2024-W11 EOW Report

Highlights This Week

• Wednesday. Was let go by a client that was worth 2/3rds of my income. That threw everything for a loop. What was crazy was that it was happening in the middle of my three part email series shutting down my newsletter, Osmosis. (Parts 1, 2, 3) See below under Four Thousand Weeks for more reflective naval gazing on the situation. Regardless, my daily streak of writing ficiton was broken and things are in chaos now.
• Spent Saturday afternoon breaking down five flash fiction stories to create thumbnail structures I can steal.
• I think losing 2/3rds of my income and blowing up Osmosis is more than enough for one week’s of updates, wouldn’t you say? I don’t need a third point? Oh, two important people in my life turned 40 this week, someone else is pregnant, and my middle one performed Wasia Project’s Petals on the Moon and Coldplay’s Viva La Vida in a middle school talent show.

Project Status Dashboard

The following are ongoing fiction writing projects broken down to what stage they’re in. Legend in footnote¹.

Was happily drafting more prj: BECKY this week, but also broke down Kij Johnson’s Ponies as a THB, which led to prj: SAVED, as MRK had asked us to prepare a short story to write during MMW that’s three scenes and complete. And then Wednesday happened. Did not write Thursday/Friday/Saturday. Broke my habitica streak. Wished Habitica kept a record of my longest streaks somewhere. Whatever.

EOW Time Tracking

The following is based on logged productive hours using Timeular. Parameters and definitions in footnote².

In Summary:

• F = 11% (overshadowed by closing down Osmosis)
• X = 6% (ditto)
• C = 21% (ditto)
• P = 56% (This is going to be high the next while as I network, but also the Osmosis shutdown)

Four Thousand Weeks

If I had to count the number of lengthy retainers I’ve lost over the years: (K, E, N, S, I, M, C, B, T, P). Ten. That’s ten over the last fifteen years as a freelancer. Many of these were just under one year. B and P were the outliers of the last few years. And every time one of these end, it feels like a huge reset. But why? OK, OK, with the most recent one, that was three intense years, I’ll give it that. It led to constant anxiety, intense sharp uptake of blood pressure at every communication, and a lot of awkward meetings. I was yelled at, I yelled back. None of it was healthy. It was a toxic environment. And from Wednesday onwards – I’ve felt a huge sense of relief, like a large weight lifted off my back. The panic hasn’t settled in yet that two-thirds of my income is gone. Wife is obviously upset. I didn’t give the proper proactive reassurance I should’ve. Instead I turtled and needed to go through the emotions myself. On Thursday, when I made my last check-in at my parents’ house (while they were in Taiwan/Vietnam), I circled my childhood home. Just re-explored the backyard – where F and I played street hockey, where barbeques happened, where we ran and play. And then on the way home, I make a last minute decision to visit my first house, the Port Moody townhouse. Walked down the steep hill to where the green behind the complex was. Just stood there for three deep breaths. When I got back to the office, AJM was there and we had a good talk about everything happening in her life and mine. Everything feels so chaotic again. Which I suppose is the ingredient for a reset. Perhaps a necessary one. I shared my situation with the MRK SSC and MRK shared a couple of resources. The night before, I went to Starbucks alone, to yes, dissect flash fiction for thumbnail sketches, but also to think. To think about my future. What I want to do with my life. I know I don’t really want to do what I’ve been doing the last fifteen years anymore, but I don’t know how to move away with that and make the same amount of money I currently (well, used to) make. The industry I picked fifteen years ago is just so… I think it’s dying too. It’s not going to survive I think. Conversations with JN/KD. But how can I scale? A lot of my income in past years, how it got buffed up was through royalties. And if that’s dying or running out… what next? Osmosis didn’t work out and I blew it up. Is there something I can do there? C-Chord is on spring break for two weeks. (Found out from American colleagues that they only get one week as opposed to my socialist country). So it’s going to be a little loosey goosey with a lot of free time minus my one remaining client while I hit up a lot of prospects and get think through things more. This really ruined my 2024 plans to hunker down with just those two clients so I can reallocate all my spare non-work energy to launching fiction. This really feels like the universe is working against me because I decided I would make this change this year to focus. “You want to focus?” the Universe said. “Here, let me throw as many wrenches into your plan as possible. Screw you.”

Book Reading

• Finished Stranger in a Strange Land. Live commentary here. Was a very disappointing, dated read. Finished The Hero of Ages. live commentary here. Was OK. Really slow beginning and flat 50-80% middle.
• Didn’t push much more on Timeline by Michael Crichton. Didn’t touch Pride and Prejudice again for another week. Maybe I should stop seeing it as “vegetables” just because it’s a classic.
• Borrowed The End of the World Is Just Beginning while out for a neighborhood walk on Saturday night. Still have The Accidental Superpower (2016) in book form inside my closet, but Libby/Audiobooks gets me through a lot more stuff more efficiently. So far, 5% in, not sharing anything I haven’t heard from Zeihan already.

Archive of all EOW reports here