Writing the Wrong

(Illustration credit: Andy Cole, whom I've known since grade school.)

I don't write much on this blog, but my hope is that soon I'll be writing more in general, and perhaps even getting paid for it. As you may know, I concentrate my blogging energies on my other site, The Backside of America. I also have been working on a memoir, on and off for the last eight years (see May 5, 2016, "Here's An Excerpt from My Road-Trip Memoir"). Now, after hemming and hawing for years -- yes, YEARS -- I am ready (I think) to launch myself back onto the paid writing market.

Oh sure, I've talked about this and thought about this and planned for this for month after month after month, always coming up with excuses not to venture out. I'm a stay-at-home dad and my kids need me to focus on them. I've been out of the job market too long and people won't hire me. Something is holding me back that I don't understand (see November 28, 2018, "ADD Me to the List," to read about when I did figure out, at least in part, what was holding me back).

Several months ago, after tinkering around with a professional web site for waaaaaaaaay too long, I launched the new-and-improved DaveBrigham.com. I've owned (well, rented) this domain name for a very long time. I used to blog at that site about my life, my kids, etc. I've now turned it into a place to advertise my talents, and to solicit clients for freelance work. But once I'd published the new version of the site, I just let it sit there. I didn't tell anyone about it. I figured I needed a week or two to get used to the idea of the web site being live. And then I would let my friends and family know and my writing career would pick up where it left off nearly two decades ago.

But no. That's not the way I work. As I wrote in my last post here, the above-referenced one about my having Attention Deficit Disorder, as well as Executive Function Disorder, "I have issues with planning and problem solving; self-motivation; visual imagery; critical analysis; and other things." So instead of just jumping into things, taking life by the horns, I procrastinate and put things aside and convince myself that I'll know when the time is right to make a move. Usually, that time comes when I'm just so sick of having something hanging over my head, and being transferred from one to-do list to another to another to another. That's why I finally began to promote, just a little bit, my writing web site.

I wish I weren't this way. I'm trying to manage my ADD and EFD and feel like I'm doing better in the nearly 12 months since I diagnosed myself and began taking note of who I am and how I operate. My new mantra is "Start living outside your head." I've always been one to think and think and think about stuff, and put off and put off and put off, somehow feeling that researching and planning for my life is just as good as actually living it. But that's not very satisfying.

So if you or someone you know needs help with a writing, editing or proofreading task, check out my web site (again, its DaveBrigham.com). While I haven't worked professionally since doing some freelance work about 17 years ago, I have honed my skills with the Backside of America blogging and working on my memoir. I feel my writing, editing, researching and proofreading talents have never been better.

OK, bye.