven't written anything yet... :D
I went through the process for constant content, then blanked. I said to myself, "Here's the freedom to write what you want..." then brain fried. Maybe later over the weekend I'll form an article on something and sound like I know what I'm talking about for that site, lol.
ReplyDeleteI'll have to go back to nojobformom site and take a better look around. Thanks j, all this stuff is a lot of help for the cause :)