If You Can’t Teach Yourself, You’re a Liability

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Time and time again, people email me for the smallest reasons, usually because they either don’t know how to look something up on the internet themselves, or they just simply can’t be bothered.

Over the past 20+ years, I’ve learned a lot about writing, publishing, coding, and how to earn all my income from my writing. And not once did I email someone and ask them how to do it.

And I honestly believe, that if you are so helpless, that in this age of information you can’t teach yourself what you need to know, then you are your own biggest liability.

Most things are simple to learn and can be learned from the internet. Even if it’s something that looks complicated (like coding), once you start learning, it becomes much clearer and you find that it’s not as complicated as you first thought.

Other things are simple and it only takes a few minutes of searching online to find what  you need.

But if people need to teach you simple things, you’ll always be a liability to yourself.

One of my popular books, Living the Laptop Lifestyle (https://cheritonhousepublishing.com/books/LLS.html) was written from all the knowledge I gained myself about how to create a website and earn a living online. This book is popular because it makes it quick and easy for anyone to have an online writing business.

And this is one of many books and courses available online that anyone can download without having to ask for help from someone else.

In fact, everything you need to know is available online in one way or another. And much of it is free.

But if you can’t find what you need yourself, you’ll never be successful.

Do whatever it takes to become a successful writer. 

Just don’t expect others to do the work for you.

“If you can’t help yourself, you’re a liability.”

~ Justin Welsh

If you need more help go to https://cheritonhousepublishing.com/books.html and find what you need to help you move forward.

Why Aren't I Writing? And What I'm Doing About It

Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash

At the beginning of this year, 2022, I stated that I was going to write and publish a book a month.

I was all hyped and ready back in December 2021, sure that I could fulfill my mission. I had it all planned so what could go wrong?

Life, is what could go wrong.

It's not that I haven't written any books. I've written and published 4 books so far with another almost finished.

My writing plan began to unravel early when, at the beginning of the year, without knowing it was even going to happen, I moved home. 

I originally had no intention of moving, but then property prices skyrocketed, and we stumbled upon a better place to live. So we took advantage of the price increases, put our place on the market, sold it in 3 weeks, and moved. And as we all know, moving can suck your life away in the time spent to organise it all, do the actual move, and then settle into our new place and find our way around the new neighbourhood.

Also a few family issues came up that I had to deal with.

But that's still no excuse for not getting my writing done. I keep telling myself that if I had to go out to work (which I'm SO GRATEFUL that I don't have to) I wouldn't be using all these things as an excuse not to go to work. I'd deal with them and still get to work on time every day.

The problem with working at home, is that I'm at home, so I constantly get distracted. But again, that's no excuse not to get my writing done.

Another thing that happened is that I downloaded a fascinating eBook called "Writing into the Dark: How to Write a Novel without an Outline," by one of my favourite authors on writing, Dean Wesley Smith. https://amzn.to/3EKs1Vl.

I usually always write with an extensive outline, but after reading his book I decided to try writing without one. DWS said that all you need to know before you start writing, is what genre you're writing in, and have a character and a setting in mind, and then start writing.

I began with one short story and then moved on to do more. At first it felt really strange to not have an outline and to not know what I was going to write until I wrote it.

But do you know what? It's fun. I've been writing quite a few short horror stories with no outline and no idea of what's going to happen in the story until I start writing. Not only is it fun, but it also makes me write fast because I can't afford to stop writing in case I lose the flow of ideas.

I'm not sure if I'd write a whole novel this way, but it sure is fun doing it with short stories. It also taught me that horror stories are my favourite to write. 

Who knows where this will lead me, but I'm having a ball doing it. I should have known that I'd enjoy it because I always love doing those 5-minute writing exercises, where you're given 3 words and you write for 5 minutes without stopping AND use those 3 words in the opening paragraph.

If you want to try it yourself, download your own copy of "Writing into the Dark" and give it a go.

But I digress. I was talking about why I haven't written as many books as I planned to.

The good news is that I'm planning to get back on track. No, I'm GOING to get back on track. I have a new plan and I'm going to work it.

At the same time, I'll still be uploading articles to my website and posts to this blog, and sending out my monthly writing newsletter, which will be hitting my subscribers' inboxes next week. So, if you're not a subscriber, now would be the perfect time to sign up, plus you'll receive a free eBook to help you write more and earn more.

On another positive note, my latest book, "How To Have More Money Now, Even If You’re Struggling To Pay The Rent" is already selling well. Read more about it and grab yourself a copy at https://cheritonhousepublishing.com/books/hthmm.html.

And you should see another book from me soon.

Here's hoping you're getting plenty of your own writing done.

Always Have Money So You're Free To Write

Photo by Katie Harp on Unsplash

One problem that many writers face is not having enough money to live on while they build their writing career.

Being a writer means being in it for the long haul. You won't get rich overnight. Instead you have to keep writing while your portfolio and your income build up over time.

Living in times of financial feast and famine is also common because you never know how much you're going to earn each month. It all depends on book sales, website income, freelance income, and how much writing you do.

I've been fortunate because money is something that I've never run out of, no matter how low my income has been over the years. No matter how little I have, I've always had enough money to live on.

I look at money differently to most people. When asked about how I always seem to have plenty of money, I try and explain it, but most people just don't get it.

That's why I wrote a book that explains it all.

"How to Have More Money Now, Even If You're Struggling to Pay the Rent." 

This is my latest book and it explains it all.

It's a journey of learning and understanding about money so that even years ago, as a divorced, single parent on welfare, money wasn't an issue. In fact, when I met my now husband, I was on holiday in Europe.

Many have asked me how I did it. How was I living on welfare yet holidaying abroad?

It was easy and my book explains it all, including how I managed to have more money in just one week.

So like the title says, even if you're struggling to pay your rent, you can have more money right now.

If you think you're broke, think again. Download a copy of my book to find out what I did and how you can do it too.

All it took was the ability to look at money differently.

If that all sounds too cryptic, click the link below to go over to Amazon and have a sneak peak using the "look inside" free feature and you'll see just how easy it is to have more money now.

https://amzn.to/3T5Ydt9

Write From Inspiration Not Desperation

Photo by Josefa nDiaz on Unsplash

All writers are the same There are days when we can’t wait to sit down, get our creative head on, and start writing. Yet other days it seems like no matter how hard we try, the ideas just won’t come, but we keep on trying anyway because we need to earn money.

This is the difference between writing from inspiration and writing from desperation.

The answer is to have more days of inspiration when you sit down, start writing, the ideas flow, and you get lost for hours in the writing zone.

But how do you make that happen? How can you turn a day of desperation into a day of inspiration?

The solution is not to let it get you down. Stop looking at your project as one big project. Simplify it instead, using the following ideas.

1. Break your project into smaller tasks. Write down the steps you need to take to get your writing done. Your list might include things like, research points to cover, find people to interview, write a brief outline, expand each point into 3 questions, find answers to the questions, write, edit, proof, submit. Whatever the steps are, write them down, arrange them in the right order, and being at number 1.
2. Write a detailed outline. If you’re stuck and can’t get going, start with one sentence about what you’re going to write, expand it into one paragraph, then into one page, then each paragraph on that page gets expanded into a page… You get the idea.
3. Use a timer. Before you start, set a timer for 33 minutes and don’t stop working no matter what. It doesn’t matter whether you’re listing tasks, expanding an outline, or actually writing. Set a timer first. This will help keep you focused and working. When the timer goes off, get up and go do something else for 5 minutes, something that doesn’t involve looking at a screen. Then sit down, set the timer, and start working again.

And that’s it. If you want to feel inspired to work, break your project down into tasks, create an outline, start your timer, and begin working.

Working this way means that when you sit down to write you know the first thing you need to do which makes it so much easier to sit down every day, because you’re not overwhelmed thinking about all the things you have to do. You only need to concentrate on number 1 on your list.

We are creatures who are motivated by our emotions, so beginning with a positive intention helps you work from inspiration every day, and stops neediness making your feel desperation.

All you have to do now, is begin.

Want to know how I earned over $4,000 writing articles in just one day?

I did it using my simple 15 minute article writing system which Includes Research, Writing and Proof Reading

https://cheritonhousepublishing.com/books/15.html