Way too busy
Yesterday I worked my ass off. Not because I particularly wanted to, but because I actually had a bunch of jobs that piled up in a short while. One is off of a site I'll call CMA. The customer is nice enough to have some 4000 pieces to get done, of which, when split between 15 writers means more than 250 articles for each writer. It means (knock wood) enough work for a while, but it also means major insanity every day when the work comes in. We get five each and can only pick up more when we're done with the five. I got the work on Sunday, was out Monday, which meant that I had to get it all done Tuesday. So, I was writing 3100 to 3200 words in 5 hours. It ended up being about an article an hour, counting breaks, which wasn't too bad. Then, I had two gigs on Fiverr to take care of. The result was the typical lack of sleep, but being a bit less poor.
Scheduling Work
Tonight I'm getting a big formatting job done from Fiverr, which means I'll have hit my monetary goal for this week. The CMA customer that is giving me the regular content mill work will help ensure quite a bit of that for a while. On top of that, the another place I'm working for (I'll call CMB) gave me a bunch of editing jobs. While they aren't particularly high paying, they are enjoyable enough to do and I don't have to pound on the keyboard with them. Add to that CMA has another client who has ongoing, high-paying work. The result is that I have 8 pieces due at CMA in the next two days plus a dozen editing gigs from CMB, plus more work coming in from another client at CMA.
I do have one gig after the big formatting gig on Fiverr, which is fine. Basically, it's another resume and a cover letter. Those I can do in a short time, maybe an hour. I push out the time to three days because, when I have a lot of work to do, I can't promise getting it to in a day. My other gigs with other content mills are going to have to wait as three shops are giving me enough work for the next several days.
It All Comes Down to Priorities
I have four other content shops that I look for work at when all else fails. DAS is one that while the pay is good, they cause far more stress than I need because of their editorial policies. But if I need work and they have articles, I'm not proud. Another content shop, CMC, usually has work, but it can be low-paying. Still, I have one client who appears from time to time to give me a direct assignment. The content shop I'll call CMD has ridiculously easy assignments, but clients can reject it easily as well, leaving you to hang until another client comes along that need similar content. CMD has a set rate, which makes them both useful and fun, but you can't rely on when the client will accept and publish the work. The fourth one of the group, I'll call CME. As far as I can tell, they have very low-paying jobs and very few of them. There's another content shop that I haven't mentioned which I will call CMU. I've given up on them because even though I'm rated for their work, they never seem to have anything in my specialty, nor have I been accepted for any other categories. I noticed that they use writers to decide who works in what categories. As a result, I suspect if a writer thinks you're a competitor, they won't accept you.
The other work I have is Hubpages. Since Yahoo groups shut down, I took my content and am slowly putting up on Hubpages. You can check out my articles HERE. I still don't have everything up, but I don't mind putting up content there.
The Jotunn Gate
A huge problem I've been running into with The Jotunn Gate is that it has many holes in its structure. I'd like to say that every time I nailed down a problem I'm finished and I can write, but the reality is the plot were a cheese, it be Swiss. At first I really didn't have a good idea as to the antagonist. That happened because I've realized the book is actually three books. Then, I realized that the plot wasn't really working the way it needed to. So, I've been struggling with that. Then, I started reading Save the Cat! Although it's written for screenplay writing, it makes a lot of sense for books as well. I started realizing if I wanted to write a decent epic fantasy, I still had to follow some valid plot points. Some, I forgot due to sheer frustration of having and unwieldy manuscript. So, I've been using the plotting section of Writer's Café to hammer out The Jotunn Gate.
Scheduling Work
Tonight I'm getting a big formatting job done from Fiverr, which means I'll have hit my monetary goal for this week. The CMA customer that is giving me the regular content mill work will help ensure quite a bit of that for a while. On top of that, the another place I'm working for (I'll call CMB) gave me a bunch of editing jobs. While they aren't particularly high paying, they are enjoyable enough to do and I don't have to pound on the keyboard with them. Add to that CMA has another client who has ongoing, high-paying work. The result is that I have 8 pieces due at CMA in the next two days plus a dozen editing gigs from CMB, plus more work coming in from another client at CMA.
I do have one gig after the big formatting gig on Fiverr, which is fine. Basically, it's another resume and a cover letter. Those I can do in a short time, maybe an hour. I push out the time to three days because, when I have a lot of work to do, I can't promise getting it to in a day. My other gigs with other content mills are going to have to wait as three shops are giving me enough work for the next several days.
It All Comes Down to Priorities
I have four other content shops that I look for work at when all else fails. DAS is one that while the pay is good, they cause far more stress than I need because of their editorial policies. But if I need work and they have articles, I'm not proud. Another content shop, CMC, usually has work, but it can be low-paying. Still, I have one client who appears from time to time to give me a direct assignment. The content shop I'll call CMD has ridiculously easy assignments, but clients can reject it easily as well, leaving you to hang until another client comes along that need similar content. CMD has a set rate, which makes them both useful and fun, but you can't rely on when the client will accept and publish the work. The fourth one of the group, I'll call CME. As far as I can tell, they have very low-paying jobs and very few of them. There's another content shop that I haven't mentioned which I will call CMU. I've given up on them because even though I'm rated for their work, they never seem to have anything in my specialty, nor have I been accepted for any other categories. I noticed that they use writers to decide who works in what categories. As a result, I suspect if a writer thinks you're a competitor, they won't accept you.
The other work I have is Hubpages. Since Yahoo groups shut down, I took my content and am slowly putting up on Hubpages. You can check out my articles HERE. I still don't have everything up, but I don't mind putting up content there.
The Jotunn Gate
A huge problem I've been running into with The Jotunn Gate is that it has many holes in its structure. I'd like to say that every time I nailed down a problem I'm finished and I can write, but the reality is the plot were a cheese, it be Swiss. At first I really didn't have a good idea as to the antagonist. That happened because I've realized the book is actually three books. Then, I realized that the plot wasn't really working the way it needed to. So, I've been struggling with that. Then, I started reading Save the Cat! Although it's written for screenplay writing, it makes a lot of sense for books as well. I started realizing if I wanted to write a decent epic fantasy, I still had to follow some valid plot points. Some, I forgot due to sheer frustration of having and unwieldy manuscript. So, I've been using the plotting section of Writer's Café to hammer out The Jotunn Gate.