Ten Thousand Words

I've spent the last two days working on articles for clients, one a magazine article for a newcomer's/relocation magazine, the other a friend's business that helps facilities streamline their recycling and sustainability efforts.

I wrote on two very distinct and different topics, learned a lot about both, and had a ball doing it. Mind you, I've been doing research for the article on my friend's business for a couple of weeks, interviewing two schools, including my alma mater, that have used her services, but only sat down yesterday afternoon and today to put all the pieces together.

After finishing both articles, and as I was writing, I just felt all jacked up. Energized. Happy. When I'm writing like that, learning new things and sharing that knowledge, I just feel as if I'm – okay, get ready for the crazy-talk – I feel as if I'm in the flow of the Universe. I feel like I'm connected, plugged in, tuned in, turned on, and right where I'm supposed to be doing what I'm supposed to be doing.

And then, I don't want to stop.

I can't believe it has taken me so long to see this and be able to articulate it. The problem is, however, that when I do that, it's hard to get anything else done. My house goes to Hell. My kids feel neglected.

Balance. I know. The magic word we all seek. My problem is, I go off on benders. I'll spend a week doing nothing but writing, tweeting, Facebooking, stopping to feed my kids, workout, eat, bathe, take my kids to play or do something so they're not totally ignored, but everything else like laundry, cleaning, etc. can just fall by the wayside until I snap out of the spell and see the mountains of laundry that threaten to topple over and bury a child.

Still, despite the warning signs, it was only today that I realized what was happening, that I was finding my groove, the place I want to be,need to be, and getting lost there. When I come up for air and try to manage the household in the way it should be managed, then I fall so far out of the vortex of joy I'm in when I'm writing consistently, that I start to feel depressed.

Maybe now that I actually see and accept what's happening I can find more of that balance. Give a little more attention to the things that need attention before they get out of hand, be that doing the laundry or writing about something I care about. And soon I believe the paid writing projects will pick up enough again that perhaps I can outsource my least favorite tasks. If only I really could hire someone to do my grocery shopping, laundry, and clean the bathrooms without breaking the bank. Oh to dream!

None of Us are Free

I suspect that if I were receiving a report card today, it would say does not play well with others. And after reflecting on this, I think I've always been this way, to some extent.

I do not like being part of a team. I want to be given a project and told to go at it. If I have to work with someone else, I want them to do their part and let me do mine and for them to keep their mouths shut and not tell me what they think about my work. And I'll do the same.

Now, why am I on about this, you ask? Well, I started a new job. There's the boss, who can give me feedback. That's part of the inherent, unspoken contract between a boss and an employee. There's a tech guy. And there's me... the marketer, the writer.

The tech guy thinks he can criticize my writing. And that pisses me the hell off. Especially when the writing is on a blog.

Ah ha! That was an example of exactly the thing he'd criticize... a sentence fragment.

I'll be more specific. I have a new job as the part-time marketing director for a small company. I am writing a blog on the subject matter of that company. I have worked with the tech guy on the blog because it's on WordPress at his suggestion and I am finding WordPress very user-unfriendly and ugly and it doesn't handle text well, etc. So, I've lots of questions.

Because it's a blog and I'm ghostwriting it, I've tried to find a way to match the conversational tone of my boss and keep it readable. I'm writing about specific subject matter and I need to sound like I know what I'm talking about without being stuffy or pompous. As I've shown here, I think that a blog is a conversation. And I tend to write in a conversational tone, phrasing things as I would say them if I were speaking to friends. I do not write in the formal manner, using all the conventions of correct grammar, as I would were I writing an English paper or an article for a magazine or speaking in front of a group of English professors who weren't also my friends. (You would be shocked at how many of my friends and Scott's are actually English professors.)

In writing this other blog, which has kept me away from here for more than a week, I think, I have used a sentence fragment for effect. I have begun a sentence with And (more than once), also for effect, and I have been soundly called out for those things by Mr. Techy-Smartypants. To my boss!

I met him for the first time yesterday and he gave off a cold and smug vibe that really rubbed me the wrong way. During the meeting, I learned that my boss is hiring another writer who was recommended by this tech guy, who by the way, I now think is a dirty louse for recommending another writer.

My boss says I shouldn't be insulted. He wants me to manage the marketing efforts and not write. But I love writing. LOVE IT. It is the one thing, other than my family and friends, that I am passionate about. Marketing is just something I do. Not what I love... what I wake up thinking about in the middle of the night. I don't compose marketing plans in the shower every day, but I do mentally write... fictional stories, blog posts, love letters to my husband and children, letters to congresspeople, magazine articles.

I know that if I were a better person, a team player, as it were, I'd be egoless about this. I would believe this is what is best for the business and I will be able to focus my efforts on generating great marketing ideas every day if I don't have to write the blog and web content. But I'm not there. I'm not selfless and egoless. I do believe I am a better writer than anyone else my boss will hire. I went to Agnes Freakin' Scott, dammit! No one trains better writers than Agnes Scott.

So, now that we're clear... Dawn doesn't play well with others and thinks she's a better writer than 95% of the people available to be hired as writers and she doesn't like being corrected by know-it-all techies... I feel much better. And I hope you don't think less of me for venting about it. Or for actually having the feelings in the first place. I never claimed to be perfect, right?

I will see letting go of the writing aspects of the job as an opportunity to focus those energies here and on other writing projects and I will try to see focusing on the marketing efforts as my actual job and the building up of those muscles.

Wish me the best.

*Tech dude actually criticized me for writing directly into the blog, as opposed to using a text editor and cutting and pasting. First of all, if WordPress actually came with a built-in spell check it wouldn't matter, and second of all, he must not know who he's talking to. I can only compare it to folks who do crosswords in pencil.

So, y'all, how do you write? Directly into the blog or with a text editor? Do tell, because I think he's insane and presumptuous to believe that I would need to do that.