Monday, August 3, 2015

20150803.0643

Another freelance order has found its way to me. I am happy at the prospect once again; I really do enjoy the work of freelancing that I do, reading novels and distilling them down to bare-bones summaries and explications of setting, character, symbol, motif, and theme. It is work to which I am suited well by training and inclination, and it has the benefits of helping me better understand what is current in contemporary popular culture and of offering me practice in different styles of writing. (I mean the latter not only in terms of addressing different audiences via different genres, but also of adherence to different style manuals. I tend to write in MLA, owing to my training and "dominant" professional identity. The freelance work obliges me to AP standards, which are different in what may seem like minor points, but which are jarring to one accustomed through more than a decade and two or three editions of MLA to it, instead.) Both are helpful, or at least potentially so. The former helps connect me to people--something I have been advised I need more of--while the latter enhances my writing qualifications against my looking for writing-intensive jobs.

The order comes at a decent time. There is still money left over from my most recent payday, to be sure, but there are also one or two other bills that have yet to arrive for me to pay them, so having more money coming in will be decidedly welcome. Too, as the summer bridge program draws to a close, the "regular" fall semester begins to gear up. Next week is the orientation for it, and while it seems I will not have much to attend in that line since I am teaching four sections of the same course and so only need attend sessions for that course (and not all of those, as it happens), I still have work to do for it. My syllabus needs filling, for one thing, and I am told that there are changes to the program coming down, so I will need to attend to them, as well. Having the freelance order come in now helps me bridge the gaps between paychecks and paying work, to be sure; it also allows me to get the work done while I have an opportunity to do so instead of forcing me to negotiate it amid the chaos of beginning-of-term work. (I would not be surprised, however, to have a job come in during orientation week. And I would not complain; I need the money, and I like the work.)

I have other tasks than those of the classroom and the freelancing, to be sure. I continue to look for a non-visiting, non-temporary job, of course, and I try to fit in other writing that I need to do amid the work of drafting and polishing application materials, classroom work, and freelance pieces. Sherwood Cottage and its people must be attended to, as well. I begrudge none of it; instead, I find purpose in the work and some validation in doing it.

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