“Hi, been a long time hasn’t it?”
“Sure has, haven’t seen you around much.”
“Well I’ve been busy.”
OK, what I’ve been busy doing has been merely rearranging my life in every important respect.
Firstly, I’ve moved again. That’s two moves in less than a year with all the hassle that implies: packing and un-, getting the kids into new schools, vaccinations, setting up home office, getting finances in order for a business venture, etc.
I am restarting my self-syndication venture. I’ve been a columnist with a miniscule number of subscribers for three years now. I had to suspend attempts to expand as I was working full time and had just gotten full custody of my two children.
Writing is not the problem. It’s the incredibly tedious legwork involved in combing state newspaper association websites, gathering names and email addresses, making the pitch to each and every one of them by name, enduring crushing rejection, you know – all that stuff that makes life worth living.
Plus working on a series of books I have planned. I’ve got the first ready to publish on Kindle.
Oh and did I mention two children? A son who spends entirely too much time online gaming and needs to be gotten out of the house for camping, canoeing, fitness activities (not that Daddy couldn’t use some of that too) and a little girl I have absolutely no idea how to buy clothes for.
I’m also setting up a martial arts school for a few private students and small groups in my garage.
You could say I’ve got a full plate.
The secret to handling a busy life is organization, and for a writer that means defining your audience. Who are you writing for?
There’s an old saying in the writer biz, “If you’re writing for everybody, you’re writing for nobody.”
In this day and age, a lot of how you write has to do with your media. I have been archiving my columns on this blog, but I’m going to do a lot less of that.
Columns have a certain format, a certain voice. You have to make a point in 500-700 words.
Blog posts are different. You can be freer with your choice of length from hurried notes to longer, more rambling essays and lord I do love to ramble sometimes!
I’m also offering movie reviews. At my last newspaper I sort of fell into that by accident, because the lady doing it loathed the job. I loved it, and it gave me an excuse to see a movie once a week.
And I’m going to be taking the occasional freelance assignment, offering my services to cover events for rural newspapers that happen outside their coverage area.
So why am I doing this?
Because I love to write, and because I’m a single dad.
I have to support my children financially, and I have to be there for them because there’s nobody else.
And because I think there’s a huge debate going on in this country about how we should govern ourselves, how we should act on the world stage, and how we can secure the good life for ourselves and our children.
I want to be part of that debate. I think I have something to contribute to it, and I think the debate has been dominated by coastal elites for too long.
That’s why I’m calling my venture “Flyover Country Media.”
Easy, right?
Well, that’s a jot of balls to keep in the air for sure. But at times like this I like to remind myself that Clark Kent is a journalist.