Lone working, meetings, rejections, holidays and fitting life in!

Lone working, a meeting of friends, rejections, holidays and fitting life in!

The last month has been a bit of a rollercoaster ((here we go again… wait while I set up an orchestra of tiny violins)) The new year resolutions and best laid plans for making sure I followed my carefully prepared spreadsheet hasn’t gone well ((tell the good folk why?)) As I said in my last blog I’m now working for Newark Book Festival and any new job requires a bit more attention in the early days, and when you love what you do its easy to ignore the carefully prepared spreadsheet and go off grid ((What Peachy actually means is that she ended up having a long weekend in London followed closely by a long weekend in Cornwall)) Okay, okay I was going to confess it was due to being on holiday as well – give a girl a chance.

Anyway, all this resulted in being behind on my own work because of my unplanned trips. I did get a rejection for one of my submissions – which, whilst disappointing, it was a nice email and came back quickly and, in this world, any answer received quickly is a bonus. Submissions are on my ‘new year resolution list’ so I need to get ahead of the game and focus some time on these whilst balancing a job, writing, having holidays, cleaning the skirting boards, drinking coffee, blogging, networking… ((Alright give over – no-one is going to feel sorry for you – That’s life, stop moaning every month and get on with it))

Lone working can be a struggle and takes a bit of getting used to. When you’re self-published you become everything, writer, administrator, marketing department, editor, cover designer, the list goes on and you still have to live a normal life and those skirting boards won’t clean themselves! This in mind, I have a couple of friends that are also consumed by the creative world. I say consumed because if someone asked me if they should start writing, I would have to caution them against doing it unless they can endure the sleepless nights due to ‘inspiration’ hitting. The constant panic that you’re doing something wrong, or people won’t like your work. Taking the decision to write in March 2018 was one of the best and most life changing decisions I’ve made. ((Is that why your consumption of alcohol has increased along with your holidays! Oh, the dramas of being a creative!))

My friends and I met in a secret location… two artists and two writers. It was great fun and by unanimous decision we are going to make it a regular occurrence – well as regular as we can manage. Basically, as well as having a chat and supporting each other we can share skills and ideas, as one of the problems of being self-employed is having the money for things when you start to become successful. Website, marketing, blogs, materials – these all require time and money. Between us, we have many skills that can be shared for free, tips on what artists materials to buy, what to avoid, what gadgets work better to make work more productive, story ideas, marketing website and promotion. If we didn’t have any of these skills to share, it would still be invaluable to get together with like-minded creative people.

Right that’s it from me this month, if you’re submitting work then good luck. If you’re thinking of joining a local group, then go for it. We can all use a little more support. I feel so much better for having a little whinge. ((erm before you go, I would like to point out to the readers that you are in fact on holiday… again!!)) Yes, yes Brackets, but I will actually be working on my travel journal… what better place than on holiday – so really, it’s a working holiday… stop telling everyone. I’ve already got the nickname Judith… ((You have an answer for everything. I’m off to restring my violins))