CURIOUS TALE SATURDAYS: ARCHIVE

Revising

the

Production Schedule

Saturday, March 10, 2018

Recently I accepted a job offer for a marketing company as a copywriter and editor. The job is full-time and also remote, which means I'll have the mixed luxury of working from home—"mixed" in that I certainly prefer this, but that there is something to be said for the stress of the workplace coming into the sanctuary of one's private residence.

I'll be starting on Monday.

Meanwhile, given the amount of stress and depression I have dealt with since (and specifically because of) accepting this job, I have decided that, in order to protect my recent gains in restoring a creative output and maintain a long-term success vector, I am proactively revising my production schedule. I figured I would talk about this today. This isn't strictly a Curious Tale matter, but it certainly affects it.

Production

It's likely that being highly productive at a new job will eventually increase my creativity from where it has been in recent years. Solving my financial problems is the major external step toward restoring my mental health. Also, historically, heavy job commitments have frequently driven higher creative outputs from me as a form of stress release, provided the free hours are physically there—and they are: With this job I anticipate little overtime, so I will have hours of free time most workdays.

So, over the course of calendar 2018, I'm optimistic about what lies in store. Short-term, however, I'm putting the breaks on my career expansion. I'm pretty stressed about the new job and I don't want to fight a war on two fronts by settling into that while also trying to expand my production schedule.

What's Staying (Mostly) the Same

Everything you already know about is more or less staying the same.

First and foremost, Curious Tale Saturdays will remain as it is. I have succeeded in building my two-deep bank of articles. By the time you read this, the next two weeks of articles will already be finished (not counting the work of uploading them).

My upcoming novel will remain my major project. Everything about it will remain the same, except for one key change: This new job probably means I'm going to have to push back the publication goalpost from July to something significantly later in the year. I'll have more clarity on this in about a month, I suspect. I'm giving myself permission to adjust the publication goalpost if I need to, but for right now I'm not changing it.

My weekly Ramblin' J vlog will also continue each Wednesday, but I am looking to experiment and innovate with it. I'm not really happy with the product. My initial goal was to get into the habit of doing a once-a-week vlog, and I've done that. Now I need to start moving in the direction of making it good. Also, on the subject of "Wednesday," the way I've been doing it thus far, it's more like a Thursday feature, because it doesn't usually go live till after midnight. But whatever you call it, it'll continue in that slot.

And of course my Patreon fund and weekly posts there will remain as they are.

What's Changing

What's changing is that I'm going to significantly scale back my planned features that hadn't premiered yet.

The other vlog series I'd been planning will be postponed.

The additional Curious Tale feature that I said would soon premiere / resume (which would probably have been Empire on Ice) will be indefinitely postponed.

The plans I had for a resumption of Twitch streaming—which were already dependent on me getting service from a different ISP (as streaming isn't possible with my current provider)—will also be postponed.

My Life Is Strange video project will be indefinitely postponed. I wasn't working on it anyway, so that isn't really a change.

Notice that I keep using the word "postponed" rather than "canceled." I do plan to get on with all of these features eventually. But first I will need to settle into my new 40-hour commitment and completely recalibrate my availability and sense of normalcy.

(Mis?)Apprehensions

This new job is a full-time commitment and it's going to be extremely hard on me, as my mental landscape is neither innately nor circumstantially well-suited to that type of load. Even in the best of times I'm not really an "8 to 6" workaholic type, and these days I am especially not.

I'm also worried that the work environment will prove uninhabitable for me. The bottom line is that I don't want to be in a situation where I'm not respected and have no control. And that's what most jobs are. And it's very triggering for me, to be honest with you.

That's why I'm not happier about this news, even though it presumably means, at minimum, a couple extra months of rent in the bank, and, at best, an end to my financial problems forever. And it's quite possible I won't be able to make it in the job. I might get fired, or be forced to quit. But I have to look forward, because here is no good. So, I'll be taking it one day at a time. Hopefully it'll turn out to be satisfactory, or even great.

Long-Term Goal

Another source of stress for me in taking this job is that it isn't the direction I want to go in. I want to build my creative career and personal enterprises. So this is not a job I intend to spend the rest of my life at. Despite losing at least 50 hours a week to this new job, I still plan to steadily and consistently work toward not only expanding my creative career as outlined above, but also toward my overall entrepreneurial development.

But while I have this job I'll be saving as much of its income as I can, and going the path of Rudy at Alpha Investments: working my ass off, having no life (I've already got that one solved), and saving almost every penny. And this time around, I know exactly what I want to do with the money I save.

Anyhow, that's all for this week. Wish me luck. And join me next weekend when it's Saint Patrick's Day and green is the color.

Until then, may you show a little extra something to the creators in your life. It's no shame to be a patron of the arts. Coins if possible are especially welcome, but words of gratitude mean a lot too. I always appreciate any feedback or support you care to give. Even just for reading this at all, thank you!

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