A Writer, the Traffic and a Payday Loan – a poor mixture

I make a living out of writing

In my profession, I need to use a Payday Loan now and then. My name is not John Grisham, David Baldacci or any other writer of popular fiction that you fall over when you walk into a bookstore. I sit alone in a semi-dark study at home, banging out articles on my computer. I have 3 computers, the old one which is creaky and doesn't always behave and on which my wife plays bridge. I also have a laptop which I use when I'm 'on the road' or baby sitting or just lazing i n the park. Most of my masterpieces are written on Old Faithful who sits on the desk in my study.

You're a what???

The normal response from anyone who asks what I do for a living is, "You're a what???” This is usually followed by, "But what do you do to make money?" I'm sure that my father would say, "Why can't you go out and find a real job like everyone else?"

I agree, it' a strange way to make money, but it does, sometimes not enough and other times easily, depending on many factors.

The traffic factor

Over the past few weeks I have run into the worst possible thing that can happen to a writer – traffic. I get paid in various ways – per word, per page, per article or per hour. I would choose 'per word' every time if I had the choice. In the end, it's all a matter of time and a good spell-checker. Last week I was called out to report on a conference – nice job, I could use more of these – and it took me 2 hours to make the 20 minute trip, a waste of an hour and a half writing time. ... click here to read the rest of the article titled "A Writer, the Traffic and a Payday Loan – a poor mixture"