Musings and Diatribes » Writing

Blogging for money–a boon or a trap?

Administrator — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:22:30 +0000

Due to the economy and the need to generate money quickly, I turned to blogging for money by writing regularly on green business matters in the Portland area. The problem with this sort of sideline is that is pays very little considering the amount of work that goes into preparing each article. There is the research, fact checking, interviewing, writing and posting to be done for each offering–not to mention the time spent trying to find appropriate photos that can be used without copyright violations.

The trap comes with the fact that the more you post the more money I earn, and so the time that I could be spnding on potentially more lucrative projects is not available.

Writers’ conferences

Administrator — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 18:49:21 +0000

I just returned from a three day marathon of pitching, networking and attending workshops at the Willamette Writers annual conference. The pitches were moderately successful even though I had to pitch from the seat of my pants because the agents that were taking what I was prepared to pitch were not available (I registered rather late). The workshops were great for the most part, but by the end of the third day my eyes had glazed over and I was moving like a zombie.

It’s definitely an experience I would reccomend to any aspiring writer.

Time Managment and Researching Finance Stories

Administrator — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 19:01:42 +0000

Well, as I posted in an earlier blog, the difficulty I encountered in the past with remembering to post a blog on a regular basis is difficult to overcome. I just finished posting a story on Allvoices.com about asset based secutiies, and the research I had to do was formidable since business/finance was not my main area of expertise. Coming to grips with the many arcane terms used in the world of finance and trying to figure out the logic behind some of these investment instruments seemed to eat up all of my available time. It’s posted now, under the byline Cantus500. Back to trying to regularize my blogging schedule.

Researching the Auto Industry

Administrator — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 00:21:03 +0000

In researching a short article on the ability of the U. S. auto industry to remake themselves into viable participants in the global industry, I came across hints that some connections may exist between high officials that served in the Bush administration, the oil industry and the auto industry. This is a rumor that makes some logical sense in the light of the industry’s bizzar reaction to California’s air quality requirements. I’m looking forward to doing some more investigting.

The Dark Side of the Internet

Administrator — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 01:12:53 +0000

For a writer the ability to ferret out information on almost any topic with just a few clicks on the keyboard is invaluable, but it comes at a terrible price. At least it does for those of us who are information junkies. I find that entirely too much of my time is spent in finding out more and more about less and less, leaving me almost no time to do any actual writing (hence the long interval between the previous post and this one). Every branch can lure me off the track with interesting, but probably not useful for the current project, information. What can a writer do to use the internet for needed research and still not be seduced?