A Writer’s Dilemma

 

A writer does have a dilemma. I don’t think it’s just me, for I have heard others grapple with this concept: Why am I writing? Is it for me? Or is it for those somebodies who manage to stumble upon our work?

 

You know how somebody of authority can make a negative comment that sticks in your brain like a piece of plastic/foil/paper that, try as you might, won’t stay in the garbage bin but jumps back on your finger as though magnetized. Pretty soon, you are screaming and pulling out the entire plastic, scented, drawstring bag from the plastic bin under your counter and throwing it into the plastic container in the garage to be taken out by a humongous truck and dumped into a tremendous pile with other pieces of plastic/foil/paper that were stuck to other people’s fingers.

 

Whew!

 

Once I quoted a writer to a psychiatrist who responded, “Writing is self-aggrandizement.” 

 

If I had the confidence I have now, I would have told him he was full of shit.

 

I guess he didn’t like that author, so he besmirched all of literature.

 

However, writers sometimes wonder, “Why am I writing? Am I some stupid person thinking I can write concepts that ring with someone else? Why would people want to read me? What do I have to contribute?

 

Yet you know you are meant for something. You know you were not put on this earth to work for somebody else with the vision you lack. You make somebody else rich instead of yourself. You don’t believe you have a story to tell, a thought worth saving, or a concept that might be a lifesaver to someone else.

 

We do have a calling. Steven Pressfield presses home his idea on Writing Wednesdays that finding that calling is Your Purpose in Life.

  

And until you find that purpose, you are wandering in the wilderness.

I loved hearing John Travolta tell James Lipton Inside the Acter’s Studio that when producers told him he would never make it as an actor, he said, “They’re nuts.” 

 

So sing your song. Tell your story. Build your gismo. Start your business. And don’t let any naysayer throw cold water on your fire.

 

 

P.S. When someone asked James Lipton to answer a question he asked his guests, “What do you expect to find in heaven?” Lipton hoped God would say, “You see, Jim, you were wrong. I exist. But you can come in anyway.”

How to Start a Blog When You're Broke and Clueless

 

I heard that the lions at the San Diego Zoo are so prolific that Veterinarians have put IUDs in the lionesses. 

 

I heard that Australia is run over with rabbits…one rabbit, two rabbits, three, four thousand–that would keep some undergrad student busy. 

 

This blog has nothing to do with lions or rabbits, the above is just a couple of facts that stuck in my brain, and I dislodged them onto this page. 

 

And I read this:

 

Blog Rule Number One: Begin with an attention-getter.  

I ran across mistakes I've been making blogging, not just typos and redundancies; those happen, I can't help myself, but suggestions from those super-duper bloggers who say they make six-figures blogging. 

 

Is that money or doodles? 

 

Number Two: Post on Schedule, Not Just When You Feel Like It. 

I pay attention to blogging gurus only when Ilike what they say, for who wants to sound like everybody else? However, those smart bloggers have large audiences and big bucks. (I have a super audience, not big numbers, and no bucks, but my readers are choice.) 

 

Regarding income, it's more like when I decided to sell at the Fair; I sold one book for $10.00 and bought one for $20. 

 

I had fun, though, mainly visiting with other writers. 

 

Regarding a schedule, I have circled around Tuesdays, although I have been throwing content on my sites whenever I feel like it; now, I will try to make Tuesdays my post-day.

 

I want you guys to count on me. 

 

Three, Pay Attention to SEOs. 

It took me a while to know what a SEO was, and I still know little, but the gist is that keywords are what Google's bot notices to rank you.  SEO = Search Engine Optimation.

 

Four: Scatter Keywords throughout your post: 

Keywords? That's another thing I paid little attention to. Who are we writing for, readers or Google? However, if people don't find you, they won't read you. A simple fact. 

 

Five, Write a Good Headline. 

That's like "Knock My Socks Off," that every contest MC tells their participants, and it's what every agent will tell you, like, Wow, I was trying to sound stupid.

 

And use a word from your title in your first paragraph. (That would be hard in today's post, wouldn't it?) 

 

I'm not saying I will only post once a week, but I will try to hit Tuesdays.

 

I don't like to be manipulated, and I figure neither do you. So, I will do whatever I damn well please, and so will you. (Do I have an attitude or what? But then, I encourage that in myself and in you.) 

 

Six: Write Short Paragraphs. 

Okay, I know, in school we were taught to develop our paragraphs,but that was before blogging and texting hit the scene. Wewere used to slogging through pedantic writing with no contractions and boring content. Now, it's "Get with it. Say what you want and shut up. " People are busy, and they read fast. We want to make it easy for them. 

 

Seven: Use Contractions. 

I have to lscratch my head at the Royal Caribbean monitors who were adamantly oppose the use of contractions, in their email writers.  I guess they think they were writing for a scientific journal. But emails and blogging are informal; we should write like we talk. 

 

Eight: Write Blogs of 1,000 to 2,000 Words.   

Oh, sure. And yet Seth Godin blogs daily and writes whatever in the heck he wants, sometimes only a sentence or two, and he sweeps up 600,000 readers per month. He writes about marketing and living well. Someone online said that Seth's Blog is popular because it's "weird."

 

You decide.

 

My decisions is that he knows what he is talking about.

 

Nine: Include links to Other Content on Your Site.  

We do want to make our website easy to use. 

 

Ten: Publish Consistently. 

I try. 

 

I could have titled this post Blogging and IUD’s, for I remember the comedian Phyllis Diller said as she drove down her street, her IUD opened garage doors.

He son said she died with a smile on her face.