The Future's Bright

This is a bit of a milestone week for me. I'm jacking in my job of six years. Leaving a fairly respectable northern agency - and taking a 'career break' for no other reason than 'cos I can'.

When you've been a wage slave for a long while, the idea of just not having to get up in a morning seems divine. But I know it'll only be a couple of weeks before I'm in a blind panic, twiddling my thumbs, desperately DIYing the house and wondering what the troops are up to in the office. (But lets face it even your best work-mates aren't going to thank you for getting in touch and regularly reminding them that you're free and they're not, so emailing ex-colleagues is a bit of a no no).

Soooo, I've pre-empted myself and had a bit of a think about what I can do to wile away the hours and earn a few coppers to pay the mortgage and the new Orange mobile phone bill. (Company paid moby is a gift from god, despite being a taxable benefit and mine is going back - Boo!).

Hence the reason for me limbering up my fingers with the blog - as I'm half thinking of returning to me creative roots and picking up a freelance writing career that I foolishly threw away to become part of the Propaganda Machine.

Anyway - it seems the future's bright. The call for quality writing is on the up, given that even the oldstars are getting into the web these days. An article from the Copywriter's Crucible confirmed something I'd witnessed first hand earlier this week. On a visit to see my Pa, I found him pacing in small circles in his lounge, alternately scratching his head and his arse (apparently become unaware that you're doing stuff that's probably socially unacceptable, once you're retired, so I'll have to look out for myself doing similar scratching). While Dad paced, his mate fiddled with wires out the back of an ancient looking pc, conveniently placed just inside the front door, swearing quietly under his breath. Dad is one of the millions of British, currently engaged in a battle of wits with the British Broadband providers in an attempt to get on the superhighway.

So it seems my last few weeks, spent researching what makes good web-based copy are going to come in mighty handy. Good old Gerry McGovern and countless articles on SEO may stand me in good stead to peddle my services. Now all I need is to put myself about a bit.

Bruised and battered

Oh boy. Yesterday I slipped down a rabbit hole as I went investigating some of the top UK planning blogs. I got so lost, I'm sadly lacking accurate links here - but I found some great stuff, so I'll list it in no particular order at the end.

But I came away very disheartened for a number of reasons. One - without apparent exception this is a male dominated arena. Two - thanks to the amount of oxygen these uber brains are consuming doing their deep thinking, the air is very thin in the plannersphere. It made me dizzy. Three - all the hype about blogging being the democratization of media as we know it is a complete myth. Can't believe it's taken me this long to figure out that wherever there's a community, there's also the potential for a clique.

What has led me to this conclusion? I was reading one of these brainiac's tips for baby bloggers like me (sorry no link - my subconscious is blanking the whole experience). Apparently bloggers should remember there's A List, B List, C List Bloggers. OK OK, I'd gathered this already. Some people are regularly churning brilliant content. Others are mere pretenders to the throne. I guess that makes me a groupie. And two weeks in, I don't think I'm even old enough to legally drink. So I'm an adolescent groupie (worst sort), trying to rub shoulders with celebs who have varying degrees of fame.

Worst comment was still to come. I shouldn't hope to have any real success in my blogging until I'd earned my stripes over FIVE YEARS?? And I'll know that I have 'arrived' because I'll be getting all of my work by contacts made and developed in the blogging community. What's all that about!!?

Five years of blogging at this kind of frequency?? Jeez - it'd have to be delivering some serious returns way before then, to keep my interest. I think of myself as a tenacious lass, but that's ludicrous.

Worse of all, having really put myself about yesterday, I appear to have caught the clap off one of the sites I visited. (Under age and unprotected blog sex, mother would go mental). My Mac is now making spacey wailing noises that remind me of a subliminal re-enforcement tape I got from a hypno-therapist who helped me stop smoking a few years ago. I'm not sure what messages have been laid into the whale music - but it's sending me mental. For sure.

Maybe I should leave planning for the brainiacs and start a new blog exclusively for maniacs?

But before I do, I'll remember my manners - here's some of the great stuff I discovered yesterday: How to Change the World, BuzzMachine, gapingvoid, furtherandfaster, brandtarot. Apologies to any I missed - you probably wouldn't want links from me. I have the wailing clap.