Wired Sussex Saved My Sanity!

I'd been feeling a bit disheartened by the whole copywriting thing. Hell, even the whole freelance thing. All those niggling little doubts were getting louder and louder in my head: Is this really what I want? Can I really do it? Wouldn't it be easier (and less stressful) to just go and get another job somewhere?

But then, like a shining beacon of light and hope, along came the Wired Sussex Media Jobs & Skills Fair. The small, quiet, all-knowing part of me managed to force the larger, grumpy, all-resisting part of me to go along to the event and I have to say I'm so glad it did! Not only did I find that I already knew a lot of the people there, I also knew the entire panel giving talks about making it as a freelancer (even if they didn't know me). And suddenly I felt a part of something. A part of this amazing community. And I realised I'm already on the right path. This is the direction I'm meant to be going. I AM a writer!

So, feeling all inspired and invigorated, I also made it to my first Brighton Farm meet-up, prompted by one of the speakers at the Media Fair. For those of you not in Brighton or just not in the know, this is a casual weekly meet-up in a pub for anyone in media. I'd heard it was a bit techy and, yes, I did mostly meet web designers and developers, but they were all jolly nice. And I realised I could tell them anything about me and they'd believe it. Well, why wouldn't they? So I told them all I'm a copywriter. And they believed me. Ha!

In the words of Martha Tilston, if we say it over and over again it will manifest somehow. So... I am a writer! I am a writer! I am a writer!

Procrastinate? Nah, I'll Do It Tomorrow

We all have stuff to do. If we’re asked at any given time what’s on our to-do-list, we’ll be able to reel off several, if not hundreds, of things that we need, should or ought to do. In fact, I suspect most of us have a much longer list of SHOULDS than NEEDS.

But how do we prioritise these? It’s easy to prioritise the NEEDS because they’ll undoubtedly have time limits and deadlines – I need to finish this piece of work by Thursday lunchtime; I need to post this application to arrive by Monday morning; I need to renew my car insurance by the end of January; and so on.

But the SHOULDS are a little trickier, especially when they’re combined with the WANTS – I really should go to the dentist for a check-up; I’ve been meaning to sort out all the junk in the garage/attic/spare room for ages; I’d like to find a knitting/singing/tai chi class in my area but I just haven’t got around to it yet.

Take this morning for example. After waiting in for a Sainsbury’s delivery (in an attempt to spend less than in our usual local Waitrose… hmm, not sure it really worked… better try Asda next...), the rest of the day was free to do with as I please. Now, if I was one of these layabouts who could sit on my arse all day reading, watching TV, listening to music and generally being lazy, I probably wouldn’t have a problem. But I’m not. I’d feel far too guilty. And in any case, in order to become a freelance copywriter, I believe I need to act like one.

So, on my NEED to-do-list today are all sorts of writing and self-employment related tasks – create a business plan and cash flow forecast; continue working on my Proofreading and Editorial Skills course; come up with a pitch for my travel writing friend as per her suggestion; finish working on a life experience piece to send to The Guardian Weekend Magazine. And have I done any of these? No. Of course not.

You see, as I was putting away the shopping, I realised the vegetable drawer of the fridge was in a bit of a state and really NEEDED a good clean. After I’d done this, I noticed the draining board was also in NEED of a clean, not to mention all around the taps and the sink itself. And boy did I give it one! Earth Friendly Parsley Plus spray and a wire scourer does wonders on stainless steel, I can tell you. It’s so sparkly! And afterwards I felt so proud of myself because, judging by the results, it must have really NEEDED cleaning.

Then I decided I NEEDED to write this blog post, which is at least related to my new career (sort of). Meanwhile, the lists of SHOULDS and WANTS grows ever longer and I wonder if I’ll ever get round to sorting through all those travel souvenirs from my ‘Big Trip’ 9 years ago or transferring my truckload of loose photos into those lovely organiser boxes I bought 3 years ago for that very purpose. But at least my vegetables are sitting in a clean tray and I have a sparkling clean sink. That’s a start isn’t it…?

Social Me

I had a very exciting day yesterday designing my new website with the very talented Guy at zero G media (yes The Partner himself). After a whole day in the office we completed the Photoshop layout design for the grand total of 2 pages! It was fascinating to see the process in action and understand how time consuming it is making little adjustments, lining everything up and adding lovely little design features. In fact it was so enjoyable, I'm beginning to wonder if I'm pursuing the wrong career path (argh!)

The next step in the process is the actual building of the site, which Guy is hopefully working on at this very moment (damn, turns out he was in a coffee shop - should have known). The web address is mosscopywriting but there's just a holding page there for now.

I also finally succumbed to joining Twitter. I think all the little tweeting noises constantly emitted by The Partner's Twitterific iphone app have been gradually building up in my subconscious until I realised I was insanely jealous and needed to get in on the action! So you can now find me on Twitter under mosscopywriting. Come follow me!

As soon as the website goes live you can guarantee I'll be blogging, Tweeting and Facebooking about it like there's no tomorrow. So watch this space... and watch the Birdie...!

Starting at the Beginning

Welcome to my first blog post and what a journey it's been getting here. 7 months ago I decided to leave my 7-and-a-half-year office admin job in order to do some soul searching and to try and answer that question that's been haunting me (or should I say that I've been avoiding?) all my life: what do I really want to do? What am I passionate about? What vocation would I find truly fulfilling?

I felt pressured into answering these questions and needed to have some sort of response prepared so that when people asked me if I'd made any progress sorting out my life I could avoid those pathetic and wishy washy "I don't really knows". So I decided I would become a writer. Ah yes, simple. Just like that. Or not. You see, if there's one thing I've learnt from studying The Artist's Way it's that the mind doesn't work like that. Or at least mine doesn't. As soon as the idea was formed, my mind turned into this jeering, sniggering evil little being, poking fun at the rest of me and saying "Yeah right, you're going to be a writer are you? Snigger. Snort. Well, we'll just see about that won't we?"

The Artist's Way is a fantastically inspiring book by Julia Cameron designed to help you discover or recover your creativity in whatever form that may be. It's written as a 12-week course with exercises and tasks to follow. And follow them I did. I read every single word in the book, undertook every task and digested every piece of advice. So I was very confused, not to mention disappointed, when I got to the end of the course and felt no different to when I'd begun. I thought I would see massive changes in myself, I thought my creativity would blossom and, most of all, I thought I would instantly become a writer. But you see it just doesn't work like that.

2 months after finishing the course I'm now beginning to see the benefits of it and experience the subtle changes within myself and my thought processes which the book has instilled in me. It's all very well reading other people's advice, but until you actually experience it for yourself it's pretty much meaningless. I'm now halfway through another book, Writing Down The Bones by Natalie Goldberg, which a dear friend gave me for my birthday. I'm only halfway through it because that was all I needed to give me the inspiration and the urge to start writing.

So here I am, 7 months after convincing everyone, including myself, of my exciting new career, actually starting to do some of the things I first intended. You just can't rush these things you know! And one of those things was starting my own blog. And here it is, my first blog post. My first victory. Thanks for reading it. All I had to do was take a leap and the net would appear. I must remember that in future...