When Female Characters Do Stupid Shit

I wrote an article on substack but it's about writing so here it is.

Musings on Characterization by Annemarie Musawale

Spoiler Alert: This is also kind of a rant

Read on Substack

Freelancing Is Not For the Weak

 I. am. growling.

One of my clients, who I've worked with for years, is a publisher. While the relationship with the company is long, they keep changing my project manager. I don't know the inner machinations of that, I just work with whomever I am presented with.

My latest project manager is such a hot mess that I want to scream, cry, throw up and die. She's traumatized me so much that when I did another job for a different client, I expected some BS when they got back to me about the finished product. For them to say 'this is fine, here's your payment' literally rocked my world.

I've had nitpicky clients. 

This isn't that. 

This is giving me an outline, telling me to follow it and then telling me that the outline they told me to follow isn't working and I should change it but in such a way that it sounds like I should have known it wouldn't work and should have done something else.

Every single milestone, it was the same. Yeah  we told you to write this but now we see that it doesn't work even though you asked several times if we were sure this is the direction we wanted to go and we said no, now we're saying, do it differently.

It it wasn't for capitalism I'd insist on charging them for a rewrite because it certainly wasn't a revision. 

I want to tear out my hair. 

So finally, they send the work to the editor - after hanging about with it for a week. They stayed with it so long that upwork paid me for the job before they got back to me. And the editor pointed out every single thing that was wrong with the OUTLINE in their comments. My project manager acted as if it was just another revision that I should attend to.

I had to put my foot down and ask her, "So all this is in the outline - I don't understand what you want me to do. Spell it out." I want to see if she dares to say rewrite. 

I dare her.

She is literally making me think I'm crazy. At one point I had to talk to my kid about it - I was like, "Is this what microaggressions feel like?"

 He told me that I should tell my brain to just shut the fuck up because it's making things worse. 

I get it. 

Because my thoughts are certainly not helping. So I'm writing them here so that I don't go awf on Miss Thank-You-Very-Much-for-Your-Work-We-Appreciate-It-Now-Here-Are-All-The-Things-You-Need-To-Change-That-I-Previously-Told-You-You-Needed-To-Include.

AAAAAHHHH!

Now, a bit of housekeeping. 

My Books and Where To Find Them

So, I was looking through my data on D2D and I realized how little money I make on every book. There was this one month I sold ten print books worth ninety dollars and I only got fifteen of those dollars, after like, three months. Seeing it all laid out in black and white was really a wake up call to me. The way I do my writing, is more of a hobby than a profession because I still want to enjoy the process and they say monetizing what you love is a way of killing the joy. I don't know - so far so good. 

But part of the joy of writing is sharing my stories. I want you to read them. I want to make a difference in how you think and move in the world using my stories. So I do want to disseminate them far and wide. 

So they'll stay on D2D because they do have a very wide distribution but I will, from now on, be marketing only my kofi bookshop. That is where I will build my community and I hope you'll come over and follow me there even if you don't buy anything (right away). 

At this time of year, many do celebrate various holidays and for the bibliophile in your life, I have many an offering. And guess what? For the next month and a half, my books (on kofi) are 25% off. So take advantage of the offer, support small business and join a growing community of active thinkers (I hope).

Use the discount code below as you shop.

This is a Fund Raising/Book Boosting Post

 

I’m taking a leaf out of fellow single mother, Cardi’s book and flogging my own books on these internet ‘streets’. Ten dollars! Just ten dollars for a gem of a book filled with raw, unvarnished truth about the ups and downs of single motherhood. “I know you got ten dollars!” Find Single Motherhood Unplugged on kofi: https://ko-fi.com/annemariemusawale/shop. You can also purchase a print copy from the Nuria Bookstore or amazon sites: https://bit.ly/printbooksannemarie

- Annemarie Musawale

Read on Substack

Allow me to add a separate but related post.

This week has been a ‘promote my kofi bookshop’ week for a number of reasons. I’m tired of the middle man. He’s eating good from me and using the proceeds to burn the world to the ground. Yes, I am speaking of Jeff Besos. I hear there’s something called blackout which involves boycotting big business and buying from small, ‘black-owned’ businesses. I’m just trying to do my share in letting you know where you can get some good books without going to Amazon. I guess the above two reasons are connected but it’s not only sticking it to the man that motivates me. I want to grow my own community and this is how I choose to do that. So here’s a video of what I’ve been up to during the week. The captions I used were fire. You should visit my instagram at authorannemarie and see for yourself. Aside from that, I just really enjoy making the graphics. More to come.

- Annemarie Musawale

Read on Substack

Marketing Out of the Box

Solange or someone said how they cannot be confined to just one channel of creative outlet. That they were more than just the singing or the acting or whatever. Same thing with the Smith siblings. Just doing all sorts of creative shit.

It's inspiring for me because I'm a writer but I also dabble in other things - painting, drawing, graphic design, making videos, everything.

And all these things are not different parts. They're all part of the same whole. So I've recently come to discover focus videos and the fact that I might be on the spectrum. These two factors are related because focus videos actually help me to well...focus.

Now it's hop skip and jump from watching focus videos to thinking "Hmm, I can make those too."

But why just make the videos when you can also use the videos to post excerpts?

Utility and marketing. Out of the box thinking. 

THE Tea With Lesley

 

So I came to know Lesley from when I started a literati group. The purpose of the group was to be a place where writers could meet, collaborate and grow. I'm not sure how successful we were at it, but at worst we did get four anthologies out of it. 

When I saw that Lesley had pivoted from writer to virtual assistant, I just had to know more. It's not a very common profession in this Kenya and I figured that more people would like to know how she went about it and how she managed to penetrate this industry especially since in the remote world, they do love a virtual assistant from Malaysia or the Phillipines. 

Well, this is her story. 

We ended up going in depth on a couple of things including the how, when you want to get started - not just the steps you have to take (which are reproducable) but the mental preparation you have to go through.

All in all, I learned something new and I hope you do too. Enjoy.

Living Abroad - A Podcast

 I did a podcast episode with my friend Bengat because I've seen a lot of posts and people talking about if they could just pass that sign that says 'kwa heri Kenya' all their problems would disappear. 

The weird thing about problems is that they follow you. You don't leave your childhood trauma behind, you inability to manage money, your lack of money...those problems don't end because you left the country. 

I recently watched a movie where Vanessa Kirby was a hot hot mess. She made bad decisions and everything seemed to just get worse and worse with every decision. Finally, she left town in the end and I suppose that was supposed to indicate a 'new start' but her inability to make good decisions didn't just sprout because she got in her car and moved her body elsewhere. 

So I wanted to speak to Bengat because she's an immigrant. She left here and went there. The thing is, she was already doing well when she left and she continued to do well over there. She had a support system here and she has one there. She makes an effort to maintain that sense of community by being there for others.

I mean, she sought me out at a low moment just because we were in the same class twenty years ago. She reminded me very much of my mother. She used to be the same. I aspire to the same level of community but I fall short.

Anyway so maybe the podcast started out as a way to give an illustration that the grass is greener where you water it and not necessarily on the other side but it ended up being a lesson in nurturing relationships. 

I hope you all give it a listen.

Fat Girl Fitness with a side of Excerpt

Have you seen Fit for TV on Netflix? I didn't know y'all were such bullies or rather I've never seen fatphobia so blatant before in my life. So I'm posting this so y'all can have someone to bully who doesn't give a fuck what you think. Enjoy!