Are You a Writer?

I was asked if I was a writer the other day at the Barnes and Noble checkout. I was buying a writing magazine that I hadn't seen before in hopes of gaining a little more knowledge and, at the very least, something to blog about. He took a look at the magazine cover and then pierced me to the core of my soul with such alarming alacrity that I nearly stumbled backward in agony. This may seem like quite the overstatement, but in all honesty I can't readily remember a time when I was so completely floored.

"So, are you a writer?" The words were spoken with curiosity and kindness, but my heart crouched low in my chest in some barbaric, instinctual response.

I was completely embarrassed. The truth is that according to some, I am nowhere near being a true writer; a mere hobbyist, I only flirt with the idea of becoming a writer and haven't the slightest clue what it means to perfect the craft. While others would argue that, as a gardener should not only be characterized by one who plants in pots or carefully tended rows, a writer is any man, woman, or child who cares to throw words to the wind -- eagerly watching the tendrils sprout and take shape into a wild, wild forest of creative desire. I suppose that's a pretty way of saying that only the author themselves can determine whether they are a writer or a mere hobbyist.

And here I stand, a rope tied to each arm, surrounded by two angry mobs engaged in my own mental game of tug-of-war.

It was there in front of the checkout counter that I heard Peter's rooster crow three times as I answered. "It's more of a hobby, really."

As if a hobby would cause me to lust after a magazine filled with information I likely already know. As if a hobby would be enough to justify the dreams and the longing for acceptance or the constant desire to buy new notebooks and fancy pens to write with! But, for one reason or another, in that moment I lacked the courage to call it what it is... an obsession.

"Oh? Are you taking any courses?" He asked.

Courses? No. Did Mark Twain take a course? Did Edgar Allan Poe? How about Walt Whitman or Charles Dickens, did they attend writing conferences? Hell if I know... All I know is that I like to write, that I am unhappy unless I do write, and that I have a hard time reading many bestselling novels without noticing some apparent flaw that slipped through the cracks. Did your background character miraculously switch genders between some 150 pages or so? I noticed. (That goes out to you Brian Jacques - loved the books as an early teen by the way. You always made me so hungry with your descriptions of roasted fish, tarts, and cordial!) And the elitist writers look down their noses at me and mutter their disapproval. -- "Oh how the little man hurtles insults to the heavens," I hear one say in hushed tones.

It turns out that this kind fellow behind the counter just wanted to talk about a subject that he loved, one that he hoped that I obsessed over just as much. But I just couldn't find the urge to own up to my obsession. So I balked and shrugged it off as a passing fancy, a hobby to get me through the long work hours of the summer, I had said. Why? What's all of this about?

The truth is that I have yet to have anything published, save an article for the Hilltop Times when I was in the Air Force back in 2000 or so. (In which I spelled Stephen King's name wrong... Sorry, Mr. King...) I have recently submitted a flash fiction piece to Escape Pod, a science fiction podcast, with no success, and I sent The Boy in the Window to Fantasy Magazine last week but they weren't interested. This post and that conversation aren't about rejection, though, it just boils down to the fact that I haven't been published yet.

The turmoil I feel inside is a mixture of wanting to write a compilation of short stories that I can put into an eBook and offer for free - allowing for donations if readers feel inspired to do so, and the idea that I must prove myself worthy through the rites of publication. It almost feels like any deviation from protocol is a weakness.

"Sure, of course that sounds like a great idea, but only because you're afraid that no one will ever publish your stories. Just give them away and hope that a few people will throw some coin in your direction so you can justify doing it again. But why would they want to read your stories when you can't even get published?" Such is the internal dialogue that plagues me.

So I suppose when he asked if I was a writer, it was as if he echoed the question in my own mind. Am I a writer? Some people will say yes, others will say no. In the end it is only what I say that matters. To many people of his time, Picasso wasn't a real painter, and yet he painted and in doing so he changed the world.

Creative Writing Prompt:

Writing for Helium.com #2

Here it is, the follow-up post to my experience writing for Helium.com. If you haven't had a chance to read the first post, you can do so here: Writing for Helium.com #1. Once you've caught up, come on back and let's talk!

I've been writing for Helium for a few weeks now and I've had a chance to learn more about how the system works. I have posted creative writing content, competitive content, and articles to empty topics. I have also participated in a writing contest and have submitted an entry for a Marketplace request. I've even successfully invited another writer to Helium.com and suggested a title for a new topic.

All of these things have been fun and I have felt very accomplished in my writing in the past few weeks. I have been working very hard on expanding my presence on the internet and adding content to my green living blog, www.OurGreenAdventure.com. I have even taken the time to write a few new Hubs on Hubpages.com. I mention all of this to illustrate the point that I am writing this particular review on well balanced experiences and not at all in a manner of being burnt out with Helium.com.

While this won't be a scathing review, I must admit that it isn't the best. Helium.com, for all intents and purposes, is a decent place for a beginning writer to start out and increase their presence.

It isn't as hot if you are looking for long term passive income from the articles you post. Unlike Triond.com and HubPages.com, Helium requires you to remain active in order to keep pulling in your share of the ad revenue earned from the content you submit. Any day in which you do not maintain at least one rating star will be a day that you will earn nothing from your previously posted content. That said, passive income for content is very limited.

The rating system itself has proven very suspect in the past few weeks, in my opinion. Some of my articles have been beaten by other submissions that don't even stick to the topic at hand. I have been given articles to rate in the same topics that I have submitted to, which seems a bit unbalanced as I can impact the ratings of my competition. This is a system where mob mentality wins, and I often wonder if half the mob is assigning comparative ratings without even skimming through both articles. So it begs the question, do you try to write for the rating system to get a higher number on display results for your topics, or do you write for the larger audience? My gut tells me that the rating system is a poor man's game and that the real money to be had is in the articles themselves.

That brings us to another point, ad revenue. Helium.com does not disclose the payout equation for revenue sharing. I am not sure what that rate is for Triond, but with less articles and all of them ranging in not-so-popular keyword topics I've made a comparable amount to my current earnings with Helium. The only difference will be in the upfront payment system that Helium has recently incorporated. Right now I stand to make probably around 10 dollars extra since I have 1 writing star and I've included some articles in empty titles. So if there is a system to making decent money with Helium, it has to be with accumulating enough published content to increase your upfront earnings and including a decent percentage of empty title submissions.

What about inviting others to join Helium? Well, I suppose it's better than Triond in that you can actually get referrals for other writers joining up with your invite. You earn 5% on their earnings out of Helium's cut. The bad news is that you can only refer other members through the Helium generated email. There is no referral link option like with HubPages tracker system. That means that the only way someone could show their appreciation for an informative post such as this by signing up under me would be to ask me to send them a referral email. How inconvenient! Most people would just type helium.com into their browser and sign up for an account that way, and that works out just fine for the site, it's 5% less they have to pay out of their share.

Back to the content. You maintain all other rights to your content, but Helium reserves first publication. That means that even if you delete your account, those submissions stay on the site earning them money. You could re-post them to your blog or website if you wanted to, but you'll take an SEO hit for duplicated content.

When it comes to creative writing content on Helium.com, your biggest reward is the warm fuzzies of the creative writing medals. Which, by the way, just so happen to do nothing other than provide warm fuzzies. I have made a few pennies from some of my submissions in the creative topics, but it definitely isn't a way to make money. These submissions also fall under the same rating system as the rest of the content. Rest assured that you will probably get a few einey-meaney-miney-moe ratings on those submissions as well, so gauging your writing ability off of how the rankings look isn't necessarily an accurate method of assessing talent. And this isn't coming from someone scorned by the rating system. Several of my pieces have faired nicely. It's just my observation.

The writing contest was disappointing. I was surprised to find out that the winners are determined not by the writer of the best article, but by a cumulative effort of as many articles they wish to publish to the select range of titles presented in the contest at hand. So, to stay competitive, you must write 6-8 articles to even have a chance at winning. I opted not to participate in one contest when I noted that one person had over 10 articles published with several previous contest wins stamped on her profile. I used my time, instead, to post to a few empty titles and to other topics I was interested in.

I just received notification that my title suggestion was returned, unapproved by the Helium staff. The topic was: How to Make Money in Military Basic Training. Apparently, this is too ambiguous as you already draw a paycheck while attending training. It's okay, don't feel bad. I already published a Hub with the article I had written. The piece illustrates that many of the fears that people have before they head off to Basic and many of the things they will encounter, but it does so based off my own, somewhat humorous, experiences. I just so happened to make quite a bit of extra cash when I was in boot camp, but then again I also sold wallet critters to other boys when I was in Junior High. What's a wallet critter? Keeping it as family friendly as possible, I suppose you could say it's a rubber band that isn't very musical - if you catch my drift. If you'd like to read the Hub, you can check it out here: 5 Ways to Make Money in Boot Camp.

I'm still waiting to hear back on the Marketplace request, but my overall experience with that was good. I entered a creative essay for the topic entitled: My Great, True, Personal Garden Story. It was fun to do and even though there were over 100 entries the last time I checked a few hours before it closed out, I had made it to number 7 in the rankings - which don't actually count towards the selection of the winning article. As long as you can find topics that interest you, the Marketplace can be a lot of fun. But then again, isn't that what AssociatedContent is all about anyway? The only difference that I saw from my limited experience with AC is that it adheres to stricter reporting standards for their writing projects than Helium does.

I will continue writing for Helium.com for a while as I work on my writing, but it will not be my sole venue for publishing content for money online. I don't think I will be publishing any more creative content, though, as I can't really see a benefit from it in the long term. I'd be better off just posting here, even though I don't get very much traffic to this blog.

But hey, don't just take my word for it. I was able to rummage through Jena Isle's older posts on her blog and I came up with this one concerning her writing experience with Helium.com.

Also, check out Marisa Wright's Helium Hub. Marisa was kind enough to share her insight in her comments on the first part of this review and I found her Hub to be both a good read and very insightful.

Creative Writing Prompt:

Writing for Love

One of my first serious writing projects in my younger years was a story called "Fighting for Love" and like most early High School writing projects, it was... well, let's just say that it doesn't see the light of day very often. The whole thing was filled with clichés and other such atrocities, but if nothing else it had passion and enthusiasm. I wasn't afraid to write, I just did because it was fun, because I loved it. It is for that reason that I have kept it around, as a reminder that writing doesn't have to be hard. And even as horrible as it is, it is a memento of something much bigger.

As we grow older we find that there are many ways to love. We leave school behind and go to work so that we can do the things we love, so we can feed and clothe the ones we love, and so that we can afford the very pleasure of love. Sometimes on that journey of giving and taking, of mending and breaking, we get so tangled up that we forget how our journey really began and we forget what we're fighting for.

During this last month, my extended leave from my job, I was able to put things back into perspective. I have given so much of myself over the past year and it left me drained. I didn't have the energy to love much of anything. I wanted to write, but I was so exhausted... I was moody and grumpy, and many evenings my mind would turn to tasks left unfinished at work and projects always looming ahead. Writing seemed, at times, like just another chore that had to be done.

I stopped going out with my family on a lot of small adventures, opting instead to stay at home in the quiet and solitude of an empty house; an activity reminiscent of my troubled youth. That too took its toll.

During this break I have been able to readjust my perspective and I am so thankful for the many things in my life that I have accomplished and for my family for standing by me. My wife and my children are worth fighting for, and so too is my writing. It can be hard to see when there is no army looming in the dark beyond, but sometimes there are wars to be waged on another front. I cannot afford to allow my job to demand so much from me when it does not allow me to enjoy the life I have.

I write because I love writing. I would like to think that I am good at it, but I am smart enough to know that I can always get better. The trick is putting in the time to discover what does and does not work. And to do that, you must make sure that you are in the right frame of mind in order to get the most from your writing time.

Reflection is a wonderful thing. Just as I am writing this post, it occured to me that this is not the first time that I have felt extremely overloaded and at the breaking point. When I was in the military up in Alaska, there was a stretch of time when I worked full time, went to school full time, took care of the kids when Tara worked her part time job in the evenings, and somehow fit in a full time gaming schedule on the computer. I didn't try to write much during those years. But the primary difference I think is that we seized the opportunities to get out into nature and go camping and pan for gold with the kids. Last summer I felt trapped, often working 12-13 days in a row with an average 16 hour day and some at 19 or 20. Sure, I made a decent amount of overtime, but I also paid way more in taxes. With a rule against taking vacation, I felt as if there was no escape, and I often asked myself why I bothered...

My answer? I was fighting for love... to support the ones I love, to afford the pleasure of love, but forsaking the ability to do the things I love. And coincidentally, that was the reason I joined the military so many years ago. The good news is that life is about progression, if we choose it to be. So I will focus on writing, because that is what I love to do, and I will not forget where it all started, with both my writing and my family.

Recharging the Writing Batteries

This is a picture of my wife and I at Disney World's Animal Kingdom. We just returned from an amazing Land and Sea vacation where we were able to experience several of the parks at Disney World before heading off on a cruise to the Bahamas!

The primary purpose of this trip was to celebrate 10 wonderful years of marriage and since family is very important to both of us, we decided to bring the kids along. Believe it or not, this was our first real family vacation! We tend to try to go camping as much as possible during the summer months, but we'd never done anything like this before. We haven't even made it out to Yellowstone yet.

If you've been following the blog at all, you know that I recently took a leave of absence from my job in order to relieve some of the stress that's been building as of late. I'm looking at a summer that could be worse than last year, if management projections are accurate, and all I can think about is the 16 hour average work days... that's not even counting the consecutive 20 hour shifts I put in for a few days in a row here and there last summer on the tail end of a 12 day work week. Fortunately, I was smart enough to save up some of that overtime pay in case I found myself on the brink of burnout.

Burnout, yeah, that pretty much describes it. Life isn't very good when you don't have the energy or the will to pursue the things you are most passionate about. Staring at the computer screen and being unable to write was more painful than I could possibly imagine. Some nights I wanted to want to write so bad that I wondered why I even bothered. Why allow a job drain so much from me? What was really to be gained?

But now I feel so much better. I feel like I have a new grasp on what's important to me. I've written more in the last few weeks than I can remember writing for quite some time. Sure, most of it has been in the form of Helium articles, but I'm still writing and I'm enjoying every minute of it!

Sometimes it's important to recharge the old batteries instead of running yourself ragged trying to assault the mount with an empty tank.

Writing for Helium

Aside from writing my recent zombie story, which can be read here, I have recently put a fair amount of effort into writing for Helium.com. Helium differs from Hubpages and Triond in that it relies heavily on its rating system. It seems a bit strange and intriguing at first, but I will give you my overall impressions after I have a chance to see it in action.

After posting a few pieces in the creative section, I decided to throw my hand at snagging a few writing stars. By obtaining stars, Helium writers can start earning money from the articles they've submitted. There are different types of stars as well, one is for writing and another for rating. Once you've earned one star, you're ready to start earning some money.

Jena Isle, one of my frequent visitors, has always been a very big advocate of writing for Helium.com, and has done fairly well for herself with her part time submissions. She's always been very supportive and has answered many of my newbie questions. The truth is, for someone who is always fighting the clock, Helium can be very confusing at first. Therefore, it's great to have another member who has learned the ropes to mentor you. My only regret is that I had created my account before having the chance to sign up under Jena so she could earn the 5% bonus on my earnings (out of Helium's cut of the ad revenue) for all of her patient suffering while I picked up the in's and out's.

In a very short time I was able to earn two writing stars, a silver medal for Creative Writing, and a badge indicating that I'm a Marketplace Premier Writer. Not bad at all!

Anyone interested can check out my Helium.com profile.

I intend to write more about my experiences with Helium.com, so stay tuned! If you're interested in joining up, let me know! I can send you out a referral email to get you started. If you already have an account, but are as confused as I was, feel free to post any questions here. If I can't answer them, I'm sure Jena can - or one of us can point you in the right direction.

Check out the second part of this review:
Writing for Helium.com #2