The Art of Doing "Nothing"

January can be a strange month workwise and, from reading other blog posts and tweets, this year is no exception. I'm not alone in having been bombarded with work offers for between Christmas and New Year and then "enjoying" a super busy first week in January. This week, the second in January, I have not earned a penny so far.

So what does a translator do when he/she has no work? The answer is probably all the other work that needs done in any business that we don't tend to classify as work:

- admin
- reading saved tweet links
- reading blogs
- writing a blog post
- accounts/tax return
- more admin....

Does this sound familiar?

I can tick most of the above, with the exception of the tax return because I leave that to my accountant. As coordinator of the ITI Media, Arts & Tourism network, I've also organised a literary translation workshop in London early March, booked my flights and caught up with friends for coffee. I might even try out a new yoga class tomorrow morning.

The perfect week?

Yes, if you've just had a week where you earned almost double an average week and have mastered the art of "enjoying" your quiet spells. This is not as easy as it sounds, as I'm sure you all know.

To complicate the picture, it was not a week without job offers:

1) A very interesting potential job I had to turn down because of the very low rate. In a quiet spell I'm prepared to lower my rate by the equivalent of £50 per thousand words for an interesting job but I'm not prepared to accept a dreadful rate so had to turn it down.

2) The second offer was much more substantial and a far greater dilhemma. I have translated a number of French registration documents for a particular agency who approached me last week to join a "Translator Club" for the forthcoming season. I would commit formally to translating a certain number of words over a 6-month period and in return the agency would commit to offering me said number of words. The prospect of a steady income for the first half of the year was not unattractive but I would be tying myself up with financial translation at a time when I am making a concerted effort to specialise in creative translation. I bit the bullet and replied that I was moving towards creative translation but was willing to help out on an ad hoc basis. They have now offered me 20,000 words of the more "creative section" of a financial document starting in a couple of weeks time.

Despite my high earnings last week, the admin and chores I've completed and the lovely time I've had catching up with friends, there's still a niggle in the back of my mind that I should be translating, earning money. I am however getting better at recognising that I'm still working, despite the inevitable "No work on this week?" question from family members.

So, as much for my own benefit as anyone else's, the golden rules of enjoying a quiet spell:

1) Remember all these admin tasks and the additional reading count as "real work"
2) Don't lower your principles and accept a dreadful rate just because you're quiet
3) Invest in your marketing, raise your social media profile, write a blog post....
4) Remember that as a translator, you never know when something you read in a magazine or something that comes up in a conversation will prove useful in your work
5) Enjoy the time you have on your hands. Have a day out, meet up with friends, do the housework (hmm) or have an extra session at the gym - a huge job can arrive in your inbox at any time and you'd kick yourself for not having enjoyed the brief respite.

How do you handle your quiet spells? Do you panic or have you mastered the art of enjoying these periods. Are you a busy bee or do they leave you demotivated? I'd welcome your comments and ideas.

Reflections and resolutions

After my false start last year, I’ve decided it’s time to apply myself seriously to blogging, and what better time than at the end of a year... a time for reflection and resolution.

Reflecting on the past year, I ask myself what I have learned:


- Well, first and foremost, that it’s absolutely hopeless to start trying to blog at a time when you’ve barely got time to make yourself a cup of tea. Yes, my first blog post - To Tweet or not to Tweet - was written back in June 2011 (see archive) when I was in the process of project managing the Milngavie Book & Arts Festival and continuing to translate. Never one to shy away from a challenge, with the festival I definitely stepped out of my comfort zone for an amazing, if exhausting, experience.

- At the turn of the year I launched my new Alison Hughes Creative Translations website with a view to specialising in creative translation. I learnt that getting visitors to your website requires a lot of hard work and a good way is to comment on other blog posts and on-line articles, not to mention blogging yourself (#fail, to use Twitter terminology).

- Wearing my ITI Media Arts & Tourism Network Coordinator’s hat, I hosted an Art Translation workshop with Fiona Elliot at ICL in London in March. I learnt that, with support, it is possible to organise a workshop in London from nearly 400 miles away in my home town of Glasgow.

- I started using Facebook for business and, following the Scotnet’s Entrepreneurial Linguist workshop with Judy Jenner in June, I started tweeting (@AHcreatrans). I learnt that there is a great community of language professional tweeps out there in the Twittersphere.

- I attended the extremely useful ITI Strategic Governance workshop and GM, where I learned a lot about how ITI currently operates and the Council’s visions for the future.

- I learned that a subscription to a French magazine (Marie France) is not just an indulgence but can actually be very useful for a creative translator. What better, and more pleasant, way to stay in touch with French culture, fashion, beauty products and trends than sitting down with a magazine and a cuppa once a month?

How therapeutic to consolidate what was for me a rather hectic, at times very stressful, year into a few simple positive statements. These may have been positive moves but are in no way faits accomplis. There’s still a lot of work to be done, which takes me on to the resolutions.

I‘m not really one for personal resolutions at New Year but perhaps a few business-related ones might not be such a bad idea?




- As a result of local changes and, if I’m honest, burnout, I won’t be project managing this year’s festival so my first resolution has to be to focus on my core business. I am delighted to have had the opportunity to project manage the festival last year, and hope to be involved in some way this year, but my translation business did suffer. However, I did learn from the experience and hope to share what I learnt with you in future blogs.

- My second resolution can probably be summed up in two very important words: social media. A French version, plus a few additions, for my website, more Facebook likes, developing my Twitter activities and of course a regular blog. Perhaps I can be smug and say I’ve already made good progress on the last one but, as we all know, a resolution has to make it past the January pain barrier to be actually ticked off the list. I’m determined it’s going to happen this time. There, I’ve said it …. I can’t back out now.

Have you taken stock of your business in 2011? Have you made any business resolutions for 2012? If so, please share them with us.

All that remains is for me to wish you a very happy, prosperous and enjoyable 2012.

A très bientôt

To Tweet or not to Tweet ? That is the Question !

They said I should use Twitter

I said it’s not for me

What about a blog then?

But I’d like some time left free…

Where would I find inspiration

to capture potential readers?

Where would I find the time

to read tweets from other Tweeters?

And then I thought “why not?”

It seems Web 2.0’s really hot

If I don’t air what’s on my mind

I might just get left behind

So follow me on Twitter

Read my blog about my two hats

Keep the comments coming

and I might just rise up the stats…

Welcome to my blog.

A short time ago I had no idea I was going to write a blog and had certainly decided that Twitter was not for me. As a people person who is easily distracted (I refer to my butterfly mind) I had decided that I would spend all day reading and answering tweets and never get any work done. So what changed my mind? Who are “they” in the little ditty above?

As a linguist, I am a member of the Institute of Translation and Interpreting (ITI) and, living in Scotland, am very fortunate to be a long-standing member of the fantastic ITI Scottish Network (Scotnet for short). Scotnet held a most informative workshop – The Entrepreneurial Linguist – on Saturday, 4^th June which was led by the inspiring Judy Jenner from Twin Translations (http://www.twintranslations.com/), an ardent blogger and Tweeter. Judy was backed in her campaign to get us Scotnetters blogging and tweeting by some of the networkers own seasoned users of Web 2.0 and I really did feel I was missing out on something… that I didn’t want to get left behind.

Before I continue, let me tell you a bit more about myself and the aim of my blog.

I started out on the freelance route 14 years ago, having worked for Mumm Champagne in France and as an in-house translator with United Distillers plc, now Diageo. I now specialise in French to English creative translations, a specialism which came about organically: the more creative texts I translated, the more I realised I was good at them, the more good creative translations I delivered the more repeat business I received. As a lover of the arts, I am also delighted to be working in this field and have, since late 2009, been the Coordinator of the ITI Media, Arts & Tourism network.

I am also fortunate to live in Milngavie, a small town on the outskirts of Glasgow, where 4 years ago two local traders, Susan Frize of the Milngavie Bookshop and Rona Millar of Art Forum, had the fabulous idea of starting the Milngavie Book & Arts Festival, which is now in its 4^th year. I immediately offered my services as a volunteer for years one and two, joined the committee for 2010 and am honoured to have been asked to project manage the 2011 festival.

So I wear two hats, but these “hats” are in reality not so far removed from each. These are two very different jobs with the same aim of involving myself completely in the world of the arts and making these all-important contacts, indulging my creativity (apologies to all those who hate rhyming ditties) and generally having a really good time. I’d like to use this blog to reflect on the experience I take with me to each of these two areas but also what I have learned from spreading my wings further, and on the synergies/differences I notice and entertaining experiences I have along the way.

Translation, no matter the subject matter, can often be isolating. Festival management doesn’t necessarily take me away from the computer but I have the opportunity to get out of the house, meet other people and often it doesn’t feel like work at all. However, inevitably, organising can come with hassle, more hassle in one day than many translators will come up against in a year, so I now appreciate the contrast of sitting in front of the computer, in relative peace and quiet, working away on a translation.

To round off this first blog I decided to search the web for the origins of the expression “wearing two hats” but the results were inconclusive. Some believe it has army connotations, another response hinted at Gilbert & Sullivan’s Mikado and there was a reference to an article in The Times (of London) in 1958, but there was one quote which caught my attention:

“You can only wear so many hats at once before they start falling off”

Something definitely to bear in mind! Follow my journey as I keep my two hats firmly on my head or, to use an expression from the arts, both juggling balls in the air at the same time.

Go To My Website at http://www.alisonhughes-translations.co.uk/