I feel as though I'm working full-time at the moment. If I haven't got stuff to do for Poached, then I'm collating information for a music archive website, or I'm preparing items to include in a radio show. Things are getting busy.
Yesterday was the first day I got to spend some quality time with my laptop, the tool that's going to help make my working life easier. I got a flavour of what my day would be like if I was a professional writer and I really enjoyed it!
Working from home seems to give me so much freedom. Yes, I've got to be disciplined in terms of the time I devote to other things during a working day and be careful not to get distracted. But I sat on the sofa surrounded by my work and I was happy.
I really enjoyed the session we had with Saba last week when we talked about feature writing. If I'm honest, I was as interested in finding out about how she finds being self-employed as I was about how to go about researching and structuring a feature.
What worries me is how I can make a steady living out of writing. I know cash flow won't be consistent. I have rent and bills to pay, and if I come off benefits, suddenly there's no safety net. I'm quite adamant that I'm not going back to doing admin again. It was only ever meant to be a stepping stone into doing something more with my creative skills. I'm due to have a meeting with Reed in Partnership to have a chat about my options. I have lots of thoughts going round my head. Should I work part-time and get a guaranteed income? If so, should I do work that will give me more writing experience, or perhaps build on the voluntary experience I have through hospital radio?
What to do?!
Wednesday 27 May 2009
Monday 25 May 2009
Precious time
We're 6 weeks in and so much has happened in that short space of time.
Jeevan has had a baby...and I'm the proud mother of a bouncing baby laptop! It's exciting! I have a PC at home but it's over 3 years old now, which is positively geriatric in computer terms. The laptop's very pretty and girly - from the metallic rose finish to the Swarovski crystals on the lid. I don't go in for bling that much but the laptop itself has a great spec, so why not?
Jess and I had our review the other week which went really well. I've been pleased with the work I've done so far, but I'm aware there's always room for improvement.
One of the things we talked about was that a week seemed such a short time between sessions. My self-employed fiance often says that he didn't know how he found the time to do half the things he does now when he worked full-time. And it's true! Days just disappear under last night's washing up or visits to help parents understand Twitter. And then there's all these thoughts about the things you're letting slip, like the gym or date nights.
I know I've got to be more disciplined about my work and setting fixed times in the week to do it. Thinking it and doing it, though - there's the challenge!
Take today for example: a day I'd thoroughly intended would be productive on the writing front. I had a moderate lie-in (10.30am). C and I drink coffee and promise ourselves 'just one more game' on Big Brain Academy on the Wii. Of course, 90 minutes later and we're still trying to turn silver medals to gold. I had resolved to go for a run. C and I get dressed and walk briskly to the park. After a couple of laps of jogging, we take a detour to PC World to look at laptops. C hits upon a plan where I can get the laptop I tried buying last Friday, but couldn't as the store didn't accept credit cards. After brunch, ablutions and some banking transfers, we head off to the store - a 45 minute bus ride - to pick up the laptop. Ten minutes later, with laptop in hand, we head home on another bus. At this point, it's 5pm and I could see my intentions of getting work done at all today just ebbing away. I couldn't just turn the new laptop on and get on with it. Oh no. There were all sorts of updates and installations and countless reboots before it was anywhere near ready to go. Three and a half hours are spent doing diagnostics and ordering curry. Then it's time for Ashes to Ashes, nine o'clock, BBC1. It's the penultimate one - exciting stuff. Get back to the laptop and the internet is infuriatingly slow. It's only when I move into the bedroom and nearer the router that it all starts to work as a new laptop should.
I know 10.45pm isn't the best time to start work, and I don't intend to carry on for much longer as I need my beauty sleep. However, if I'm going to take my writing seriously then I need to make time for it and not be distracted by other things...like life!
Jeevan has had a baby...and I'm the proud mother of a bouncing baby laptop! It's exciting! I have a PC at home but it's over 3 years old now, which is positively geriatric in computer terms. The laptop's very pretty and girly - from the metallic rose finish to the Swarovski crystals on the lid. I don't go in for bling that much but the laptop itself has a great spec, so why not?
Jess and I had our review the other week which went really well. I've been pleased with the work I've done so far, but I'm aware there's always room for improvement.
One of the things we talked about was that a week seemed such a short time between sessions. My self-employed fiance often says that he didn't know how he found the time to do half the things he does now when he worked full-time. And it's true! Days just disappear under last night's washing up or visits to help parents understand Twitter. And then there's all these thoughts about the things you're letting slip, like the gym or date nights.
I know I've got to be more disciplined about my work and setting fixed times in the week to do it. Thinking it and doing it, though - there's the challenge!
Take today for example: a day I'd thoroughly intended would be productive on the writing front. I had a moderate lie-in (10.30am). C and I drink coffee and promise ourselves 'just one more game' on Big Brain Academy on the Wii. Of course, 90 minutes later and we're still trying to turn silver medals to gold. I had resolved to go for a run. C and I get dressed and walk briskly to the park. After a couple of laps of jogging, we take a detour to PC World to look at laptops. C hits upon a plan where I can get the laptop I tried buying last Friday, but couldn't as the store didn't accept credit cards. After brunch, ablutions and some banking transfers, we head off to the store - a 45 minute bus ride - to pick up the laptop. Ten minutes later, with laptop in hand, we head home on another bus. At this point, it's 5pm and I could see my intentions of getting work done at all today just ebbing away. I couldn't just turn the new laptop on and get on with it. Oh no. There were all sorts of updates and installations and countless reboots before it was anywhere near ready to go. Three and a half hours are spent doing diagnostics and ordering curry. Then it's time for Ashes to Ashes, nine o'clock, BBC1. It's the penultimate one - exciting stuff. Get back to the laptop and the internet is infuriatingly slow. It's only when I move into the bedroom and nearer the router that it all starts to work as a new laptop should.
I know 10.45pm isn't the best time to start work, and I don't intend to carry on for much longer as I need my beauty sleep. However, if I'm going to take my writing seriously then I need to make time for it and not be distracted by other things...like life!
Wednesday 13 May 2009
Ups and downs...
Welcome to my strange week! After riding high for a while, I had a couple of bad days. Friday was the worst as I barely got out of bed. On Tuesday I was just exhausted and had little energy or motivation to do anything, although I did manage a short walk and a shorter-than-usual stint at hospital radio.
All this has impacted on my work for Poached this week...
'My Altoids are changing and I'm okay with that'
We had a great session with Chris last week on how designers and writers work together. He took us through some creative concepts for an ad campaign, a magazine and a direct mail piece. Although I've worked in advertising before, it was good to get an insight into how the idea germinates and becomes, say, a poster or a radio ad.
All of the concepts that Chris took us through were good examples of putting the audience first. The Wrigley's ad was quirky and fun. It was designed to attract interest from a new audience, but the brand was still identifiable to existing customers. The magazine for the orchestra, again, had to retain its core audience by using a classic style, but also engage with new, younger fans who would value the more contemporary content.
A light grilling
That afternoon, we concentrated on interview techniques. We'd touched on this during the second week when Jeevan and I found out more about each other to write on our blog profiles. I found then that I enjoyed asking the questions much more than answering them. Jess ran through some really good tips, like making notes of keywords whilst recording an interview so it's easy to refer back to a particular section.
A part of me thinks I would be a good interviewer as I'd like to think I'm good with putting people at their ease and the conversation would flow freely. On the other hand, the other part of me thinks I might panic under the sheer weight of information given to me and I'd want to make sure I got it right.
Jess set us the task of setting up an interview for a case study that will feature on the NHS Careers website. We had a couple of practice runs that went fairly well, but I'm not 100% confident of doing a good job. I did volunteer to call Jeevan at the weekend for us to go through an interview, but even the days inbetween Freaky Friday and Gloomy Tuesday were pretty grim for me.
Down, down, down...
All of which brings me back to the start of my entry. With regard to my depression in the past, if I've found something difficult, I've tended to hide or run away from it. After that comes the self-flagellation that I'm no good at seeing things through, everything's a struggle and I'll never get anywhere. I experienced some of that this week. I was behind with some of my work. Even now, I've yet to write my blog for Week 3 and there's always more stuff I can do on the charity website. The best solution was to actually tackle a bit of it, but the Nike-esque ethos of Just Do It was beyond me.
So here I am, up late the night before, trying to redress the balance of hardly doing any work over the last week. I know I shouldn't beat myself up about it but I'd be happier going in tomorrow with some work done. And you'll be pleased to know that I have no intention of giving this up!
All this has impacted on my work for Poached this week...
'My Altoids are changing and I'm okay with that'
We had a great session with Chris last week on how designers and writers work together. He took us through some creative concepts for an ad campaign, a magazine and a direct mail piece. Although I've worked in advertising before, it was good to get an insight into how the idea germinates and becomes, say, a poster or a radio ad.
All of the concepts that Chris took us through were good examples of putting the audience first. The Wrigley's ad was quirky and fun. It was designed to attract interest from a new audience, but the brand was still identifiable to existing customers. The magazine for the orchestra, again, had to retain its core audience by using a classic style, but also engage with new, younger fans who would value the more contemporary content.
A light grilling
That afternoon, we concentrated on interview techniques. We'd touched on this during the second week when Jeevan and I found out more about each other to write on our blog profiles. I found then that I enjoyed asking the questions much more than answering them. Jess ran through some really good tips, like making notes of keywords whilst recording an interview so it's easy to refer back to a particular section.
A part of me thinks I would be a good interviewer as I'd like to think I'm good with putting people at their ease and the conversation would flow freely. On the other hand, the other part of me thinks I might panic under the sheer weight of information given to me and I'd want to make sure I got it right.
I remembered that I had watched Frost/Nixon recently. It's an amazing film that I recommend to anyone. Not only is it compelling, but also you see David Frost honing his interviewing craft to gain his reputation as someone who can hold his own in the big league of political interviewers.
Jess set us the task of setting up an interview for a case study that will feature on the NHS Careers website. We had a couple of practice runs that went fairly well, but I'm not 100% confident of doing a good job. I did volunteer to call Jeevan at the weekend for us to go through an interview, but even the days inbetween Freaky Friday and Gloomy Tuesday were pretty grim for me.
Down, down, down...
All of which brings me back to the start of my entry. With regard to my depression in the past, if I've found something difficult, I've tended to hide or run away from it. After that comes the self-flagellation that I'm no good at seeing things through, everything's a struggle and I'll never get anywhere. I experienced some of that this week. I was behind with some of my work. Even now, I've yet to write my blog for Week 3 and there's always more stuff I can do on the charity website. The best solution was to actually tackle a bit of it, but the Nike-esque ethos of Just Do It was beyond me.
So here I am, up late the night before, trying to redress the balance of hardly doing any work over the last week. I know I shouldn't beat myself up about it but I'd be happier going in tomorrow with some work done. And you'll be pleased to know that I have no intention of giving this up!
Thursday 7 May 2009
Jeevan versus the volcano
Here we are at Week 2 of the training, and I’m finding myself conscious of what I’m writing and where to put that information. Why am I starting this blog entry with this paragraph? Why not the next? Hello? Are you still there?!
Today we learnt about the five principles of effective writing: Clear, Concise, Accurate, Relevant and Timely (I’m finding myself self-editing as I write this!). We also learnt how we go about achieving those principles, through grammar, context and style.
Cut and paste
Jess took a story out of the Guardian and showed us how the first sentence of a story is meant to engage the reader into wanting to find out more. Jeevan and I had a go at assembling the separate sentences of the story into what we thought the order was. We were pretty close but I think we were leading more with the human angle than with facts, which were actually pretty dramatic (it was about an oil tanker rescuing a couple who’d been stuck in the water for 40 days after their yacht was damaged). It was an interesting exercise. Although I’ve worked for a newspaper, I’d never really given much thought to the structure of a news story.
We then went through 10 tips for effective writing. The first was ‘Put your audience first’. I suppose it’s something I’ve done before when writing, but not consciously. I don’t really think I’m writing to anyone in particular when I’m writing in my journal, for instance. I was interested in Jeevan’s point of view as a songwriter: whether he writes with someone in mind or whether he gets swept away in expressing himself though music.
Interviews: Getting to know you...
I very much enjoyed our task for the afternoon session. Jeevan and I had to write each other’s profiles for use on the Poached website. We started out with a few basic questions to get the conversation going (I can’t seem to get ‘Getting To Know You’ from ‘The King And I’ out of my head now!). It was a great opportunity to get to know Jeevan and find out about his upbringing in Montserrat. I know we were focusing on interview techniques more in later sessions, but I felt more comfortable asking the questions than answering them. I suppose it’s for other people to decide what’s interesting about you, but that said I wouldn’t want to bore anyone with endless unnecessary detail! Taking what we had learnt about each other, we had to write the profiles in a way that would engage our blog characters. I had great fun working with the imagery and words of the volcanoes that Jeevan grew up around and I was really pleased with the end result.
I think this is the first time I’ve ever taken writing seriously, certainly not since school or university anyway. The amount of planning that has to go into an effective piece of writing is something I haven’t had to consider for a while. I remember it used to take me ages to write an essay but then I would be constantly referring back to my books and study guides.
Linkage and further reading / viewing
Jess brought along a load of reference books for us. I want to learn more about writing effectively so I ‘googled’ some phrases and found this link. Another useful source I found was this.
Jess covered similar topics last week, but the paragraph on clichés was worth noting for future reference. I also liked the paragraph on self-editing found in the link.
Finally, for a guide to writing for TV drama, comedy or soaps, Charlie Brooker from the Guardian made an excellent special episode of his show Screenwipe. Although it deals with writing for TV, some of the advice in the show could be carried into basic principles of writing.
The episode is on YouTube in five parts:
PS I moved a couple of paragraphs around. Can you tell which ones?
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