From “The Black Maria” by Aracelis Girmay. Read it here.
Category: Writing
Surveys
Y’all, are you aware of all the companies that pay for surveys?
I’m hustling for income right now, so I use a few of them. Enroll is not worth your time. Mostly they ask for free demographic information from you, and if you get a survey, it’s literally just a few cents. There are some better ones with actual UI feedback, but I’m a bit wary of them. However, now that I have some gain issues with my web cam sorted out, I might do them more and then review them here. Mostly, right now, I do Survey Junkie. Thought about linking them, but they’re easy enough to find and don’t need my little link to make bank.
The gist of it is, you sign up, give them all your demographic specifics, and then they have a dashboard of surveys you can try for. Mostly they are a pittance – 20 minutes for 70 cents, that sort of thing – but if you are efficient, you can make a little petty cash fairly easily. Not much – basically half a tank of gas with a little bit of effort, maybe once or twice a week.
Update
Getting back in the swing of things. Posting reviews for books on Edelweiss, now off to review on Amazon, for the writers. Working on my own writing, slowly. Perhaps I’ll finish my novel in the next year or two.
Such a Mess
At this point I’m wed to finishing this novel, but I’m worried it’s gonna take years. I’ve been working on it for years, off and on, and the tangled narrative clearly demonstrates this. I’m trying to be patient with myself, non-judgemental, but I am honestly intimidated. This thing is a mess. There’s uneven voice, pacing, inconsistencies borne of it’s prolonged creation. I don’t know where everyone is, and at this point, I need to know where they are, even if they are off-screen. I started this adventure pantsing it, and now I’ve got a lot of loose threads to either cut loose, or incorporate into the weave at the end of the story. It’s probably going to take months just to get caught up in Aeon Timeline. Then the fun part – working on the notebook full of fixes and to do’s I’ve begun.
Time
Time. There isn’t any. Or rather, there’s not enough. I’ve been working retail for years, now, and while it’s a good job at an indie bookstore, it’s hella hard work and tiring. And I’m a single mom, “unevenly yoked” (his ironic words) to an ex who doesn’t step it up and do his part. So I’m worn out. The middle of my life snuck up on me and now I have to fight for breathing room. There’s time to rest, but not enough time to rest, get all my required BS done, and write/create as I’d like. Imma get there, but damn – the work I still have to do on my in-progress novel is staggering.
Working on a Timeline
Literally.
A couple of years ago I used my NaNoWriMo coupon to bag on to a copy of Aeon Timeline 2 I’ve fiddled with it before, but I’ve just recently realized it may be the tool I need to pick up the narrative thread of the story. I’m a single mom, and there are many moments I just can’t keep up with daily writing. Some days, I’m just happy to be able to get up and go to work and get my bills paid. A few weeks ago, when I got up the gumption to take another look at it, I found I’d both lost my place and had a billion threads to tie up, give or take a million or two. So I opened a fresh timeline and got to work.
It’s excruciating and unbearable in someways – lots of scenes to track, and I’m doing my absolute damnedest to not look at the quality of words in this still unpolished draft. On the other hand, wow, what a thing I will have when I am done! You might check out the program if you get a chance. Some aspects of it are pretty intuitive, but to be frank, you may end up hitting the help documents and even YouTube to understand it’s finer points – it can be a bit fiddly.
Mommahu's 