CruelSummer

I love this: "There are two general signs that a blog is heading toward extinction. The first is a declining frequency of posting, and the second is a proportional rise in the number of posts about the blog itself."

With only 25 posts racked up in the last year, an Aatom-gazing piece is obviously in order.

First, a complaint. Typepad has "upgraded" their posting template, with bells and whistles that I don't need that are somehow inconsistent in their application. The clean, simple design I developed, so effortless before, now requires a bunch of jiggering to achieve. So thank you, Typepad, you complicated fucks. In fairness, my $8/month doesn't give me a huge griping platform.

The past 6 months have been a bit of an emotional rollercoaster for me. After quitting my soul-crushing sales job at Time, Inc. to pursue my writing "career", I took a MediaBistro course in copywriting and quickly landed my first freelance gig at Euro RSCG Life working on the Xalatan glaucoma medication account. Everyone agreed that Pharma was where it's at right now. Seems that the pill industry is recession-proof. I learned an intense amount about the minutiae of corporate copywriting at Euro under the kind, talented eye of a friend of a friend. Being on Madison Avenue was no small rush for an advertising junkie like me. Then I learned the biggest lesson of all when another Pfizer account was yanked from Euro and my freelance position disappeared overnight. There's no job security in being a gun-for-hire. No problem, I thought. Now I have real-time experience doing this in a profitable sector. I'll just get another freelance position. That was two months ago. My savings are quickly drying up, and I have a puppy to feed and a boyfriend with a birthday right around the corner. Blergh. Anybody need a waiter?

With so much free time on my hands, you would think this little blog would be kicking, right? Wrong. Human nature rarely follows a logical stream. I feel distant and disengaged from the pulse of current events, pleasuring myself with the soothing dope of The Obama Networks (MSNBC and Sullivan) while I lamely search the interweb for copywriting positions. Although this Gawker post and comment stream was oddly edifying.

Despite this, I find myself in remarkably good spirits. I have a loving family now, and the daily stresses inherent in that are far outweighed by the strength and companionship they give me. I do have an exciting freelance project coming up in the next month or so working for a good friend on a top-secret science fair project. noiZe is still a wonderful diversion for me (although I did leave movmnt for lots of boring internal-drama reasons.) Fire Island still beckons and promises to restore the spirit. Eventually, someone will pay me to do something. 

Summer has just begun, and it looks to be a long one. But life is good, generally.  I'm going to do my best to enjoy it.

(Wicked summer image totally ganked from here. Thanks.)

Comments

[NG]

And what's worse is that some of the blogs or bloggers that fall into this category started out by making grandiose statements, their blogs become must links to and from, the other bloggers become even more motivated and everything is hunky dory. Until one day, they're gone.

They cut and run from their own blogs, eventually disappearing altogether affecting everyone else's blog rankings.

I'd love to get a Typepad but...

[KevinQC]

I hate it when blogs I like disappear. Screw you blogging-quitters! Grrr!

With that said, I feel much the same way you do despite some personal ups and downs lately. Life's good and I'm actually looking forward to things again.

Here's to muddling through!

[Sprague D]

Well, I know how scary being unemployed can be -- I was in a similar sitch about 10 years ago. But the trends in the ad industry are in your favor. Especially at the big agencies, where they are throwing full-timers overboard in favor of freelancers. If you have pharma experience all the better.

With your extra time, you might think about starting another blog just about professional issues (the life of a copywriter, pharma DTC, changing ad economics, etc.). Could help raise your profile, make connections. And, though you are loathe to join social networks -- LinkedIn is your friend.