Blog | Battleplan Creative

night shifts…

I’ve talked before about my ‘working arrangements’ and the upshot of this style is that I’m often working when sensible folk are catching up on Sky+ / Facebook / Twitter / the pile of books on their bedside table (delete as…). Those who know me well will argue that I manage to put in a fair shift on FB/Twitter but that’s more to do with typing speed and availability of iPhone than commitment to the cause.

Working at night is a strange one, being freelance already places you in that vortex of self reliance, often paralysed by the absence of ‘water cooler’ moments to gain perspective. Someone much more talented than me put it perfectly this week (on Twitter) RT @susanorlean “Being a writer requires an awkward balance of utter confidence and abject insecurity. Both necessary, neither sufficient.” followed up with RT @susanorlean “You do need the nerve to think you have something to say, but also the humility to listen, and the neediness to want to be heard.” So, so true and somehow working antisocial hours makes you feel even more of a pariah in social / business commentary terms, which is why I have to work hard to develop skills that keep me current and relevant and useful on the 2009/10 marketing communications tour.

Ultimately for me, it comes down to two things:-

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Autumn is falling….

So that was the summer… no, really it was – that 3 days of sunshine we had in May, remember it now? September’s not unwelcome arrival signals the return to school for kidlings and my dedicated return to work, which will in turn facilitate an upturn in considered blog posts rather than random ramblings like this one. In lieu of anything that I can find the time to write, here’s a great blogpost borrowed from someone else:- http://ow.ly/15MKHR – “If your desk area has started to resemble a small dysfunctional recycling plant…”

holding page….

It’s been a busy week… this is meant to be a post considering the commoditisation of creative services, and it will be – one day. In the meantime I’m off on holiday with my lovely family to laugh, play, read and sleep. Feel free to add some thoughts if you drop by while I’m away, otherwise I’ll pick it back up on my return…

motivation

I work from home. Mainly for time of life reasons – school and pre school children, EU guilt mountain at the very idea of all day childcare and procrastination about the idea of getting a ‘proper job’. Fair enough I do run my own business, complete with tax and VAT returns, but I’m fitting it in jigsaw-like or rather shoe-horn like to make it work with our family life. It was my birthday this week, not a significant zero-type number, but another year passing that I’m not out there focusing on world domination rather than making failing attempts to be a domestic goddess. It’s got me thinking about choices and motivation and whether my choices are more to do with my lack of it.

I mostly revel in being on the periphery of a business, looking in with eyes unfettered by politics and gossip and withdrawing to write clear, uncomplicated copy on the issues of the day. I return to my home office after a day spent interviewing and researching full of enthusiasm and ideas that charge around my head desperate to be committed to the hard drive and, if I manage to avoid the twin perils of Twitter and Facebook, that first hour in front of the mac is amazingly productive.. but if the motivation to work on after a long day out wanes…..

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Feeling slighted….

Rejection. Never something to relish but, sadly, a necessary part of working in PR… you write an article or opinion piece and try to syndicate it to relevant publications to gain profile for your client, or for yourself. Sometimes, despite you feeling all zeitgeisty and flooding with confidence, the product of your tapping digits is rejected or, if it’s done nicely, not considered ‘relevant’ for the readership. It all amounts to the same thing – a big fat NO that sends you scurrying back to that little safe place where you try and persuade yourself that it’s not you, it’s them and they’ll be crying into their decaf rooibush when they see it placed elsewhere and realise with crushing clarity that they’ve just done the literary equivalent of Simon Cowell turning down the Spice Girls.

It happened to me this week, I’d just finished writing a piece about ‘The Female Future – a New Business Model’. My focus was on the Print industry, which is where I spend a good chunk of my time, but the points raised had a much wider application. I had fun writing this, it was factual, well researched and pertinent (if I say so myself) and more than that I was excited by it. “This is it” I thought to myself as I sent it off to the the publishing editor, “this is going to start a progressive discussion that might actually bring about positive change.” “Ha-de-Ha-Ha” any cynical onlookers would have thought, “here comes a living illustration of the fabled fall following the pride.”

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