by Cody Hodge

Created on: March 26, 2009

Back in November when the upfront payments became a reality, and we were going to get paid for each article, I thought my dreams had finally come true. I was going to devote my life to writing articles for Helium, and try to make as much money as possible. I didn't think it would be as hard as it has been, and that I would still be working toward being a full time writer here in March. A funny thing happens when you set out toward your dreams, and that funny little thing is called life. You want to go one way, but life has a way of pulling you in the other direction.

It has taken me the past few months to really get a feel for what it takes to focus on doing this full-time. It is so easy to become distracted when you are just sitting at a computer screen, and you have so many other things you can be doing. While waiting for a page to load, I realize that my Facebook page hasn't been checked in a couple of hours, maybe something interesting has popped up?

Perhaps my friend just sent me an IM, and a basketball game has gotten started? What about that little thing called my day job? Now that some people have been let go, or moved from my department, it seems as if my hours have gone up, instead of down like I had planned. I can't just quit though, because people need me, and I need money to pay my bills, and it is hard to justify quitting a job that pays me a standard amount per hour, when I can't get a consistent amount of articles per hour writing.

However, as I have sharpened my skills over the past few months, I have learned a few things about my writing. The first is that a good article sometimes only takes a few minutes. The key is to find articles that you can write based on experience, and that you can rattle off all the facts, and all the stories in just a couple of minutes. The articles are only 400 words, it isn't hard to write that really quickly.

I learned that it is very relaxing to write after work, and my day job helps my writing out immensely. In fact, by not quitting my day job, I have had more to write about here at Helium. As I have made more money writing here, I have noticed that my day job doesn't bother me as much, and the less stressed I become, the more time I can devote to writing, because I don't need to spend so much time de-stressing before I can write something logical.

I found that I need to be social in order to write. Instead of trying to block out time for writing, and neglecting my life, I have blocked out time for my life, and let Helium come after that. I find that I spend more time writing, and get more done because I am more focused when I write. My goals are more realistic now, and as I spend more time writing, my income goes up.

You can't let life get in the way of your writing, but don't let writing get in the way of your life. Writing is all about insight, and you only get that insight through living your life. Don't worry if you can't write as much as you would like in one day, because tomorrow could find you with some time to kill, and some stories to relate to a few million of your readers!

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