Are There 25 Hours in a Day?

If you're in a creative rut, The Artist's Way will peel you off the pavement, then The Creative Habit will set your mind dancing again.

I can hear my little sister’s reaction now: “Riiiight. So how’s that workin’ for ya?” she will ask me with one eyebrow up (her eyebrow goes up so high I can hear it over the phone). She knows me. She knows I like to DO things. And boy am I ever doing things right now!

I am in a groove, as Twyla Tharp would call it. Every time I take a walk, an idea for a piece of my novel or an entirely new book project springs into my mind. “Structure the book as an escape to the outdoors in the same way Robbe-Grillet structured The Erasers city in a circle to hint at the story’s ending!” I gasp into my iPhone’s voice recorder, and suddenly the whole novel gels and the symbolism that’s already central to the plot is perfectly sewn together. Sweet! It’s not effortless, but it’s the fun kind of working up a sweat.

If you include my full-time “momming,” I am currently working 75 hours a week, but I’ve never felt more energized. That is the definition of a groove, or it should be. All grooves come to an end, but I am riding this one like a wild horse. No way am I going to let fear or distractions or anything else deter me from getting every drop of fun out of this groove.

How did I get here? I don’t really know, but the one thing I’m doing differently this time that might have something to do with it is this: I’m not over-thinking my plans. I have plans upon plans–that’s what I’m so excited about!–but I am focusing on the short-term plans right now to explore these rabbit trails, then later I’ll see if I want to pick one trail above the others. I also took Pete Michaud’s advice not to make everything perfect before launching my new blog, and that has paid dividends in creativity and forward momentum. Thanks, Pete!

Two years ago I had barely worked up the courage to say aloud that I wanted to write at all. So my self-confidence has changed as well. All I can say is, it’s about time!

If you’re in a groove or remember a good one, how did you get there? If your groove turned to a rut, what caused that to happen?

Ichubbawha?? (The Sound of Me Doing Another Double-take.)

One of the desires of my heart: my stunningly beautiful back yard.

I ask you: What is UP with this serendipity thing? We just moved our daughter from her co-sleeper mini crib to a full-size crib, and she has adapted so well that I have gotten my two best nights of sleep in months… which means that my relentless drive has come out of hibernation and I started thinking about how to find more work–maybe even break into a new genre. As if I need to diversify, I know! I just would love to get into editing fiction–sci-fi/fantasy and mysteries, specifically–in addition to the Christian nonfiction and automotive work I’m already doing.

I just said (there seems to be something about saying these things out loud) to my husband that I was thinking of pursuing a new client, and ran an idea by him regarding how I might make it easier for myself to break that new-genre barrier. He said go for it, and before I could look up the company I was thinking of cold-calling, someone else came to me and asked if I might be interested in my dream editing job. Well, one of them. I have a lot of dream jobs. Well, yes! Yes, I would. It’s in Christian publishing, so maybe I’ll wait on that idea to pursue fiction work for a few weeks. We’ll see where this goes.

Lately this scripture verse keeps running through my head, and I hope that it encourages you as it has been encouraging me: “Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4, NIV). Every time I hear this verse, I’m reminded that I don’t have to slave for the things I want, nor do I have to choose between the relationship I want to develop with my Daddy in heaven and the dreams He has given me to pursue here on earth. “Relax, Laura!” that scripture says to me. “Just breathe, enjoy God and life, and everything will fall into place.”

And so it has, once again. Maybe I should spend more time meditating on this verse and less time ranting about Jeremiah 12:1.

Balance

Balance a tabac, by Jean Poussin

Balance: It’s something I’m seeking in more ways than one right now. Being 5 1/2 months pregnant, I have to pause before I descend the stairs, or I am inclined to descend headfirst. Being 5 1/2 months pregnant, I also have to decide day by day how much work I’m going to pursue as a freelancer and try to predict (ha!) how much work I’ll be able to do once the baby comes. If I take on too much, my life will feel like falling downstairs, and I don’t want my baby to be neglected or overscheduled the moment she’s born.

I think I’m doing a whole lot better at this balance thing than I used to, but that’s not really saying much. Some days I’m happy to put up my feet and absorb the experience of not being harried–I know I’ll treasure it later–others I get anxious that there’s work out there I could be doing that I’m not searching hard enough to find.

Then I remind myself how serendipitous my move into freelancing (and motherhood) was, how things always work out, how God takes such excellent care of us and always makes good on His promises, and I go back to plugging away at the day’s work. One day at a time. One thing at a time. People before things, relationships and health before accomplishments. I look for more work when I feel able to handle it, and if it doesn’t like me back, it wasn’t meant to be. That’s the best I can do. And you know what the big difference is between today-Laura and yesterday-Laura? My best is good enough. Is that balance? It’s a balancing act, that’s for sure.

How do you achieve balance, particularly if you set your own schedule? It’s a challenge for everyone, but freelancers face this issue on a daily basis, and now I’m more aware than ever of what a challenge it is for the unemployed as well. Do you have a mantra that helps you get centered again, or a guidepost of how much is too much work (beyond just knowing you need to work enough to keep the lights on)?

Communicating Value

I just applied to a freelance position that closely matches my experience–surprisingly so, actually. Even with an obvious correlation between what the employer was looking for (freelance, book/magazine editing, InDesign experience, Chicago Manual of Style familiarity, experience establishing style guides, etc.) and what I’ve done (all of the above), I found it challenging to communicate the value I could offer the employer. Part of this is due to the challenge of communicating authentic enthusiasm for a job over email, and part of it is my difficulty tooting my own horn. I believe this is a very common problem for freelancers and job seekers in general–editors in particular, because we’re very rarely the gushy or salesy types. We like the facts to speak for themselves. But do they? How could this employer know how perfectly I could fulfill this role unless I connected the dots for them? I’m getting better at this over time, but it’s still uncomfortable.

There is a second aspect to this problem of communicating value: what is editing? Copyediting? Proofreading? One of the best things we can do as freelancers is to clearly explain what services we offer, and what the purpose of those services is. Publishers and editors communicate a lot more easily (usually) than business clients and editors do, because publishers and editors know what’s involved in the editing process. Clients who don’t work in the publishing industry often don’t know exactly what services they need or what the value is of a freelancer who can evaluate a project and tell the client what it needs, WHY, and how long it will take… without jargon. The ability to explain the value of editing services is crucial to not only the individual freelancer’s career, but also to the industry as a whole. How do managers know which editors to keep when they have to make cuts? How can they recognize a decline in quality if they believe that editors do little more than proofread? According to my clients, I’m quite good at this aspect of communicating what I’m doing and why, but I’m sure there’s always room for improvement. This will only become more of a challenge as more and more people enter the business world with an inadequate level of English/grammar education. (Let’s not argue that point: it’s terrifying the lack of quality in most people’s writing these days, even compared with a decade ago.)

How do you communicate your value to a client? How do you explain your services? Have you ever gotten yourself entangled in a messy freelancing situation for lack of adequate communication about expectations?