Blog Year In Review
December 28, 2008
So, I decided to skim through the last year’s blog posts in hopes of getting a sense of the year in review.
January
I started a multi-part series on Freelance Writing For A Living. It’s about the most useful thing I’ve ever written on the blog and as I recall, my hit counts reflected it. Eventually I put them up on my blog links.
I also was angst-y about writing fiction, put up a photo of my dog, and some YouTube clips of great guitarists.
February
I kick off this month with a very angst-ridden post where I contemplate quitting writing fiction. Then I jump around a bit, get back to the quitting writing fiction thing again for a while, my mood goes up, my mood goes down, I add a couple posts about writing for a living, then I have a post about writing and sex, where I comment that “writing is like masturbation. It’s sort of fun but doesn’t pay your bills.”
March
I discuss “when successful writers fail,” a topic apparently near and dear to my heart. I put up a section of my MG novel as a contest and people actually get involved in it. That book’s still out. I get into politics a bit, as the primaries were still in full swing and Elliot Spitzer got humiliated etc. for getting caught paying a high-priced hooker $4300 an hour for sex. I also post some guitar music videos. Oh yes, I get all angst-y about writing fiction. It might be worth noting that I’m quite close to having finished two middle-grade novels in 2008, despite all my problems writing fiction.
April
April was an interesting month. I seemed to actually write interesting things about writing, about book advances, and what I see as important attitudes needed to survive as a writer. There’s some angst, but in general I seemed to be on top of life and writing. I note that my family and I spent a couple days at a water park this month, so maybe the vacation did me some good.
May
I posted about global warming and sex--in the same blog post. I also found a Pakistani coin at the gym, reminded readers about the very large FREE booklet about writing available on my website and complained about the season finale of “Bones.” (Which still sort of sucks). I also have a very, very long interview I did with my niece Kallen, who interviewed me for a class project about careers.
June
Not surprisingly to me, June is one fucked up month. I went to New York to take on a contract job, which was a pretty bad idea. It paid well, but it made me uneasy, and I quit it 2 weeks later. In the meantime, I went to Houston for a week for another client and had a pretty crappy trip, primarily because I was all stressed out about the contract job. The job itself probably wasn’t the problem overall, but that it was a full-time gig and I already was contract for about 20-30 hours a week of work. There were other issues, but this month’s blog posts reflect me at a time when I was obsessing and stressing big-time. Ugh.
July
Seemed like a hopeful month. My posts seemed more upbeat and optimistic, going so far as to write a post about optimism. The writing advice seems realistic but mostly positive. I also had a vacation, which is a very good thing.
August
The most important post this month came on August 1, when I posted a bunch of pay ranges for various writing gigs. I didn’t write about writing much, although what I did seems trenchant enough. Otherwise I seemed to have posted a lot of videos.
September
A lot of politics, not surprisingly. There were a couple good posts on writing, although they weren’t not generally the upbeat-yes-you-too-can-make-it-big posts, but what I think are realistic analyses of the difficulties--in other words, Mark kicks aspiring writers when they’re down. If you like your writing aspirations reality-free, stay away from my blog.
October
On October 20th I blogged: The Absolutely Most Important Thing You Need To Know About Writing For A Living
Really, everything else that month is probably a side dish.
November
A lot of good stuff here, especially my Handy-Dandy Rejection Checklist, but if you’re looking for warm and fuzzy, this ain’t the month.
December
Hmmm, I threw in the towel and gave you all the pats on the back you’ll ever need. I bought a guitar. There’s a good post about the reality of being a published novelist, and probably best, 10 things I like about freelance writing.
So, I decided to skim through the last year’s blog posts in hopes of getting a sense of the year in review.
January
I started a multi-part series on Freelance Writing For A Living. It’s about the most useful thing I’ve ever written on the blog and as I recall, my hit counts reflected it. Eventually I put them up on my blog links.
I also was angst-y about writing fiction, put up a photo of my dog, and some YouTube clips of great guitarists.
February
I kick off this month with a very angst-ridden post where I contemplate quitting writing fiction. Then I jump around a bit, get back to the quitting writing fiction thing again for a while, my mood goes up, my mood goes down, I add a couple posts about writing for a living, then I have a post about writing and sex, where I comment that “writing is like masturbation. It’s sort of fun but doesn’t pay your bills.”
March
I discuss “when successful writers fail,” a topic apparently near and dear to my heart. I put up a section of my MG novel as a contest and people actually get involved in it. That book’s still out. I get into politics a bit, as the primaries were still in full swing and Elliot Spitzer got humiliated etc. for getting caught paying a high-priced hooker $4300 an hour for sex. I also post some guitar music videos. Oh yes, I get all angst-y about writing fiction. It might be worth noting that I’m quite close to having finished two middle-grade novels in 2008, despite all my problems writing fiction.
April
April was an interesting month. I seemed to actually write interesting things about writing, about book advances, and what I see as important attitudes needed to survive as a writer. There’s some angst, but in general I seemed to be on top of life and writing. I note that my family and I spent a couple days at a water park this month, so maybe the vacation did me some good.
May
I posted about global warming and sex--in the same blog post. I also found a Pakistani coin at the gym, reminded readers about the very large FREE booklet about writing available on my website and complained about the season finale of “Bones.” (Which still sort of sucks). I also have a very, very long interview I did with my niece Kallen, who interviewed me for a class project about careers.
June
Not surprisingly to me, June is one fucked up month. I went to New York to take on a contract job, which was a pretty bad idea. It paid well, but it made me uneasy, and I quit it 2 weeks later. In the meantime, I went to Houston for a week for another client and had a pretty crappy trip, primarily because I was all stressed out about the contract job. The job itself probably wasn’t the problem overall, but that it was a full-time gig and I already was contract for about 20-30 hours a week of work. There were other issues, but this month’s blog posts reflect me at a time when I was obsessing and stressing big-time. Ugh.
July
Seemed like a hopeful month. My posts seemed more upbeat and optimistic, going so far as to write a post about optimism. The writing advice seems realistic but mostly positive. I also had a vacation, which is a very good thing.
August
The most important post this month came on August 1, when I posted a bunch of pay ranges for various writing gigs. I didn’t write about writing much, although what I did seems trenchant enough. Otherwise I seemed to have posted a lot of videos.
September
A lot of politics, not surprisingly. There were a couple good posts on writing, although they weren’t not generally the upbeat-yes-you-too-can-make-it-big posts, but what I think are realistic analyses of the difficulties--in other words, Mark kicks aspiring writers when they’re down. If you like your writing aspirations reality-free, stay away from my blog.
October
On October 20th I blogged: The Absolutely Most Important Thing You Need To Know About Writing For A Living
Really, everything else that month is probably a side dish.
November
A lot of good stuff here, especially my Handy-Dandy Rejection Checklist, but if you’re looking for warm and fuzzy, this ain’t the month.
December
Hmmm, I threw in the towel and gave you all the pats on the back you’ll ever need. I bought a guitar. There’s a good post about the reality of being a published novelist, and probably best, 10 things I like about freelance writing.
posted by Mark Terry at 4:01 PM
1 Comments:
You also got a few new readers...
Happy Holidays.
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