random misfires of a cold addled brain: Saturday edition

Lets face it, I’m getting old.   Or as a buddy of mine likes to say; “Ain’t gettin’, GOT!!”  Yeah, that.  I’m 53 years young, but even I have to admit my best days are behind me, at least physically.  Its time to start considering (past time Dio, PAST TIME,,,,) how to make my brain the highlight of my endeavors, not my back and brawn.

I started writing to vent, because the forum I had been using folded due to lack of membership, and I had been kicked off Frugal Squirrels for ‘being aggressive’. (Like I said then, I just calls it as I sees it.). Well, that’s not entirely true; I had made an effort to write while in HS, was in all the creative writing classes and College prep courses for writing and english (Hey, We even had a Sci-Fi class, and looking back, I see now why the teacher was perturbed by the ‘isolation’ of ‘one genre’.). I even posted a pic of my hand written dribbles here before. And remember, My Counselors were very much against me doing anything creative, doing everything they could to herd me into management of some sort.  All of this was Pre-internet days, (Remember MS-DOS?  Yup, THOSE days.) and pre-Indie publications, the intimidation factor was well built in and I didn’t pursue writing for ‘reasons’, not all were internal.

It wasn’t until the net really took off that my typing was anything other than mediocre and when I started posting on the web, my typing took off too.   THAT was when I realized that I could get my ideas out faster via keyboard than by that chicken-scratch looking crud I warily call ‘handwriting’,,,   And its a whole ton easier to hit the save button on a screen than scrawl out the ideas on paper, then hen-peck them onto a screen to do the same thing.  Now, I just need to practice setting things up, plot and premise, on paper, first, then let the pantser in me run amok (within the boundries of the plot that is.   Yeah, that’ll work,,,   gonna take some practice to keep that Muse on a leash, so to speak.)

Now, this comes around to “what do you really want?”   and its always a sticky point for me.  I have no desire for fame.  SERIOUSLY, NONE!!!   I like being obscure, odd, whatever.  BUT, I sure wouldn’t mind the cash flow.   LOL.  Money doesn’t buy happiness, but it sure makes misery a lot more bearable. And I do understand that at some point, one brings the other (Sarah’s recent windfall showed her she is more famed than she had any idea of.).  ((IN EDIT, I realized that I fairly well eluded that question, didn’t I?))

To put it another way, the same way I explained it to Granbehbie: ‘IF you can find 100000 people willing to pay you a dollar a year for what you do, then you will be making $100000/year.”   ( last I heard, lil-girl was bringing in a couple hundred a month on Utoob goofiness and she only recently turned 13.  Way to go, but don’t stop there Girlly!).   Look closely at the numbers of donors and the amount that Sarah gained.   Spread out, it comes to about $100/person, and many people spend far more than that a year on less substantial things. (like $8 lattes, but I digress). A Franklin a year for access to someone that helps ground and center you with sound advice and rock solid standards,,,,   Sounds like a bargain (and I still need to hit that donate button, just waiting on checks to clear on monday morning).

No reason to pick that apart anymore.  She earned it and then some, and I would encourage her to keep taking the steps that Muir and others, including second son, suggest of doing an annual drive.    Stop looking at the premise of book sales only, start looking at the sell of the words in general.

and thats where I am at.   I don’t want to ‘work’ for someone else for the rest of my days, and I have to face the fact that ‘retirement’ age is accelerating at me more every year.  (I will never ‘retire’, I’ll just keep burning the candle till I drop, same as my Da.).  There are times where it ‘pays’ to pay someone else to do things for you, freeing you up to focus on your stuff.   I see it and feel it weekly where I am current: bossman and son have the time to take care of their stuff during the day while the crews go out and do the jobs that bring in the money for them.   WE the workers, on the other hand, have to take a loss to do things like doctor visits (a double loss).   No complaints, thats how capitalism works, and anyone that gripes otherwise is a borderline socialist. (and it took awhile to learn that one myself,,,   Never said I was the sharpest knife in the drawer)

And I have no illusions that what I am looking at is very much WORK.   Hell, I have stated that several times here: writing those two books was more work than I ever expected.   And the deeper I delve into it, the more work I find.  The writing as actually easy, when it flows.  Its getting it to gel into something salable,,,,   And its not just work to make the words salable, its work to build your community, find your market, etc etc etc.

Sounds like LIFE.

I’m researching some things now.  I am thinking about doing something quite specific through SubStack, leaving the blog here for my rambles and what not.   I don’t want to be completely POLITICK no matter what I do, since all of that gets my BP going faster than my Ex-wife would.  I do have other aspects of my existance that I could focus on, like my kayaks or going off-grid, prepping or just how to be not so static in life.   (lord knows my life has been anything but static,,,).

Just keep showing up for the beating and eventually, you will find your niche,,,,  right?  or is Keep showing up and make the ruts deep enough that no-one can drag you out?   LOL.    Maybe a little bit of both, eh?   Maybe I just need to take the plunge, and do it.  This dipping my toes in the water to see if its warm will never get me swimming,,,

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