First of all, a brief introduction -- I have always wanted to write. But I am easily distracted so I spent a few years following various paths before I found myself facing real life and wondering what to do to make a living. When I discovered that most jobs required you to be on site at least eight hours a day, I was horrified and tried freelance writing instead.
I got off to a great start, selling nearly everything I wrote. The problem was, I didn't write very much. The first mistake I made was believing that a writer's life is one of leisure. One particularly annoying memory is of the months I spent doing jigsaw puzzles with my landlord and drinking his really bad coffee while my son was in school. It was only when I was facing near financial disaster (hey, I got along great with my landlord but he still wanted the rent on time) that I'd get out and try to sell an article. Which led to the next problem. When I wrote I was always grabbing whatever would make me the fastest money. This meant that what I did write was quite eclectic. Not the articles themselves, but the topics. Trade magazine articles on trucking conventions and jewelry conventions. Interviews with musicians passing through town. Women's magazine items. Columns on matters of fleeting interest. Think pieces. A bit of this and a bit of that.
It was good practice, I suppose. But writing about what you don't know is not an efficient use of your time and energy. You have to spend twice as much time just getting the background filled in so you know enough to ask the questions.
The dangers:
being slow meeting your deadlines
being less than accurate because you don't have broad knowledge of the subject
dreading the very work you're supposed to enjoy
In my case, I got a reputation for being unfocused. The three other writers in town (it was a small place) did, respectively, arts, politics and education. I did whatever. The result: I had to take a day job. I was lucky -- it was at a newspaper where I was a general reporter so my eclecticism came in handy.
NOTE: This course is designed to have one lesson done every day for five days so while each lesson appears short, in 24 hours time, you should be working on the next one and you should have the assignment for this one done by then. You see, I think that the daily pressure to find the time to think about these things may build a habit of daily thinking of yourself as a successful and happy writer.
