Friday, October 28, 2011

Busy!

Boy have I been busy. Pretty obvious though, right, when I haven't written in months?

In the last month or two, I was very preoccupied with preparing my MFA applications. But since I've recently decided to take yet another year off before applying, that's no longer my top priority. That's right...I'm giving myself another year. I admit that it feels wrong to be changing my game plan at this point, but I just wasn't feeling at all confident in my applications. I was rushing through my endings and edits, and the results were bad. It doesn't matter how great the beginning of a story is...if the end is crap, or clearly wasn't given as much love and attention as the rest of the story, then the whole thing fails. Although I think a lot of what I had prepared to submit was truly great, I still don't feel that it's my best work. And I just can't bear to go through the whole application process and all the fees if I'm only going to be rejected and have to do it all again next year. I would rather do it right, and feel totally confident, the first time around. So that's the new game plan--use the next twelve months to write write write and improve improve improve so I'm ready next fall. I think I'm going to have to buy myself a lovely new notebook and go back to my "write something everyday" challenge. It's not easy, but the last time I tried it, the results were surprisingly amazing.

I've also been working a lot at Target...blah. Gotta pay those bills. I won't bore you with my many complaints about the job. They did, though, make me the Target Cafe team trainer. Nice to be recognized as super knowledgeable about my area, but it's basically a promotion without the raise. They did give me a new name tag with an oh-so-prestigious "TRAINER" label, and a candy bar. Whoo. Still keeping an eye out for a job where I can work fewer hours and make more money.

Speaking of new jobs--I got one this week! But it's not substantial enough to replace my current job. It's more of a supplement. It's a virtual position, roughly twenty hours a week. It doesn't pay well at all, but that's because the company is just starting up. It's a guest post company (aptly named GuestPostU)--writes quality articles on a variety of subjects for a variety of websites and blogs. While I was hoping to be a content writer or editor, those positions were filled pretty fast and I ended up as the email relationship manager. So I'm the one matching up potential clients with relevant articles and handling all the communications via email. It's easy, and I can do it from home. It is, however, quite time consuming. Today was my first day and I couldn't believe how long it took me to make ten pitches. But now that I have the process pretty much figured out, I'm sure I'll be able to do the job faster.

I've also been crocheting a lot. Learning how to make amigurumi toys, for one. I've only made gingerbread men and an elephant so far...but they turned out super cute! I'm planning to make a whole fleet of gingerbread men to give away at Christmas. They're too freaking cute not to share. :) I'm also working on a hat and a scarf...must be prepared for the chilly days ahead.

Oh, baking, too. It's fall (my favorite season!) so I can't help but want to bake all the time. I've been cooking more real meals, too...rather than pasta or easy ready made skillet meals almost every night. In fact, I have mini brown sugar meatloafs in the oven at the moment and tasty potatoes waiting to be fattened up with milk and butter and mashed to creamy deliciousness. I love making comfort food.

And now that it's almost November, I'm going to be busy working on my NaNoWriMo novel! Might be tricky with all this busyness talk...but that won't stop me from trying. I have a fun chick lit (think romantic comedy) plot in mind. I hope I have time to at least top last year's word count, which was around 10,500 words (bit short of the goal of 50,000...).

So that's what I've been up to...and am going to be up to.