I started my writing career about six years ago. I made $60 that first year and even though that doesn’t sound  like a lot, I was really encouraged. Back then, there weren’t as many opportunities online for a writer so I was targeting print magazines mostly. My income has increased since then.

If you are just starting your career, take heart. It is very possible that you’ll make a lot more than $60. In fact, you may even make $60 before the week is through depending on which route you take. For example, if you want to make money writing for clients by finding them at places like oDesk , you could secure your first assignment in no time at all.

But I often think about what I’d really do differently if I were to start my writing career today. So, I wrote a  blog post at Path to Success about it. My biggest mistake was in waiting. I did A LOT of research before I actually took action. This held me back in the beginning. Just jump in!

I know how it is. When I have a stressful deadline or something, I am not the world’s best housekeeper. I let the dishes go. I fail to fold the laundry and it just sits there in the basket until I get to it. The mail piles up - I usually have a big pile by my desk of mostly junk to sort through.

I’m doing this because I am busy, but I’ve learned that it also hurts my productivity - big time. When my home has a lot of clutter and visible piles of junk, I think about them. A lot. This means I am not productive and not working as hard as I can be.

My office is currently in that state now. So is my kitchen and my laundry situation. I’ve decided to get things under control this weekend so I can start my week off strong next week.

If you need some help getting your life organized, try the Fly Lady - and give it some time. For me, I need to break some bad habits I have - such as not putting things away. I’ll leave the can opener on the counter instead of put it away, for example. There are a lot of simple things I can do that will help A LOT.

I am reading The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho and am enchanted by the idea of achieving your Personal Legend. The book is centered around the idea that everyone has a Personal Legend, aka destiny, to fulfill. This novel is all about one young shepherd’s quest to realize his.

That got me thinking - what’s my Personal Legend?

I consider myself one of the lucy ones. When I first learned that crafting sentences and paragraphs and sentences was fun, I knew I wanted to be a writer. I was ten. I wrote my first poem in my tenth year and countless creative writing fiction and nonfiction stories. I told everyone I wanted to be a writer.

If I had to guess, my Personal Legend must involve writing. It could be that either

1. I’ve realized my Personal Legend already, by virtue of becoming a writer or
2. There is some work of fiction or nonfiction that I am supposed to create over the course of my career

Some ideas are like the wind. They enter my brain and leave as quickly as they came. The goal is to write down everything - all the ideas - until one (or two or three) lodges in my brain and won’t leave. That, perhaps, will be my Personal Legend.

What’s yours?

I was just writing a blog post for one of my food blogs and I was stumped at what to call myself. I was sort of thinking that “foodie” would be appropriate, but it sounded childish. Like I should be playing with Play-doh. I couldn’t think of a word that made sense. I knew there had to be one, but I didn’t know it. And it was just a blog post after all so I didn’t see the harm…

I made up a word - culinariophile - my spell checker immediately underlined it in red. It was liberating - I just didn’t care. Sometimes, you need to make up a word. Existing words may not have exactly the meaning or the connotation you are going for. I am someone who cooks in a sophisticated way, and loves doing so. So I made up a word.

Truth be told, even if a word did exist that had the meaning, I won’t erase it. I like my word. But maybe some food writer down at Food & Wine beat me to it. I don’t care. It’s still a great word. I heard that “Meh” got added to the dictionary recently. That isn’t even a word, it’s a sound.

So, from one writer to the other - go ahead - make up a word to express yourself. You have unique thoughts. There may not be a word equipped to handle what you are trying to express.

Just for kicks, set your timer for ten minutes and come up with as many new words as you can. Try to come up with at least ten. Use them throughout the week and see what happens. You could start some new trends!

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.