Post Titles Suck

Having spent a good deal of time on one social media platform after another, I'm really feeling the weight of having to come up with a proper title for each freaking post I make here. It's not as though this were some sleek blog packed with information. There's information here, sure, but it's got everything to do with my writing and publishing calendars and maybe the occasional flighty post about stuff.

I'd love to turn this into something like a Tumblr-esque site or a Mastodon microblog with more frequent but shorter updates and zero -- yes, ZERO -- post titles. Because post titles suck. 

Anyway, I've begun edits and revisions for The Perfect Rochester, and while I know I've mentioned this previously, it's definitely going to happen. There'll be a lot of heave-ho-ing during the revisions as there are a number of things needing a major overhaul. The first ten chapters are fine, but once Lysander (currently a placeholder name for the character since his backstory is part of the overhaul) enters the picture, all bets are off. 

They do say the real writing happens during the revision and editing phase, and I heartily agree, which is why I find those stages to be more appealing and satisfying than writing the story the first time around. Getting one's ideas into actual text is usually more problematic for me, but I've learned to let go and simply write stuff down with the internal editor locked away in some dark, dank oubliette. 

One other thing I tend to find surprising is the future calendar. I tend to get a bit panicky over thoughts that go "You've got to get this done by this date or that date, so you can start on the next book." But looking at the calendar, I've got so much time left (a March release for this book and July for the next) and some extras. I need to loosen up a little, especially with the holidays coming up, and it'll be busy season at the day job. I won't have as much energy left when the weekend rolls around, bringing with it my writing time. So just go with the flow, girl. Go with the flow. 

My day job, while consistent, is turning into a real challenge to stick with. And that bothers me so much since it's the sort of position I've had so many years of experience in, but the location and the shift are taking their toll on me, and it's only been three years and counting. The location in East Oakland is inaccessible by public transit, which I use for my daily commute (save for Fridays, when I have access to the car). 

Now normally I'd be marginally okay with walking through garbage on the sidewalk and badly broken and hazardous pavement to and from the train station, but the shift -- 6 am to 2:30 pm -- is wrecking my health. Because let me tell you, taking public transit at a ghastly time requires me to get up at around 3 am and leave the house at 4:30 in order to catch the earliest bus to the train station. 

And since the facility where I work is another mile out from the Fruitvale BART station, I have to walk another 25 minutes to get there. By the time I clock in, I'm at least 10 minutes late, anyway, and the idea that I have to get up way earlier than everyone else and STILL clock in late? Doesn't sit well with me, and I spend at least thirteen hours away from home altogether each day -- for not much pay and an excruciatingly slow accumulation of PTO hours. The company didn't even offer reviews and incentives for raises until October of this year, and the raises were dismal (really, why even bother with a twenty-cent-an-hour raise like one girl got?).

And everyone who've been working there for years and years? They all have cars.

So, yeah. I'm really bummed about it since this is a job I've been wanting to land for a while now, but there's always something, you know? Maybe it's some great cosmic sign for me to not get too comfortable and that there are better, more promising opportunities out there. At any rate, I decided to polish up my resume on Indeed.com and am back to scouring for openings. Hopefully somewhere that's art-related. 

I suppose in better news, election results notwithstanding, I'm feeling pretty chipper compared to the last two months, so there's that.