This week Dr Tanya at “Salted Caramel”, has provided a quote about writing for discussion.

TODAY’S QUOTE:

“Writing is always difficult, but easier with something to say.”

From “Bridge of Clay” by Marcus Zusak.

As a hobby blogger I don’t find writing particularly difficult. I can write what I like, when I like and how I like. There is no pressure on me. I do think that writing professionally would be a lot harder. As those bloggers who have written books have commented, there is a lot of work involved in producing a book to sell and it seems not a lot of support from publishing companies.

I do agree that writing is much easier if you have something to say. That’s why I enjoy prompts that give me ideas and why I prefer writing non-fiction to fiction. It’s easier for me to think of real things I want to talk about than to make something up.

The exception to that might be if you have been given a topic to write on that you really don’t care about. Of course, if you are on salary then you’ll have to find a way to tackle it and make it sound interesting.

I’ve mentioned before that a year or two ago Naomi and I looked into the blogging for money idea and came across a course online that we decided to try. The instructor suggested that to make money you should have something like ten websites dealing with different niche subjects. Unfortunately for us the example he chose to use was about concrete. It was so boring! At least it was a free course. I now suspect that this particular course was more about giving the instructor more opportunities to grow his own business than helping students because we received so many emails inviting us to participate in webinars or buy particular products. I won’t fall for that sort of marketing again.

I realised that I could not make myself write about something like that just to generate advertising. If I’m writing about a niche subject it has to be one that I care about or find interesting, I could do the research but I would still have nothing to say about concrete. I guess I am not cut out for writing for profit.