It's 9 a.m. and I haven't been to bed yet. I am too excited over the gold rivulet I found among the fools' gold on the Internet last night. I have some real gifts for anyone who writes, wants to be an entrepreneur in a non-conformist way, wants to be a really good as well as successful blogger, is interested in traveling the world, wants to know more about the state of publishing in these digital times, and more. Get your clickers out and clear your storage space--some of these are pretty big pdf's.
First off, as a result of all the freed up, wild, non-conformist, passionate writing I was reading all night, I am ready to write an ebook and give it away for free. I have my book from "Plain Language At Work Newsletter," and i give up trying to get the web address right on that. Just Google it and it comes up right away. Then among the many interesting facts about writing in clear, easy to understand English, on the right side of the newsletter cover in the second box down you'll see "The Principles of Readability." If you write much, download this free pdf file. It is like taking the gauzy film off your eyes when you see how simple it really is to make sure your writing is clear and understandable, and you are not talking down to your reader either.
If you are a writer who for most of their life has written for print mediums, do yourself a favor and order "The Yahoo Style Guide: The Ultimate Sourcebook for Writing, Editing, and Creating Content for the Digital World." It has got everything you need to become digitalized and not turn readers off because you have dense, packed words with no empty white spaces that help the skimming digital reader feel he can quickly make short work of speed reading your content. You also have to learn about navigation, coding, that "e-mail" is actually "email" and the old rules that no longer apply: (hold your hats on now). The old "rules" that no longer apply in this cyber world of fast, loud music and most of your information in audio and video form, are: 1. Never split an infinitive. 2) Never end a sentence with a proposition. 3) Never start a sentence with a conjunction. What a relief to step out of those chalk lines, especially since I frequently do all three.
But get this book, which if I have a criticism, and, of course, I do, it's that the generation digitalizers that wrote this book don't know how to write for print. In print there are no links to click on, but these writers don't let that stop them from giving you whiplash damn near as each sentence you read in the order that the book was supposedly written, the conventional order of page one to page 509, from front to back, sends you on a hike off to Chapter 11 or Chapter 14 or somewhere other than the next sentence. It is maddening. It's as if I am writing here to you and I tell you, wait, there's a better explanation and more examples of what I'm saying on page 295, and page 302. Go check those out. So you shuffle through the damn book, look at the measly little extra information or examples, come back to where you were and try to get your concentration back, and the very next section sends you scurrying to Chapter 14 and Chapter 16. I tell you it's maddening.
Otherwise, I recommend you buy this book, but write and ask them if they plan to release it online anytime soon first.
I have been getting email from this guy for over two years I bet, and I have always meant to read one of his free ebooks, and finally last night something I read struck a chord in me, and I began to read in earnest. I'm talking about Chris Guillebeau, world traveler, writer, and guy who by his wits and non-conformity has never been anything but self-employed. Go Chris.
I used to think he was sort of a wack job, but now that I want to do exactly what he's been doing these past years--writing for himself, making a little money but not selling out, and traveling around the world, he sounds like the first time I heard "I Am the Walrus." I will be giving you some links to get his free books. If you've got money, maybe you'll buy some of his carefully selected products for sale that he lives off when he's not giving everything away.
He wrote this. I like it's boldness. It's fresh.
Ways to Be Unremarkably Average
1. Accept what people tell you at face value.
2. Don't question authority.
3. Go to college because you're supposed to, not because you want to learn something.
4. Go overseas once or twice in your life to some place safe like England.
5. Don't try to learn another language; everyone else will eventually learn English.
6. Think about starting your own business, but never do it.
7. Think about writing a book, but never do it.
8. Get the largest mortgage you qualify for, and spend the next 30 years paying it off.
9. Sit at a desk for 40 hours a week to do an average of 10 productive hours.
10. Don't stand out or draw attention to yourself.
11. Jump through hoops. Check off boxes.
If you haven't read what this free spirit has to say about ethically making a living by using your talents, and avoiding office cubicles like Tramp in Lady and the Tramp avoided the dog catchers, you get inspired like I did. He also introduces you to some very interesting people who are characters in their own right. Here is 279-Day Overnight Success.
I really think he is a visionary, and i respect what he's doing. I hope to follow my dreams as courageously as he. I want to travel worldwide solo couchsurfing. I want to support myself by doing photojournalism and travel writing. I hope to soon learn how to write a grant proposal, and start a little home business writing grants. Then I'd like to choose a world problem that touches me like hunger, homelessness, untreated alcoholism and addiction, corruption of our food by Big Business, BigPharmaceutical pushing their poison on the innocent who don't know what's coming... oh, there's so many. Then I'd like to be like my hero, Scott, who went from whoring and partying his life away to starting a nonprofit charity called charity: water that has provided clean drinking water in so many countries and got contributors to give so much money for the cause.
Until then I continue in my dream of recovering from alcoholism, addiction, ADD, depression, and bipolar disorder and feeling better and stronger every day. I am sober two years this month. I once was sober 15 years, and another time 5 years I think it was. I am not going back to hell this time. The thing is you stupidly lie to yourself and say "I'll just have two beers," and you don't set that drink down for 5 - 7 or 12 years. Time flies when you're busy leading a double life, retching, falling down, alienating your kids, and being a slug that just takes up room on the planet unnecessarily.
So I want to write an ebook and give it away. I want to write about something that I know well, that will benefit others and give them hope and maybe even joy. Please help me choose a topic. Again, here are the conditions and diseases I experienced, overcame and continue to heal from:
1. Bipolar disorder. Diagnosed at 42. I am furious about the horrible drugs they give "crazy" people, even when they know like they did with those with dementia in the nursing homes that the drugs they were feeding these patients to keep them quiet and manageable were most likely going to kill them. I call that murder. I want to write about how a person with bipolar disease can get off the worst of the poisonous drugs.
2. Adult AD/HD (ADD). I am thinking of writing a journal of recovering thoughts they can add their own insights to. I don't want to say too much because mine would be the first or one of the few.
3. Coping with depression. I used to spend weeks and months just lying in bed too depressed to get up. Today I don't go through depressions like that any more. I want to help others who are told by friends and relatives to just "snap out of it" to find peace and some joy. Healing is possible. Snapping out of it isn't.
4. My heart aches for non-custodial mothers. I lost custody of my children when they were small because I had a bipolar breakdown and then I relapsed on alcohol and drugs. My heart broke so badly I felt the rip and the hole. One thing that helped me get through this dark, horrible, hell on earth period was the support of other non-custodial mothers in an email organization just for that issue. I got help from so many women whose hearts were also broken, but who still could care about others.
5. I know a lot about herbs and smart drugs. I would like to put together some "recipes" for things like fatigue, lack of concentration, fogginess, distractibility like those of us with AD/HD suffer from, insomnia, chronic fatigue syndrome, PMS, and other physical, mental and mood disorders. It's a crime what we have to go through to get smart drugs known to be safe and effective but unavailable in the U.S., although some are but only by prescription. I want to track them down all over the world and find safe, secure distributors.
6. I know a lot about alternative, complementary and holistic health. I would like to write a book of remedies and advice for various conditions and complaints. The medical doctors don't let you in on information that is not traditional and standard, even if it's been used in Europe for decades and proven to be safe and effective. Also, I would list all the various branches of these schools of medicine and outline what they are, how they work, what the pros and cons are, and how to find a practitioner. These would be things like energy medicine, chakra cleansing, meditation, the mind-body healing connection, Traditional Chinese Medicine, some of the many successful uses for acupuncture, and much more. I can't get enough of healing and medicine and have been interested in it all my life.
7. I want to write some kind of book to help lonely people find a way out of their self-created prisons. I want to give them some hope. I would not tell them, like most of the books, to go volunteer, get out of themselves and give to others and get a pet. Sure, that's all good advice, but you have to understand that a really lonely person suffers from such self-loathing, and lack of self-confidence in social situations, they are almost paralyzed by their own inner thoughts and feelings and cannot do things like reach out to others. They are in too much pain. I have been there, and I was blessed to climb out of that pit.
8. I studied creative writing as my specialization in college. I have written short stories, poetry and now novels for most of my life. I also took classes that taught how to do it. I could write about some aspect of writing.
What would you like to read about that couldebooks about: SEO, keywords, entrepreneurship, start-ups, making money online. Although I could write about how to get freelance writing jobs that pay enough to be worth doing and are about your niche areas of interest.
Let me know. Write me an email at msrefusenik@gmail.com or leave a comment. Thanks a lot.
1 comment:
I like it very much!
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