Recycling ideas from the bin

When I first decided to write as a source of extra income, I was quite excited about it, more so because I found so many sites and blogs that actually pay you to write. The amount they pay may not be much, but I thought to myself that at $5 per post, I could probably do about 20 posts a day and make a neat $100 per day in extra income. “Just what I need”, I thought to myself. I would even be able quit my full time job and do this from the comfort of home and be able to spend more time with my family.

With my stereo turned down low, listening to my favorite jazz artist and a pot of tea next to me, I sat down at my PC and adjusted my chair ready to churn out article after article of interesting stuff for people to read and start earning my big, extra bucks per day.

Then bang! Reality hit me smack in the face. I had not a single idea in my head for a subject of interest to write about. I sat there staring at a blank page on my screen, pot of tea forgotten, hardly hearing the jazz music in the background. All that was going through my head was calculations – with every passing hour I subtracted $6 per from my anticipated $100 earnings for that day.

I wouldn’t call this writers block because to start off I was not a writer. Just an aspiring writer! But why would something that had seemed so simple to accomplish at the onset suddenly become so… un-accomplishable? Where had all those ideas for articles that kept flying through my mind suddenly gone to? I must have sat there for four hours doing nothing but stare at the screen before I decided to take a walk around the neighborhood to get my creative juices going.

As I walked around the neighborhood, I thought to myself that perhaps the best way to start would be to note down the topics I might want to write about, go through the list, trash what I felt was not interesting enough and then research what was left on my list.

Back at my PC, I keyed in title after title of topics I might want to write about but none of my lists seemed to impress me and they all ended up in my recycle bin.

Is it easier to title an article and then write about it or is it easier to write an article and then title it? This was now the question nagging me at the back of my mind as I struggled to put together the list of topics to write about. I went into my recycle bin and realized I had about twelve word files named ‘Topics to write about’. I decided to restore them to their original folder and go over them once more just in case there was something on one that I could actually write about. “Recycling your ideas from the bin”, I thought to myself and laughed. I opened a new blank document and keyed in the words ‘Recycling ideas from the Bin’. A nice sounding headline I thought to myself.

I began to write about the experience I had just gone through in those first four to five hours of my new part time writing career so that when (not if) I finally make it as a writer I would have some recall of my trials and tribulations.

Why do I want to write really? Is it for the extra money or is it something I will enjoy doing? Do I have the talent, creative ability and perseverance to write articles and stories that will captivate audiences? Do I really want to be a writer?

The answer is a simple, if very strong yes! I believe I do!

I firmly believe that all I need to do to acquire the title ‘Writer’ is write. Perhaps my next article will be titled ‘Why I want to be writer’ and will actually earn me that first $6 and inspire me to write better and better as each day.