Writing

How to prepare to write is really up to you and whether you plan to be paid for writing or not. Generally speaking making a living from writing whether that is as a journalist or a fiction or non-fiction writer isn't easy for most people unless you are really unusually good from the start like someone like J.K. Rowling who is now the richest writer of all time who wrote "Harry Potter" starting I believe in the 1990s when she was alone raising her baby girl in Scotland in Edinburgh. If you wander through the Edinburgh Castle and walk on the main streets of Edinburgh near the castle you will see Hogwort's come alive a little for you there. I went there last with my two daughters, my wife and one of my daughter's boyfriends in 2011 I believe. Visiting Edinburgh Castle and Edinburgh Scotland is always a rare treat for Americans who usually don't get over there much unless they are going to the University in Glasgow like my son's friend did on an exchange from UCSC for one or two years when he studied physics there.

So, when you are writing or want to write, you have to first decide whether you are trying to make money or not. I already made money doing other things than writing so I have the luxury of writing when and where and about literally anything I want to.

However, for me, I like to keep what I write relatively upbeat. So, I tend to write about things that will keep people alive rather than horror stuff that might make them want to kill themselves even more than they already do. However, having faced suicide myself as a young man this is my bias so it doesn't necessarily have to be yours too.

So, for me, writing is about exploring what it is to be a human being. I find being a human being mostly amazing. Of course there are things I don't like about while living in a human body here on earth. Like I remember as a child I didn't like the way a human jaw is attached to the skull the way it is for example. However, I always liked the idea of hands. Have you ever noticed how jealous animals are who don't have hands when they watch you build things or get food for them with you hands. I think most animals if they are intelligent would want hands to do things with.

But, writing and whether you want to get paid for it or not will require many different decisions along the way. So, if you want to get paid for it many people get a college degree in either Journalism or English.

And others who already have their college degrees in something else often just go to a junior college to take creative writing courses. Especially for people who are more uptight and prone to writer's block College Creative writing courses can be very helpful in this.

My problem has never been writers block. My problem is I hate editing. So, most of the time I don't edit outside of deciding whether it is useful or not to leave in print online.

Basically it is one of the advantages of being an intuitive. I can write something really well intentioned and then when I proof read it I can realize often that people won't receive what I have written in the spirit I wrote it in. 

So, for me, if it isn't received with the kindness and helpfulness I intended what is the point of leaving it online?

So, unless what I write has a hope of helping people over 51% of the time when I look at it as an intuitive I just delete it and move on down the line and write something else.

However, each of us has to be driven by our own ethics and conscience in everything we do, otherwise we have no integrity as a person or as a writer.