(un)Employed For 3 Months

Well i have now been - while technically not unemployed - not working for 3 months.

It hasn't felt like a holiday, it hasn't felt like work, it has just seemed empty. I haven't accomplished a lot and despite having nothing major to do i haven't breezed through nearly as many books as you might expect.

Upsides: I have cultivated quite a healthy beard and a hermit-like lifestyle.

Downsides: I haven't really made any progress towards making money or working out what to do.

Part of me thinks this is a bad thing, i could have been working and earning and suchlike for 3 months. Heck even if i hadn't been doing anything financially beneficial i could have been doing something more traditionally 'constructive'. On the other hand i have spent a lot of time thinking about some important issues that would have come up sooner or later (a future post perhaps), so the time hasn't been totally wasted.

If Only Publishers Would Listen

The Future of Publishing:

I must admit i was never a huge fan of the original Palindrome For A Lost Generation it all seemed a little trite and obvious, though that is not to say that the above isn't too. I guess the difference is that the original was preaching to the converted, you would be hard pressed to find a member of Generation Y who didn't agree with it. On the other hand the above video is preaching a message to the publishing industry that they don't want to hear, but if they don't hear it they will end up with the future they fear.

Heck, maybe i just like it because i also don't care what Lady Gaga is wearing.

!**Experiment**!

I'm in the middle of reading Linchpin by Seth Godin and i'm pretty sure i have a problem with 'shipping' on this blog.

Unlike a lot of people i don't have a problem with staring at blank pages, i have no issues with starting blog posts. In fact as things stand, i wouldn't have to start a new post for the next couple of months if i didn't want to because i have that many drafts saved. Where i have issues is finishing posts. Most of the time i get quite a bit of content down but get lost in the middle and don't fill in parts of the outline. Sometimes i get stuck in a read-revise cycle that i am never happy with. Either way i end up not publishing what i could and should.

In an effort to tackle this problem i am going to start setting deadlines and posting what i am working on at (or before) the deadline, regardless of the overall quality of the post. The upside for me is that it should force me to start working on posts earlier and prepare me to post something that i am maybe not 100% happy with. Unfortunately if you are one of the 3 or 4 readers who aren't me, the quality of the posts will likely take a serious dive over at least the next couple of weeks. Sorry. Hopefully you can put up with some poor(er) grammer, some inadequacies in structure and some very incomplete thoughts, until things start to improve.

We're On A Break

Me and veganism that is.

I've been fully vegan for the last 6 weeks but i'm taking a break this weekend because i have been really craving pizza and beer. Ok i know it's bad for me, i know i shouldn't but damnit i want pizza and beer.

Monday will see reveganisation for at least another 6 weeks.

(un)Structured Writing

Even after last weeks Cop Out, i still haven't managed to finish my next installment of Bloggers Vs Journalists. At first i couldn't understand it, for two or three weeks at the start of February i was knocking out three or more posts a week, now i am struggling to finish one. I think i have finally worked out what my problem is; a lack of planned structure.

Most of my previous posts on this blog have been reasonably short, so it has been easy to keep all of the key points and an overall structure in my head. The notable exception to this trend was my Books Vs E-Readers series, there was an overall arc and the posts were fairly long. What made that series easier to write without a planned structure, was that each post was relatively discreet and was purely my personal opinions on the topic.

However Bloggers Vs Journalists is a much more complicated proposition, the posts will be long, highly interlinked and trying to build up a single solid argument. So far i have been trying to write this from some rough notes of key points, but i keep getting bogged down with new ideas and trying to work out where they fit within the wider scheme of things. What is lacking is a planned structure; what do i want to say, when do i want to say it and how does that build into a cohesive whole. 

Obvious i know, but i need to prepare a plan to structure the writing and store ideas. I'm not really sure of the best way to go about this, i have previous used outlines and mind maps, any other thoughts?