Freelancing is the bomb

You know, I never wanted to get into copywriting or editing when I was younger, but over the last couple of years I've realised that a large portion of my work is exactly that. Obviously I've never had a problem with it on a purely capabilities basis, but it just never seemed like a job I would find particularly inspiring.

And it's not. Although it can be kind of fun sometime, which is why now that I’m freelancing I take on some editing jobs, which is working out pretty good on the whole.

And then there are the times when I get a job where I have to edit 100 descriptors for a client, and they all look kind of like this:

Barbie Musical Jewelry Box

Barbie Turns Around As The Music Plays. A Barbie Statue fits on the top of the Jewelry Box; wind up Barbie & open the drawer & Music plays! Barbie that fits on top of Jewelry Box. There appears to be 1 drawer that swing outwards & the Jewelry Box plays music & Barbie turns while the music plays.

Truly, I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Well I started out laughing, but now I’m on descriptor number 33, and all I can think is;

“Seriously! Are you brain damaged? How hard is it to spell jewellery? NOT THAT HARD! And even if it is... haven’t you ever heard of spell check?

Also, who in their right mind thinks that saying the same thing incoherently three times makes for a good product description? Furthermore, I think we got the fact that it’s a musical jewellery box with a Barbie on top just from the name alone.

Lastly, drawers do NOT swing outwards, they pull, that’s why they’re DRAWERS. You draw them out. It’s a pretty simple concept you know.

GIVE ME SOMETHING USEFUL HERE! Like what tune does the box play? Is the box pink? (I’m guessing yes, coz this IS Barbie after all), how many compartments does it have? What size is it?

Grrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Sigh.... I am NOT getting paid enough for this.”

And that my friends, is precisely why I would Never Ever be a good full time editor. Thank god for freelancing. At least now I not only get to jump from project to project when one of them starts to make me feel like sticking my head in the freezer and then repeatedly banging the door, but on the whole, I earn enough to keep me in the style to which I have become accustomed.

It’s a good life :) and no, I haven’t yet cleaned up my room...

Whoosh...

I think that was the sound of my life zipping past.
I’m pretty sure I used to have one at one time... but even that is becoming a dim memory. Which brings to mind the question, why have I not been writing in here more? After all, I’m not doing anything better with my time!

Seriously.
You know what I did yesterday?
I slept.
That’s about it really.

Mind you, I actually do have better things to do with my time. But it was a grey and rainy Friday, and I just didn’t feel like it. So I didn’t.
Occasionally being a total layabout is good for you. But I’m starting to see a disturbing pattern here and I don’t think I like it.

SO! Next week I’m done with all that. I have to finish getting my room into order. We had painters redoing the entire house a couple of weeks ago and my room is still in a mess.
I was planning to use this as an opportunity to get all my junk sorted out: throw out or donated the stuff that I no longer want, box up and store the stuff with sentimental value (that I actually never ever even bother with anymore,) and reorder the stuff that I want to keep.
When you take into consideration that the last time I did this was at least 8 years (yeah EIGHT YEARS!) ago, you can imagine the herculean task set before me. I think that’s one of the reasons I don’t feel like getting to it. I did start, but it’s not one of those things you can do in one shot, and now every time I plan to get back to it I feel like there’s “Just So Much To Do!” and put it off...

Ah, my old enemy, procrastination. I guess I never really did learn anything from Morgan and Me.
[Oh, on a total aside, aren’t Stephen Cosgrove's Serendipity books fabulous? I hope someone out there other than me has read them! At one point of time I actually wanted to get a Flutterby tattoo. I’m so happy that they’re going into reprint and are available on Amazon. Although I still have mine from when I was a kid, it gives me hope that a new generation out there will have the chance to read them too!]

Anyway, to get back to the messy room debacle (and solution hopefully), I’ve finally framed my POTC and Underworld Evolution movie posters, so if I want to put them up I have to get my room into order. Should be incentive enough don’t you think?