365 days of being a writer: day 16

All of the shameless self-promotion clogging the innerwebs is a bit demoralizing. The twitter accounts that say over and over: read my new blog! read my new blog!... Already I have been counseled that my post tweets come too late at night to "do me any good." Any good for garnering market share, presumably. They are doing a lot of good as far as keeping me focused and accountable.

But there are an abundance of "writers" out there who want to make money a nickel or penny at a time. Their websites and tweets fill my airspace like poorly structured foreshadowing. Some day, you too, will be paid by the click for your "words of the day" and "promotion services." My work at Demand Studios is like that: a writer's sweatshop. Fifteen bucks for well-written, researched writing is a slap in the face, but there are some weeks when $30 is the difference between some stupid little nicety and a week of unsalvaged despair.

Maybe I will start post dating for the morning after, maybe not. Maybe the idea of doing that, just to get people here patting me on the back, feels too needy. Maybe I really need it.



In the meantime, one thing I definitely need is a couple of days off. My guy and I are headed to Austin where he will be performing in an improv festival. Our accommodations won't allow me to bring my laptop. I wasn't sure how I was going to deal with this project while away from the computer. It is important to me that the process of blogging the project not get in the way of doing the actual project. To that end, I am going to take a notebook, and keep notes, analog-style. I will update here when I get back. I will still be writing every day, you'll just have to somehow sense it, rather than be chirped and bumped and buzzed reminders about it.

As far as today's productivity goes, I wrote two blog posts for work, submitted my McSweeney's column submission, and sent off some snapshots to accompany my magazine piece coming out in the Winter. Did I mention that I got a 95 on my astronomy final? Probably I did. I will see whoever is still here on Monday.