I hear this a lot. People who work from home often get bored and miss human interaction. I’ve puzzled over this for quite some time and I simply don’t feel this way. Why? I am a classic introvert. Not shy, mind you - but constant interaction with people is, frankly, exhausting. In other words, I am thankful for the opportunity of working from home because it’s perfect for me.

But I do have strategies for when I do want to spend time with people. The big one is I sit and do my work in the same room where my husband is studying. Here are some more ideas:

• Visit the social sites like twitter and plurk and interact with the people on your friends list
• Install a chat program and seek out some friends who may be at work to interact with
• Call someone - a dear friend, mom, sister…
• Join groups (writer groups, business groups) that meat once a week.
• Take classes, give classes, go to seminars
• Get a part time job in the work force

There are a lot of ways to satisfy your need for socialization. Luckily for me I don’t need to do this too often. I save my socializing for my personal life. But I do find interacting with other writers and other businesses to be inspiring so I mostly seek out like minded people online.

My favorite thing is to use sites like twitter and plurk because they give me just enough interaction without feeling overloaded. And, it doesn’t take up a lot of time. If I have a deadline and I need a break, for example, I find that five minutes on plurk is just enough to help me keep in touch with my internet friends.

Don’t get me wrong. I love writing. In fact, I am one of the rare ones who is doing what I dreamed of doing as a child. In the 4th grade, I fell in love with the written word and wanted to become a writer. But I often find the process of finding work, doing the work, getting paid, repeat to be a bit tedious. Affiliate marketing gives me back some control over my career and what I write about.

I find that affiliate marketing is a natural thing for writers to take on. The concept is simple. Find a product to promote and promote it. To do this one can write blog posts, articles, websites, Squidoo lenses, etc. That’s a bit of an over-simplification but that’s the basic process.

In fact, the more well written your content is, the more successful you will be. Affiliate marketers and Internet marketers hire people to do their writing for them. You already have that skill so you’re one step ahead of the pack.

If you’re serious about giving this a try, check out the “Bum Marketing Method”. I outlined a process I’ve been using for bum marketing in a post in one of my blogs and it can help get you started. Or, just google “affiliate marketing” and see what kind of information you can find.

I like to use creativity stimulating prompts and exercises to get me going when the words are sluggish. I have several tools I use - this is one of my favorites.

1. Write down a list of ten words that come to mind. For example: house, boat, orange, soda, cat, pen verb, dishes, feet, hands
2. The exercise is to write ten paragraphs, ten poems, or ten free form writing bursts. The only catch is that each one needs to start with one of the words.
3. Try to keep the pen moving quickly even if you feel stuck. Set your timer for five minutes for each word. After the time is up, move on to the next word.

And that’s it.  Sometimes I think too hard about what I am going to write. This exercise forces my brain into action. After the exercise is over I go through and see if there is anything in the pile I can expand on.  If not, I do this exercise again or move on to something else.

My office is currently a mess. It’s not as bad today as it was yesterday but there are still boxes and books everywhere. We’ve been in the house for about two weeks and I still have a lot to do to get the house in general unpacked and set up. It’s not an easy process.

I have more space in this office than I did before so now I am finding that I have plenty of room to take my art supplies out of hiding and display all my writing and creativity books proudly. But I need to buy organizers before that can happen.

But during this time of organizing, I noticed that the further along I am getting the more productive my writing is. Before the boxes were unpacked a thirty minute task took me an hour. This leads me to believe that the clutter fogs up my brain and causes me to not be as productive as I could be.

I encourage all of you to evaluate the state of your writing area. Is it cluttered? How does it make you feel? Turn it into a space that you enjoy being in. This will make your time writing more productive and enjoyable.

As for me - I have my work cut out for me. I still need to put together my bookshelf and find a place to put all my office supplies. But, it’s getting better.

I hear it all the time. People always instruct newbie writers to “write what they know”. When I first started out, I was frankly sick of hearing that phrase.

After I removed the chip out of my shoulder, I realized that they say it because it works. But instead of slinging the cliche at people, I prefer to “mine my life for inspiration”.

For example, I just wrote a blog post chronicling a kitchen disaster I had about an hour ago. Though the events sound like an exageration, they weren’t. My day today has been full of things I can write about:

• Organizing your home after a move - unpacking boxes
• how to trouble shoot a broken dishwasher
• the importance of keeping track of business receipts
• what to do when you think your cat is lost
• how to change your address at the post office
• building great habits
• how to detox your body after a night on the town

All of those potential ideas were taken from the events of my day. And it only took me a minute or two to come up with that list. What did you do today? Can you somehow turn those into article ideas? Your assignment:

1. Make a list of at least ten things you did today.
2. Turn those ten things into an article idea or title.

You’ll be querying magazines and finding success as a writer in no time!  Part of the battle is finding things to write about. And if you pay attention, that part is actually easy.

Yesterday we talked about planning our schedules as a way to help us stay on track. I’ve learned the hard way that when I don’t plan, I don’t make money. But that is only one piece of the puzzle. I created this schedule because I have a goal of making $3000 this month. In order for me to reach that goal I need to keep track of several things:

• How much I make
• My Expenses
• What I am doing with my time each day
• Whether or not I am checking major projects off my to-do list

My goals are crazy. I still have a house to unpack. But I know I can do it if I just stay focused and keep track of everything. So far, I am further along in my goal than I thought I’d be at this point. Granted, my parents are coming to visit for the last two weeks of this month so hopefully I can do all the work I need to do before they get here.

Another thing I need to work on is getting out of bed early in the morning. My husband has eight o’clock classes. I can just get up with him and be a lot further along in my to-do list before the day even begins.

I’ve learned the hard way that if I don’t plan out my writing schedule, I don’t meet my goals. This past summer I moved from one coast to the other. The weeks leading up to the move, the move itself, and for several weeks after arriving at our destination were largely unproductive.

So, I lost the habit of planning my schedule. The only work I did involved projects that were ongoing.  My income definitely took a hit.  But for the month of October, I started things off a little differently.  My schedule has calmed down and though I am still adapting to the new life out here, things are off to a good start.

The method was simple. I made a list of all the work I needed to do and listed their due dates. I added up how much those projects would make once complete. When I realized I didn’t have enough work lined up to meet my goals, I went and secured more work. Now, I have more than enough to keep me busy!

In addition, I started another category filled with work I want to get done. I am working on several blog projects plus I have a goal to do some article marketing. Those are listed as “nice, but not a priority”. This list is just what I needed to keep me focused and I suggest you all do the same thing. Make a list of all the work you need to get done. If it isn’t enough, go out and get more work so that you can reach your goals!

Sometimes, I need a gentle reminder to study vocabulary. After all, I am a writer. I don’t expect to know everything nor do I feel as if a good vocabulary is absolutely essential to being a well paid writer. However, I LIKE words. New words stimulate my creativity. This is something I don’t take advantage often enough.

My husband just asked me what messianic means. I didn’t know. I had an impression. It’s a word I’ve used before, which means that I probably knew what it meant back then. Or, I could have used it feeling reasonably content that my impression was close to being correct. Do you know what it means? (I’m not telling!)

So to look it up, I started with dictionary.com which was a little useless. Then I remembered that Merriam-Webster of Webster’s Dictionary fame has a pretty cool online site. Just go to www.merriam-webster.com. They have a word of the day, daily crosswords, and a ton of cool features. I plan to sign up for the word of the day and use it as a prompt for some creative writing. My first entry will feature the word “messianic”.