Attack the Blog

 

I keep promising changes on the site, but what is my actual game plan for trying to make it a reality rather than just making this place Hype Central for Things That Never Come.

My vision is to get up a few hours before the rest of my family which is something I do 9 out of 10 times as is, with the few exception where my kids decide 5am is the proper kick-off to the day (around the time that I tend to wake up). I will go for a nice walk with the dogs and gets my coffee brewing, then fire off quick emails and do some social media promotion. After that, I either write a movie review or a longer form piece about movies or culture or parenting or such. This would be the 'headline' piece of the day for the site.

My hope is to really hone in on it and have it done or at least in the proofreading zone by the time everyone comes stomping downstairs. Some days it may be a few thousands of words piece opus but I'm happy if I crank out something at 800 words. Length doesn't really matter, but rather it just being something of substance or has interesting insight on a certain movie.

Lately, I've been getting inside my head about a review being a certain length or measuring up to some imaginary metric, and that really slows down my writing. My hope is to just free form and follow my soul. and then tweaking it a bit for the masses to read. My goal is that isn't something that takes all day but still is of high quality.

After that I am probably setting the kids up for the day, and usually also helping Danika with some of her schooling for the day. Then my hope is to do several pitches to major publications and proposals to some potential clients.

If I can stay on track and kids distractions don't rattle me too much, it should still be morning where I'll do some client work or some bigger projects. When something is done or I feel I put in a strong effort towards the end goal, I'll crank out a smaller piece for the site.

Thus the cycle of the day is kicked off. After that piece is done then back to pitching to about five places and then doing any work left for clients or more work on a bigger project. Then there is the site waiting for another piece to be written. Of course, the more client work that I have then the less frequently I can return to the site.

On an ideal day, I keep up this routine until later afternoon where maybe I spend some time with the kids or start to get dinner ready or whatever else non-writing thing needs my attention. After that, it is after dinner family time and then the bedtime routine. I then get some exercise by walking the dogs in the evening, and then if it isn't too late, I watch a movie which will then be what I write a review about the next day.

That is the plan of attack for my career on a typical day. Things go a bit different on weekends where family time has a greater priority and on Sunday I record The Movie Breakdown. If I can stick with this routine then I should have a balance of getting paid writing done and have a few things up on the site every day along with some healthy future work lined up.

I'm also aware it isn't going to go perfectly. There will be days where I'm going to be tearing flesh and clawing for my life on trying to get a piece out. There is days the kids will be needing my attention every four minutes. There is going to be a last minute deadline assignment that will force me to drop everything else. There will be days where I have to tap out of the writing earlier because it is just time to play with the kids or enjoy the wonders of the outdoors. I have to come to terms with that just being how life rolls out.

If this is the goal then I think the site is going to be pretty healthy and have lots of great stuff to read. If that is the reality next week then you'll know that I did alright with my plans.