Vacations

I forced myself to take a week off.

Since they paid me out for the next two weeks, I could, in theory, take the week after this one off, as well. I felt it was important to have a clean break from work - to clear my head of all the BS that went down, and the crap they had me regurgitating - before jumping back into Demand.

And believe me, I've wanted to get to work. But I think I need to just sit back and relax. Just a bit. While I can.

I've made a calendar in Gmail in an effort to track my early weeks. I worked out the numbers I need to crank to survive and prosper; the best way for me to pull this off is to rigorously schedule everything. Factor in the actual meal ticket, the query letters, the books, even exercise/mealtimes. This is not my favorite way to handle things, but I think right now, flailing around as I am, this is the right idea.

The first couple of weeks, I'm going to focus on boosting my earnings, learning the tricks of the Demand trade. I've used it as a side gig, but never tried to parlay it into full-time work (although there's plenty that do); besides that, my main professional experience is editing, and I'll be trying to pull in some side gigs for that, as well.

If I can stabilize things in the next few weeks, I'll start working in space into the schedule for magazine queries and the like. But one step at a time.

Tomorrow: fun findings on how freelancers are taxed! Thanks, Uncle Sam.