The Process

A few people have asked about how I'm making the transition from promo model/brand ambassador (something of a jackass job if you ask me) to full time freelance writer and novelist. Seeing as the transformation is almost complete I think it'd be easier to post my routine here so people can see exactly what I go through rather than explain in detail whenever someone asks me. There might be easier roads to professional writerhood, but you have to have ties to the Mormon Church and be named Stephanie Meyer for that...

My morning starts around 10 AM...okay 11 AM. Coffee, breakfast, checking Craigslist and the various staffing agencies for the highest paying gigs with the least amount of shit I don't want to do. If I'm lucky, I have offers already in my e-mail, if I'm unlucky, I get to start making phone calls and sending e-mails.

I usually have class from about 1 PM to 5 PM and I'm almost always late. I'm good at a lot of things, but punctuality just isn't one of them. Between classes I tweet like a little bird on my smart phone or laptop to build a following and keep up name recognition. This requires an average of 15-20 a day, they have to be good or people aren't going to be interested when I'm trying to plug my writing.

A few on campus meetings for clubs and activities in the evenings, more tweeting, and I get home by 7 or 8 PM...or 9, usually closer to 9.

For the next four hours or so, I write, tweet, blog, do homework, send e-mails and query letters for reviews, post information everywhere I can, edit, rewrite, and basically live on my computer.



Around 1 AM, I usually wake up Nichole and pester her for attention (she's an early riser so she rarely appreciates this). When that doesn't work I unwind for an hour and go to bed.

On the weekends, I work trade shows and promo events pretty much the entire time and then when I'm planning on writing in the evening, I'm usually so sexually frustrated from writing erotica/sex advice/reading sex advice e-mails/flirting on Twitter, that I do everything in my power to get laid whether Nichole is in the mood or not--she usually is or is easily gotten into the mood.

The fact of the matter is, being a freelance writer and author is far more about self-promotion than actual writing. Of course, if you're a lousy writer, it doesn't really matter how good of a promoter you are. I've noticed that every political cause and societal interest I used to have is taking a backseat to my own cause right now. Living the dream really should be replaced with building your brand to be at all successful in writing.

So, not exactly sex advice, but for all the people who think I'm "living the dream" and want to know how it's done...there you go.

I promise, next time I'll post about something more interesting...