I haven't actually used LiveJournal in an eternity, but the latest developments with its politically and personally offensive new TOS have made it impossible for me to even leave my journal there unused. I've migrated everything over here, and purchased a paid premium account to support the site. :)

I'm going through my stored photos and fic on communities, and as soon as I've stripped every last thing off LJ, I'll be deleting my journal there. I'm sad that it came to this, but it has.

I rarely write fic anymore, but if I do, I'll make sure to post here.

Please add me here... and I'll add you.

Love,

Xie

It seems I've been trying to come up with a strategy to cope with (or, as my friends will probably say, whining about) my workload for years now. I'm pretty sure I have a tag for whining, and if I do, I'm going to bet most of it will be blah blah blah I work too much.

Since I'm an independent consultant, it's true I have no one to blame for my workload except myself. Although it never really does seem that simple when you're faced with an enticing new contract or projects from regular clients. Also, I devastated my finances when I was taking care of my mom while she was dying and the economy was collapsing, so for a while I took all the work I could get just to try to stave off the economic monsters.

Finally, when I was working 60-65 hours every single week and was just exhausted all the time, I started turning down everything I was offered from new clients, and even easing back on some of the work I did for existing clients. Which ultimately left me feeling trapped. I make good money, but only at the cost of my sleep, free time, and quality of life. Also, my creativity.

I'd tried just about everything, including outsourcing some tasks to other contractors, but two weeks ago I did something I hadn't actually considered: I hired a full-time assistant.

I learned from my past experiences with contractors and hired someone local who could actually come into my home office to be trained -- it's much easier to show someone how to do something than try to work it out over the Internet, even with desktop sharing.

I also hired someone I knew to be VERY smart, albeit who didn't have a background in my field. But I felt her skills would translate well to the type of work I do, and I knew she hated her current job and its lengthy commute, so getting a job that allowed her to work from home but paid the same would be appealing to her.

She's worked for me for two weeks now, and I couldn't possibly be happier. I've signed two new clients, and am able to focus on new work that's creatively challenging instead of client maintenance, which isn't. I am LOVING being able to say "yes" instead of "no" to interesting jobs!

Not to mention that the contract from just one of those new clients is going to completely pay for my assistant, so I'll be in the amazing position of making MORE money while doing LESS work, and actually giving someone else a good job, too.

I also haven't worked past 6 PM a single evening since I hired her, have had a lot more energy for social activities, and am starting to feel my depleted creative batteries re-charging. And the next time I go on vacation, I'll be able to leave everything in her capable hands and truly un-plug!

The last time I sat down to work on fic, I was able to do some outlining and story-plotting, but actually write? I had nothin'. (It was "Feeling Good" -- I really am working on it!) Now I'm finding myself thinking about the story again in my spare time -- OMG, I have spare time! It's like go-go dancing angel!Justin granted my wishes!

I didn't want to post about this on my Facebook as too many of my clients follow me there and I don't want them to see the insides of my head, LOL, so thank you for letting me express this moment of gratitude here!

So, LJ now says we can keep our original/custom friends page layout even after they morph into whatever it is they're morphing into now. Which is good, because I love it and was planning on crying for a week if it went away from me.

That is all.

Interesting article in Social Times on why the changes to LiveJournal are not only NOT likely to gain a new userbase for LJ, but risk driving off current users by taking away the very things we like here:

Now that sufficient time has passed, and older social networks are seeing their once great services lag behind the new startups, the desire to reboot is strong. But given that services like MySpace and Bebo are trying their hardest, and maybe not doing so well, why inject all this effort?

It seems that LiveJournal’s current 60 million users are happy to frequent the service as it is. Pushing hard to bring an older service up to speed may just alienate fans, and be ultimately destructive to the brand you’re trying to save.

Read the rest...

So, I was thinking about finishing my WIP "Feeling Good," the non-crack fic where Brian is a figure skater.

But is there anyone left who would read it?

Happy Justin's Magical Heart-Shaped Ass Day, everyone!

Sigh, I was so happy to find that Queer as Folk is streaming on Netflix now, only to find out they had to change a lot of the songs. THE PROM IS RUINED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Turns out I write just like Joss Whedon. Who knew?

From an interview in Co.create:

Whedon advises getting the fun stuff done first. “Some people will disagree, but for me if I’ve written a meaty, delightful, wonderful bunch of scenes and now I have to do the hard, connective, dog’s body work of writing, when I finish the dog’s body work, I’ll have a screenplay that I already love. I used to write chronologically when I started, from beginning to end. Eventually I went, That’s absurd; my heart is in this one scene, therefore I must follow it. Obviously, if you know you have a bunch of stuff to do, I have to lay out this, all this dull stuff, and I feel very uncreative but the clock is ticking. Then you do that and you choose to do that. But I always believe in just have as much fun as you can so that when you’re in the part that you hate there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, that you’re close to finished.”

The whole interview is here.

I do work from an outline, but I go through and write the scenes that have me on fire first, then connect and re-arrange them later.

If you write, do you write beginning to end straight through, or in scenes you go back and connect later?

While I didn't write a Cuddle Day story myself, my dog Rebel wrote one in heaven and I typed it for him.

Happy Cuddle Day, everyone!

Cats don't cuddle, either
By Rebel