The problem is that real life has been rather prominent in my daily activities over the past few months, affecting both personal time and work time. The stick that the universe has shoved in my spokes is something I don't particularly want to talk about, the problems are not overtly life-altering (although some changes are rather severe, but for the positive), but they occupy a lot of my time. LOTS of my time. Such that work is being neglected.

Almost two months ago, as part of these problem-solving changes, the wifey and I decided to devote specific days of the week to our profit-building aspects, and the rest fits in the free days. One such profit-builders is our writing -- blogs do count, since they draw traffic, but we're also doing our sellable writing. I sold one article at Constant Content, along with our Collector's Quest writing, and things went pretty well for a while. Then a new time-consuming problem arose, affecting our income.

So, barring any upcoming family troubles (knock on wood), we're just now getting back on the track. Today's not the normal official "Freelance Writing Day," but I've missed 5 in a row, which is not good. Writing is also not something that can be jumped into gently; it's a set of skills that I don't exercise on a daily basis. It's part of why beginners are told to write every single day: writing doesn't come easily, so it's easier to leave the flywheel spinning rather than try to turn it over by hand. It's like a bunch of metaphors pertaining to engines and wheels, describing something in motion that's easier to run than let sit idle. It's a part of the brain that atrophies just a little every time it sits in the weeds unused, allowing for poorly-written metaphors to fill a blog until it's working properly.

As you might guess, I'm writing here to prime the pump and see what I can get to move.

Fargophilia had been severely neglected; the readers I'd started to cultivate had moved on (I don't even show up as a 'featured blog' after letting it sit dormant for two months). TNPJ used to be good for an article every few days, but I haven't written anything there since April, either. The lesser places I write are even more neglected. Hopefully I can get a jumpstart here, just enough to turn the engine over, so I can come up with something other than car metaphors to get across my ideas. Maybe in a little while, I can pop the hood and see what's under there, kick the tires, and drive it right off the lot.