Reinventing Myself

So this is where it all begins. That new chapter in life.
That IS what they call it.
What if I wasn’t finished with the last chapter.
Maybe I simply don’t like the book.
I guess none of that matters.
After 30 years working as a television news producer and writer -- my position was cut and I am looking for work.

It wasn’t my choice.
I was “part of a staff reduction” at the ABC affiliate in Portland, Oregon. While I hadn’t been happy with my job for years ~ it’s never easy to be “shown the door.”

Career changes are tough enough. When they’re not your choice they leave you feeling inadequate and vulnerable. Add into that equation the fact you’re not 30 anymore. Heck you’re not even 40 or 50 anymore. As the woman who handed me my walking papers once said to me, “I’m no Spring Chicken either.” True, but she wasn't the one booted out the door.

For more than 20 years I’ve written the stories those high-paid anchors have read on the air. They get the glory and the money. I get the blame when the words weren’t put on paper in the right order. I am a writer. When I wasn’t writing about car crashes, child rapists, mall and school shootings, serial killers, a dying economy and a Congress who won’t fix it - I’d sit for hours at my computer and write. Sometimes just to jot down random thoughts. Other times to sort out the thoughts rambling around in my brain. I’d just get in a writing zone and off I’d go.

Now I’m depending on a different style of writing to carry the torch for me again.
I want to become a copywriter.

I want to create content for landing pages, squeeze pages, entire sites ... even blogs. When it comes to websites and traffic generation, content is King. As a mentor quickly informed me: “If you don't have well-written, properly formatted content that adheres to marketing, SEO and online readership preferences, you'll deliver content that may sound pretty and look grammatically accurate but which won’t deliver results.”

That’s when she referred me to James Chartrand and her world-class copywriting website, “Men with Pens.”  I read everything I could on that website.  Devoured it.

Then I signed up to get her newsletters in my inbox. I consumed them like chocolate morsels feeding the copywriting soul starving for information. I couldn’t get enough.

That’s when I started emailing James for clues how to feed my appetite to launch this new ~ and what seemed like ~ a very viable and exciting career for me.  She responded very quickly. Not once. Not twice.  But several times. We wrote back and forth. Each time her answers assured me *she* is quickly becoming my new mentor.  This is where I need to be.

She told me about her upcoming “Damn Fine Words” course. I was immediately curious about it and wondered if it would give me what I need to launch my career as a copywriter.  She emailed me a synopsis of the course. I eagerly perused every page. One look at the subjects and exercises and I was convinced it may be the inclusive course that will give me the better writer skills and effective content creation techniques I need to launch my copywriting website, blog and business.

After my recent layoff, I think this course will boost my confidence and get that pen flowing on the paper again.

I am so excited for the “Damn Fine Words” course to start.
So I may begin that new chapter in my life called, "Reinventing myself".