Writing is this a Job or a Hobby?

A writers life should never be like this. I do not think other writers' lives are like this...well maybe JK Rowling is the closest author I know who had a life like mine. I'm an infamous single mom trying to get her little novella published and be a freelance writer to boot. I currently have my own little writing business called JannyCWriter Freelance Writing Services. It has gone good so good in fact I had to give my clients the option of cancelling their order because I could not possibly fill all these orders on time. Sounds good right? Then why is everything so wrong? It raises the questions in my mind is writing more of a hobby? Can it possibly be a job or a career? I am a freelance writer, I write and people pay me, is that not a job? Or is it just a hobby that happens to pay?

Can You Succeed on Writing Alone? I'm Trying to Find Out

When you say you want to become a writer and they say do not quit your day job they were not kidding. I did not quit my day job though I got laid off with 2 other fellow employees. I got let go due to my declining health situation. I decided I was going to give writing a try again. I have previously dabbled in the writing/publishing biz before. It had been long time as well, so I had to start at the bottom and work my way back up. I had unemployment so I had time to build and work myself back up, to really give this a shot. Well things never work out as you planned do they? When you need the strength and support of your only family, and they turn their backs on you . When they ridicule all that you strive and work hard for as nothing but fodder. Sometime you wonder is this really worth it. Is writing really a job? Or is this just some little paying hobby.

Writing For Life

I take time out of my busy schedule to share the latest happenings for Janny in Publishingland.

Sadly negotiations with My Authors publishing failed so Angelic Confessions is once again on the market and looking for a home. The good news is I got statistic and reviews to wow the Publishers and Agents off their feet(I got to be confident for who else will be!). I put up Angelic Confession for a trial run to see if this book had a market value. Will people like this book? This is what Publisher and Agents want to know if your book has a market and an audience. After putting Angelic Confession up for a trial run online on textnovel.com I found out it does. People liked this book. I got emails from people stating how much they liked it, how they were hooked and could not wait to read more. So with these statistics under my belt I at least have a something to show the Agents and Publishers that this book has potential.

More Than a Writer

So you want to be a writer they say. Well they never said it was going to be easy. I am a writer yes, but I am also a mother and a women. Balancing writing and being a mom can be pretty difficult at times. The pay sucks and I'm deep in debt. Yet I love every minute of it. I write therefore I am. All other jobs I have had fall to the waste side. No wonder I lost all those past jobs they were not for me. This job right here being a freelance writer, a ghost writer and author, this is the job for me. I am good too otherwise I would not of gotten this far. I write for love and I write for money for I have made this my career. I write and give my clients the best. I am about quality not quantity though I can write pretty fast if thing go smoothly. Like say my Internet decided to kick me offline every 2 seconds making work hard to get done. I digress though.

Writing Against The World

It feels sometimes like I am writing against the world. Everything I have learned I have learned from teaching myself. My life has never allowed the luxury of college no matter how many times I tried to enter It just never worked out. I needed support and I never got it. It was like no one wanted me to better myself for perhaps I would rise above them and be better and not need them. No matter how many times I tried to crush my dream and love of writing the fire never would go out. Writing was never a hobby and little thing I dabbled in. Writing was my passion, love. No one understands it unless you are a writer yourself. You will never make a career of it either unless you drink, eat and sleep it.

Self Teaching

The fall college course catalog came in the mail today and I saw they offered some writing courses. I looked them over for I am always interested in learning and growing in my writing. What I learned though is I already knew the lessons they were offering. If these professional writers and professor were teaching about the love of writing, writing for money, writing with passion and purpose I then am wasting my 95 dollars for I have learned all that and sadly not by a professor of English in a comfy air conditioned classroom. I learned it through living it. I learned that if you do not love writing you will not get anywhere. To succeed a writer needs passion and drive and dedication, and they need to be a bit business savvy too for one thing I learned this is a business and its a serious one.

Why I write

The infamous question some Authors get asked. Some day I wonder why I write for its nothing but pain and sorrow. Once I crossed the line into becomes a writer there was no going back for me. It was like a destiny I could never escape. This is my path this is my purpose. To write and share, enlighten, entertain others with my words. While I am a freelance writer now and I do get paid for my work it still is not about the money. I write still even when I'm not getting money for it. Writing is my love and my job. Now how many can say that they love their job now?

Days of Writer Worth It?

These are troubled times and I wonder if the life of a writer is worth it. I wonder how many writers ended their lives due to the struggle. I really feel like I am a ghetto writer. I did not get the chance to go to school and major and have all these credentials that other writers seem to have to make them look good. I have learned all I have on my own by self teaching and just learning by doing. But looking outside myself I have come such a long way why should I just give it all up? I have a job title of independent freelance writer. Writing is my job and I get paid a bit to do it. While it's not much its something and I am quite proud of that. I have my articles published online and people that enjoy what I write and follow me. So I cannot be all that bad of a writer and I accomplished all that by myself and through hard work.

Some Days Do You Want to Quit?

Some days as a writer I want to quit. I wonder why I am kidding myself. I knew the odds going in and I swore to defeat them. While I have overcome some odds I have not overcome them all. Life also seems to always creep inside the career and I can not separate my job from my family and the people I was born into. All I have left is my writing so I can never stop. I can never stop because I need to know what is at the end of this story. My journey in being a writer is like a story in itself. I want to see how it ends. I just feel something glorious is at the end. Another reason why I just can not stop.

Path of A Writer Sometimes Isn't Always Pleasant

The life of a Writer is hard, at least for this little writer. I came from nothing....I came from abuse and found a way to shine and show myself. My personal life forever seeps into my writing no matter how professional I try to be. I can not escape the craziness that is me. No more than I can escape my precious spirituality. I say spirituality but not religion. I really no believe in organized religion. That is human invented though I am very spiritual and have a relationship with the Father. He exists forever in my life and has blessed me forever in my life. It all intertwines and I can not escape all the essences that make me.

Path of a Writer

I do hope other Writers perhaps have it a bit easier than I have. Well I can probably say for truth that they have. I am one strange Writer indeed. I did not get a chance to go to college and I had planned on to but writing really was not what I was going to college for it was to be an interpreter for the deaf. I got discouraged from pursuing in my dreams. I believed the word spoken to me. Maybe it was for a reason...perhaps writing has always been meant for me and I just had to realize it and grasp the opportunity. I had always has a passion for writing and loved reading. In 1990 I decided to give writing a try. I self taught myself everything. I can write pretty much anything even comic book scripts and TV Scripts, Movie scripts. With the Internet I was able to be just as educated if I had went to some prestigious college. The bonus was I got to experience a lot and learn the hard way. I am very proud of my self teaching and where I am right now. I worked really hard to be where I am at today. After all the hatred thrown upon me for other just do not understand. People fear what they do not understand and instead of educating themselves and learning about it they just last out with hatred and ignorance. Despite all that hatred that has been tossed at me I still am going strong. My faith has also played a big role in this. I'm still here so that is proof of something for I have been through hell and back. So many thing trying to stop me. You swear there was something seriously out to get me and see to it my destruction I mean it is really unreal.

The Writer's Hardship

Writing can be therapeutic and for this reason I write this so please bear with me.

Lost job and health issues arise and it is discovered I can not go back to the style of job I once had. I needed to find a new career and on lets add on top of that I am a single mom and have to live with an abusive sister that lives upstairs from you for she starts berating you for being out of work and pressuring you to find work and trying to tell you what you do and where you should apply here and there that it makes your head spin and once again you start letting other rule you life and you ask yourself what is it that YOU really want. In that I found writing again and the passion and love for this craft rekindled. I was going to be writer I could do this. I nearly did it before I am a published writer and got the magazine to still prove it. So I can do this! A lot of self pepping went there as you can see. Sadly though I was no where near where I needed to be before my unemployment ended. You would thing that would be the end of me but no. I kept up and business finally picked up and I got some writing gigs as a freelance writer and I was getting paid. This was a dream yet a nightmare for to have writing be your main job can really be life fatal as bills pile up faster than you can write. Then your laptop power cord dies on you and you have no money to get a new one. Amazingly you are blessed and your brother in laws laptop cord works with yours and he gives it to you cause his laptop that he got from someone not working right. So you are back in writing business. NEXT you are in jeopardy of losing your Internet. How will you work and pay your bills if you do not have Internet. Amazingly again a miracle happens and you establish a plan with them. Hopefully as well you can pull of the plan cause now due to this little losing Internet scare your clients are a bit worried you can pull through. This also takes its toll on health and family life as emotions are high. I guess I will be a Writer or I shall die trying.

The Horrors of Writing

Obstacles obstacles always in the way. My latest obstacle was a big one. Unemployment ended and my writing job was hardly bringing in the money. Then amazingly I got hired. This was the dream. I had a job! I was writing and getting paid! Note it is not much but it is start and I swore I was going to make this work. Never am I giving up on this dream. Then the unthinkable happened. The power cord on my laptop died. I had battery power but it was not going to last long. I was sunk. I am working now so I could borrow from someone to get a new power cord and pay someone back, so I got up the nerve to ask. My Sister of course was no good she said to ask her husband. I did and he said he would try and help me. Amazingly he has a power cord to this laptop he had which was not working and it amazingly fit mine perfect(Though battery does not charge now). So I am now back in business and can get back into working again. It was one of those life is not fair moments. I had been out of work then I finally FINALLY find work I can do and then THAT! happened. It was such a cold hit to my soul. I had tried so hard and then it was like just as I reached it...SNATCH! gone! I have a working computer again now, but damage seems to of been done for my soul is still sore, yet I still will go on.

Do You Wonder As a Writer?

I wonder as a writer why I write sometimes. This is such a hard road to follow. You walk it everyday wondering when will you get your break? I do not want riches and to be the best selling author. I just want to be an author and to get paid doing it. I knew the repercussion going into this line of work. I know you do not make much, but you see I do not need much to live on. Actually I am not that even sure about that. What is truly my goal is all this? What is my goal if I do not want to be the next Bestseller? I want to write and live comfortably doing it. I want writing to truly be my job. This is hard thing to achieve though. So do I have any other goal? I guess it would be then to show the ones that said I could not, that I did.

Things Moving Yet I am Standing Still

Things are moving yet they are not. I still have not heard back from the publisher My Authors about my book. I submitted it around February 9Th or 11Th of this year and still nothing. I even wrote them, and still nothing. I am told by some I should of heard back by now but hey I have not even heard back from the other agents and publishers I submitted to not even a sweet hello rejection. I am a bit worried having not heard anything , but I do know it can take months to hear back from a publisher....so how long is too long? On a brighter note my writing has picked up and I have been keeping pretty busy with writing assignments and meeting deadlines. I am also actually getting paid so this is quite a sweet thing. I am for the first time seeing the glass half full instead of half empty. True the pay is not much but at least it is something. The more I do the more I get paid so the amount adds up quickly. I Know it's not paying the bills totally, but it is better than no income at all. I am wondering if I should still wait or should I just grab the reigns and yeee ha!

I'm Freelancing...Writing That is...Then How Come I Got to PAY THEN!

There are days when you just want to call it quite in the writing business. A part of me wonder what am I thinking? How could I ever think this was for me? Who cares if I have gotten told I should never give up...I probably should. Writing is the job and other things in life I think are taking up the toll and stress on me.

Freelance Writing

I have decided to try my hand again at freelancing and getting more serious into it. I joined this site and you place bids on jobs you want to apply for. Oddly my bid won and I now owe like 5 dollars on them. They mentions something about commission....and I didn't full understand I did not want to lose a job off so I clicked accept I wonder now if I can take it back. Funny thing is I do not have 5 dollars now isn't that sweet.

Writing Frustations

I currently write for various online publishing sites. Some are self publishing and other are self publishing , but the sites editors have to approve it and then they disburse it with other various sites they own. You can pretty much write on whatever you want but you got to get it past their editors first and yes they do decline articles. I wrote in a perhaps taboo topic of Vampires and the real self proclaimed vampires out there and I conducted an interview with a well know occult specialist and author. While the article did get approved they placed it on a food website and the article itself was all jacked up and half of it was missing. I deleted the article and tried again letting them know the error of last time.

2Nd Times a Charm

As I said we tried it again this time it got placed in a bit of a better spot on a site called authorspot but its a place of poetry and short stories so whatever. The text I was concerned on and once again the text got all jacked up! I was like OH MY GOD AGAIN!!!! Do I try a third time are they trying to tell me something by publishing my article in ruins? I deleted it once again and am now looking for a new place to publish it. I tried Helium but then they asked me to revise my titled I did and so still waiting to hear back on if they like the title before I can actually submit the article it self.

The frustrations of a writer.

Vegging Out Writers

There are some days where you just do not want to write. As my writing mentor Rebecca E. says no writing no money so I push myself to write and its fine cause writing is what I love to do. I wish I could write more though, but I also am mom so that sometimes makes writing difficult. My son dislikes my writing I think he wants to go out and do fun stuff with mommy. This is a job though as crappy as it pays, and I have come too far to just stop. Though the thought has crossed my mind many of times.

Have you ever wanted to stop writing and give it up? I have actually done that. I left writing alone for a long time. I then met a new young writer and she reminded me so much of myself. She had the same fiery passion that I used to have and was reminded that I still had. The flames had not been extinguished. What was more than that was I was her muse. ME! How I inspired I do not know but I somehow encouraged her to write herself and she is not that bad.

Writing Half way

Have you ever had a great idea for an article, an essay or a book and you start writing away. The next thing you know suddenly you stop a blank in what to write next. You start writing and get halfway then nothing nadda zip!

I have been in this funk of late that all my articles end up half way done. I am totally stumped in what to write next. Talk about your half bakes ideas! Life and stress could also be a factor in this in why I only seem to get halfway through then my brain dies. I wonder what I need to do to break this. It ain't easy being a writer sometimes, yet I would not trade it for anything else in the world.

Writing Goal Lost

It seems my goal fell short or maybe there is still time to reach it I do not know. I had hoped to be established but I am no where near fully established. I would say I am semi established in the writing world.

Now I am left with nothing though and wonder where I went wrong....did I go wrong? Did I lose some sight?

Is all going to be alright?

Finding Time To Write

It is currently still spring break and have I gotten a lot of work done? Nope not really at least not like I had hoped. Spring break started early for the preschool kiddies as March 30Th was the last day of school. By 2pm on March 31st I was unsure if I could survive the whole next week of no school that was coming up. My little one was excited of course for Easter and Mommy is a bit irritable too due to PMS so this week has been quite a chore and no one has died as of yet. It has been cold and rainy too so my plans of going to the park had been shattered. With this I thought I could just set up something crafty and I would have a bit of time to work. This did not go as I had planned but I did get some writing in and got two articles out. Not bad but still it was not easy. Next week it is back to school and back to our normal schedule. Whew!

Every Author Has a Begining

What is your beginning? Why is it you really love to write? Is it for the money? Is it for the love of the English language and the written word? We all have an answer to that question, but I want you ask yourself truly WHY is it you write? Is it to entertain? Inform? Get your voice heard?

Why I Write

I write because this is the best way to express myself. Most of my life I was to be seen and not heard. My opinions and thoughts did not matter. If I did get brave and voice my thoughts I would get ridiculed and called unkindly names. I always had quite the imagination too taking my barbies on awesome adventures, or battling invisible evil ninja foes outside. I will never forget in 5Th grade I think it was we were to write a story on how the parrot got its many colors. I remember the teacher pointing out my story to my mom in parent teacher conference at how good it was. I believe I got a A grade too. Next was in High school we had to write a story for something as well and my teacher took me aside and said they were impressed with my story. That is how I knew once again that maybe I had a knack for this. I wondered though for I totally suck in writing term papers and I never figured out what I did wrong. I got a C though on all term papers so I'm average I guess.

Moment of Truth

I then took a writing course at our local college and we were supposed to bring a piece of our work to read out loud to people. I brought a very early draft of Angelic Confessions. Once I got done reading a sample of it the teacher the stated,"You know what you are doing don't you." That was when it truly sank in that I am good and I have a chance at this. Being a writer seems to of always been an interest, it was not a dream for I knew the reality and the odds success in this business. I really did not want big success anyway I would just be happy with an underground cult following.

Giving It a Shot

In 1990 my mother suffered a heart attack and discovered she had heart disease and a condition called angina. So I left my job to take care of my mom and be a freelance writer, but soon decided I needed to find a real job too. I did manage to get 2 poems, a magazine article and music review published. Best part was I got paid!!! Flash forward to now and here I am writing again. It seems like it is a destiny I can not escape. So I decided I'm going full force in this thing! By the Fathers graces I am blessed to be able to do so. I feel this is definitely what I am supposed to do, for I should not be alive if this was not the path for me. Once again the opportunity is given to me and I took it and I'm going all the way to the top! *And I'm doing it my way*

Publishing: The Wait

Paitence is a virtue, but really folks waiting is the worst. It seems my whole life is riding on this.

• I wrote the novella
• I submitted the novella to numerous agents and companies
• I got a publisher who liked my proposal
• I submitted my proposal to the publisher

This is a great feat yet not one sees it as a real accomplishment though they act like they care. I know I am not in the clear yet, but this is a big step to actually get a publisher or agent to say yes I want to read your work. Only writers know the true effort and meaning that has to us. After millions of rejections someone now want to actually read the full manuscript, and this is where I lie right now. My beloved book is not in hands of the publishers and the waiting game is on. I start to panic and freak what if they ran off with my story? No I can not think like that. I discovered it usually takes about 3 months to hear back and its already been one month going on two. I am hoping to hear from then soon with the words every writer wants to hear. We want to publish your book.
Then comes the fun part!