Yikes
I just happened upon a story I wrote a while ago. Could I use a few more dashes? Geez.
I have been doing a lot of thinking recently about the fact that I have made absolutely zero effort lately to get myself published again. I have somewhere around a dozen or so stories that I wrote for the magazine company I used to work for, but I’ve never been published anywhere else noteworthy. Someone please light a fire under my behind.
I don’t know if I would have any success or not, but I guess I’ll never know unless I try.
One of the things I’ve been thinking about is an article related to one of Gabriel’s conditions. I’ve immersed myself in literature related to those subjects, so I feel like a semi-expert as far as laypeople go. I would definitely need to collaborate on the article with a doctor or specialist so it would have more credibility.
Speaking of writing, I’m trying to convince my husband to start a sports blog. I think he’d be really good at it. I’ll let you know if/when he gets it off the ground.
Taking a short break
I’ve got 10 days before a huge writing/SEO project is due, so I probably won’t be blogging much the next week-and-a-half.
I worked over 9 hours today, and I’m spent. I don’t know what it is, but work-related writing really takes it out of me. I could seriously go to sleep right now (it’s just after 8 pm).
So … I guess I’ll catch up with you around Feb. 1st!
Aaaaaahhhhhh
I am basking in the afterglow of a finished assignment. I’ve been working almost constantly the last few days, and now I’m done. Please don’t ask me to say anything even half-intelligent; I fried my brain re-writing hundreds of headlines for a search-engine optimization (SEO) project.
Why do I do it?
I just finally finished with my sites for today’s deadline, 40 minutes until my time was up. I’ve been in don’t-talk-to-me-I’m-working-like-my-hair’s-on-fire mode all day.
I think I’m a glutton for punishment.
Working
I worked 13 + hours today and I’m still not done. My deadline is tomorrow. Must sleep before I go permanently cross-eyed from looking at this computer.
Say a prayer I can get this all finished tomorrow …
Writing with a fever
I’m sick (imagine that). I also have a deadline tomorrow, which trumps the sickness. So, when I wasn’t lying in bed and moaning today, I was typing. I just hope my writing makes sense.
Actually, all I’m writing is headlines. Still a challenge, but at least I’m not having to write entire stories.
It’s funny, most of the magazines the company I work for produces are in the same vein … promoting a city or county to prospective newcomers or businesses. Each of these publications have some mainstays – an education story, an arts story, a healthcare story, a business story … you get the picture.
The thing about the healthcare and education stories are … every single community wants to claim their schools and local hospital are The Best. Everyone can’t be The Best, but they claim to be nonetheless. So, I find myself using these phrases a LOT: top-notch, high-tech, cutting-edge, state-of-the art, nationally recognized etc.
For once, can I write something bad about one of these places? I guess if that’s what I want, I should work for a newspaper and not a magazine!
Back to the sickness: I knew this was inevitable, when earlier in the week I had a feverish child snuggled right up next to me in the bed. Oh, it’s worth it.
Aaaaaahhhhh
It feels so refreshing to be finished with a big project.
I still have some ongoing work to do, but I’m finished with the biggest part of it – what a relief.
So, this work was due Monday, and I didn’t finish it until 3 am Monday morning. After getting the equivalent of a nap, I got up and went to my friend Christin’s house to run her in-home daycare for the day while she was traveling. Besides my kids, I was watching a 2 1/2-year-old girl and 2-year-old twin boys. The twins were only there part of the day. So, I had 4 2-year-olds and a 3-year-old. You know what I discovered? I don’t think I’m cut out for childcare. I mean, everything went fairly okay, but naptime was extremely difficult – for a whole hour, I had to keep telling the kids to lay down and close their eyes.
So after a long day, I came home and went to sleep when my kids went to bed at 9 pm. I had a very strange dream last night. I dreamt that I was in my car, speeding along on the highway, and the police started to follow me. I quickly turned into a crowded restaurant and went inside. I sat down at a table with some complete strangers and tried to blend in, but the police found me and hauled me off. They took me to some kind of a jail for women, and I was told I couldn’t get my paperwork processed to get out for two weeks. I kept crying because I wanted to go home and see my kids. It was such a vivid dream, when I woke up this morning, I said, “Oh, thank God!”
I feel like I should be working. I guess I’ll go clean the house or something.
Not as easy as it looks
I’m working on a big freelance project for a magazine publisher that I used to work for (on a full-time basis, I mean). I am going through dozens of their web sites and making their story headlines more SEO-friendly. (That last sentence used technically incorrect grammar, I know … sorry.)
Headlines were always one of the hardest things about writing stories, in my opinion. Different publications go by different rules, but I am having to keep these things in mind for every headline I write:
- Length – the webmaster tells me these headlines are also serving as file names and can’t be too long
- How many keywords I can cram in to help optimize the site for effective web searching
- Correct grammar
- Catchiness, if possible
Anyway, it doesn’t take long to get writer’s block doing this project, especially since many of the stories convey very similar messages, and I can’t make the headlines redundant.
I am so glad to have this work, though. Hopefully I can clear the cobwebs out of my brain and do a good job with it.
Stop the insanity
I’m as guilty as the next person, but whose idea was it that every other newspaper headline has to be catchy? And don’t get me started on magazine headlines.
Witty headlines can be refreshingly delightful, but most of the time, they are cliched and cheesy. But every editor and writer seems compelled to write them.
Can we just please stop?
PS – yes, I intended for my headline to be ironic. Just so you know. 
