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My all-time favorite band is English rock band The Who. My love affair with them has lasted over 30 years. In fact I don't think anything has consistently been part of my life that long besides them...except for my love of writing.
Most of their lyrics reach me on a gut level and often when I listen to them, I know I have found kindred spirits...someone out there thinks like I do.
I want the same response from other people when I write. I want people to read my words and say "Yes! I understand that. I have thought like that. I have felt like that."
Instead, I usually feel apart from other people. I know many writers are eccentric, myself included. The words I write are like opening a vein, spilling my blood and guts. I am self-critical to an extreme, and when others imply that my work is less than perfect, I really want to crawl into a hole.
Yet I am compelled to keep writing.
The Who has a song that touched my heart years ago, a song about the drive to write - in Pete Townshend's case to write songs. It's called "Guitar and Pen".
The lyrics state:
"You're alone above the street somewhere
Wondering how you'll ever count out there
You can walk, you can talk, you can fight
But inside you've got something to write
In your hand you hold your only friend
Never spend your guitar or your pen."
Townshend goes on to describe the total frustration of searching for just the right word...
"When you take up a pencil and sharpen it up
When you're kicking the fence and still nothing will budge
When the words are immobile until you sit down
Never feel they're worth keeping, they're not easily found
Then you know in some strange, unexplainable way
You must really have somethingJumping, thumping, fighting, hiding away
Important to say"
And then the moment when it all comes together:
"It suddenly comes after years of delay
You pick up your guitar
YOU CAN SUDDENLY PLAY!!!"
In my writing endeavors, I often suffer crippling self-doubt. Sometimes I think I have no talent at all. Other times the words just flow and I think
YOU CAN SUDDENLY WRITE!!!
But there really isn't anything sudden about it, is there?
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Writing Amidst Distractions
I prefer to write in total silence. I often arise at 5 a.m. to write, partly because I am a morning person and that is when I am most alert and partly because usually no one else is up at that time and I can write for a brief time in silence. For me as a writer, silence is what allows me to most clearly hear the whisper of my muse.
Unfortunately most of my writing time can't be spent in silence. The Muse gets drowned out by a curious spouse, demanding children and pets, ringing telephones, blaring TVs and stereos, not to mention the sounds of sirens and trains outside my window. Yet a writer must write, with or without distractions.
Writers are a strange breed. Even though we want to write, most of us are even compelled to write, we find ourselves making excuses and procrastinating. We go to make coffee when there's a full pot; we sharpen pencils even when we're writing on a computer; we stop to check our email and never return to our word processing program.
The classic book Becoming a Writer by Dorothea Brande addresses this problem. This book belongs in the library of every writer. Ms. Brande states that if you want to be a writer, you need to make an appointment with yourself to sit and write for a period of time every day. Start with 10 or 15 minutes and gradually increase the time. The point is that during this appointed time, you write and don't do anything else. This exercise helps develop the discipline to sit and write on command, but also helps you to gradually increase your tolerance for distractions.
By doing an exercise like this, you will gradually get better at writing amidst distractions. You will improve with practice and eventually you will find that no matter how chaotic it is around you, you'll still be able to hear the whisper of The Muse.
Unfortunately most of my writing time can't be spent in silence. The Muse gets drowned out by a curious spouse, demanding children and pets, ringing telephones, blaring TVs and stereos, not to mention the sounds of sirens and trains outside my window. Yet a writer must write, with or without distractions.
Writers are a strange breed. Even though we want to write, most of us are even compelled to write, we find ourselves making excuses and procrastinating. We go to make coffee when there's a full pot; we sharpen pencils even when we're writing on a computer; we stop to check our email and never return to our word processing program.
The classic book Becoming a Writer by Dorothea Brande addresses this problem. This book belongs in the library of every writer. Ms. Brande states that if you want to be a writer, you need to make an appointment with yourself to sit and write for a period of time every day. Start with 10 or 15 minutes and gradually increase the time. The point is that during this appointed time, you write and don't do anything else. This exercise helps develop the discipline to sit and write on command, but also helps you to gradually increase your tolerance for distractions.
By doing an exercise like this, you will gradually get better at writing amidst distractions. You will improve with practice and eventually you will find that no matter how chaotic it is around you, you'll still be able to hear the whisper of The Muse.
Sunday, July 6, 2008
The Desire to Write
Years ago I read a book by Phyllis A. Whitney called Writing Juvenile Stories and Novels. In it she makes the statement that the only secret to becoming a writer is
“You must want to enough…That is the only secret there is.”
I confess that I have spent most of my adult life “wanting to write” and not necessarily writing. Dreaming is not the same as doing. Now I see youngsters in their teens and twenties with bestsellers to their credit and up to now I haven’t been much more than a writer wannabe.
I’m finding as I get older that the drive to succeed is getting stronger. In the last year or so I have fallen in love with writing for the web. Web writing suits me because it can be done more quickly than print writing. I can choose to see my name in print, not stand by the mailbox collecting rejection slips.
Like print writing, becoming successful at web writing requires persistence, practice and determination. I have attained certain goals, such as seeing my name in print on multiple websites. There are more goals ahead, however. I have come across web writers who are earning six figures hands down, writers who have so much work they can name their price.
I want to be one of them. I am studying their path like amoebas under a microscope and I am imitating them. If they say blog, I blog. If they say chase jobs on www.elance.com that is what I do.
Most of all, I am writing every day, confident that I am undergoing a metamorphosis from writer wannabe to writer.
Doing what it takes to succeed means writing daily, whenever you can, whether it’s early morning or late at night, on coffee breaks during a full-time job or on a commuter train. It means wearing earplugs during Sponge Bob Square Pants, but letting nothing get in the way of writing.
Ultimately, I will do what it takes to succeed.
Because at long last, I want to enough.
“You must want to enough…That is the only secret there is.”
I confess that I have spent most of my adult life “wanting to write” and not necessarily writing. Dreaming is not the same as doing. Now I see youngsters in their teens and twenties with bestsellers to their credit and up to now I haven’t been much more than a writer wannabe.
I’m finding as I get older that the drive to succeed is getting stronger. In the last year or so I have fallen in love with writing for the web. Web writing suits me because it can be done more quickly than print writing. I can choose to see my name in print, not stand by the mailbox collecting rejection slips.
Like print writing, becoming successful at web writing requires persistence, practice and determination. I have attained certain goals, such as seeing my name in print on multiple websites. There are more goals ahead, however. I have come across web writers who are earning six figures hands down, writers who have so much work they can name their price.
I want to be one of them. I am studying their path like amoebas under a microscope and I am imitating them. If they say blog, I blog. If they say chase jobs on www.elance.com that is what I do.
Most of all, I am writing every day, confident that I am undergoing a metamorphosis from writer wannabe to writer.
Doing what it takes to succeed means writing daily, whenever you can, whether it’s early morning or late at night, on coffee breaks during a full-time job or on a commuter train. It means wearing earplugs during Sponge Bob Square Pants, but letting nothing get in the way of writing.
Ultimately, I will do what it takes to succeed.
Because at long last, I want to enough.
Monday, April 21, 2008
Writing Opportunities on the World Wide Web
For the frustrated freelancer, the world wide web has opened up a lot of new opportunities to make money online.
Here are some ways to make money strictly as a web writer:
Here are some ways to make money strictly as a web writer:
- Writing articles for paid article sites. The best known of these is http://associatedcontent.com.
- Writing articles to promote your own website. This is known as article marketing. The key to success as an article marketer is productivity. The more you write, the more backlinks you get to your site.
- Copywriting. If you have copywriting skills, the web is full of people who need your services. The problem won't be finding work, it will be finding time to do all the work you have.
- Ghostwriting. Writing content for pay is a great way to start a steady income stream. You can advertise your services in forums, through a press release or through sites such as Squidoo. Work can also be found at sites like http://guru.com and http://elance.com.
- Blogs. You can make money blogging for yourself, or get paid to write content for other people's blogs.
- Writing your own info product. Many people have been able to quit their day job and pull in full-time income by writing one or more info products.
In short, the world wide web offers writers a lot of opportunities to get paid to write without waiting for an editor's approval. Life doesn't get better than that!
Thursday, April 17, 2008
What Do I Write About?
So what do I write about? This is a common question for most writer wannabes. The phrase "Write what you know" is one we hear over and over, probably to the point the words are meaningless. After staring at a blank pages for any length of time, it may feel like you don't know anything at all.
Oh, but you do. The things you have experienced have ONLY been lived by you. Only you have worked in the particular places you have, had the particular parents you've had, married the particular person you have married. You may have travelled to places others have only dreamed of, or you may be able to lead people smoothly around a kitchen. Maybe you have raised twelve children or grown the biggest tomatoes in the neighborhood. Maybe you know sign language because you have a deaf brother; maybe you can fix a stereo with your eyes closed.
When pondering what to write, you have to ask yourself
What makes you YOU?
What experiences need to be shared before you take them with you to your grave?
Experiences can be shared in an info product, blog, series of articles, or it can be related through a character in a novel.
When pursuing the writing dream, just open a vein and let what makes you unique come out.
Oh, but you do. The things you have experienced have ONLY been lived by you. Only you have worked in the particular places you have, had the particular parents you've had, married the particular person you have married. You may have travelled to places others have only dreamed of, or you may be able to lead people smoothly around a kitchen. Maybe you have raised twelve children or grown the biggest tomatoes in the neighborhood. Maybe you know sign language because you have a deaf brother; maybe you can fix a stereo with your eyes closed.
When pondering what to write, you have to ask yourself
What makes you YOU?
What experiences need to be shared before you take them with you to your grave?
Experiences can be shared in an info product, blog, series of articles, or it can be related through a character in a novel.
When pursuing the writing dream, just open a vein and let what makes you unique come out.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
The Value of Writing Talent
I was born with the compulsion to write. I think you know when you’ve found your destiny when you are doing something you would do whether or not you got paid. In fact, for most of my writing I haven’t been paid, but I have made a conscious decision to put my talent to work and see where it takes me.
In the Bible, the parable of talents teaches that whatever talent you have been given is really a responsibility. You are expected to use your talent.
What’s exciting about writing talent, big or small, is that it can be used in so many different ways. In putting up my first website, work-at-home-parenting.com, I have learned how valuable writing web content is to every webmaster in the world. Millions and millions of sites reside on the World Wide Web, each needed to be filled with unique content. A very large percentage of site owners don’t have the time or the inclination to write all their own content, which creates great opportunities for writers to work as ghostwriters.
Article marketing is probably the best way to drive traffic to a website for free, and it is often recommended to webmasters that they market at least one article every single day. That is a huge demand for writing production.
Then there is blogging. For someone who can’t help but listen to the compulsion to write, blogging is something that has to be explored.
Writing talent can be used in other various fields, from novel writing to copywriting to poetry writing to ebook writing.
Writing talent is a gift and an opportunity. Finding a way to turn talent into cash can be challenging, but isn’t impossible. Making the decision to change your life, to take responsibility to turn your dreams into reality is the hardest part.
Welcome to The Writing Dream
Welcome to The Writing Dream. I am excited to begin this endeavor. My name is Valerie Dansereau and I am the site owner and webmaster of www.work-at-home-parenting.com. I am also the author of How to Make Money Writing for the Web
In putting together work-at-home-parenting.com I have explored various ways of making money at home, and the more I explore, the more convinced I am that writing is my first love. In fact, when you start your own website, it's so important to choose a topic for which you feel passion...otherwise creating content seems too much like work! It's taken me a year to figure out that writing itself IS my passion.
As a little girl, I journaled every day. I ended up with a journal of over 5000 pages by the time I got out of high school. I have written two children's books, not yet published and have published several stories in confession magazines.
In researching "How to Make Money Writing for the Web", my passion for writing grew. I have an interest in many different forms of writing, not just web writing, and I hope to explore topics related to web writing as well as print writing.
And so The Writing Dream has been born.
In putting together work-at-home-parenting.com I have explored various ways of making money at home, and the more I explore, the more convinced I am that writing is my first love. In fact, when you start your own website, it's so important to choose a topic for which you feel passion...otherwise creating content seems too much like work! It's taken me a year to figure out that writing itself IS my passion.
As a little girl, I journaled every day. I ended up with a journal of over 5000 pages by the time I got out of high school. I have written two children's books, not yet published and have published several stories in confession magazines.
In researching "How to Make Money Writing for the Web", my passion for writing grew. I have an interest in many different forms of writing, not just web writing, and I hope to explore topics related to web writing as well as print writing.
And so The Writing Dream has been born.
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