Am I Really a Writer?

Can you call yourself a writer if you’re not writing? I know writers who claim they must write every day, it’s like oxygen to them. I am not that person. I can go for long periods of time without writing anything. Even if I need to write for financial reasons - if it’s not happening it’s just not happening.

I am in this very slump right now. I’m distracted. Other things seem more pressing. I don’t feel like writing. I wouldn’t call it writers block because I have plenty of ideas.


If I could make myself sit down and put my fingers on the keyboard I’m sure the words would come.

Words don’t fail me. If anything, I fail them.

I wrote a silly poem about writer’s block last year, primarily to get over the hump. Here it is: Overcoming Writer's Block - a Poem. But even then, I questioned the difference between writer’s block and lack of motivation. Are they the same thing? Are they different?

To me, they are different.

I’m supposed to be writing about balance and I am. Are you following? If you’re reading between the lines you’ll gather that I have none. You are correct. I’m either in a writing frenzy or a writing drought. (Maybe writing slack-off would be a more precise description but I’m scared of the word slack-off).

My hope is that this forced post makes me climb back in the saddle. My pocketbook hopes so too.

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This post is in participation with the Group Blogging Experience, and this week’s prompt is balance. If you want to blog with us, go to the GBE2 Facebook page and request to join the group. Everyone is welcome.

Common Words Writers and Bloggers Misuse: Fun with Words

Disclaimer: I am not a grammarian. I make mistakes in my writing. I am always learning, growing and (hopefully) honing my craft.

I read a lot of blogs and see common words that even seasoned writers and bloggers misuse. In many cases, online writers and bloggers don’t have editors. We can self-publish with the push of a button. There is danger in that freedom; when words are repeatedly used incorrectly, a writer’s post or article loses credibility.

Homonyms are tricky. They are words that are spelled or pronounced the same way as one or more other words but have different meanings. If you’re writing and you’re unsure about the proper use of a word, take the time to look it up. If you’re in the flow and can’t be bothered, go back and edit before you publish. It matters.

Here are some of the worst offenders:

Opportunities to Make Money

Opportunities multiply as they are seized. ~Sun Tzu

And by opportunities--for the purpose of this post--I mean money. Sure, it doesn’t grow on trees like the photo suggests (wouldn’t that be convenient!?) but I sincerely believe that opportunities to make money multiply as they are seized. My experience as a freelance writer proves this point.

When I was just starting out, a potential client approached me about a project that involved writing copy for trade publications. Yeah, okay, I can do that. What's the project? 

Extracting contaminated PCBs from transformers. 

Whaaaat? I was clueless... but broke. What to do, what to do?

I was honest. I told him I didn't consider myself a technical writer of that kind but that I was a quick learner. I let him know that I was willing to give it a shot if he could make the resources (engineers) available for me to ask loads of stupid uninformed questions. We further agreed that if I didn't 'get it' in a reasonable time frame we would part ways respectfully. No harm, no foul.       

Many seasoned freelance writers will tell you to find your passions and build a niche for yourself. I agree with that advice 100%. But I am also passionate about food and shelter. I certainly didn't want (or expect) to build a niche as a Polychlorinated biphenyls writer but it paid the bills. And it lead to more writing opportunities.

You know what? It was interesting. Not interesting as in 'how does Raquel Welch still look so good at her age' interesting, but interesting. I dug in, focused, and learned a lot. I wrote about PCBs for quite a while (and if you know about PCBs, this post is really showing my age!).

So that's my advice, for what it's worth. Grow your own money tree. Go boldly forward. Seize those opportunities and they will multiply. 

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This post is in participation with the Group Blogging Experience, and this week’s topic is a picture prompt. If you want to blog with us, go to the GBE2 Facebook page and request to join the group. Everyone is welcome.

Control Over Your Writing Environment

One of the things I love about being a freelance writer is that the word free is in my occupational description. After a long career in ‘Corporate America,’ I am now free. Free to choose my own clients, projects and topics. Free to write what I want. Free to write when I want.  Free to write where I want.

Kinda.

I discovered something about myself this week. I’m not as free to write where I want as I thought I was. I need some measure of control over my writing environment.

This week I am out of my routine and out of my environment. I am with my parents, offering support as my dad undergoes a procedure. I have the technology to complete my writing assignments and stay on schedule, what I lack is the focus. Not because of my dad’s procedure or my mom’s worry but because of… noise, distractions.

To write about serious topics, I need silence. I’m not the ‘go to a coffee house and bang out a few articles’ kind of writer. I like to write in silence.

Sure, I’ve spent time in airports and coffee shops penning silly poems and jingles--but not the serious stuff. Not the real writing.

I was all geared up to sit in the hospital and catch up on my writing assignments, blog posts and maybe indulge in some fiction writing. Nope. Instead I surfed the internet, read trashy magazines and talked it up with the nurses and docs. No writing.

It’s late at night. We are back at my parent’s house and everybody is in bed. Dad is fine. It’s quiet. Now I can write.

What about you? Are you a crank-up-the-music and go kind of writer? Can you write in a bustling crowd or with kids running around the house? Can you write and watch TV at the same time?

Or do you need control over your writing environment?    
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This post is in participation with the Group Blogging Experience, and this week’s topic is control. If you want to blog with us, go to the GBE2 Facebook page and request to join the group. Everyone is welcome.

New Pets Blog

Glutton for punishment or blogging addict? You decide *but don't tell me what you think*! Ha. Anyway, yes, I started a new blog. I have loads to learn about blogging. And since I'm a 'learn by doing' kind of gal, I'm doing.

I write about pets for the Yahoo! Contributor Network, Demand Studios and Examiner. Animals are one of my favorite subjects to write about. Though the blogosphere is over-saturated with pets blogs, I'm jumping in anyway. We totally have the cutest pets in the universe, so yes, they are worthy of a blog all by themselves.

Besides, I just can't help myself (see above).







Oh, the link? Here you go: Hearts in Fur Coats
I'd love to know what you think.

The Yahoo! Contributor Network Article Writing Challenge

Crazy, right?! Yep, I signed up for another challenge. This is an article writing challenge on the Yahoo! Contributor Network, as opposed to the A-Z Blogging Challenge we just finished up. 

It's simple - write one article on YCN per week starting with the letter A. You can either publish the articles display only to ensure they publish in the proper week or submit them for upfront payment, which means they'll be reviewed and published when an editor gets to it.    

Even though I'm commitment phobic and avoid rules whenever possible, this article writing challenge appeals to me because it's a once-a-week deal (see how I used the word deal instead of commitment) and the rules are loose. Really, there are no rules, more like guidelines.

So I'm in, kind of. My A article is languishing in the queue. I'm waiting to see if it flies before I write B because I'm going to write on a theme. It's taking longer than usual to process, maybe because I rarely write on this subject so the editor doesn't know me. We'll see how it goes. In the meantime, I'm a week behind on the challenge and we just started one week ago. 

What? Did you say you want to know what my never-before-written-about theme is? I'll let you know after editorial review.