Keeping On, Writing On

And the adventures continue as far as writing goes, mostly to my delight and advantage. I'm not quite sure where we're standing at present with all the AB-5 stuff, but supposedly there are some changes coming up that will end a lot of the hassle, at least for writers. In particular, that ridiculous 35-article cap is supposed to be done away with, and some of the ambiguous language is set to be clarified. I'm hoping that will mean I can stop stressing over this soon and go back to writing for a living in some kind of peace.

Thankfully the initial BKA termination that hurt so badly was the only full-on firing I personally had to deal with. One of the two newer platforms I joined and had been using eventually did have to limit us to 35 articles per year per client just to play it really safe. However, they also made it crystal clear they were planning on supporting California writers through all this, and they said they'd remove the limits as soon as they possibly could.

That will probably happen within the next couple of weeks or so when the amendment goes through, and I'm eagerly looking forward to it. I really love that platform, and I'm hoping to be able to write there more often in the future, so it will be nice to be able to do that to whatever extent I want. The other platforms I've been using here and there haven't said or done anything to make me believe I have more walking papers in my immediate future, so that's been good for my peace of mind as well.

I still think about BKA sometimes, as well as many of the projects I worked on through them. There's a part of me that hopes when things stabilize a bit and people are no longer afraid to contract with California writers, I'll be able to work with them again, but I'll be fine if that never happens. Some of the opportunities I discovered while shopping around for replacements for BKA have been so positive, it's hard to be upset. If anything, I'm a little miffed at them for giving me the boot the way they did, especially in light of how supportive so many other platforms have been, but that's a whole other issue.

........

I can't say with any honesty that I've been as consistent about my Medium postings as I wanted to be, but I continue to have a really amazing experience on there nevertheless. Since I last posted here, I've published three more stories there. All three got curated. They've all also made me a modest amount of money and gotten me more traction on the site. One that I wrote on makeup and depression was even picked up by a feminist publication on there that I'd been meaning to apply to -- Fearless She Wrote. One of the editors read it and sent me a private note saying she'd added me as a writer in the hopes that I'd not only authorize them to add the makeup piece, but that I might write more things for them in the future. That absolutely blew my mind and was super encouraging. 

All in all, Medium's been exactly what I was looking for in a platform for my personal writing. People are reading what I post. I'm actually getting noticed by curators and editors. I'm even making a little cash at a difficult time when it's badly needed and even more appreciated. In time, I'll build a following that I'll be able to take with me wherever my writing goes next, and I'll keep making increasingly more money. I'm even starting to think about writing courses or instructional books as possible ways to keep diversifying my career if all continues to go this well. 

I haven't been this excited about writing in a very long time. At times I feel downright excited to sit down and get to work on something new -- something that hasn't happened since my early days on LiveJournal or possibly my first stab or two at NaNoWriMo. I'm really excited about my future as a writer again as well, which is a nice change indeed.