Freelance Writer of Articles, Blogs, SEO, Web Content and Press Releases

Greetings and welcome to my online personal profile and blog. The purpose of this site is for us to become acquainted and to provide for you an opportunity to ascertain my diversity as a writer and a possible match to your needs. I have provided many links to various content that I have written and hope you take the time to peruse them. I also post periodically about the daily life and thoughts of a freelance writer, who spends too much time in home office confinement, and hope you will find it entertaining.

Wednesday, May 31, 2017

Dealing with Today's Writer's Block

The first writers block of which I became aware was Hollywood writers block. I would be watching an old movie. Seated at a desk in a lovely rustic New England home, a handsome, pipe smoking, author would be tearing another piece of paper from his Underwood. A silken haired, statuesque woman would move in from behind, wearing nothing but a satin robe and a glass of scotch, touch his shoulder and beg him softly, "Give it a break for a while. It will come to you eventually. I made you a drink"

Give me a break. He is in a beautiful remote country home with a sultry seductress. He just spent part of his advance from the publisher to stock the bar. The woman knows he has a bunch of cash and is willing to offer her services. He is wondering why he can't be creative at the typewriter? That is the type of writers block that made me decide, when very young, that I wanted to be a writer - for Playboy.

Now here it comes decades later. Real writers block. It is, for that novelist, the inability to come up with an idea or even to find the right words, I guess. For most of us it is a short lived, yet chronic, annoyance that has several causes and symptoms.

  • I hate this topic - That is either boredom or a challenge that is quite difficult or geared to the other sex. The solution is to not take the work if you do not like the topic. Unless of course it is a challenge that motivates you.  If not, your writing will probably show your disdain. You owe your clients your best work and nothing less. 
  • I am sick of this topic - You are very good at writing under that umbrella and that is why people keep giving you more. It may no longer seem like a challenge but you are at least appreciated.
  • Monday sucks compared to the weekend - There are two solutions here. Work all weekend while everyone else is having fun, then drink alone on Monday; or realize that although you make your own hours, some of them are still going to be Monday.
  • I just can't get started - This is called the inertia block. It happens to people on exercise programs too. Once you overcome the tendency to remain at mental rest or in weekend mode, you will begin to get into it. When you are finished you will feel good because your mind has had a workout.
  • Blockhead block - This is when you get out of bed and everything and everyone annoys you. You are pissed off at your editor, clients, your spouse, your letter carrier and Matt Lauer and you want to go into the kitchen and cook all day, watch daytime TV or go fishing. The last thing you want to do is write about how to repair grease filters or craft a web page for a pet groomer. If today is the deadline, deal with it and take off tomorrow. If you have plenty of time, blow off the day and enjoy yourself. You are burning out and you need a break. If not you may die and go to rewrite hell where nothing you submit will be acceptable for eternity.  
As a writer of many topics, that provide for me varying degrees of interest and satisfaction, I do experience various forms of writers block from time to time. My wife never comes to me with a scotch neat and reassuring words at mid morning. I rely on something that I have, and all other writers need if they want to survive. It is called discipline. Discipline is the the boss you hated that always showed up for work no matter how bad the weather was. It is the teacher that made you write Massachusetts one hundred times on the blackboard until you could never spell it incorrectly again. As much as you resented them, you always show up at your desk on time and get the job done and never let a misspelling slide by. 

Monday, February 13, 2017

T.O.L.


I was in the middle of proof reading, which requires complete, unbroken, focus. Out of nowhere I hear my wife blurt out “Why would she ever say that?  Is she kidding?”
“Say what? Who?” I asked.
“Sorry,” she said. “I was thinking out loud.”

Now that could be really frightening if everyone did that, I thought.  A moment later the letter carrier walked in front of my office windows which are very near to the walk. What if he was thinking out loud?  I shuddered a second at that thought and went back to work.               

Then it happened to me. I was reading a line I wrote and I said “No that sounds like crap. What’s that word?  Hmmm.  Fortuitous. That’s it. Not lucky. The fortuitous events that led the chance meeting...”
“What?”  asked the voice from the kitchen.
“TOL.” I said.  “Not important.”
“Huh?”
“TOL,” I repeated. “Thinking out loud.”

I realized that day that I think out loud all the time when I write, and began to wonder if I could even write with my mouth shut. So I decided to try it.  It was as difficult as not biting a life saver until there is nothing left but hole. The self control was causing me face cramps.  TOL was a habit that I developed but fortunately there were no studies linking it to anything worse.  So I decided instead of stopping I would just listen to myself and make mental notes. I actually thought about recording myself but then I would have progressed from disturbed to psychotic, so I stuck to listening to myself, device free.

Here is what I heard. I curse way too much when I TOL. I also use hand gestures simultaneously, as if my slow computer can really see how annoyed I am.  I ask myself questions that I have no answer for.  I tell myself that I am hungry. Actually I tell God I am starving but I don’t mean to. He probably laughs at me. What if God thought out loud? 

  I do actually TOL a few things that help me like reading a run on sentence aloud, slicing it up, reading it out loud again. Or is that ROL?  Hmmm. Not sure. But from now on I am going to post what I TOL on this blog and see if others can relate.  If no one can, I will think that I must be out of my mind – out loud of course.