This blog is on a schedule. The writers from Ascribe Writers’ Group take turns writing posts for it weekly. Today is my turn.
I was supposed to be ready. I was supposed to have a post written before the night before the deadline. I am supposed to be better at this.
In fact, of all the writers in this group, I’m the one that should be on top of my posts, ready and waiting, possibly even have several posts written in advance. You see, for over nine years I wrote ten posts, just like these, every week.
It was my job.
I am a blogger
Well, I was a blogger. Okay, I’m still a blogger. I wrote this post, right?
There were some stats five years ago that said that less than five percent of bloggers got paid. I was in the less than five percent. Additionally, of the bloggers that get paid, fewer than three percent of them made more than pennies a month, usually from ad content they had no control over. I was in the thinner air of the stratosphere of bloggers that had a contract and got paid an actual salary.
But, as usual, I digress
The site I wrote for was sold, revamped, and the blog department was disbanded. I became redundant.
I still write.
As evidence, I again submit this post for your consideration.
But I also have a life
And on that note, I would like to share some of that with you, by way of an excuse for why this is so fresh that it probably needs editing, and isn’t really fit or ready for public consumption at publication time.
My life has seen me do many things. I could go into details as to why that is, but those details aren’t nearly as wild and varied as the many things I have done in my life.
Besides being a writer of blogs I have written and been paid for articles in magazines both printed and online. I have been published as a poet. I’ve had works of fiction published also. I’ve written lyrics that have been recorded by professional musicians.
But there’s more …
I’m really not trying to brag here, I’m just telling some details. I’ve not always been a writer, or at least there have been times when I did other things as well. I’ve been an editor. I’ve been a radio show host, still am in fact. I’ve been a professional musician in as far as I’ve been paid on rare occasions to play and sing in public.
I’ve been an odd job handyman. The money is poor, but the work is often arduous and menial so that seems fair, eh? I’ve been a contractor’s assistant and again the work can be hard and dirty but the pay is better than being a handyman.
I’ve worked as a pressman in a printing plant. I’ve been a farm hand. I’ve done graphic arts work. I’ve done page layout. I’ve hauled things and delivered things and taken things away for people. I’ve washed dishes and pots and pans. I’ve waited tables. I’ve written computer programs and built and repaired computers.
I’ve been a professional auctioneer. You know, the guys who talk really fast and sell you stuff. And yes, I have a certificate of graduation from a school of auctioneering, I’m not just another fast talker, I’m a trained blabber-mouth.
And I’m not young
I’m 63 years old, and though I’ve claimed to have retired several times in my life from various things, I still have not retired. Not Really.
Additionally, I claim this wealth of experience as an asset in my primary job of writing. And more than that, I continue to seek new experiences to add to that asset.
And so, as an addition to that asset, I have recently taken on a new job. One I have wanted to try for much of my life. One I’m hoping will teach me even more about life than I’ve already learned.
I have become a father!
And yesterday, the day I’m writing this on, marks 28 days of fatherhood.
And today, if you’re reading this on the day it was published, today is the first published writing I’ve done as a father.
And I, I am humbly asking your forgiveness for my late appearance at the post and my hastily written words and my repeating many things I have said before here on the Ascribe Writers website.
So here it is
As I said in the title, I’m tired. Exhausted really. In charge of 2AM feedings after which my son seems uninterested in going back to sleep.
I’d tell you all about it, but I think there’s a dirty diaper to be dealt with and it’s my turn.
But what I’m wanting to say is, if you want to write, get as much experience as you can in life, it will always stand you in good stead.
And maybe don’t wait too long?
Just a thought.
