Capturing Chaos

When I was ranting about the unwanted responsibilities and expectations that sometimes come with a talent, J. D. Salinger was in the back of my mind. After spectacular success with Catcher in the Rye and a few other books, Salinger disappeared from public view, and as far as anyone knows, stopped writing. As if in answer to my unspoken questions, 3 Quarks Daily posted an excerpt from a New York Times article about Salinger: Still Paging Mr. Salinger .

What the article boils down to is an analysis of Salinger’s various views of one of his characters, and what those views might reveal about the author. Considering that Salinger is now 90 years old, hasn’t published anything since 1965 and hasn’t granted an interview since the 1970s, it’s all guesswork. Continue Reading »

Writing is a perfect example of something you’re encouraged to do because you do it well. As too many prodigies have found, to their profound regret, the pressures to forge careers out of talents can lead to lives of frustration rather than fulfillment. The simple truth is that the possession of an ability doesn’t always bring with it the enjoyment of using it, much less the desire to devote a lifetime to it.

No talent stands in isolation. The talented violinist must perform publicly, must tour, must make him or herself a somewhat public person. Every career comes with requirements which have nothing to do with the original talent, and which may be difficult or even objectionable.

Even for someone with a small talent and small ambitions, there can be unpleasant factors to deal with and costs that may seem too much to pay. Somewhere along the line, you may even realize that you were looking at the talent in the wrong way. The violinist may decide that he wants to write music for the violin rather than play it. Continue Reading »

Today is a week since I joined Entrecard—a period of figuring out how it works, how to best use it, and of just general tooling around from one blog to another, and discovering some worthwhile ones along the way. I tend to be the person who pushes a button just to see what will happen, so much of my learning has been hands-on rather than reading the FAQs and help files. I save the reading for when I’m really stuck, trying to understand something.

My page views have increased dramatically, but I have no idea yet how many will translate into new readers. The cost of advertising here (EC credits) has gone up surprisingly fast. I don’t know whether that’s normal, but it’s encouraging.

The main thing that I’ve found, to my relief, is that you really don’t have to spend hours every day or drop a huge number of cards. My biggest day so far has been 17 drops, and most days I drop more like 10 or 12. I’m sure my page views would go up faster if I did more dropping, but I’m happy with slow, steady growth that comes from interested readers and not just from droppers who have no interest in my content.

It’s possible to be selective about reciprocating drops, and what blogs you accept as advertisers. In fact, it’s to your advantage to be selective about advertisers since your acceptance rate is one of the statistics available to prospective advertisers, who may also be picky about who they share space with.

I can honestly say that I’m happy with Entrecard, which has never been the case with any social network that I’ve joined in the past. Entrecard’s goals are clearly defined, and you’re free to use it in the way that suits you best.

I’ve never been a celebrations type of person, and as I get older I prefer to spend most of my time to myself, and observe the various kinds of human madness from the sidelines. So, I spent xmas eve, and the day, doing exactly what I normally do—surfing the web (pretty boring on holidays, I can tell you), reading, writing, and watching movies.

Up to a point, observation is a great source for ideas, but writing about my observations doesn’t always work out. Too much of what I see is depressing, and the appropriate comments on human nature just sound like complaining. I try not to complain about what can’t be changed, especially when it comes to how other people live their lives. They do what they’ve been conditioned to do, what their temperaments bias them toward, and what society offers them. They’re insiders and I’m an outsider, and our views of the world are very different.

Which leads to the Lemonade Award, which was kindly given to me by Ambrosiavenus at Chronicles of Caelan , and which I have declined. I understand the purpose of the award, which is to highlight bloggers whose writing is worth your attention. That’s an admirable motive, but it’s something I already do by adding people to my blogroll, and by quoting them now and then, and pointing to their blogs. Continue Reading »

Wrideo is a fairly new social bookmarking site for writers, one that I believe has great potential for becoming a central source for information on every aspect of the writing business. “Wrideo.com was created to aggregate useful and interesting articles about writing.” The categories under which you can post blog or article links are: writing, freelance, ghostwriting, home business, publishing, marketing, monetization.

The site is nicely designed, and very easy to use. You post links with tags and short descriptions. The space you’re given for the description is adequate for a well-written “hook.” Articles can be voted up or down, and readers can leave comments.

Once you’ve posted at least one link on Wrideo, you can set up a simple profile that includes your website, any information about yourself that you want to include, and the list of articles that you’ve bookmarked on the site.

For the first time, we have a chance to promote writers that we admire, without the competition that exists on general bookmarking sites like Digg and Reddit. You can promote your own work on Wrideo, of course, using the same courtesy that you would use on any other bookmarking site. Participation and sharing are the key to getting noticed and read.

If independence in your choices is a high priority for you, how far you can take that will depend on how much money you need to earn. If freelancing is to be your full-time career, you probably will always have to balance your own preferences with the demands of others. “Others” includes sites that pay for content, so even if you don’t have a roster of clients who pay you for assignments written to their specifications, there are always some constraints on a writer’s freedom.

Working for others may be easier if you can view it as temporary—just a step toward eventual independence. Whether that independence is even possible will depend on your skills, both those you have now and those you will need to acquire. Without expertise on one or more topics, or the ability to gain that expertise fairly quickly, earning a living as an independent freelancer will be difficult at best, and maybe impossible.

There are a multitude of options for developing a writing career that allows you flexibility and independence, but all require a commitment of time and effort. An important step is researching the various methods and their pros and cons. The path you take may not be a typical one, and may even be one that few professionals would recommend. But one of the advantages of freelancing is that it’s not set in concrete. Trying different paths is not only possible, it’s the best way to learn what works for you.

Part one: Freelance Writing: Find Your Own Path

In the process of trying to bring some order (and money) into my writing life, I suddenly found that blogging is slipping away quickly as a major part of that life. I’ve been doing the equivalent of house cleaning, taking a close look at what I’m writing, where I’m writing it, and what format I’m writing in. Most of what’s been bagged up and thrown out with the trash has been blogs. And the process is still going on.

I’ve always had too many blogs; for a long time they were my primary presence on the web. Each one focused on a different subject, one of them had a very substantial niche readership, and others had the potential to draw readers and, eventually, income. What happened? Continue Reading »

I’ve been reading a lot of articles about freelance writing, and all the ins and outs of developing a freelancing career. I’m not trying to build a career, just add to my base income for a bit more financial security. That means I have a lot more choices than someone whose very existence may depend on their ability to produce lots of content, day after day, week after week, year after year. But whether you’re looking for part-time freelance work or stepping off into a career, most of the advice is based on common assumptions.

For example—a substantial amount of the information revolves around clients—how to get them, what to charge them, your relationships with them, etc. The impression I got, until I started thinking about it, is that without clients, a freelance career isn’t even possible. Which led me to an overlooked area in career-building—how you, personally, function as a writer. Continue Reading »

Trying to develop income from writing isn’t a straight and easy path, as the last few days have proved. Some of the things you try work out, and some just don’t.

I found a nice site that pays members to post on forums. Good pay, for that type of writing, the staff seem to know what they’re doing, and their standards are high. So I joined their forum, wrote the requisite number of pre-qualifying posts, and lo! Applications are temporarily closed. The forum is friendly and has enough interesting topics to make it worth posting there, strictly as a leisure-time activity, so I’ll maintain my presence and wait for applications to open up again.

Less cheery is my short experience with DailyArticle, a site that functions as an intermediary between writers and sellers. I joined, mostly because of recommendations on the Associated Content forum, posted one article, and waited. And waited. And waited. The article was marked “available,” but after six days still hadn’t appeared on the site. It was Christmas-related, and it’s now too late for anyone to buy it, so I pulled it and deleted my personal info. I don’t have the patience these days, to deal with screwups.

I’ve also learned from experience, one more time, that a topic you’re interested in isn’t necessarily one you want to be tied to for a long time. So I just posted a brief note on my other today.com blog saying goodbye. I know I’m bad about sticking to limited topic projects, which puts me in the ranks of bloggers who start numerous blogs over the years, and abandon most of them eventually. But you never know which ones will stick until you give it a try.

Where’s that good advice I give everybody else and myself? Where’s that notebook that’s supposed to be by my bedside for late night inspiration? Just before hitting the sack last night, I had an excellent idea for today’s post. The thought briefly flashed through my mind that I’d probably forget it if I didn’t write it down. Nonsense! It’s such a great idea that I couldn’t possibly forget it. Isn’t that what they call famous last words? Well, at least I can post about the stupidity of (for the thousandth time) relying on my very defective memory.

I keep trying, but all I can come up with so far is that it was going to be the development of an analogy between writing and some else. If I ever come up with the “something else,” I’ll have it made. Instead, I’ll just bore everybody (all three of you) with a recital of my latest semi-accomplishments. Continue Reading »

I recently submitted a blog post to my very first writing carnival. So the link to “Leaving Your Comfort Zone” is up on Incurable Disease of Writing, along with a links to a bunch of other writers’ posts well worth reading. Some very nice stuff is published there every week.

Just Write Carnival

Every time I look at my Associated Content content page, I’m reminded of why I left the site in the first place. The article that they finally published today was seven days in the review queue before they made an offer, and then two days processing. But I’m learning patience, and also the importance of timing.

I submitted an article on the ideal Christmas gift for a gardener, an idea I picked up from a quick glance through Helium. (By the way, Helium is an excellent source for ideas if you’re running dry.) At the speed that seems to be AC’s current mode, by the time it’s published, most of the timeliness will have passed because I submitted it so late in the month. Let’s hope I remember that lesson when the next holiday season rolls around. At least it’s an evergreen article that will be relevant every Christmas, so even if it hibernates for the next nine or ten months, it should collect some pages views for the 2009 season and thereafter. Continue Reading »

A recent post on Freelance Writing From Home reminded me how narrow people tend to be in their thinking. The author was addressing the idea that too many people seem to have—that freelancing means you spend every day, all day, writing. Aside from the deadliness of such a routine, freelancing doesn’t even necessarily refer to writing. “Freelance simply means being self-employed. It doesn’t mean writing. You could be a freelance photographer or a freelance consultant.”

As a freelancer, you’re running your own business, which is supposed to be a path to freedom, not a different kind of slavery. Certainly, you’re going to have to work hard if you intend to make a living at it. But along the way, you should be learning how to work smarter so that you don’t have to work as hard. Continue Reading »

I don’t know if I’m unique in habitually throwing away my old journals. It seems that most people keep theirs as a source of ideas, or just to see how their writing has changed over time—how they have changed. One reason I throw mine away is that it’s too tedious to read over so many pages of my handwriting. I had the mad idea of eventually typing all those pages into computer files, but that turned out to be one of those what-was-I-thinking brainstorms.

I’ve tried journaling on the computer in the hope that It would be easier to keep at it, and that I would be less tempted to toss. But it turns out that it isn’t just my handwriting that’s the problem; it’s the repetition. And when I started thinking about that, I realized that my journals have two kinds of material. One is my life; all the moaning about problems and vowing to break out of old habits that keep me from accomplishing my goals. Over and over again. Who wants to look back over the years and face the ugly fact that you’ve been saying the same things pretty much forever, that you haven’t changed and aren’t likely to change? Continue Reading »

The economic downturn is beginning to hit writing sites, and people are running scared. Forums are filled with moans and groans about changes that clearly indicate there is less money to go around. Back in September, Shared Reviews stopped paying for reviews, and announced that members could now compete for prizes. Now Ciao has done the same thing, after first reducing payments from $1.00 a review to .25. Understandably, not too many people are happy about having to settle for what is being promoted as fun and games as a substitute for being paid for their content. Continue Reading »

In the old tale, the tortoise wins the race because the hare takes too many naps, counting on his speed to keep him ahead, while the tortoise just keeps plodding on towards the goal. Does that make me feel better about being a writing tortoise? Not at all, because I know it’s a lie intended to let us tortoises think we’re superior to the hares. In the real world, the hares win every time.

A race isn’t really the best analogy, because writing isn’t an area where there’s just one winner and a lot of losers. It’s more like a huge, self-renewing pie that allows each person to take what they can from it. That doesn’t prevent some tortoises from believing that hares don’t really exist, that they’re just tortoises with some unfair advantage, or who cheat their way into harehood and get more than their fair share of the pie. Continue Reading »

It would be wonderful if every writer could have an automatic recording device plugged into their brain. No more of those great ideas that pop up just as you’re falling asleep, that you try to burn into your brain so you can write them down in the morning. I should have learned my lesson by now, but for some reason, I always think I’m going to hang onto that stroke of genius until morning. Even if the stroke of genius amounts to nothing more than an idea for the next blog post, it’s frustrating to wake up and remember that there was something important to remember. And that I forgot what it was.

How about an automatic filing device? Whatever happened to that little notebook and the pen that I used to keep by the bed, just in case inspiration hit in the middle of a yawn? There weren’t that many bolts from the blue, so the notebook got moved to where note-taking was more likely to happen. And every now and then, I find a little stack of pages ripped out for immediate action and then buried under growing piles of odds and ends that just don’t seem to fit in any sensible category for safe-keeping. Thank goodness, I don’t write on the backs of envelopes.

I used to think that the computer would be the solution. I could enter every note in a handy program that would store my ideas safely, and allow me to find them by keywords. Nobody touting the wonders of computers ever considered that messy and forgetful minds create messy and forgetful computers. So there are bits of paper all over my apartment, and virtual bits of paper all over my computer. Whatever I’m looking for is likely to be in any one of dozens of places. But that’s okay. Out of confusion comes a new game. It’s called Treasure Hunt.