Bad week, Bad mood, Bad writing day

One of the problems with being a writer is that being in a bad mood can threw a monkey wrench in your ability to write. Today is one of those days for me.

This last week has been less than nice on the monetary end. Between being denied a line of credit, the little tiff between the state of Colorado and Amazon, and the fact one of the programs I was taking part in is now only paying in credit vouchers, it has been unpleasant from a monetary viewpoint.

It is weeks like this that make me wonder if my toxic writing friends are right, and I should have never got involved in the writing business in the first place. Then I remember that it was a bad monetary situation that made me get serious about being a professional writer.

Honestly, I would have never became serious about being a writer if I did not become unemployed. My childhood taught me that being self-employed is a good way to lose everything you own. Then again, so is being unemployed.

It is on days like this, where my mood is basically black and toxic, that I am glad that I make to-do lists. A to-do list is the only thing that is keeping me going today...that and the fact that I refuse to give my toxic writing friends the satisfaction of seeing me quit the writing business.

So what if I was denied a line of credit? Everyone is being denied credit at the moment. Both consumers and business people are straped for credit at the moment. As long as I can figure out a way to stay one step ahead of the wolves, I will be ok. Being denied a line of credit is no reflection on my state of self-worth.

So what if Amazon is going to quit doing business with their Colorado based Amazon Associates because they are upset with the new tax law that the state of Colorado passed? I did not have that big of a stake in the program to begin with. It would have been nice to have the income flow, but there are other sources to tap that I have not started using yet.

The same can be said about the program that switching to credit vouchers. I did not have that much invested in the program to begin with. Getting paid in money would have been nice; but given the fact that I was not that much into being a glorified salesman, maybe it is best that I drop doing the program anyways.

(Note that from a business and economic viewpoint, I understand the reasons for each of these decisions that came down the pike this week...it is just that understanding the reasons does not make it any more pleasant to deal with the effects on my bottom line.)

And none of these decisions should make me rethink what I am doing overall. My plan for my business is about as sound as it was before. On one hand, there is that thought that maybe I should change my plan, or that I should be hunting for a big score; on the other hand, I know from previous experience that making a decision in the mood that I am in leads to nothing but indecision.

So I will stick to my plan...for now...until I see that it needs to be revised...and I am rational enough to see the logic is changing it. Besides that it why you create a business plan for in the first place...to use it for guiding your decisions when you are incapable of making a decision. Or at least, that is what I use them for.

As for my black bad mood, it is starting to lift...it is hard for it to survive the light that actual writing shines into it. Besides I have deadlines to meet with actual paychecks involved. And actual income should always win over potential "might happen" income.

My Plans for August

One of the things that I find useful to do as a writer is to make a list of the projects I intend to do at the start of the month.

This month, I am not planning on getting a lot of writing done. A couple of articles for Helium is pretty much all I intend to do.

Why?

Because 1: I have a major amount of work to do on the behalf of the Golden Dawn lodge I belong to; and 2: College resumes on the 20th, so I have a lot of stuff to do around the house and on the web before college starts.

The Golden Dawn stuff (mainly) involves typing in the documents I currently have for the Theoricus Grade, and making a list of all the apparent holes in the documention. This list in turn will become my work list for the next several months as far as my local lodge work is concerned. Plus I have my normal Adept Minor subgrade work, the maintaining of the websites and blogs, and the bimonthly meetings to attend to.

I have to pick up books, and do at least one bank run to get my ducks in a row for college. It is just too bad that I can't find a row of ducks to actually take my classes for me.

The housework is mainly gardening and repair work.

The web stuff is primarily finishing the base necessary to do my writing in the fall while attending classes. It is part of the burden of being a forty-one, about to turn forty-two, year old college student. I have got to finish setting up my promo page, and complete the market research I need to do.

The goal is to have all the really time consuming stuff out of the way before classes start. This is very important because I have to make a living as a writer inbetween classes.

Wish me luck--I am going to need it.