If you want to make a living writing, you have to get busy writing. Ideas are just a start; getting them down on paper or into a computer file is what you need to do. And sometimes you even have to write on subjects which are less than inspiring, if that’s what it takes to get the income flowing.
For example, this morning I wrote a new page for my website on how to remove carpet stains. You can see it here if you care about the ongoing debate between carpet lovers and those who prefer wood floors: Carpet Versus Hardwood Flooring. No, I am not thrilled about writing on the subject of carpet, but that little website pays all the household bills, so I figure I should devote thirty or forty minutes to it every week or two.
Fortunately it is easier than ever to write about anything now. This is, of course, due to the internet. All the information you might need is right at your fingertips. That article/page would have taken a half day of research using the phone or local library in the past. With a quick search or two online I was able to research it, write it, format it, and publish it on the website in thirty-five minutes.
Now you might think this is just hack work (well it is sort of), but the truth is you can quickly create a decent and useful article in this way. In this case I was able to glean the best insights from several different sources within a few minutes, and then combine them all to write a page which had a little more information than any one of those sources had. That makes it a good quality resource for people searching for information on this topic.
I happened to be a carpet cleaner many years ago, which is why the site exists. It does help to write on a topic you know something about. But that prior knowledge and experience is less necessary than ever for writers. In any case, whether you are writing content for a webmaster or hoping to get that novel finished, start writing every morning. This will be the second thing I publish online today, and it is 8:25 am. People have asked how I make a living–this is it.
