Some people like me find focusing on one thing for a very long time quite difficult. Kind spirits say it is essential for channeling the creative force to suddenly cut your hair in the middle of the morning or have a walk to pigeon valley to look for the rabbits or the black mamba. Going to the spar at like 11 is also good, or maybe going to the beach just quickly. Others are less encouraging of these methods of living, but no doubt more productive. They can helpfully sometimes hand out ritalin and lectures on knuckling under, or choosing one thing. And they say, have you done this, and what about that. And focus. And they are right and successful. But all I can say for now is that it is difficult to make a living solely on writing about road trips to the best prawn curry in the world (but do look out for that in January’s Getaway) or mountains that go into outer space. Or what to do when your hamster is afraid of thunder (Hamster Quarterly). Or why my friends surround themselves in barriers of bouncy white light before they leave the house (no place for this just yet).
Quite often editors say no that is not a good idea for a story at all. Sometimes they send me away to places and then tell me to turn around because the town is on fire. To make a living many freelance writers maybe do deals like with Nikon and Eurorail and then don’t get off the train and sell the camera in Siberia. Just to keep warm.
Mostly nowadays you also have to add in very good pictures. It’s like when you send a text. Sometimes perhaps a unicorn emoticon or a praying one says it all just perfectly. Sometimes an actual photograph of the frightened hamster in the storm. You need to be able to embrace more and more methods to get your point across. You have to be flexible. Sometimes a voice note, or a song, or a video clip but seldom leaving a message like in the olden days. So today I’m drawing a picture of a lady with headphones on for a UNAIDS podcast. I am also working on putting a drawing I did of a tiger into this drawing I did of a forest. This is because yesterday William said he wants to put my drawing of a tiger on the water bottles he sells to everyone. Hooray. And It should be jumping through a forest. Because Summer is coming and we need to drink, and life without awesome tigers jumping through forests on water bottles would be BORING!