Some Knowledge

As I have been reading books lately, I notice that a lot of different authors say the same things.  It seems they do this thing called research.  They look up what other people have to say on some topic, then say the same thing, only in different words.  This is not very original.  This is what parrots do.  They repeat the same sound sequence they hear.  How is this beneficial to anyone?

In some ways, repetition is what writing is all about.  If we did not use the words of a given language and repeat them, people would not understand what we are talking about.  The problem I see is, why bother to say the same thing as so many other people?  If you want to say something original, you have to make up your own scenarios.  Then there is fiction.  How many times can a person tell the same story, but just change the names?  I don’t write much fiction.  I don’t read much fiction these days either.  I am interested in facts.

I guess if you look at it closely, the facts do not change in life.  You can only write things that are true if you are trying to convey information.  One person’s version of the truth might not be another’s.  Writing is about what you say and how you say it.  There are many books on the same subject.  Every author has their own take and style on their material.  Originality is in the particulars of any piece.

So, why am I writing about originality?  I want to develop my own style of writing.  I want to make something out of my words.  This blog is my publishing platform for what I write.  If I can’t be original, there really is no point in writing things here.  All the posts I wrote about various things I found online were not very original.  Oddly, that is the stuff that gets found and viewed.  These original posts get very little traffic.  Still, this is the kind of thing I want to work on and develop.

Right now, I think I am going to open up my word processor and do some brainstorming.  I need to come up with a good idea for a book that will sell.  I really have no idea what I want to write about, I only know I want to write.  Perhaps I could use the Internet to write a book.  Google makes research ridiculously easy.  There are only so many facts I would allow in a book.  Too many and it starts reading like a list.  Then there is the question of documenting sources.  Why bother?  I have a huge store of facts already in my skull.  Time to dust of the brain cells and see what they have to say.

I have been thinking about working on this blog again.  I need to write some useful articles on things to get some practice.  The thing about writing useful stuff is that you have to do some research.  This should not be a problem.  I went to college and studied physics.  Research should be easy.

Right now I am just killing some time before I go back to reading about how to make money as a writer.  The thing about making money as a writer is that you have to get people to give you money for something you write.  This is the same thing involved in doing anything for money.  It helps if what you write is useful when you are looking to get paid.  Maybe I am just not useful enough.

I read about advertising for a while this morning.  I might go now and write an advertisement for another one of my paintings.  So far I have 11 advertisements up on Craigslist and only have a few spam replies trying to sell me make money products.  Still, it is an interesting experiment.  I have wondered if a person can sell stuff on Craigslist.  Well, you can, if anyone wants what you are selling.

This blog is huge.  I can hardly believe I have written so much in the last year.  It has given me something to do as far as developing my writing skills.  What I need to do now is find some kind of writing gig that pays.  I wrote for helium.com for a while before I started this project.  That never worked out so well.  Right now, I think I am going to go back to reading books for a while.  This blog can take care of itself for the time being.

Over the last year and a half I have spent many hours writing things for my blogs.  What I write ranges from personal observations to short articles on various things I find online or about hobbies I have.  I enjoy writing.  It might be that what I write is not very focussed, but it is an outlet for my creativity.

I have been doing a lot of reading in the last few months.  I check out a few books from the library each week now.  I also have a lot of books that I should be reading in my own library.  Right now, I am reading about writing.  I must have read a hundred books on this subject over the years.  I also took many classes in creative writing in my school days.  A blog is a good place to practice your writing skills.  I have learned a lot about writing since I have set up all these blogs.

Back when I was studying in the university, I never liked writing that much.  Writing was like a punishment or torture they assigned people to do to pass a class.  I guess I was missing the whole point.  You can learn things by reading about them, but you learn even more when you try to write something.  I have been thinking about what I want to write about.  I have been thinking of writing as a career.  I like this blog I have here.  It gives me a place to keep my thoughts and to interact with anyone who leaves a comment.

One of these days I have to make an effort to learn HTML.  I know how to code a hyperlink, which I have been using recently in classified ads for my paintings.  Of course, I can always use the console functions of WordPress to post pictures or links in the blog.  Still, I like to know the technical stuff.  Right now, I am concentrating on writing skills.  I want to learn how to communicate better.

One of these days I will figure out how to write a popular blog.  I think what I would need to do is have a popular subject to write about.  All these personal observations have a limited appeal to the general public.  For now, I am just going to keep writing about my thoughts and let anyone who wants read.  With all the blogs that get written to every day, it is amazing that anyone finds what I post here.  In the long run, paper publications will be doomed.  Once everyone gets connected, it will only be a matter of time before they come to prefer the electronic word to bulky paper publications.  Blogs are on the cutting edge of a media revolution.  All they lack is the mass appeal of something like television.

I worked on my writing career today.  I did a Google search for freelance writing jobs.  I found a lot of sites that sell essays looking for writers.  What nonsense.  So, I went to the library.  I checked out five books on freelance writing.  This is my research material.  I am going to read these books.  I am going to find out how to make money writing.  It is not a secret.  Lots of people work as writers.  They even have a union.

I looked at the writing jobs on Craigslist.  Lots of junk there.  You got people offering five dollars or 25 dollars for an article.  This is not the going rate.  Then there are places looking to hire a tame writer.  The thing is, they don’t say anything about wages.  So, I quit looking there.  There are many wastes of time on the net.

I started reading one of the books on freelancing when I got back from the library.  The point of this book is that writing is a business.  This means it costs money to do this kind of thing.  You have to keep records.  You have to pay taxes.  I like this blog.  It costs me nothing.  I take some time now and then to add posts about things I am thinking about.  A hundred or so people a day find this blog and maybe read something I have written.  This is some publicity.  It’s a good way to start.

I have not been doing a lot of writing these past few months.  I write up a short entry for my personal blog on Myspace most days, but few people read that.  This is the second post I’ve written for here today.  One of these days I will get my act together and become successful.  I have done pretty well with this blog just posting things I have some interest in writing about.

I am off now to watch TV for a while this evening.  I have spent all day thinking about my career.  Right now, I am just some random person who writes stuff for his own blog.  I have a lot of reading to do this week, and this can not hurt.  At the least, I will be entertained and perhaps informed.

I have been doing a lot of reading this year.  There are so many books at the library that I will never run out of things to read.  I go to the library once or twice a week now and check out more books.  I just finished reading two books about starting a business.  If you want knowledge, go to the library.

I spent the last few minutes looking at things on the net about freelance writing.  What I found were a lot of sites that hire people to write essays.  Who would buy an essay?  Only students write essays.  Professionals write articles.  If you are selling essays, you are selling them to students who are cheating on their educations.  This is no respectable business for a writer.  There are so many of these sites on the net that it is ridiculous.  Where are the real freelance jobs?

I read a book a while ago about freelance writing.  The going rate is $75 an hour for this kind of work.  It takes a long time to get paid for these jobs.  I like my blogs.  I can write anything I want and if people want to read it, that’s fine.  If nobody reads what I write, I still have the experience of writing the pieces.  Of course, nobody pays me to write blog posts.  Perhaps I should look around for some jobs writing blog posts.  I found one on Craigslist a while ago.  It was for $5 an article.  Suppose I took an hour and wrote a really good blog post.  Suppose I wrote 1000 words.  Then I would get half a cent a word.  Only a fool would work for slave wages like that.

I may go back to the library this afternoon and look for more books.  They have one on how to do the freelance writing thing.  I think I need to look up some subjects for some articles.  I have not written any obvious articles on anything in a long time.  I don’t like saying something somebody else has already said in a piece.  It makes no sense to paraphrase news reports.  Essays where you state things that somebody else has already written about are pointless.  I am going to spend more time reading.  It takes a lot of time and effort to write anything, even if it is only some pointless blog post about stuff you are thinking about.

Look at school.  What do they teach you in school?  The first thing they teach you is how to read.  Why is this?  It’s because people write things down that are worth remembering.  I have read some books lately that were total wastes of time.  A lot of people write things they think other people will read just for the money.  Well, the book industry has not made a lot of cash off me this year.  It’s cheaper to borrow books from the library.  There are also millions of blogs to read, but what gets posted in blogs that’s worth reading?  I don’t care where you ate dinner last night.  I don’t care about your dumb dog.  Still, there is the potential for the blog to be interesting.  It is a free way to publish words that anyone can do.  Someday there will be blogs worth reading.

I have typed enough for today.  I have a book on Javascript that has to go back to the library.  I should scan through that before I take it back.  Unlike computer programming, all I have to do when I write something is try to make sense and be somewhat coherent.  Perhaps tomorrow I will be more organized and have some focus.  If I got a dollar a word for these posts I would be rich.  So far for this piece, I’m over 600 words already.  All I need to do is figure out some way to make rambling disconnected blog posts pay off and I will be set.  In any case, sorry for being so disconnected today.  It happens when you don’t have a very good subject.  Learning by reading.  Of course.  That’s why they invented writing.

I am reading all about how rich people think.  I got a bunch of books on the subject from the library.  Already I am saving money by checking out books instead of buying them.  I am learning all kinds of things.  I am reading about how to think about things so that I can supposedly get rich.

Of course, all the thinking in the world will get you nowhere unless you take action.  So, I am thinking about taking some kind of action.  I am thinking again about writing a book about something.  Right now, I have no idea what I would write about.  Maybe I will write a book about how to change the world.  Maybe I will write a mystery.

I have not been blogging a lot lately.  I check in on this blog every day just to see how many people read the stuff I have posted here.  There is no real return on blogging.  There is no profit in giving away words.  Over the years I have studied what kinds of books sell well.  People buy books that make them feel good.  That is what I should write, a book about how to be happy.

Right now, I am just killing some time online before Jeopardy comes on.  I checked my email, and got a couple letters from spammers from the ads I posted on Craigslist for my art.  My art blog has been getting a few more hits this week because of those ads and the links I put in them to my art blog.  That’s one way to get some web traffic.  Now, all I need are some buyers.

Instead of spending my time writing endlessly, I have been reading endlessly.  I enjoy reading.  I read non-fiction.  I like to learn about different things.  I have a whole room full of books.  One of these days I should try to sell the books I have already read.  I should do something to make money.  I have found something out over the last year.  You will not make money blogging.  There are just too many blogs out there.  Still, it is something I enjoy doing, writing stuff and leaving it on the net for people to read.

Anyway, that’s my post for here today.  Perhaps tomorrow I will get busy on my book about how to be happy.  What a stupid idea for a book.  I could probably get on Oprah with a book like that.  In any case, I hope whoever reads this has gotten something useful out of the effort of reading these words.  Of course, chances are nobody will read this, but that does not matter.  I had fun writing this, which was the whole point.

It’s hard to believe that I have so many posts to this blog.  I have not been working on this so much lately.  I have been spending my time reading.  Since I got a library card last winter, I have read a lot of books.  Right now I am trying to learn about Java programming.  In any case, this blog is huge.  I guess if you apply yourself to anything for a year you will get some kind of results.

That’s all for now.  I checked in on my art blog and got some people visiting there today.  There is potential in art.  I can sell paintings to people.  Right now, I am going to go read for a while.  Perhaps I will work on this blog this week.  Lots of words on the Internet.  Maybe someday I will read some of this stuff.

There’s a wonderful new scam on the net.  Companies offer a free sample of a resveratrol supplement.  Buried in the terms and conditions on another page from the order page, there is fine print that states you will be billed every month for shipments of their product.  The price of this stuff is like $90 for 30 tablets, which is ridiculous.  They get your order and then if you happen to read the terms and want to cancel, they tell you you have to wait 24 hours, meanwhile your order ships and they have you on the books for a recurrent charge on your card.

These people are very tricky.  Last year Barbara Walters did an interview with some doctor making claims for this substance.  The sites selling this stuff took her picture and created a phony news site, complete with call letters and a fake testimonial about how all you have to do to get a supply of this stuff is just hook up with three different companies pulling this scam and get free samples.  They totally wrote fake news about how you can get a free years supply just for signing up.  What they don’t tell you is that you are signing up for three recurrent billings of $90.

Why are there so many scammers on the net?  It must be the national sport to try to rip off the elderly or something.  Maybe someday there will be some enforcement on the net to shut down these bastards who pull these scams on unsuspecting people.  In any case, if somebody offers you something for free, don’t believe them.  Free samples are one of the oldest scams in the world.  In this case, there are a lot of places playing this game.  Always read the terms and conditions before you give anyone a credit card number.  Better yet, don’t believe everything you read on the net.

It’s not a very busy Sunday morning.  I am just waiting for a pot of coffee to brew.  This is my wonderful blog entry for today.  Not a lot to write about here.  I think I will spend the day reading about various things.  It is a beautiful summer day today.  I might take some time off and play some games on my computer.

I have not been adding posts to this blog lately.  It still gets some people stopping by to read stuff I wrote a long time ago.  I have been thinking about working on a real writing project.  It takes some coherent thought to write a book.  I don’t even know what I would write about.  There are so many things in the world to think about.  Right now, I just feel like learning as much as I can about things before I start on anything major.

The coffee should be done any time soon.  There goes the timer now.  It takes some confidence in yourself to do any kind of writing.  You have to have an idea you like enough to follow through on.  Perhaps I should open up the word processor and do some brainstorming.  This blog is a lot of words.  Working on something a bit every single day adds up to a lot after more than a year.  Now, on to something a bit different.  I think I actually am ready to start on something good.

Since I got a library card last winter I have been reading a lot of books.  Right now I am in the middle of Bill Gates’ book Business @ the Speed of Thought.  I am also reading a book called Basic Economics by Thomas Sowell, as well as many others.  I enjoy reading.  There is so much information in the world that it doesn’t make sense not to be learning things every day.

I have not been doing a lot of writing lately.  I suppose I should get going on a project or something, but I just don’t know what to write about these days.  I could become a critic, I suppose.  I could write about things I read and give reviews of books.  On the other hand, I should be doing something original.  Maybe later I will fire up the word processor and get going on a project.  I have all this computer power to assist me in my work.  Maybe I should write a program to write books.  I hear somebody has already done this.  He wrote a program to snarf things off the web and compose the facts into books, which he sells on print on demand basis.  The guy already has something like one hundred thousand books in print.  What a plan.

Right now I think I am going to go read for a while.  I have checked on all my emails and blogs and think I would enjoy just reading about stuff for a while.  In any case, I have left a post here to keep things current on what I am doing.  Someday I will get back to endless blog posting, maybe.