Why You’re Not Doing Enough Writing

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about my current lack of writing and what to do about it.

I know that the last couple of years have been emotional for me as well as busy. Emotional with family deaths and busy with house renovations and having people come to stay at our place.

But now things have calmed down and I realise that I haven’t been writing much. In fact, throughout the last couple of years I’ve done very little writing, although I was quite busy for a while changing how I publish my books, which are now all available as paperbacks and digital books and available at all book stores and libraries all over the world, and through several different companies including Amazon and Kobo. It was a long haul of designing book covers, new formatting and updating, but it’s been worth it.

You can see more about it at https://ruthiswriting.com

Anyway, I was thinking about how to change my situation so that I get myself back into the habit of writing every day, because, to be honest, I’ve got so far out of my usual writing routine that it feels like it’s gone for good.

But I realised that it’s not impossible to get back to writing a lot and earning more money, because as well as my lack of writing, it’s also naturally affected my writing income, which is something I REALLY need to do something about because mine is the only income in the family since my husband retired early.

So while I’ve still been calling myself a writer, I haven’t actually been doing that much writing. This means that being a writer is more like my ideal life, rather than my actual life.

But what it all comes down to is that I need to spend more time with my butt firmly planted in my writing chair because this is what produces more writing and more writing income.

And it’s the same for you too. If you’re not writing enough, it’s because you’re not applying enough backside to your writing chair. Or it could be that being a writer is still only your ideal because you haven’t done anything to turn it into your reality.

Either way, it still comes down to getting more writing done.

And the only way to change that is to sit and write.

So if you want to get more writing done, make writing your priority. Make it your mission in life to be a writer and put your mission first.

And if you don’t know what to write once you sit down, read my article on what to write when you don’t know what to write about.

https://ruthiswriting.com/articles/2019/what-to-write.html

Or get a journal and when you sit down, pick up your pen and write about whatever is on your mind.

It works for me every time.

Journalling is a great way to start writing fast. And it helps me to come up with so many ideas for my writing.

And to get you started, you can click the link below and buy a wonderful journal AND get a 25% discount just by using my special code.


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Ever Thought Of Earning Money From Your Writing Like This?

A few years ago, I used to earn money as a secret shopper.

What this means is that companies used to pay me to go into stores, restaurants and even fuel stations, and pretend to be a customer.

They used to give me specific things that I had to inquire about and sometimes I even had to buy things or have meals or attend seminars, and whatever I bought I got to keep, as well as getting paid for "shopping."

And I found that being able to write, really helped me because after each "shop" I had to write a report about what I did, what happened while I was in the store, the cleanliness of the business, or what the meal or seminar speaker was like.

I'd never before considered that this type of work involving writing, but it did.

So I thought I'd share this with you in case you hadn't thought about it before either because I received regular work from the same companies all the time asking me to visit different branches of their businesses and it was always fun to write about it later.

I used to sit in my car and make notes after I'd visited somewhere just so that I didn't forget important details.

And being a writer, this type of work probably suited me more than other people who weren't good at writing.

The only reason I don't do it any more is because I now live in a small town where there isn't a need for secret shoppers.

I also spent a few years doing online surveys, which, as a writer, I found easy to do. And unlike secret shopping, I didn't have to leave home to do it.

If you want to get paid to "shop" just do a Google search for secret shoppers in your area.

Or go online and look for paid surveys. But don't settle for small paying surveys that only pay a couple of dollars for your time. Instead, look for companies that pay 10 times that - or much more - for each survey you fill out. Surveys can also include being sent items to try out before you write about them, and you usually get to keep the product too.

The easiest way to do this sort of work is to use sites that find the surveys for you, so all you have to do is go online and give your opinion.

One such company is Take Surveys For Cash who are so sure of their service, that they'll offer you a $50 survey just for signing up.

But as a word of warning, when I used to do surveys, I used a separate email address just for that purpose, and when I stopped doing surveys (the company I was using no longer did any in my country), I shut the email address down so that it would never be spammed. I didn't like the thought of too many people having my email address, so I thought it prudent to have a temporary one.

But don't let that put you off if you want to use your writing skills for secret shopping and paid surveys, it can be a great way to earn money from your writing.

Netregistry Complaint. Worst Customer Service I've Ever Had

Usually, I keep quiet about bad experiences with companies.

But my complaint about Netregistry and been going on for years and it's about time I spoke up.

The reason I'm doing so now is because yesterday, they took my website, ruthiswriting.com, offline and cancelled my hosting account (for no reason and with no warning) and now are making me wait up to 24 hours for it to be reinstated.

At first, they tried to tell me that they would only put my site back up online if I paid for more hosting.  I called that blackmail and refused to give them any more money. Their argument is that my hosting package was due for renewal in a couple of days so I needed to renew it anyway, and if I didn't, I couldn't have my site back up, even though the hosting service is already paid for they wouldn't put it back up without more money.

I stood my ground and insisted that it be reinstalled online and they agreed but are making me wait AND refusing to compensate me for the 2 and a half hours I spent on the phone this morning speaking with 4 different people, or the loss of my hosting service that I'd already paid for, or my loss of online business while my website is offline.

So I decided to talk about it because I have come to the end of my tether with Netregistry and won't be doing any more business with them in the future. And I believe that others should know how useless and deceitful they are too.

Even when I've had issues with them in the past and complained about it, they still do nothing and usually blame me for what happened. Often, they just hang up on me.

As an example of their poor customer service, here is just one conversation I had a few years ago with one of their employees, to show you how much they lie and are unhelpful.

And if you're not from Australia, in this transcript,  the two companies that are mentioned, Telstra and Optus, are two telephone companies.

I'd contacted support on this particular day because my website had been down all day and when I'd called earlier someone said they'd look into it and get back to me. But they didn't. So 6 hours later, with my website still down, I got in touch with them again and this is what happened:

> > > At 6.30 the telephone was answered by someone called Damien. I
>    told
> > >    him that my website had been off line for
>    most
> > >    of the day. He asked for neither my website name nor my own
>    name
> > >    and just simply stated that it wasn't the fault of their company
> > >    and it was Telstra who were blocking my website.
> > >
> > > I said that was absurd and didn't even make sense. Damien said
>    that it
> > >    happens all the time. He said that my site was online but
>    Telstra
> > >    were blocking me from seeing it. I asked how that could happen
>    and
> > >    he said that sometimes Telstra just blocks people from being
>    able
> > >    to view certain sites. He said that if I went round to my next
>    door
> > >    neighbours they could probably see my website and it was just
>    me
> > >    that couldn't.
> > >
> > > So I said "You're telling me that my website is online and anyone
>    in
> > >    the whole world can see it but me?" Damien said "That is
>    correct."
> > >
> > > "So I can look at any website on the whole world wide web except
> > >    mine?"
> > >
> > > "That is correct."
> > >
> > > "I'm not even on the Telstra network so why can't I see my site?"
> > >
> > > "Telstra can block anyone."
> > >
> > > "My daughter just tried to view my website on her phone through
>    the
> > >    Optus network and she can't see it either."
> > >
> > > "That is because Telstra can block Optus too."
> > >
> > > "Well can YOU go online and see if you can see my website?"
> > >
> > > "No."
> > >
> > > "Why  not?"
> > >
> > > "I don't have the internet."
> > >
> > > "You're telling me that you're a web hosting company that doesn't
>    have
> > >    access to the internet?"
> > >
> > > "Yes."
> > >
> > > "I'd like to talk to someone else."
> > >
> > > "No."
> > >
> > > "Please put me through to someone else."
> > >
> > > "I can't."
> > >
> > > "Can't or won't?"
> > >
> > > "Can't."
> > >
> > > "Why not?"
> > >
> > > "There's no one else here."
> > >
> > > "Are you trying to tell me that you are the only employee that is working today?"
> > >
> > > "No. There are others."
> > >
> > > "So you CAN let me talk to someone else."
> > >
> > > "No."
> > >
> > > "You can but you just won't."
> > >
> > > "There's no point."
> > >
> > > "Why?"
> > >
> > > "Because it's Telstra's fault."
> > >
> > > And so our conversation went for a while longer in the same vein
>    until
> > >    I hung up.
> > >

I kid you not. It was really was THAT bad and that is what he actually said to me.

So I complained.

And Netregistry's response was:

I agree with you, the exchange you had with
Damien was condescending on his part. His response to this fact when I
discussed it with him was that he tried to clarify the problem with
Telstra's core network being down, but you accused him of lying to you,
and this is unfortunately the point where many staff start to falter in
their ability to keep a civil conversation. 

I don't want to make excuses for Damien, he certainly didn't "get off
lightly" on this issue, his role is to ensure that if a customer does
accuse him personally of a lie - he provides ample explanation to
clarify the situation. His response to this was that you weren't
interested in hearing explanation and repeated he was lying, and he shut
down merely offering short answers from there, as he felt he couldn't
convert you to actually listening to the core of the issue. So it's a
weakness in his approach and I think it's being addressed following this
complaint.

They also said that "there was certainly a communication issue."

A communication issue?????

There was no issue on my side. I knew that I was being lied to over and over and over again.

And do you like the response I received, telling me that it was all my fault?

"you accused him of lying to you"

"you weren't interested in hearing an explanation"

"he felt he couldn't convert you to actually listening"

Wow! Just wow!

I have someone telling me that my website is not offline it's just that a telephone company is blocking me from seeing it. What kind of garbage is that?

And the response was that he didn't say Telstra was blocking me AT ALL  (damn, I must be lying again), what he actually said was that Telstra's core network was down.

Hmmm... Nope. He didn't say that Telstra was down, he said Telstra was blocking me, so Telstra was up. And neither of those things, Telstra being up or down, doesn't explain why my website was offline.

So now I'm finally parting ways with Netregistry and I'll be writing a full article in the near future all about other interactions I've had with them over the years so that you can see for yourself how poorly they handled everything. Including a recent debacle that happened when one of my SSL (security) certificates went out of date and they tried to con me into paying for a more expensive one ($100 more expensive) by saying that the cheaper one wouldn't work on their servers. THAT TOO turned out to be a lie, because I stood my ground, bought the cheaper one and guess what? It works perfectly on their servers.

Stay tuned...