After my rant on how New Year’s resolutions are generally rubbish, I’ve only gone and made one. Irony loves me. Instead of just inflicting random excerpts from my life on you every week, I’ve decided that it makes more sense to break each blog post into 3 sections.
Section 1 – News – Covering all the latest goings on writer-wise in my world
Section 2 – Rant – If you’ve ever met me then you know I love a good rant. If you fancy reading this section then you’ll be treated to a few paragraphs of whatever fit of apoplectic rage I’ve descended into that day.
Section 3 – Advice – When I finish ranting I’m told that I’m a pretty good listener and am able to provide sage advice and wisdom when it comes to freelancing, writing, and life in general. I aim to use this section to provide advice to anyone who’s requested it be they friend, foe, ally or alien. To begin with I’ll be providing advice on things that affect me but I hope as the blog develops people will begin making specific requests to me. This section is something that you can ignore if you feel it’s irrelevant to you. Although to be fair you can ignore the entire blog if you wish.
Aim
I hope that splitting each post into sections the blog will be easier to digest. Instead of having to trawl through whatever inane ramblings I’m spurting out, you can scroll directly to the section that interests you the most. I might add a few sections as the blog progresses depending on feedback and whether or not I can commit to more.
30th January 2015: “This Time Next Year, We’ll be Millionaires!”
News
I did okay over the past few weeks. First I had 2 more dating articles published by a new client and then I was accepted as a Huffington Post blogger. It would have been easy for me to write about something silly and fluffy to bring in as big an audience as possible. Instead I chose to write about voting and democracy. I wasn’t trying to carve out a new niche. I was just trying to illustrate something that is very important to me personally. You can read some of the new articles I’ve had published by following the links below.
“Why You Should Vote in 2015?” – The Huffington Post
“14 Things Every Man Thinks About On the First Date” We Love Dates
Rant
I don’t feel the need to have a massive rant this week, mainly because I had a rant about voting last week. The only thing that irritated me in the last day was listening to David “Call me Dave” Cameron and Ed “Shit I’ve only got 2p!” Miliband behave like 8 year old school boys in a playground during Prime Minister’s Questions. Considering it was the anniversary of Winston Churchill’s funeral this week, it’s really depressing to see how pathetic modern politicians are.
Advice – Lone Working
“Chateauneuff De Pap!”
This is one of my all time favourite exclamations from Del Boy in Only Fools & Horses. My brother gave me the entire box set for my birthday and I’ve been cackling away since the beginning of January whenever I watch an episode.
I love reading. I love stories. I love diving into thousands of other worlds that are different from my own. I love making stuff up. Reading is the main reason I became a writer. Telling stories was something I always enjoyed when growing up. Now that I’m older I find that there is precious little time in peoples’ lives to tell stories. Yet stories are where ideas start. If we didn’t tell stories than we probably wouldn’t have evolved as a species.
My rambling about telling stories has very little to do with lone working on the surface of things. In my case lone working can be both a boon and a block when it comes to stories. I often find that when I’m actually working on something I need a bit of quiet. I find it difficult to concentrate with lots of noise around me. That said, when I’m trying to come up with ideas for an article or story, I find it useful to be talking to people and generally looking at the world around me. I value my own personal space, but I find that if I sit alone for longer than a few days, I start to go quietly mad. I’m a pretty sociable guy. I like talking to people. I like discussing new ideas and ways of doing things. And of course I love a good rant.
Solution?
A healthy dollop of quiet and noise is essential for a successful lone working career. It’s important to be able to concentrate and get on with things. Often the best way to do that is to lock ourselves away from the noise of everyone else. Yet we are sociable creatures (generally) and if lock ourselves away indefinitely, we become the weird loners you sometimes see nibbling newspapers on the tube.
Have a good week.