Another year starts and we come up with a lot of resolutions we are most certainly can’t keep up. A few years ago, one of the most successful resolutions I made was to stop drinking so much Starbucks coffee, as I was spending more money than I would like to on it. I’m not a fan of corporations and after reading that it cost the establishment 45 cents to make a coffee and how much they were profiting from it, I was ok not having it. I much rather get my coffee at a local coffee shop. What all this have to do with Writing? I tell you. My resolutions for this year are big. Bigger than it has ever been. I came to the conclusion that I want to start working on my production channel for Youtube or Vimeo. Getting a writing job is being clearly impossible, as they want years of experience, even for freelancing articles.
During the holidays, after another fail attempt to get a regular job, because of the high risk that type of job involved, nonetheless being an Auto-Attendant. It is like a flight attendant, but serving food and snacks on a moving bus while on the highway to Dallas and back. I watched some videos and start reading about how some successful people started. Not the ones who have had financial help, the ones who started gambling with scratchy. As a result of watching these videos, I end up at Target buying a huge calendar, hung my whiteboards, yes, I have two, and map it out what I want this year to be like in terms of achievement.
Once you put out your projects on a paper, it starts to look real. I’m not a very technological person. I always have a notebook and a pencil with me, just in case. Some ideas are good and others just linger for no reason; During the holiday season, I found an old prompt book that gives you a few words and you have to create a story with it. I can’t have enough of these books. One of the prompts I choose was “Selling a childhood home” and the words were: Convince, Dreamscape, Pioneer. I end up writing a short story called “The white house by the lake”. The only word I used was dreamscape.
“The White House by the Lake” is about a problematic friendship in the ’60s, with a mentally unstable person and her loyal friend. The house represented the stability one of them never had. After reading a couple of times, I decided I want to rewrite as a Horror, due to the behavior of the crazy friend. I’m working on it to post it on the project session here soon. I hope having a calendar helps.
During this time I also decided that the story I’m writing for the past 3 years, should be a web series, so I have to write the scripts. I figure out that if I wait to write this as a book, it would take me a long time. People erroneously think that writing its an easy job, it is just sit down and write. What they don’t see is that it is time-consuming, you are always terrified that no one will like it, you have the rabbit hole of the research part, and writing with no distractions it is like finding money on your jacket. Let me tell you that the only tv that works with the Playstation is in the space I call my office and my husband just got two new games, so fights, monsters and explosions are literally the white noise I didn’t ask for. If you can work in the midst of chaos, I would give you a hug right now. I admire people who can thrive in the chaos.
Hooray for the Writer Moms! I cherish you and I envy you!
So far, having a designated place to write is working. Most of the time is not peaceful, but it works. As long as I have a noise cancelling earphones it works.
See you soon,
J. Snellenberger
