Natalie Burg's Blog, page 7
March 7, 2014
Irrational Job Envy: A freelancer’s dilemma
Seventeen.
That's how many jobs I racked up in my journey to full-time freelancing. At least, that's how many I can remember at the moment. From the age of 16 to 28, I was nearly constantly in a cycle of becoming dissatisfied with a job, looking for a new one, interviewing, getting hired, loving the new job, doing the best I could there, realizing it wasn't quite right, becoming dissatisfied with it, etc., etc.
That's how many jobs I racked up in my journey to full-time freelancing. At least, that's how many I can remember at the moment. From the age of 16 to 28, I was nearly constantly in a cycle of becoming dissatisfied with a job, looking for a new one, interviewing, getting hired, loving the new job, doing the best I could there, realizing it wasn't quite right, becoming dissatisfied with it, etc., etc.
March 4, 2014
My Favorite Wows: The parts of the writing process I live for
Writing is the best. But as anyone who writes for a living will tell you, it also can be the worst. The deadlines! The word counts! The interviews that seemed fine at the time but have no decent quotes! Writing as a profession means composing through sleeplessness, idealessness and cleverlessness. It can be monotonous.
These things sometimes distract from the wonder that is the writing process. And is it a truly amazing wonder. Crafting a piece of work, using only brain juice and finger power, that can move people, inspire them, entertain or even change someone, is a sort of miracle. Most weeks I write between seven and ten stories, and believe me, they almost all feel like miracles by the end. This is due to a series of tiny, brilliant moments that happen during the writing process. No matter what kind of -lessness one is writing through, these stages in the process begin to happen, and you're in it. You're wowed. You're part of a miracle.
These things sometimes distract from the wonder that is the writing process. And is it a truly amazing wonder. Crafting a piece of work, using only brain juice and finger power, that can move people, inspire them, entertain or even change someone, is a sort of miracle. Most weeks I write between seven and ten stories, and believe me, they almost all feel like miracles by the end. This is due to a series of tiny, brilliant moments that happen during the writing process. No matter what kind of -lessness one is writing through, these stages in the process begin to happen, and you're in it. You're wowed. You're part of a miracle.
March 3, 2014
Blurring lines everywhere, making everything better
The biggest synonym-related issue I keep bumping up against lately in my writing (as opposed to all of the other synonym-related issues) has been coming up with new ways to describe blurred lines. Hazy boundaries? Fuzzy fringes? Petering perimeters?
The thing that makes this rhetorical quandary interesting is that it's not due to any one particular trend happening in one particular industry. I cover a number of topics, and in the last few months I've written about the blurring lines between brand publishing and advertising, engineering and medicine, women and tech leadership, art and economic development, media companies and technology firms, and, most recently, between urban and suburban places (coming soon!).
The thing that makes this rhetorical quandary interesting is that it's not due to any one particular trend happening in one particular industry. I cover a number of topics, and in the last few months I've written about the blurring lines between brand publishing and advertising, engineering and medicine, women and tech leadership, art and economic development, media companies and technology firms, and, most recently, between urban and suburban places (coming soon!).
February 28, 2014
I’m going to read a book today. Because, writing. And math.
CONFESSION: I do not read as much as I should.
It's a shameful thing, for a number of reasons. First, it's an incontrovertible fact that writers must always be reading. It's part of the deal. You can't grow your craft without any outside influence. No one's brain can improve upon itself. You have to feed it.
It's a shameful thing, for a number of reasons. First, it's an incontrovertible fact that writers must always be reading. It's part of the deal. You can't grow your craft without any outside influence. No one's brain can improve upon itself. You have to feed it.
February 26, 2014
The Sherlock Brain Dump. Do it. It’s good for you.
Sherlock Holmes is one of my favorite literary characters. I like weirdos in general, but what specifically endeared him to me is John Watson's incredulous reaction to Sherlock's lack of knowledge about the solar system. Here's a passage from A Study In Scarlet:
February 25, 2014
Things I Miss About Working in an Office (Really)
By and large, I have no complaints about working from home. I love it. I've always wanted to be a freelance writer, and so a home office has always been a default part of that dream. Buuuuuut, sometimes I suddenly remember something about having a "real job" that I sort of miss. Really? Even with all the pajama working and make-up not wearing and proximity to dogs? Yes, really.
February 24, 2014
Getting to Be the Anti-Naysayer
For the second time in the last year, Mike and I had the opportunity to do a tag team guest lecture at Western Michigan University on entrepreneurship in the arts. It's such a fun thing to do, as we often get so consumed with the day-to-day drone of our jobs that we forget, until we say it out loud to people, that we are living pretty super cool lives.
Both times we've gone in prepared to give students a glimpse of the daily grind that goes into making a living in a creative career, and both times, I've been so surprised by the reactions of the students, which are, overwhelmingly, variations on how we inspired them to follow their dreams. Oh. Okay.
Both times we've gone in prepared to give students a glimpse of the daily grind that goes into making a living in a creative career, and both times, I've been so surprised by the reactions of the students, which are, overwhelmingly, variations on how we inspired them to follow their dreams. Oh. Okay.
February 21, 2014
Nobody Has Any Idea What to Do Anymore
If you live in Michigan or anywhere Michigan-like, you know that the weather has just given up. We had the polar vortex and then five winters worth of snow and warming and then snowing and then raining, and now the world is covered with something that isn't really snow or ice, but more like a white Slurpee with gray highlights around the mangey edges. Oh, and it comes in urine flavor too, which is in great supply in my backyard.
January 29, 2014
Making Your Mark: How do you know what you’re doing matters?
This tweet floated past me earlier today and caused me to pause mid-scroll:
https://twitter.com/FastCompany/statu...
The full quote from actor and comedian Aziz Ansari, which I found when clicking through to FastCompany is, "I just want to produce one movie that makes a mark--like Will Ferrell with Anchorman, or Judd and Steve Carell with the 40-Year-Old Virgin--so no matter what happens, I can say, 'That really captured my voice. That's the kind of comedy I was trying to do."
https://twitter.com/FastCompany/statu...
The full quote from actor and comedian Aziz Ansari, which I found when clicking through to FastCompany is, "I just want to produce one movie that makes a mark--like Will Ferrell with Anchorman, or Judd and Steve Carell with the 40-Year-Old Virgin--so no matter what happens, I can say, 'That really captured my voice. That's the kind of comedy I was trying to do."
January 27, 2014
A Fraud from the Beginning: A new adventure, page one
I started a new book last week. I mean, technically, I "started" a "book," but all that means is I have a few scenes from a hypothetical story outlined in a notepad and sketched out on my computer. That's not a book. That's not really anything. In fact, I stumbled over the first line of this blog for some time, because even saying, "I started a new book" sounds like a fraudulent statement.
It's funny how the tiny beginnings of major happenings can make you feel exactly like that, like a fraud, just pretending to be something you have far more fantasies about than experience. It's like referring to yourself by a fancy new title on your first day of work, or commenting on your marriage the day after your wedding. The claims feel sort of contrived and uncomfortable. Technically, you are those things, but it still feels like you're faking it.
It's funny how the tiny beginnings of major happenings can make you feel exactly like that, like a fraud, just pretending to be something you have far more fantasies about than experience. It's like referring to yourself by a fancy new title on your first day of work, or commenting on your marriage the day after your wedding. The claims feel sort of contrived and uncomfortable. Technically, you are those things, but it still feels like you're faking it.
