Do you ever feel you have so much to do and be responsible for that your head might just one day explode?
Not sure how much relaxing I'll get done this long weekend. My beautiful partner's going away to a seminar for the next few days and I have a self imposed list of stuff to get done here...
Plus play rehearsals of course - at least that's going well.
Which reminds me - I have to go and pick up the posters.
Tell you what, I'll go do that, get a couple of other things from the shop, have brunch with my beloved, take her to the airport, then come back and do the article below in the afternoon.
How does that sound?
Good. See ya then.
Keep Writing!
Rob@easywaytowrite.com
THIS WEEK'S ARTICLE:
It's Only the Internet
Rob Parnell
We're getting lazy.
But that laziness comes from being misinformed - by the Internet.
I guess you might think it strange that a guy apparently so adept at using the Net to communicate would be saying this to you at all.
I get that.
But I have good reason. Because I've noticed a new phenomenon. That is, some of us have a complete inability to see beyond the four sides of a computer screen...
Yes, it's happening.
I see it every day - in my email, on blogs, on FB.
Some of us are becoming so convinced that the secret to success, even the meaning of life, really is hidden somewhere deep online.
So much so that we're getting stuck into this groove - investing all our time and energy into blogs and articles and web pages and social networking and thereby completely ignoring the REAL world out there!
The real world is where real opportunities lie. Even though the Net seems to offer more, much more...
It's all about the hype. That the Net is the future - and the future is here. And we're all part of it. And that the Net is the latest goldmine - and everything you need: fame, success, great and fulfilling relationships, riches, whatever, are here, online for the taking.
But this, my friend, is a false reality.
Why? Because the Internet, despite its pretensions, or its ideals, is only one thing - and one thing only - yes, it's merely, and I'm sorry to have to break this to you, a glorified advertising medium.
We didn't want it to happen but the 'Gods': Google, AOL, Microsoft, Yahoo, they always wanted it that way - and made it so.
Miss this crucial aspect in your thinking and you too will fall victim to the illusion that your future fame and fortune, even your happiness, is somehow dependent on the web.
Writers, I think sometimes, are the worst in this regard.
We're getting so lazy...
...because we're the ones beginning to totally believe the hype!
(I guess because our peers create it!)
Pretty much every day a writer will ask me how to make money writing - as if I don't already have enough advice in my courses!
Anyway, I'm forever personally answering this query with a lots of different advice, depending on the writer.
But it's a constant source of surprise to me that so many of these same writers can't or won't look - or haven't even thought to look - for writing gigs off line - where the real money is!
It actually strikes me as bizarre that writers apparently desperate for money will create ten articles on the vague promise of $5 online - sometimes for nothing - whereas in the real world a writer wouldn't even consider getting out of bed to empty someone else's trash for the same amount!
Why is that?
Beats me.
And here's another anomaly I don't understand.
Writers can and do make thousands of dollars in a very short space of time from writing ebooks that take a week, maybe a month tops, to write.
This is a well attested reality.
And yet writers (who apparently desperately want to be published by a traditional publisher) will not pursue the time to take this short cut to becoming an essentially professional writer!
I don't know why. Perhaps because of some misguided notion that being an Internet writer is not as 'cool' - or as 'respectable' - as being a 'traditionally' published writer.
But if that's the case, why is it that the same writers are asking 'How do I make money at writing?' and then ONLY consider the Internet.
It doesn't make sense to me at all.
(BTW, it's a complete myth that traditional publishers don't respect you or your book for being an online success before they sign you!)
Listen. This is me talking.
Yes, there is such a thing as online riches.
Yes, but there is also a fabulous world of paying markets off line too.
Magazines and community newsletters and corporate companies pay lots of money every day to writers who have the courage to call them, submit to them, send them proposals - and generally do all the work they rarely have the in house talent to perform.
And yet - all this work goes ignored by we writers that obsess over Internet 'easy' riches...
Surely, the sensible writer considers a balanced approach to making money from writing.
You need to get both aspects - off line writing and online writing - working for you at the same time. This is how you succeed as a writer these days.
Not by sitting in your garret wondering...
And not by sitting at your computer surfing...
Sure, check out the 'too good to be true' deals on the Net. Some of them really will help you.
But at the same time, please don't ignore the real world.
It's a big place out there and the competition is minimal compared to the hundreds of thousands of online writers.
In the real world you can pitch for a writing job in your own town that there may be only one or two others vying for. And the pay will be HUGE compared to anything you can earn writing for a Net based article farm.
To me, it's a question of perspective.
People sometimes get all hot under the collar about an Internet site where they 'lost' $37 on a broken promise. (I'm sorry that all websites can't be as honest and ethical as me!)
Off line, a writer's guide will cost you around the same - and you wouldn't dream of being ungrateful for owning it.
What's the difference?
Perspective.
Much as I hate to say it, we need to remind ourselves daily:
It's only the Internet.
When we do that, we get perspective.
And perspective, objectivity and a sense of balance is what we writers should aspire to and regard as the first requirement of ourselves.
For information on how to make money off line as a writer, go here:
http://easycashwriting.com
For information on how to make money online as a writer, go here:
http://the-e-files.net
Which one will you choose?
Keep writing!
rob@easywaytowrite.com
Your Success is My Concern
Rob Parnell's Easy Way to Write
THIS WEEK'S WRITER'S QUOTE:
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Previous Newsletter includes:
Article: "On Character Creation"
Writer's Quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson
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