What might the idea of “retirement” look like to writers — or artists of any sort, for that matter? As a writer, do you think of a day when you might quit writing? I mean really quit all together?

Read more on What might retirement look like for writers?…

Outsourcing of content writing to Third World English speakers (for lack of a better term) appears to be ruining the online writing industry.

The Internet is a VERY big “place,” pretty much unlimited in size, so it’s always difficult to generalize. So, really, I’m only speaking from my limited viewpoint and experience when I make statements about online writing, website and blog content writing, etc.

Read more on Outsourcing appears to be ruining online writing industry…

If you’ve been online for long, you’ve probably used Google, or Yahoo!, or Bing, or one of the many “search engines” out there to search for information, or perhaps for a particular website.

Read more on Odd phrases people search for on the Internet…

Last night was very restless for me. It seems the older I get, the less I can sleep soundly at nights. (We won’t even get into some of the standard aging and Old Guys reasons comedians seem to find so funny. It’s not.)

Read more on Insomnia? Might as well use the time for your writing…

After a few weeks or perhaps months of steady writing, especially if your writing involves work that you don’t truly love and have a passion about, you can easily find yourself overextended, even facing a sense of “burnout.”

Read more on Avoid overextending yourself on too many writing projects…

The single most important tip I have for writers, whether you’re new to writing or you’re a wily veteran, is simply this: Sit down at that keyboard every day and write something. Even if you just write a little bit, do it every day. And if you have time and inclination to write a lot, then hit it hard every day and hooray for you.

Read more on Wanna write? Then pull out that keyboard and hit it hard every day…

Do you write full-time for a living or do you also have to rely on some sort of “day job”?

I am fortunate enough at this point in my life to be able to tack together enough income between Social Security Benefits (yes, I really am getting old), my wife’s income, and the stuff I do online that I currently have no day job. That’s both a blessing and a curse: We don’t have much flexibility in our income and budget, and I’m not the most self-disciplined person in the world when it comes to working.

Read more on Do you write ‘full-time,’ or do you also have a ‘day job’?…

I guess the title of this article is sort of an odd question, so let me explain a bit about what I’m asking.

A family member came by last night and recounted his adventures and misadventures in the stock market over the last two years. Surprisingly, though he is very smart and very careful with his investments and his money in general, he did poorly. That’s not really a surprise, I guess, because the recession we’ve been going through has smacked a lot of investments silly.

Read more on Do your research, planning skills as a writer benefit your ‘real-life’ experiences?…

Just pray that door hardware holds. Those rusty hinges and that loose latch are all that stand between us and them.

Oh, sorry. Got distracted for a minute there looking around our old house. You see, over the last three decades, we’ve done annual battle during warm weather with a colony of bats that keeps returning to the crawl space/attic area between our roof and the upstairs rooms of this 100-year-old plus house.

Read more on Batty distractions hinder writing, if we let them…

I love to play with odd looking, odd sounding words. When it comes to such words, made-up names for drugs — legitimate pharmaceuticals, I’m talking about here — top my list of the overall funniest sounding and often the funniest looking. (I won’t even get into how strange advertising gets for such drugs as viagra, cialis, enzyte, and other male enhancement drugs. Who knew side-by-side bathtubs could become such a symbol in our pop culture?? I didn’t.)

Read more on Drugs top my list of funniest sounding made-up names…

I was reminded yesterday what a blessing — and sometimes a burden — it is being married to a professional proofreader.

My wife has been a professional proofreader for more than 30 years. For 15 of those years, she had a “9 to 5″ job (actually, it was more like 6:00 to 4:30 for four days a week most of that time) working in a proofroom in the production area of a major religious publishing house. For the remaining 16-18 years, she’s done steady freelance proofreading for the same publishing house as well as other freelance proofreading, both online and off line. (She has an occasional, very lucrative gig with a local ad agency.)

Read more on Being married to a proofreader is both blessing and burden…

Sometimes I think I missed my calling as a writer: I should be one of those guys who writes about all the electronics and high-tech gadgets on the market, the guy who others listen to about the latest goodies from smartphones to ipads to ipod touch to cutting edge backyard telescopes.

Read more on If I were a rich writer, wow the gadgets I would own…

Are you a writer fortunate enough to have your own office space? Whether you call it an “office” or a “study” or whatever, it’s extremely useful to have a “lair” you can call your own and set up the way you want to enhance your writing life. Such a space of your own allows you to have a desk, special chair, classic or modern furniture, and exactly the decor you prefer to help you accomplish your writing goals.

Read more on More discussion about writing tools, techniques…

How do you support your writing habit? Are you fortunate enough to be able to make a living writing full-time? Or do you rely on some sort of “day job” to pay the bills and write when you are able to fit it into a busy life?

Read more on How do you support your writing habit? What’s your ‘day job’?…

On one of the three forums I visit regularly, this one related to affiliate marketing, there’s a discussion thread started by someone everyone there respects. This person has been doing affiliate marketing more or less full-time for several years and just explained in this discussion thread that he’s selling off his websites and shutting down his affiliate marketing business to start a new full-time “off line” career.

Read more on Do writers ever retire? How would you define ‘retirement’ as a writer?…