The State of Blog (and Me) Address

You may have noticed last week that the blog was not flowing with the words. It was a little short and to the point. And the point almost always ended up being that I wouldn't really be blogging. This may have got you wondering, "Oh where oh where, did my daily blog posts go?" Well, they didn't go any where. That was sort of the point. They just stayed lodged in my brain until the right time for them to leap out and infect the world with their wordiness and rantiness.

I'll try to get away with explaining my absence in a vague but moderately satisfying way.

I've said before that this year has been a little on the hectic side. Sometimes that has meant really good things, such as being able to finally commit full time to my writing business. Other times it means hanging out on the other side of the spectrum, such as with the family emergency I've alluded to or the recent passing of dear love ones. What it has always meant, is that this has been one of the more time consuming years I've ever experienced. My work life and my personal life have both had equal amounts of the hectic and crazy. Starting out your own self employed business almost guarantees that you'll be pulling long hours and I've not been able to become the exception. My personal life has been both wonderful and tragic, but have constantly found new things to ensure I don't have too many moments of rest.

I'm not complaining. 2011 may not go down as the greatest year known to man, but it has had equal moments of awfulness and excellence.

But if you've been following me so far, you've clued in it has been a busy one.

Last week, was one of those moments that the two sides collided and I was left with a car wreck of crazy. There was a lot of personal and work debris I had to sort through, while also trying to avoid the continued traffic that was threatening to run me over. As you can see, I survived.

I not only survived, but I learned a few things. I learned that a contract is a writer's best friend. Or more so, it can be if the writer knows exactly how to read it and use it to his advantage. Or even more specifically, it is rather important to make sure you've made an agreement where you're paid for work, even if a several week long project has now been axed by the higher ups. Because not much is more of a kick in the pants than spending hours and hours of hard work for free. Actually, it can be pretty demoralizing.

But luckily, hard lessons can be followed by good news. I've likely lined up lots of new projects. As has been the case since I started, I am sure not all of them will end up panning out. Which is why I remain vague and don't want to start promoting them yet (partly due to things like non disclosure agreements). But I know, my last several months of crazy have equipped me with more knowledge and tools to help me make the proper decisions when dealing with future work. Hopefully, it will avoid more mass meltdowns.

On a similar note, I've also learned that is probably best to find out how serious a client is and how much they're willing to pay, before you spend half of your already busy day communicating with them. Landing and communicating with clients is important, but it can also be time consuming. It can start feeling like a waste if you end up behind on the paying work, and you end up not landing any real work with the chatterbox.

But that is my business side of the crazy, and that is only one part of me. My personal side is something I'll leave even more vague.

To sum it up, I've learned a good bit this last week on how to handle some of the lunacy and crazy going on in the personal part of my life. The easy way to sum it up is making sure I value and cherish the time I have with loved ones. It is key to make a proactive effort to find that quality time and enjoy the moments you have with those you love. Plus it's good to throw out that word, "I love you." And on top of that, it is nice to keep on peppering in the perspective. Life can be a very good thing, but you need to actually choose to see it that way. And live it that way.

So yeah, I am done being philosophical and vague.

Hopefully, I'll blog a bit more this week. Over the next bit, I hope to have some pretty exciting announcements to make. On top of that, I'll have my usual opinions and rants. Though since it is the summer, I can already promise you that I'll also be doing a few more disappearing acts in the coming weeks. In the mean time, I'm hoping to throw some delicious ranty goodness your way.

Now, that I am done blabbering, how are you?