Things have been so busy here the past several weeks but it’s always important to stop and check in with yourself and others so you don’t get overwhelmed or burnt out or just plain exhausted. That’s something I learned the hard way over the years and so I’ve taken it to heart. That’s why I thought I’d just do a little check-in here today about what’s been going on and where my head’s at.

Writing, Writing, Writing

The main thing that’s taking up my time right now is that I’m trying to get my book (on the health benefits of crochet) finished by the end of the month. I started this book last summer. I did a ton of interviews in those first few months and put out a lot of content but then I had to take a couple of months away from it. I needed that distance to get a clearer picture of where it was going. So I resumed the work last month and it’s my main focus this month. I’ve decided to self-publish the book for a range of different reasons, the main one being that I think that’s where the publishing industry is going these days and that’s where I want to be. So even after I get the final draft done, there’s still going to be a lot of work to do. I can’t spend forever on the project (financially, emotionally or creatively) so I have to get it done sooner rather than later.

Writing is a funny thing. There will be days when I write the entire day and it’s great. And then there will be days when I have to practically chain myself at the computer and I still only get a few words out. It seems to have nothing to do with the current content or my enthusiasm for the project or anything else that’s obvious on the surface. It’s just the ebbs and flows of the creative mind. It’s an interesting process learning to tangle with that. On the one hand, you do sometimes have to force yourself to sit there and get the work going. And on the other hand, you also need to give respect to the fact that some days the creative bug is burrowed so deep beneath the surface that trying to get in there and dig it out would do more damage to your brain than good. Learning that balance – when to push and when to relax and be okay with nothing happening – is something I’ve been working on for what seems like my entire life. I’m getting better with it although there are definitely days when I am super impatient for that bug to make its way to the surface so I can stop scratching the itch and just write.

I will say that it really helps that almost everything else I’m writing right now is stuff that I enjoy and want to be writing, like my crochet blog. I do have a few clients that I’m still working for because bills do need to be paid but I chose them really carefully and have limited how much I’ll do. It’s tempting to take on more jobs to reduce financial strain but doing too much non-inspiring writing really saps the creative energy and makes it nearly impossible to get done the work that is at the heart of what I want to do.

But Then There’s Money

I do admit I’m in a small battle with finances right now. I mostly try to handle it as maturely as possible without giving it too much attention. I do budget and pay attention to where my money is and make sure my bills aren’t late and all that. But I’m aware that I’m not making as much as I need to be and I have to consciously keep pushing that out of my mind because if making money is the focus then the creativity gets lost and that’s when discontent with life can seep in. I definitely need to be making a certain amount to maintain a lifestyle I want and enjoy but it’s also necessary that the money is earned by doing something I enjoy so it’s this whole tricky thing to figure out. This is definitely something I’ve also gotten better at over the years but during the times when the creativity is rich but the bank account is not it’s sometimes tough to remember how to be happy with what I have.

And Some Health Things

There are a few health things going on that I need to address and since I’ve been super focused on my work I haven’t really been doing that. One simple but major one is that I need to start exercising more. I had planned to start doing a long San Francisco stairway walk once a week and it’s been three or four weeks since I started that plan and I’ve yet to do any walks. And it keeps twinging at me that I want to go back to yoga but I’ve made no effort to do that either. I tend to be a much more in-my-head person than in-my-body person for sure. I am happy to sit for hours and hours messing with the computer or writing or doodling or thinking or daydreaming or reading or whatever. It takes much more conscious effort to enjoy physical activity. And it’s not that I don’t enjoy it. I love hiking. I like yoga. I enjoy walks. But those are things that I have to tell myself to go do because, hey, remember, you like those, whereas doing sedentary creative activities comes naturally. It’s hard to justify taking the time to do those things when I have work and creative things I want to do. But it’s an area that needs balance so I need to start giving it some attention.

The other possibly more pressing issue is that I think something is going on with my thyroid/ metabolism/ anemia … I am tired A LOT (and before you say that exercising more would help with that – I know, but at the same time, you need to have at least a little energy to exercise and some days I literally have NONE). In the past I’ve had mild anemia. And low thyroid runs in my family. I know that two years ago, my thyroid tested in the low range of normal so it’s something I have to watch. However, I’ve been holding off on actually going to the doctor until I try a few things to get some more information. I’ve started taking iron supplements again. I’m making sure to stay hydrated better than I was before. I’m definitely eating right (which I’d been mostly doing for awhile, though). I’m getting the rest I need. And partially I’m waiting to see if anything changes as my body regulates to its own hormone production since I stopped taking birth control pills five or six weeks ago. Actually, that’s one of the reasons I started thinking anemia may be the problem again since I’m starting to have regular periods again (on the pill it was only once every 3-4 months). So I’m gathering information and taking notes and then I’ll go to the doctor in a month or so if things haven’t improved. Or at least that’s the plan at this point.

On Dating

I don’t feel like getting too far into this at this point but thought I’d make a note that I’ve come to the conclusion that perhaps I’m just not ready to date yet. Last summer saw the end of a four and a half year relationship that I didn’t really want to end. I was thinking the past couple of months that I was ready to date and had started exploring my options. I went out at a couple times and made a few other plans that fell through. And all it did was make me not want to date. In being really honest with myself, I can see that there’s nothing wrong with the dates or the men but that I’m probably just not ready to go there despite wanting to be ready. So I’ll give it more time I guess.

And Some Other Things

I haven’t gotten too far into my plan to watch classic romance movies this month. I super loved Breakfast at Tiffany’s but haven’t found a single other movie I want to watch. Any suggestions? It’s gotta be available streaming on Netflix or Hulu.

My brother and sister and I pooled our thoughts and resources and got my mom the gift of a Mystery Theater Dinner for Valentine’s Day. It was fun to coordinate with them. I have been to mystery theater once before and it’s a silly good time. I actually went because I was hired as a marketing person. I was too young and inexperienced to actually do it and I quit almost immediately. As a youngster I was much better at talking my way into jobs than actually going to them. But as part of my interview I had to see the show so that’s why I’ve been and like I said it’s silly fun.

I’m reading more again. I had stopped reading a lot for awhile but lately I’ve been getting sucked into a variety of different books. I just finished reading The Man in the Gray Flannel Skirt. I’ll review it more in depth here in a day or two but just wanted to say that I adored it.

And that’s all for now folks …

Tags: checking in, vercillo, writing

There are a wide range of different topics that I write about on a regular basis. My favorite topic of all is probably creativity. In fact, I try to take a creative slant to almost any other topic that I write about (although I wouldn’t say that I always succeed). I believe that writing about creativity makes me more motivated to be creative in my own life. I hope that it encourages other people to be creative as well.

Several of my recent articles on HubPages were about being creative. These included:

• 10 Fun and Creative Projects to do with your Camera Phone. It was so fun to try to think up different projects that you could do with just the camera on your phone. I have to admit that I haven’t done all of these myself but now that I’ve thought of them there are certainly some in there that I plan to try. I think your camera phone is a great tool for little daily bits of creativity.
• 7 Fun, Free Tag Cloud Programs for Creating Word Art. Tag clouds can be so inspiring. I put this HubPages article together as I was trying to find a good tag cloud program for myself. (I like Wordle best, big surprise). This inspired another article on my own blog about using tag cloud programs to benefit writing.
• 15 Ideas for Using Your Writing to Make Christmas Presents. I believe that your writing can always be used as a gift. Here are some creative and fun ideas for how to turn your writing into affordable and appreciated presents for Christmas.
• 10 Terrific Niche Books for Curious Readers. Creative people are usually readers. These are a bunch of books that I’ve read that are on unusual topics that you don’t normally get the chance to read about. How fun!
• 10 Stunning Surrealist Artists. Finally I recently wrote an article highlighting the work of ten different surrealist artists who are not from the original era of surrealism but instead are putting out amazing works of art today. I’m so inspired by these people!

Tags: art, creativity, inspiration, smartchick, writing

I love to write top ten articles. Coming up with creative ideas for top ten articles guides my research and allows me to focus on interesting aspects of an industry. One industry that I particularly love doing top ten posts about is the cell phone industry. (In fact, you can see a list of my top ten articles in the top ten style for this topic right here.)

The most recent article that I did for this industry in that particular style was an article on 10 Great Jobs for Mobile Phone Lovers. This is a terrific example of a top ten article that’s fun to research. Off the top of my head, I was able to think of a few jobs that fit the bill (testing cell phones, designing handsets, etc.). However, I didn’t know of ten jobs so I got to spend some fun time researching the different positions that might come about that would be mostly cell-phone-focused. I learned about some interesting ones (like answering questions as an expert using text messaging – what a cool at-home job!)

I think that this is the best part of being a freelance writer / blogger if you take your research seriously. You get the opportunity to explore many different topics of interest. You get to research them completely and learn new things. It’s the perfect job for someone who really just wants to be a perpetual student!

Tags: cell phone jobs, cell phones, mobile phones, research, writing

Someone recently asked me why I don’t often cover the topic of writing on this blog. After all, as someone who writes for a living, this seems like a topic that would come up a lot, right? And it’s true; it does. In fact, it comes up so much that I have an entire blog where I write about writing.

That blog is called Real Words. I write there as often as possible (daily if I can or several times a week if I can’t). I try to share my thoughts on the writing process and the life of being a writer. Sometimes I share tips and resources about writing although it’s a personal blog (not a professional one per se) so it’s mostly just about how I see writing.

Do you also write about writing? If so, I’d love to check out your blog. Leave me the URL in the comments here.

Tags: kathryn vercillo, smartchick, writer's life, writers, writing

I have been reading Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert and really loving it. It’s the story of a woman who took a year off from her life to travel and self-reflect. I suppose I like it a lot because of my own desire to take a year off like this (which I mentioned yesterday in my post about going on sabbatical). But I also like it because it’s a great travel story which shows how traveling can bring us closer to ourselves. And I like it because the language and description in the book really resonate with me.

I’m taking my time reading this book so that I can really savor it. I read quickly and could’ve finished it in a day or two but I’m drawing out my time with it because I like it that much. It’s the first book I’ve liked that much in a really really long time. Since I’m not done with it yet, I don’t really want to give a full review or solid opinion on it. But I do want to share one passage that I particularly loved. It’s not the most romantic or exciting passage in the book but it’s one that so totally sums up how I think the average American deals with the problem of depression that I wanted to write it down:

“I took on my depression like it was the fight of my life, which, of course, it was. I became a student of my own depressed experience, trying to unthread its causes. What was the root of all this despair? Was it psychological? (Mom and Dad’s fault?) Was it just temporal, a “bad time” in my life? (When the divorce ends, will the depression end with it?) Was it genetic? (Melancholy, called by many names, has run through my family for generations, along with its sad bride, Alcoholism.) Was it cultural? (Is this just the fallout of a postfeminist American career girl trying to find balance in an increasingly stressful and alienating urban world?) Was it astrological? (Am I so sad because I’m a thin-skinned Cancer whose major signs are all ruled by an unstable Gemini?) Was it artist? (Don’t creative people always suffer from depression because we’re so supersensitive and special?) Was it evolutionary? (Do I carry in me the residual panic that comes afre millenia of my species’ attempting to survive in a brutal world?) Was it karmic? (Are all these spasms of grief just the consequences of bad behavior in previous lifetimes, the last obstacles before liberation?) Was it hormonal? Dietary? Philosophical? Seasonal? Environmental? Was I tapping into a uiversal yearning for God? Did I have a chemical imbalance? Or did I just need to get laid?”

What a succinct summary of the struggle with depression that intelligent people go through today!

Tags: books, depression, eat pray love, elizabeth gilbert, kathryn vercillo, Quotation, quote, reading, review, writing

I love the work that I do as a writer and blogger for businesses. I think it allows me the chance to research many different interesting topics while working from the comfort of my own home. However, I also sometimes feel like I need a break.

You see, I don’t know if I want to be a full-time writer forever. Sometimes I think I do. Sometimes I think I’d like to write part-time and then do something else part-time (consulting, art, something else). On rare occasions, I think I’d like to do something else altogether.

The problem is that I can’t seem to figure out exactly what I want when I have to work all day every day. I feel like I need the space of not writing to just breathe into. In that space, I hope to hear myself echo back to me what it is that I specifically want to do with my writing.

So I’m planning for a sabbatical. I want to take a year off of writing professionally in order to just engage in some deep self-reflection. I won’t be doing this anytime soon. My goal is to write full-time for at least three more years. I’m working on some new writing goals to accomplish during that time. But then I want a full year sabbatical to just figure things out.

I think sabbaticals are important. They give you the chance to get to know yourself again. You can assess what you’re doing and how to do it better. Why don’t more people take them?

Tags: career, freelance writing, kathryn vercillo, sabbatical, writer, writing

I do a lot of writing about different issues in business. Some of these are things that I write about for clients who are interested in having research done that will assist them in their own businesses. But some of these articles are just things that I research and write about because I find them to be interesting. The majority of these articles are articles thatI post to HubPages.

Four business-related topics that I’ve covered on HubPages recently were:

• 10 Tips for Improving Marketable Job Skills. The job market is competitive right now. You really need to make yourself marketable if you’re going to get hired by anyone. I thought I’d learn some tips on how to do that. Most of it’s common sense but it’s good to freshen up on it.
• The Pros and Cons of Using an Online Backup System. I have been thinking seriously about using an online backup system to make sure that my work gets saved. I’ve been burned by lost writing one too many times. Right now I just back things up to another computer and store some things in Google Documents but I think I might look into using a formal system.
• Green Commutes. I don’t have to commute anywhere to work but if I did then I’d like to find a way to do it with public transportation or carpooling.
• 5 Great Female CEOs. I read a cool article in PINK magazine about fifteen leading women in business. Five of them were these interesting CEOs that I wanted to research further. I think they’re really inspiring as female leaders.

There are a lot of different aspects of business that you can research and write about. I like to try to cover a lot of them!

Tags: business, business articles, hubpages, kathryn vercillo, writing, writing about business

I’ve been spending quite a bit of time on Twitter lately. After a lengthy period of adjusting to using the site, I’ve finally come to really like Twitter. I feel like it’s giving me a great opportunity to share links and ideas with other people.

One of the really fun things that I’ve gotten into doing on the site is participating in a daily poem project that @dragonblogger does. Almost every morning, he puts out a request for people to send in random words. These random words are then worked into a poem for the day which is posted on the Wanderer Thoughts blog.

These poems are always really interesting. Sometimes the words that are submitted are really challenging. For example, check out Unstoppable Disease which included a lot of medical words in it. (My word for that day was simpler: productivity).

This is just a fun little project to participate in when I think about it as I’m on Twitter. I think it’s inspiring to do little daily projects and this is an example of a good one.

Tags: fun, kathryn vercillo, poetry, projects, twitter, writing

I really love guest posting on other blogs. It provides a great opportunity for writing about new topics and networking with others who write about the same things that capture my interest. I’ve been really lucky to do a lot of guest posting recently on the topic of frugal living which is a topic that I really enjoy writing about.

Some of my most recent guest posts on this topic were:

• Tips for Talking about Money with Your Spouse. A lot of people have a tough time discussing money and it can really lead to problems in a marriage if you aren’t careful!
• 5 Reasons Not to Save Stuff for Later. I fully believe that you should get rid of everything that you’re not using to declutter your home and your mind!
• Earn Money by Hosting Travelers this Summer. This is something I’m thinking seriously about doing myself!
• Low Cost Summer Activities Can Be Yours! I love the fact that there are so many different ways to keep entertained this summer without spending a lot of money.
• Positive Things Caused by the Bad Economy. I think it’s really important to stay upbeat despite problems with the recession.

If these articles interest you, you might also want to check out the list of frugal living guest posts that I did last month!

Tags: blog posts, Frugal Living, guest post, kathryn vercillo, save money, writing

As you know if you have been following this blog, I’ve been on vacation and haven’t had a chance to post regularly. However, I’m still doing some work here and there while I’m away.

If you’re interested in what I’ve been researching and writing about, check out some of the following links:

ON INTERIOR DESIGN:

• Making Books a Part of your Home’s Design
• How to Add a Jacuzzi to your Home
• Pool Furniture

ON BUSINESS, MARKETING and PRODUCTIVITY:

• MySpace for Marketing
• Innerpreneurs are Changing Business
• Go Offline to Get Online Links
• Why Employers Should Block some File Downloads
• How to Streamline Social Networking
• Use Time Tracking to Create a Productivity Plan
• Monitoring Company Printers
• When 9-5 Isn’t Working for Your Business
• Professional Employee Surveys

ON SAVING MONEY:

• Getting Food Fresh from the Farm
• Cheap Summer Activities for Kids
• Organize your Online Coupons
• And lots more!

Tags: articles, blog links, kathryn vercillo, links, writing