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Monday, August 01, 2005

I'm an uber quitter

When I (temporarily) quit my blog two weeks ago, I also quit my freelance job and my book club. All in one day. Thankfully my blog was willing to give me a second chance (thanks to all the encouragement!!).

But I'm no longer in a book club--hard to believe that getting together with friends once a month to talk about a book was too stressful. I never managed to read the book and I was getting stressed out about it. Rather pathetic.

I'm also no longer a freelance writer. I was so excited about signing up for a series of projects for my regional parenting magazine, but I just couldn't handle all the flakiness of my editor. I knew things were falling out of favor when I got that initial email that they wanted to temporarily shelf the story I'd written because it should be a series of stories instead of just one.

They told me that they don't stiff their writers, but they really do.

Sure I wouldn't get stiffed if eventually they take my fabulous story and have me rewrite it into three separate stories. Editor wrote that I'd "actually make more money" in the long run because my one 1,200-word story would be three 1,200-word stories or more. In the meantime, I'd get nothing. Nothing for all the work and research I did. Nothing for all the money I paid to have Toddler in Chief in daycare for many hours while I did this work. Nothing for all the ideas I gave Editor through my super fabulous piece. Nada.

I just don't think I'm cut out to deal with all that BS. When I was a salaried journalist, my editor would be flaky from time to time, but I didn't care as much because I was getting paid either way. They could change their minds as much as they wanted, it was all the same to me. This is very different and at this point in my life, I don't need the frustration. They must be accustomed to working with freelance writers who are willing to be pushed around more and who are willing to work for less money than I am.

Maybe I'll try again in the future, but for now, if I'm going to put TIC in daycare and I'm going to work, it's going to be all about me. Maybe I'll start working on my novel again (although I'm sure Bethany over at Writing Mommy will tell me that book editors are worse than freelance editors!). Or maybe I'll focus on writing here. Or maybe I'll just savor some me time.

3 comments:

  1. I'm so sorry to hear what happened with the freelance gig. But you did much better than me in that you at least tried it. I was too scared!

    I was the same with a book club, but the one I belonged to had members who liked to read 'self help' books. Not that I have anything against those, but as the only mom in the group, I just could not connect with them. It would have been better to read fiction.

    Well I hope you do continue to blog. I love checking in, and you provide so much insight. I would have never even considered cloth diapers but after reading your entry the other day, I'm actually researching it! :)

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  2. Interesting to hear that other moms quit their book clubs. It was just another thing that I wasn't able to accomplish during the day/week/month, so it made me feel like I was failing. I guess I'll just have to read at my own speed and go out once a month to have coffee and ponder the things I've read ;-)

    And I've been contimplating graduate school, but I wonder if I'd feel the same way Anne does. But it's hard to really know until you're in the middle of it... like with the freelance stuff. I thought it was the perfect solution. Ack.

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  3. Anonymous1:35 PM

    I quit a book club too. I don't read books "on deadline" if you know what I mean!

    As for freelancing, I continue to do it but know it's not going to pay the bills for a while. It's what keeps me sane while I do other writing to pay the bills!!! I'm hoping it turns into bigger better things, but if not, it will always be something I do just for me.

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