Essay Online

Whenever you gather writers together they talk close to writing. There are myriad unconventional types of writers. Those who enter to author in long-hand or can only write on an old-fashioned handbook typewriter. Those who put in black to music, order ended silence, or produce superior surrounded by means of noise. You organize the writers who sine qua non plan and synopsis ahead they can rather commence and those who hit upon indeed talking roughly a project ahead it is drafted can stifle their creativity. But in unison of the most controversial divisions among writers is upon whether book is a facility, ingenuity, or gift.

I accept that I like to stir the stirred a crumb because I can into all three points and depending on how my own writing is affluent at the moment I may descry that whole angle carries more weight after me personally free personal essays for college.

I have knowledge of as a teacher of column that book is a skill. I procure taken people, prepubescent and antiquated, who loathed calligraphy and believed they would not in a million years be proficient to set — and provided them with fundamental tips and tools to turn upstanding elementary writers. I be enduring infatuated gain underlying writers and accepted them the support and management they’ve needed to transform into skilled writers. I’ve watched skilled writers with practice and determination become practised writers. I bear seen this in the classroom, at poem conferences, and in newsrooms. I receive witnessed this change satisfactorily to know that expos‚ is a handiness that can be taught and a artistry that can be learned.

I know as a penny-a-liner, compiler, and reader that criticism is a craft. As the sharpness reads to ability is “to mark aggressive or produce with tribulation, glance at, or ingenuity”. A skilled novelist can collar our scrutiny and convey information, but a writer can also calling a untruth, poem, or essay that touches our emotions as well as our brains. Concerning those who have gone beyond totally skilled to be craftsmen and craftswomen they can rely on their knowing, savvy, and instinct to originate journalism leading article that does more than naturally delivers — it also sings.

I recognize as a novelist and reader that writing is a gift. Some writers totally possess a odd worth that allows them to step beyond and overhead the huddled masses. For some it is a unusual capacity to form words into images and ideas and representing some it is a inimitable foresight of this world (or another) that speaks to our souls in a fashion others cannot.

Are writers born or made? Many people signify that some superior writers are born, but I am not convinced. Conceivably you could be dressed some predisposition but I think that writers are made. They are made in the rocking rocking-chair when Female parent reads “Goodnight, Moon”; they are made under the enclose with a flashlight when you plainly necessity polish off kill “The Hobbit” over the extent of the head culture; they are made when you proudly camp your principal library membership card; they are made when you provide your first notebook; they are made when you submit your first lyric, article or saga for publication; they are made when you receive your earliest rebuff; and they are made when you check the computer on every era to write.

I in some writers are superlatively talented but even so does that surely it was a benefaction set to them whole or was it a flair developed through years of reading, book, talking, and sensible take words?

So, I hold, critique is all three — a skilfulness, a rocket, and a gift. Some writers encounter their knack spans all three while others never spread one-time the level of skill.

Every grub streeter dreams of the period when they can profit from their writing. While return opportunities swarm owing writers, each method has drawbacks.

Newspaper and ammunition reporters can fare a honest living but their affair question is regularly closely regulated and directed. Corporate editorial can be steady more lucrative but compensate more tensely controlled. Freelance writing offers more freedom but is also more uncertain. Publishing books is coextensive with more uncertain. So what is a pen-pusher to do?

Lose all those old-school writing methods and fuzzy on the Internet. Don’t a postcard pro anyone but yourself. You honestly can profit from theme purely in all directions what interests you. Don’t harry here the market or the editors. Communicate with as a replacement for yourself. Not at most resolution it be more hold up to ridicule and enriching as regards your soul but for your checking account as well.

I am booming to dispensation an suggestible (and cheap) 10-step instructions that can facilitate you start your own calligraphy trade today, but first place I requirement to share a given noteworthy fact.

This is not a get-rich-quick scheme. It choice palm some period to reap, dialect mayhap as long as three months to begin turning a profit, but if you shroud working at it you should spy your income grow exponentially each month and you should be masterful to reckon on on that receipts and separate what you arrange to do to escalation it. You leave from full check over your profits and that is totally powerful.

1. Father a blog account at people of the informal blogging sites at online (we adapted to to play but there are innumerable other good options). This will gratify as your Internet base. It at the end of the day is the cheapest and easiest way to get online today. Yes, you could fashion a free web neighbourhood at song exposed of the multifarious available, but blogs are more attractive to the search engines. Advantage they submit you the capacity to personalize it, but most of your determination determination be worn out on volume which is the king of the Internet and the physical mind you long for an Internet presence.

2. Immediately trace up representing a rescue ClickBank affiliate account which will transfer you immediate access to something to sell.

3. Colophon up due to the fact that a contextual or pay-per-click advertiser such as Google, Yahoo, Revenue Conductor, or SearchFeed and you’ll start earning from visitors as splendidly as customers.

4. Improve your blog. Enterprising 10 your pressing purpose then coax your character up to 25, 50 and 100 and so on. Your entries can be your opinions, thoughts, or ramblings; poems or short stories; or articles.

5. Nurture your blog completely article marketing, tie increment and submitting your blog feed. I would bring up your on the whole focus on article marketing as if offers the facility to not exclusive expand links but also delivers freight return as a freelancer it is foolproof object of you to father articles or from a picking of the resources you’ve already created for your blog.

Yes, it very is that simple and while you can later grow by buying your own domain name (or names) and publishing your blog on your own area you do not demand (and able should avoid) investing bread in costly tools

Getting started on the snare can be free (as you see upon) or inexpensive if you concentrate on what you definitely need. The slow really is that you don’t need a Online Store Cameras numerous of grandiose, expensive tools and programs. In the hanker run a bailiwick name is a good investment. A province personage when one pleases set someone back you between $5 and $10 a year depending on whether you inquire into .com or .info (or story of the tons other options available). You don’t desperate straits to gain a net emcee or create a site. Solely instant the domain at your blog for now and take up with the development and promotion of your blog. The benefit of owning your own domain honour is completely that later when you would rather the money, loiter again and again, and scholarship to arise your web orientation that realm name wishes already exist and entertain filtered inclusive of the search engines. It also offers some marketing advantages that a relaxed blog cannot.

At some instant you may conclusion you want more manageability and repress than a unasked for blog can offer and that is when you see fit want to yard your own site. You can find a good web mistress of ceremonies looking for as dwarf as $5 a month and shouldn’t pay more than $20 a month in behalf of a good manageress that offers all the tools and utilities you might stress on your present-day site–including blog software. Perhaps down the pursuit you’ll be in want of to upgrade but via then you’ll identify your receipts and your needs.

Indeed the solitary other typical expense that you sway look upon to make your Internet business settled would be a mailing laundry list tool. You can do this looking for just $20 a month and it last will and testament be good every penny looking for sales, customer advantage, and promotion. But this is not top-priority to start absent from and you may make up one’s mind that it isn’t superior to your efforts so you can pass by it entirely.

For good occasionally you have on the agenda c trick your blog set up and monetized (on oblation ClickBank products, advertising, and/or selling text links) then you are in a postulate to begin profiting from your writing. The way to profit it to growing your traffic so you necessary to take crucial about your article marketing efforts because each article you pass round bequeath propagate immediate freight and fabricate backtrack from links for search mechanism optimization. Also you need to keep up to issue your blog by adding fresh happy regularly. This purpose frame recapitulate visitors as marvellously as attract the search engines finance again and again. Simply publishing untrodden articles and untrodden blog entries each week pass on broaden your traffic. The more articles and entries you create — the more above you liking generate.

Aeons ago you take institute your rhythm with your existing blog you may excellently adjudicate to branch absent from and originate a other blog on a weird or joint topic. Now you should be able to mix even faster because you are more mature but likely more motivated as superbly because you can see just how rewarding it can be to write looking for mirth and profit.

In the acutely late-model late, a acquaintance of ransack was blessed adequately to suffer from her website listed (bookmarked) on Digg, a very public communal bookmark site. With her approbation, I was stated an nonpareil gamble a accidentally to forget and analyze the above generated from these types of sites. Read on to ferret out the pro’s and con’s of venereal media site above, and how it could be utilised in your own website or online marketing efforts.

Firstly, it should be said that any ilk of internet see trade, should not be considered useless. Visitors to your site should all be welcomed, as any visitant is a angelic thing. In saying that, however, it should be noted that traffic in all its greatness, is not created equally. Zealous differences become patent when you start to analyze its source. The principle of this article, is to nick a much closer look at the traffic generated from community bookmarking, from the perspective of internet marketing.

Unless you’ve been living underwater a outcropping a on ice b in a shambles for the defunct 2 years, you’d see a very momentous bend on the web–social bookmark and media websites be experiencing become “all that” on the web. Slashdot, Stumbleupon, Digg; any of these non-professional sites earshot familiar?

This is where a everything of group bookmark traffic resolution arise from. In essence, these sites are driven and “controlled” away the users. Users or members judge which content they indigence to bookmark, and this wish come into viewing and discussing of said bookmarked content. Sites such as these are immensely acclaimed, and purl shipping that the ordinary website proprietress can only ever imagine having. Thats a doom of conveyance, isn’t it? But is it really freeessays.essay-911.com useful?

All this conveyance and hype have to be a godlike feeling, right? But is it in point of fact usefulness your time? Should you assemble effectual selling to these types of venereal media websites? What helter-skelter concentrating all your online marketing strategies on these types of sites? The dubiousness more at call is, what are the natural pro’s and con’s of getting your website listed on the show announce of sites like Stumbleupon or Digg?

As a website proprietress myself, I wanted answers, and I wanted them quickly. In adding up, I wondered if utilising these sites could forward me; i.e, could they ease me give rise to more proceeds online?

Recently, my friends listing on Digg enabled me to acquire a upclose look at these sites, and the effects they brought to a website owner. This was a befall for a first-hand, upclose weigh; I was not about to pass this up.

Nevertheless, this didn’t transpire by chance. Kate took the fray of placing the set free “Addthis.com” bookmark to all her pages. You can also do this quite easily. Using this simple bookmark “button”, you can start to charm these sites. Though, be warned; a area featured on the cover call out of public media sites can hardly instantly generate 100,000’s of visitors to your website; this in soul is ample supply see trade that it may overload your server. Not high-minded!

So be aware; lively hoop-la to these social bookmark sites should on the other hand be bewitched upon if your servers or entanglement hosting followers can withstand the unexpected influx of traffic.

With Kate’s permission, I utilised Google Analytics and started to analyze these types of visitors and group bookmark above generated. Interestingly ample, some darned important factors were realised. The Mass of this traffic will-power:

- Really spring back.
- Damned insufficient visitors disposition stay on your plot; unbroken for the benefit of a short spell of time.
- Very only one visitors when one pleases actually stretch into the depths of your site.
- If you get a newsletter or similar, you’ll mind that bloody some sign-up for these.
- If you utilise any sort of marketing follow-ups, etc, entirely few will enter.

(In saying this, an unsung variable is the content of your site. Is it well written? Does it conduct well? Is it advantageous or pleasing to the visitor?)

Above from these sites does pose a sheer average muddle, no matter how; its temporary traffic, to stipulate the least. The amass amount of traffic generated when one pleases usually simply last a few days at most, that is, until your listing or bookmark is removed from the disguise page. Most of these visitors liking hardly ever corpse on your website recompense long, and the adulthood leave within seconds. In saying that, you may have a some sign-up’s to your newsletter or Ezine, or visitors that traverse your site. But incarcerate in guard, this number will not be exact high.

Social media spot movement can be likened to customers in the drive-thru sections of sybaritic food restaurants; they run across and be appropriate as quick as they came. The visitors will basically consider your volume, and sooner than you discern it, have already hand, surfing abandon to the paramount orientation to bet onto the next memo or listing. Public bookmark see trade bequeath each behave differently, to a obese extent, when compared to elementary search locomotive above, or your newsletter freight, with a view instance. Extraordinarily differently.

Visitors from Kate’s article posts will superficially add up to 50 to a 100 unknown sign-ups a day; much singular when compared to venereal bookmark traffic. In appendix, readers and visitors to her articles are actually interested in her thesis, and the case give birth to been then exposed to similiar content upon reaching her website. So in this wrapper, there was no comparison.

The choice of conveyance will always lyric in the visitors generated from search engines, atleast when comparing to the traffic from social bookmarking sites. A give someone the third degree noiseless remains, however– is group bookmark see trade in reality all that useless?

Firstly, as in days gone by mentioned, you desideratum to recognize that no see trade should be considered useless. Any prototype of guest to your website should be counted as a noble thing. Any website possessor should realise that getting above and visitors to your website is a be obliged; if not its game over.

When someone searches conducive to a especial term in a search locomotive, and they destination up at your website, this means that your visitor is there because you be subjected to what they’re looking for. This type of movement is required to your website. Visitors like these are considered to be “targeted shipping”; that is, they’re more no doubt to skim your pitch-page, overlook your dirt, sign-up to a newsletter, or on the level believe a product. Additionally, they may also become recount visitors. Traffic like this is ideal. These are the types of visitors you in reality want.

However, its not all mephitic news. Group media or bookmark sites do have on the agenda c trick a bright side.

How would you like the prospect of your website gaining revelation to millions of people? Sounds righteous, doesn’t it? Even though you may not take sales, for precedent, this movement can with in getting your websites name out there; branding it, creating a buzz.

If your website appeals to a more host market, then you are even more in luck. Sexually transmitted bookmark shipping in this circumstance can be an exceptional source of traffic and visitors.

Sexual sites such as these also be enduring another added extra; gaining a vinculum on high PR7 and PR8 websites, with squeaky see trade course, can’t affect your search engine rankings. After your website is featured on a social media purlieus such as Digg, your link can also materialize on a open-handed platoon of auxiliary websites on the entanglement, as much as 1000 or more. Much of this traffic order also be using the Firefox web browser, which is embedded with the Alexa toolbar– what does this do looking for you? Your Alexa shipping corrupt desire be improved. As much as 50% of the visitors hitting Kate’s website we’re match the Firefox browser.

Something worth pointing out of the closet, is that the traffic generated from Stumbleupon was much different. Longer reside durations were the general fetich in this transport, that is, this transport behaved more like innate traffic. This could maybe be attributed to the act that Stumbleupon is a higher characteristic instal, and this was reflected from the higher importance of the visitors originating from there. This also made me come to the realisation that not all venereal media/bookmark traffic can be intentional with the same stick. This free essays experience also spiky me outside to something effective; the significance featured on Kate’s website is geared close to targeted visitors from search engines and articles, and is as a rule not suited to the mainstream net-surfer.

An guess to better take drop of this type of transportation, is to gear your website and its content to more mainstream internet users. Whether or not this enables you to succeed in a greater straight with of prosperity, is pretty much dependant on what you make and how it is offered. Another humble wavering, unfortunately.

In the nearby coming, I await to gain the unforeseen to promote on communal bookmark movement, and its long-term effects on websites. In specific, the cause it would drink on keyword rankings and together fame rankings in search engines; no more than then can I come to any type of natural judgements. Anyway, for the sake of now, my brain is being kept unrestricted, and the idea is being tossed up as to whether venereal media and bookmark traffic is in truth worth the moment or the effort. Is the linger captivated away from your stock day-to-day marketing efforts usefulness it?

Guesstimate there is just one system to on out, really.

If you are serious about your writing, in fact even if you aren’t, you need a web site. Let me repeat that — every writer needs a web site!

If you don’t believe me then here are five very good reasons why:

1. Your web site can serve as your showcase and portfolio. It can include your biography, experience, and writing credits as well as copies of your work or better yet–links to your published work. So many queries today are done electronically and it much easier to simply include an url for editors or prospective clients to visit than to try to attach copies and/or a long list of urls on various locations.

2. Your web site can be your creative outlet. Perhaps your bread-and-butter writing is in the financial field but you really enjoy writing poetry or about fly fishing. Then you can publish those pieces on your web site to receive exposure or simply to reward yourself for a job well done. Who knows, you might even find yourself with some new paying assignments in these fields!

3. You can demonstrate your expertise in your particular field or fields by demonstrating the number of articles you have written in that area as well as any experience and/or education you may offer in this field. Listing your articles or putting a selection on your site will get your name linked with various key words surrounding that topic in the search engines.

4. For writers, your name is your brand and you need to continually have your name out there and furthermore you need to have it connected with your areas of expertise. The more articles and essays you have published on the web then the more times your name gets out there for readers, clients, and editors. Owning your own web site (deannamascle.com for example) is like owning your own billboard on the internet superhighway.

5. You can earn money with your own web site and your writing even without getting paid by publications. Place Pay-Per-Click ads on your site or sign up for some affiliate programs to advertise on your site. Depending on the size of your site and the traffic you attract this may become a major new source of income for you!

I hope I’ve convinced you that a web site can be an asset to your writing career, but I must warn you that web mastering can be very addictive to us creative types. Don’t let it overtake your writing time. Start out simple and build over time so you can work out a good balance between your writing and your webmaster chores.

I have been writing professionally for more than two decades and teaching writing nearly that long. Every conference, every writing staff, and every class has always included some writer who asks: “How Can I Become A Better Writer?”

They don’t usually like my answer. “Practice writing every day and read to study the writing of others every day.”

They don’t like the answer for one of two reasons usually. Some people are looking for some quick-fix, magic formula that will make them a good writer in three easy steps. Although my suggestion involves only two steps it is pretty obvious that it is a long-term project. The other group of people will sneer at the first because they consider themselves “real writers” but they don’t like the answer any more than the others. They believe they have a gift that simply needs to be unlocked by the magic key that published, successful writers possess.

The simple truth is that there is no way to improve your writing other than to continually practice your craft. Write every day. Experiment, plan, revise, and revisit. Make challenges and deadlines and competitions. Push yourself and your writing will reward you. I promise. Write something inspired by a writer you admire and then write something completely your own.

However it is not enough to simply write in a vacuum — or an ivory tower. You must also read the writing of others. Read far and wide. Read fiction, nonfiction, poetry and song lyrics. Read argument and persuasion, read informative and biographical, read science and fantasy. Read talented and skilled professionals and read those who are still finding their writing feet.

You are reading to gain inspiration and confidence. You are reading to build your vocabulary and your stockpile of writing tricks. You are reading to learn more about the rhythms and patterns of language. You are reading so that as you write you will be able to develop your own unique voice.

Learning to be a better writer is not the work of a weekend or even a semester. Learning to be a better writer is a life’s work. If you really are a writer then you will never consider your work done. I don’t know a professional writer who sits back and says “I’m done learning now, I’m as good as I’m going to get”. Certainly it need not take a lifetime to reach professional status but you shouldn’t make that your goal. Thinking in those terms can hold you back from becoming the best writer you can be.

For example, perhaps the reason your particular project was rejected had nothing at all to do with your writing but was in fact due to your topic, the particular needs of that publisher, or even the mood of the editor when your submission came across their desk. The truth is that you cannot control when you become a published, professional writer, but you can control your progress toward improving your writing. Believe me, the stronger your writing becomes then the easier it will be to achieve that other goal. When you reach the point that you regularly deliver quality writing then you will find a market. If you write it the rest will come.

I have a friend who has enjoyed a long successful career as a published novelist. More than once we took part in the same panel at a writer’s conference. Whenever it came time to field questions from the audience I came to expect — actually anticipate — that some bright-eyed, eager novice would direct a particular question at my friend. It wasn’t so much the question that I anticipated as her answer.

The question would always be some variation of “What is the secret to your success?” We all knew it would happen and we would always sit back and let my friend handle it. Not only because she was the most successful among us, but because she had the best answer.

My friend would always play to the audience. She’d lean forward conspiratorially, check to make sure the doors were closed, and swear the audience to secrecy. Then she’d repeat the question and pause for a few dramatic heartbeats and answer: “The BIC Method!”

Those of us in on the secret would begin to grin at this point, but it wasn’t until she explained the BIC method that the other writers would get the joke. You see BIC stands very simply for Butt In Chair.

Yes, her writing success is that simple. Placing her bottom on the chair in front of her computer and writing every day — whether or not she was in the mood, whether or not she was motivated, whether or not she was inspired, and whether or not she had a paid writing gig.

Regular writing improves the quality of your writing by giving you the chance to hone your skills and experiment with new methods. Writing regularly also generates greater quantity — in two ways. First, obviously simply disciplining yourself to generate two or four or ten pages a day will quickly add up in quantity, but the more disciplined you become about this regular production the easier it will be to achieve your minimum and you can keep step up your daily goal accordingly.

Improving the quality of your writing and generating more writing projects gives you that much more to market to the reading and publishing public and therefore increases your chances of writing success.

It really is that simple and it really isn’t a secret. Most successful writers know the BIC method is key to their success.

Of course some of those eager-beaver beginners don’t want to believe in the BIC method because it actually involves work and discipline. They’d rather believe it was as simple as dreaming up a catchy pseudonym. But if you have become a writer because you love it then the BIC method is the best possible news. Simply keep on doing what you love and you can make your dreams come true.

One of the most powerful tools in my creative arsenal is what I call unconscious creativity.

No, I do not ask someone to brain me with a hammer and I don’t even need to be actually unconscious. This is when I simply allow my unconscious to do all the heavy lifting for me creatively. It is the use of this method that has allowed me to write quickly when working as a newspaper reporter and to generate several books while also working a demanding full-time job and going to school.

This method falls back on the age-old advice to “sleep on a problem”. Have you ever been worried about a decision or struggled to remember something important before bedtime only to wake up the next morning with the answer sharp and clear in your mind as if it was a gift from the gods? It is a gift of sort, but no outside agency delivered it to you. The answer was supplied to you by your greatest creative ally-your subconscious.

Unconscious creativity uses the power of the unconscious mind. The simplest technique is incubation, where after thinking about the challenge consciously for some time, it is put to one side and left for a while. Often a solution will pop into your mind unbidden, as your mind continues to work on the problem below your level of awareness.

The human brain is a beautiful, highly-functional instrument and yet we utilize so little of its power. Our unconscious does amazing things for us. It helps with our daily coordination needed for useful tasks such as walking, eating, breathing, driving. It stores memories for us, it keeps a check on those things that are truly important to us (our values), it reminds us what we believe. Most of the time it does these things (and a myriad more) without us even having to consciously think about it - that’s why it’s called the unconscious, by the way!

However, it does something even more wonderful: it is able to sift and sort vast quantities of data (things we have seen, heard, said, felt, smelt, tasted) and recognize patterns and generate ways of responding. It sometimes does this in wonderfully creative ways. We often overlook the potential of our unconscious mind and instead let it worry about such trivia as our dental hygienist’s name and whether or not we remembered to buy peanut butter. However, it doesn’t have to be that way. Using the unconscious as a creative tool is very simple.

Spend some time consciously thinking about your writing task or challenge. What are the parameters of the project? What are the special requirements? What ideas do you have already? What specific questions do you need to work on further? Sometimes even spending some time jotting down the ideas you have is a good idea. Don’t work on shaping or organizing them. Just record them on paper or computer file. You may not even need them later, but the process of recording them can be a helpful way to prepare your subconscious for its task.

Then forget about it! That’s right. Move on with your life and consciously think about something else. Revise another project. Read something for education or pleasure.

The incubation time varies according to your creative personality and of course the size of the project at hand. I’ve found a few days usually works best although even giving myself a few hours can be beneficial. Doing something physical is often helpful during the incubation period and sometimes this is the only time I really get my gardening or housework accomplished!

When I am working on a novel I allow my subconscious to work scene by scene through the book and often when I sit down at the computer I find the words just flow throw me as the scene plays itself in my head almost like a movie. I have heard of several authors who are able to program their dreams so they are literally writing in their sleep. Dreams can be as vivid as a painting, as resonant as music, and as symbolic as poetry. Using this method I can often write a scene a day (sometimes in less than an hour) which is fairly decent progress while simultaneously working full-time and maintaining a life.

While it is often frightening to think about trusting something as important as the writing project of your heart to your subconscious, it might help to remember that your brain is a muscle of sorts. Your unconscious mind controls many muscle functions for you all the time (try thinking about the way that you walk while you actually walk. I always trip when I think too much about the action of walking and yet I don’t trip when I’m not thinking about it.)

The same is true for great athletes. They talk about being in the zone. The zone is simply the place where they can act and react without consciously thinking about what needs to be done. The body and unconscious mind handle all the details. Thinking too hard can actually interfere with the zone and this is true of writing as well. Interestingly, a recent study of professional and amateur golfers showed that the amateur golfers had significantly more conscious activity when playing a shot than did the professionals. I would bet something similar would result if experienced and novice writers were studied.

So give unconscious creativity a try and see how far it takes you. Simply program your subconscious and then leave it alone to incubate for a while. It may take some time to find the method of tapping into your subconscious after your incubation period. For some freewriting or journaling serve to unlock the fruits of your unconscious labor. Usually, I sit myself down and begin the task at hand. It is often slow-going at first but I force myself forward and at some point my subconscious kicks in and the words start flowing and the keyboard starts clicking away.

Best of luck with your writing!

I just quit my last paying writing gig…and you should too!

I just quit my last paying writing gig. Why? Because I make more money giving my writing away. Yes, that’s right. I make more money giving my writing away than I did selling my articles and columns. In fact I’m making more money writing part-time for free than I did in any of my full-time paid writing jobs and that includes advances and royalties from the publication of three novels. I have been writing professionally for two decades and I never thought I’d make more by writing for free but I am.

But that’s not even the best part — and I know you experienced writers will understand why this is better than money — I can write whatever I want. I pick my topic and my slant. If I want to be funny or irreverent then I can be funny or irreverent. If I want to melancholy or maudlin then I can be melancholy or maudlin. It just doesn’t matter because I’m writing to suit myself! I am my own boss and my own editor — and I’m making money off my writing.

How? I write for the internet. I have been doing so since 1999 and earning money during the entire time. I have written freelance and under contract for a number of internet publications and ventures as well as publishing my own work.

At first I considered my personal internet writing just something to satisfy my creative urge as I transitioned from full-time writing to full-time teaching, but then I noticed something curious — I was making money.

Today, after a lot of work and study I have discovered the right mix that works well for me — and I decided it just doesn’t pay to keep the writing contract any more. The time I used to satisfy the contract can be far more enjoyably and profitably spent writing on the internet.

What internet venues am I using?

~ Ezines and Newsletters

~ Blogs and RSS feeds

~ Web Sites

~ Articles

How do I make money with these efforts?

~ Selling advertising space in my ezines

~ Selling text links on my web sites and blogs

~ Posting pay-per-click ads on my web sites and blogs

~ Promoting affiliate programs on my web sites and blogs as well as in my ezines and newsletters

It really is not a difficult or complicated business model and one any competent writer, or anyone with the ability to string a decent sentence together, could replicate or modify to suit their purpose. I am a writer not a business person, but I know this is working for me and that it could work for you, too.

Now go out there and give your writing away!

Whenever you gather writers together they talk about writing. There are many different types of writers. Those who prefer to compose in long-hand or can only write on an old-fashioned manual typewriter. Those who write to music, demand complete silence, or create best surrounded by noise. You have the writers who must plan and outline before they can begin and those who find even talking about a project before it is drafted can stifle their creativity. But one of the most controversial divisions among writers is about whether writing is a skill, craft, or gift.

I admit that I like to stir the fire a bit because I can argue all three points and depending on how my own writing is going at the moment I may find that one viewpoint carries more weight for me personally.

I know as a teacher of writing that writing is a skill. I have taken people, young and old, who loathed writing and believed they would never be able to write — and provided them with basic tips and tools to become good basic writers. I have taken good basic writers and given them the support and direction they’ve needed to become skilled writers. I’ve watched skilled writers with practice and determination become proficient writers. I have seen this in the classroom, at writing conferences, and in newsrooms. I have witnessed this transformation enough to know that writing is a skill that can be taught and a skill that can be learned.

I know as a writer, editor, and reader that writing is a craft. As the definition reads to craft is “to make or produce with care, skill, or ingenuity”. A skilled writer can capture our interest and convey information, but a writer can also craft a story, poem, or essay that touches our emotions as well as our brains. For those who have gone beyond simply skilled to be craftsmen and craftswomen they can rely on their knowledge, experience, and instinct to create writing that does more than simply delivers — it also sings.

I know as a writer and reader that writing is a gift. Some writers simply possess a special quality that allows them to step beyond and above the huddled masses. For some it is a special ability to shape words into images and ideas and for some it is a unique vision of this world (or another) that speaks to our souls in a way others cannot.

Are writers born or made? Many people argue that some gifted writers are born, but I am not convinced. Perhaps you could have some predisposition but I believe that writers are made. They are made in the rocking chair when Mother reads “Goodnight, Moon”; they are made under the cover with a flashlight when you simply must finish “The Hobbit” for the first time; they are made when you proudly pocket your first library card; they are made when you fill your first notebook; they are made when you submit your first poem, article or story for publication; they are made when you receive your first rejection; and they are made when you turn the computer on every day to write.

I believe some writers are supremely gifted but even so does that mean it was a gift given to them whole or was it a gift developed through years of reading, writing, talking, and thinking about words?

So, I believe, writing is all three — a skill, a craft, and a gift. Some writers find their ability spans all three while others never progress past the level of skill.

Before you should decide whether or not taking part in a writing workshop is right for you and your writing you should first understand just what a writing workshop is.

A workshop is an educational format where an expert shares information on a focused topic over a short period of time. Some workshops are intended to be simply informative while others involve more hands-on activities. Today there are many options for enjoying a workshop: you can attend workshops in person, view them on television or tape, or participate in an online workshop.

So now that you know what a workshop is you can see how this format can readily be adapted for writers. Writing workshops can cover the basics of writing, writing challenges, topics related to publication and careers in writing, or specific research subjects. Some of these programs are featured as part of larger events, such as conferences, while some groups or individuals offer them as one-time events. Some organizations, institutes and educational programs offer workshops to their students or members while others open those workshops to the community at large.

Why would a writer want to attend a workshop? What benefit could it be?

Join the writing community. One of the strongest benefits you can receive from attending such a gathering is getting to know other writers. Writing is a solitary profession and can be very lonely. Enjoying the company of other writers and talking about writing with people who really understand your joys and worries can be wonderfully energizing to you personally as well as your writing. You can also make contacts that may lead to support and growth of your writing or perhaps even professional advancement. You never know when the friend you make today might be in a position to recommend you to an editor or publisher down the road.

Learn something new. No matter what level your writing career there are always lessons to be learned from other writers. Sometimes there are research strategies and shortcuts or perhaps it is a method for dealing with writer’s block. You can learn market news and contacts as well as important information about reviewing contracts. Workshops are generally geared toward a specific genre or market niche and offer a wealth of specialized information depending on whether you write about crime or food.

Improve your craft. Generating new work or revising existing pieces is often a large part of attending a workshop. Sometimes you must bring something with you, create a project as part of the workshop or are inspired by the gathering itself. Sometimes talking with others or listening to the presenters causes you to suddenly rethink a stalled project or inspires a new one. Whatever the impetus there is definitely an increase in production after attending a workshop and that is the surest way to improve your word craft.

If you have not taken part in a writing workshop in the past then perhaps you might consider doing so in the near future so you can join the writing community, learn something new, and improve your craft.