Got Rid Of Links To My Writing On This Page

Among my other little moves toward progress, I finally noticed (and now have gotten rid of) the list of links that I had on this page and that once served a purpose.  I know I could just delete things like this blog and the HubPages account associated with pen-name, but I haven't spend a decade or so writing (even the stuff I've done on a "free-time basis" or casual basis (but that eventually turned less casual) ,only to risk coming across as fly-by-night or sleazy).    Basically, I pretty much want to delete most of the stuff I have online somewhere and either start new or don't start at all; but as with most moving on, one tends to know when it's the right time and when it isn't.

Progress With My Pen-Name HubPages Account

By the time I signed up with HubPages (over eight years ago now), I'd already had a well established pen-name that I was using on revenue-sharing sites ("writing sites"/"writing platforms").  That served my purposes (of not really wanting my real name on those sites because I was looking for more work/projects and would have been embarrassed by (and worried about) a potential employer/client finding my real name on some of those sites.  By "those sites" I mean the sites that invited "anyone" to write "what you know" or "what you're passionate about", and if it's useful or helpful to someone it may earn some passive income for you.  Some sites had some limited standards, and those standards were gradually tightened up as the years went on.  Over the years I wrote a few hundred Hubs under the pen-name.  Sometimes, and for one reason or another, I'd delete a few (or many) and write new ones.  Without a whole, detailed,  picture of the whole "writing-site" thing, I'll just say that after all those years I'd accumulated way too much stuff that was a big embarrassment. 

It wasn't that the information/insight in some of that stuff wasn't OK.  It was just that I'd find things to write about by looking for ideas for writing, look for things I thought I knew something about, and write replies in a very casual style (as if talking to a friend).  As "casual" essentially would become synonymous with "low quality", it also became less desirable on those sites.

There were times when "Word" was that nothing should ever, EVER, be written in a way that made it clear one was not writing as an expert and was, instead, writing "as if talking to a friend".  "Word" was that one should write in "an authoritative voice".  (In other words, try to come across as if you're expert rather than as a "friend" who thinks that, maybe, there's something to be gained from "friendly discussion" among friends.

In any case, so much of my old stuff is a big embarrassment for me because a) it was written "friendly style" (rather than phony "authority style"), but then b) because I found that by staying away from the more casual approach (even if still trying to make it clear who/what I was) of EVER using first person, stuff I wrote like that was often in good enough grammar and based on legitimate enough past research/study and/or experience) that it just came too close to looking like something written professionally - but without adding the stuff that made it good and clear to any readers that I wasn't an authority and didn't want my stuff mistaken for what it wasn't.

So, these days "too casual" looks like "low quality", and any number of other things written in half-decent grammar either are, seem, or appear not to just be casual/low quality but typical Internet sleaze.

With a number of what Hubs I have left on my pen-name account there, it's pretty much a matter of so many of them just being a big embarrassment.  Knowing what to delete when, or else having some complications related to having a bunch of writing with "roots" associated with one site and/or a pen-name, isn't as simple as it might seem to someone who either never got involved with "writing sites", or even to someone who hasn't watched the evolution of the whole "online-writing scene" long enough.

In any case, over the last couple of days I've made major progress in getting that HubPages account more cleaned up (more cleaning to do), while also (maybe) trying to think up what to do about  any Hubs that I may want to leave (may not - I don't know yet) on that particular account.  (Phasing away from a pen-name isn't all that simple sometimes either, but I'm not going to get into that.)

Finally Did Some Major Clean-Up Of My HubPages "Lisa HW" Account

I spent a good part of yesterday getting rid of a bunch of stuff that's no longer suitable for HubPages.  Along with that, I've also done quite a bit to trim down, consolidate (etc.) some of the out-of-control blog stuff.  At this point (1:28 a.m.) I'm too tired to write anything other than this post.  It doesn't help that I'm operating on a small laptop that's plopped atop my desktop (because I STILL haven't gotten around to/been in the mood to do something about the dust in the fan.  It also doesn't help that because I've got the laptop on top of the PC I've hooked up a keyboard where I can reach it, and because that keyboard is my "real" one, but I've discovered that I can work better with one that was given to me as a joke one Christmas; I've got the "joke" keyboard on top of the "real" one, and it keeps slipping out of place.

The reason it was given to me "as a joke" is because it has big, giant, yellow, keys and looks "industrial strength".  How tough I am on the characters on keys is kind of a joke among people who know me, so the heavy-duty-looking one went with that joke.  Now the characters are wearing off too.  Because I like turning the lights down when I write late at night that means not being able to see doesn't help.  That's also why the yellow keys seemed like a good idea when I plopped that particular keyboard on top of the other one.  There are many things about the set-up that make operating more of a challenge than it would otherwise be (but I'm too tired to do much about some of those little challenges too).  It's fine.  I live with them.  I'm not complaining - just too tired tonight to write about anything other than the fact that doing tedious projects (like dealing with the HubPages stuff) wouldn't be as slow if I'd, once-and-for-all, address some those little aggravations/challenges.

It's a REAL hoot to try to do more than just type posts on things like blogs.  I only care so much about most of this stuff I write as "free-time" stuff.  I say that, and yet knowing I want to get a better grip onit wears away at me anyway.

In any case, as I see that the percentage of posts about reorganizing the big mess that is whatever writing I've "on a casual basis" becoming less, as I see an increase (even if only a small one) in activities/posts not involving "The Reorganization/Clean-Up Project", I'm feeling better about it all.  As I look at a zillion windows (and whatever else) that I've got going on here right now, I know that when I close them all down for the night (and do some unplanned defragmenting and a few others things), it will all feel less like "still a mess".  What else doesn't help is that for as long as I'm been "addressing the matter" of needing to organize or clean out all this stuff I've been "incubating" a number of kind of overwhelming projects that are actually writing.  I've got some "disk clean-up" to do with all that stuff that's been incubating as well.

OK, that should do it for my obligatory recent post for this blog.

Progress As I've Continued To Phase Away From The Pen Name

As you can see if you kind of scan the posts and notes on this blog, it's something that I started way back when I first started writing online and using a pen name was recommended.  I won't get into that whole history again.  (It's here if anyone were at all interested.)

My main reason for choosing today to write this post is that I've made substantial progress with the transition (and with a whole lot of organizing (etc.), but as part of the most recent progress I've made I've also put my Google+ profile settings mostly on "Private" (at least for now).  That means that any0one who, for whatever reason, may be at all interested in finding something I've written, or else in finding out more about the person who wrote something under this name, will pretty much reach a dead-end (at least for the most immediate future).

Elsewhere on this page there's a link/reference to "Lisa H. Warren".  That goes to a page that's not as "dead-end-y" as my Google profile is at the moment.  AND, although it's TRULY a "transition blog" and therefore extremely casual and "anything-goes", my "WordCrafter09" blog (to which there's a link posted in the sidebar on this page) is still up, still pretty "transition-y", and still a kind of peculiar assortment of posts.

Other than that (and, again, only because I've got so many things set on "private"),, my ultimate aim is that one blog will replace any blogs/pages that aren't "theme-focused" with one "author-focused" blog, which is "ME Whelan Online Writing And Notes"

Continuing To Move Farther and Farther Away From The Pen Name

While I continue to move farther away from pages associated with the pen name, my HubPages account associated with it remains up and running.   I have my reasons for not closing that account.  The main ones are 1) that HubPages remains the only site for writing anywhere near the type of writing that I want to do on someone else's site; and 2) I'm approaching eight years of using that site, and I think - if all goes well for them - the site remains a good one for writers.  In the case of the pen-name account, while I have plans to "phase away" from it for the most part there's still some thinking about what I want to do with what's left on there before I figure out what to fix up, what to remove, etc. 

There's also some waiting to see if the site takes a clearer direction than appears as of this writing.

In any case, between still having that account up and running and having some other pen-name associated stuff out there here-or-there, my plan is to leave up this blog (again, at least for the time-being) - not because I plan to do more with it than I already have (to the contrary), but because it makes sense to have a place for posting the occasional thing about some pen-name-related matter.

There will probably come a time when I have no reason to want to post any pen-name-stuff-related thoughts.  This just is not that time yet.  I've got the "WordCrafter09" blog that's been acting as "the intersection" of the pen-name stuff and real-name stuff.  With my five-year-old "WordCrafter09" account on HubPages (associated with my real name), I figure I'll do the same thing with that blog as I'm doing with this one - wait and see what happens on/with HubPages before deciding any next steps.  (The difference between the two different accounts/names, however, is that the "WordCrafter09" is associated with my real name.  So, once (in the midst of making some major changes with different blogs in different stages of development) I decide what, if anything, I'm doing with future material on that account on HubPages; I'll "phase out" the  "WordCrafter" blog and use one that's in my own name.

My "project" these days is to figure out how to leave any number of blogs/sites/accounts in some version of "reasonable state", which ones to close, which ones to keep in/return to being "searchable", and build one "monster" of a blog on which I can post whatever I feel like writing without regard for whether there appears to be any "system", rhyme or reason, or specific purpose to it.

What I do with with whatever I have already put together that does have some rhyme/reason will be a case-by-case-basis thing.  

For now, this is my update to this particular blog.

Still In The Process Of Figuring Out What I Want To Do With My HP Stuff

It's a really nice morning (after days of heat and humidity, and then a day of ridiculous storms), so I've just kind of been enjoying the morning today, rather than doing much of anything.   Because of that I decided look at some of my online stuff and noticed that the last thing I posted on here was in February.  On the one hand, no great loss.  On the other hand, there have been some changes on HubPages since then. 

I haven't changed my plan to transition from the pen name.  It's just that I haven't really decided what to do with what's left on that account.   Recent HP changes have made "neatening up" that account a little easier.   One of those changes has been that they now have a way for authors to show a brief author bio with each Hub (and to keep a bunch of different bios for use with different types of Hubs when applicable).  They've made a few more changes as well.   Since I was neatening up the mess anyway, I thought I'd write a couple of/few writing-related Hubs just to have something new on the account.  Every little bit helps (regardless of what one does or doesn't plan to do with any particular "collection" of writing/material).

As has been the case for quite some time now, there are reasons not to delete some things (at least yet, or ever in some instances).  There are also, however, reasons not to write some things in the form of Hubs these days.  None of it is a big emergency right now.  Maybe later today I'll go look to see if there are any other small things I can do with the stuff on that account and, maybe, clean it up a little more.

At This Point My HubPages Material Is Pretty Much A Huge Embarrassment

Ever since major changes started going on with HubPages, I've been in the process of trying to either keep up with them o9r else move material.  The change process began when the first "big Panda" came out a few years ago (and actually, it didn't do all that much to a lot of my Hubs, at least at the time).  Over time, more and more changes have been made with "what Google wants" (deems most worthy in a search) but also how HubPages, as a writing platform, can improve the overall quality of its site.  It's, I think, a good site for writers, and I think they'd doing a good job of making improvements.

One of the things I did after that first "big Panda" was to decide I REALLY wasn't going to worry about "what Google wanted", mainly because Google, itself, had a now famous list of things it was looking for.   So, without going through a whole, detailed, thing about whatever I did or didn't do with my Hubs, there was a time when I figured I'd just write whatever I like writing, and just knd of experiment with what may/may not well (or kind of well, or well enough) on HubPages.  Somewhere between then and now HubPages has gone through a few different stages with what they were encouraging in their aims to improve quality on the site.

There was one phase when I just deleted a bunch of Hubs because I didn't think they'd ever fit on the site again, only to discover that that move was premature (at least for some of them).

These days the account has only around 70 Hubs left in it, some of which I should, and may, delete at some point.  Some of which I won't, for one reason or another (and there are any number of reasons.

Since I've been waiting to see what else "shakes out" (as they say) with changes on there, and since I've already decided that a certain type of writing that I do isn't likely to be read on HubPages, I've only occasionally written anything new on there in quite some time now (and I've since deleted some of those Hubs as well).  Deleting what is new and has no history/longevity there is easier than deleting what' does.  And, as for fixing up old Hubs that really aren't worth expanding upon or dressing up isn't what I prefer; some of those "embarrassment Hubs" would have been deleted a long time ago if they weren't figuring into my traffic.

The one thing any of my huge embarrassment's worth of Hubs has going for it is that the Hubs are in "decent English grammar and spelling" and probably have a shred of decent enough information/insight that they're not atrocious in "hose departments".

With an account that's a skeleton of any number of the different stages it used to be,I'm not too thrilled to even go that account and see that its content are made up of neither my best writing nor Hubs that would be considered "highest quality" these days.  I have some plans for that account; and because (unrelated to anything going on in the world of Internet writing in general), I decided to phase away from associating writing with the pen name I'd used for years,).  Those plans may only included a little spiffing where spiffing is at all possible, but also writing at least a few more Hubs that will make the "collection" less of an embarrassment to me.  My plan has to been to let any new Hubs on that account be kind of experiment.  I assume some of the traffic would improve if I added new Hubs according to what is now being emphasized on HP..

When all is said and done, when it comes to stuff I've been writing online that falls under the category of "what I want to write( because the options are either to only write what someone else wants me/pays me to write or else not write at all") has never been stuff that I've expected short-term, substantial, income from.  With regard to my aims related to what particular category of my writing, I've always seen things as a longer term kind of thing.  At least at this point I have a very clear idea about what I do/don't plan to post on that account and/or on HubPages at all

That, as they is, is progress, I guess; particularly, perhaps, for those of us who started writing online in the days when "everyone" said that proper grammar and spelling just don't matter on the Internet, and that "nobody reads more than a few hundred words these days.

My Previous HubPages Profile

Because, with all the changes that have taken place on HubPages over the last few years, I've got my "Lisa HW" account down to fewer than 85 Hubs (and a number of those need updating, fixing, deleting, or "whatever"), what I had on my profile there no longer really works very well.  (Basically, I made a mess of my subdomain on there.)  In any case, I thought I'd post what I had on my profile here because a) it's a lot more succinct than my Google profile is, and b) this blog is under the same pen name as that HubPages account is.)  Basically, the old profile no longer really applied much to the Hubs I have with that account.  Also however (and at least for now), what I have for Hubs with that account really don't even warrant a "serious" profile until I fix up and/or better organize the Hubs I tried to salvage.

  Previous HubPages Profile

I'm a freelance- and contract- writer/researcher, although my HubPages material (at least until now) has always been among my free-time writing done on a more casual basis. 
My work background (at least the part of it that is directly associated with writing) includes newspaper experience, as well as corporate and various other projects on a freelance basis.   Past newspaper experience includes straight news and weekly features. 
I've spent several years studying/researching the subjects of child development, education issues, learning problems, and giftedness in children - all for a long-term project.   Most recently, I've been writing articles and other material on assignment, as well as working on other projects.
 "Lisa H. Warren" is a pen name I've used in my spare-time writing over the years.  "Lisa HW" is, of course, a derivative of it.  My real name can be found by clicking on the Google+ button (and/or any others shown) on this profile.


  "Writing isn't always about just getting the words down, or out, or even read. It is about pulling from the universe just the right number and combination of words and allowing them to join hands to come to life."               
                               - Lisa H. Warren

The "Incarnations" Of This Blog Just Keep Coming, It Seems

This blog has had so many "incarnations" over the years that, at this point, there's almost no point to it at all. It has always served as a home-base type of thing for writing I've done under the pen-name of "Lisa H. Warren" (needless to say, I guess). With so many changes having taken place in the world of Internet-writing over the years, and with my own changes in approaches; (not to mention the closing of so many online-writing platforms), I've found that HubPages is pretty much the only reasonably current account I have under the pen name that once served my purposes and now doesn't.

Still, with about nine years' (ten, maybe?) of online writing, I figure there is still (at least for another while) some sense in keeping this "home-base type of thing" as long as I do have that HubPages account under this name.

I add the hear-or-there thing to this blog, depending if it seems to make some sense. Of course - who knows... - maybe I'll think up another "incarnation" for this blog if something comes up that makes doing that make sense.

Sometimes It Isn't One's Writing That Needs To Be Sorted And Organized; But Instead, One's Real Aims/Purposes

Ordinarily, I haven't made it a habit (or point) to use this blog the way blogs "are supposed to be used" (even though the Internet is full of "blog-knowledgable" people who say how "blogs can be anything" these days. 

In any case, I haven't used it for much, other to have a "contact point" and to try to explain (I'm someone who has become prone to feeling the need to explain, for a lot of different reasons I won't go into here) what, exactly, my "whole mess of online writing" is and that type of thing.  Originally, it was going to be a "central point" for that online writing (and it pretty much still is), but I haven't added to all that "explaining" (etc.) the kind of regular posts that are generally associated with blogs.  That's because I've done a lot of my free-time writing under a pen name (at the suggestion of some of the first sites on which I began writing); so when something goes on or there's an issue at hand, those are things I address as "me, the person" or "me, the real-name writer".  That doesn't leave much left to be "addressed" or expounded on by a "part of me/my writing" as "the pen name person".  In other words, I only have so much reason for, interest in, or enthusiasm for, writing under a name that isn't my real name.

Since I've only used the pen name on Internet writing sites/platforms, the main issues/concerns associated with that name have always pretty much been Internet-writing related.  I'd thought that posting material related to Internet writing, or even just my own Internet writing, was what I'd be doing with this blog.  (It was, I think, 2007 or so when I started it.)  This thing is, however, that even though I've had my share of success with some Internet writing; there's an Internet-writing culture that essentially has always divided people into categories such as "marketing-minded", "don't care about earning and only want a place to post writing", "writing just for fun", or "writing for business and nothing but business" - that type of thing.  I've never fit into any of those neatly defined categories; and since people in any of those categories are going to notice that I'm not "hook-line-and-sinker" into any of them, 1) I don't have anything much to offer anyone who is looking for information/expertise on any of the clearly separate groups of writers/content-producers, and 2) not to many people would be interested in what I had to say about Internet writing in any of those categories anyway.

Over recent times I've been in the process of "phasing away" from writing under the pen name, but I've got a lot of time and writing invested in work done under that name, so it wouldn't be entirely wise for me to "kill her off" completely online.  I've set up some "name-transition" sites/blogs as a way of making a gradual transition with this stuff that I've done in my spare time (as compared to "real" work, which I've obviously always done under my real name).

In even more recent times, however, it has occurred to me that this might be a good place to post "traditional" blog posts about some of the gripes, concerns, etc. that I've run into as I've done that writing that is, for me, a free-time thing and yet that is far from silliness, "just fun", or a matter of killing time writing rather than, say, watching television.  See, I've always had the thing that I was happy to be able to make good, productive, use of my free time while either gaining some extra income or gaining some enjoyment out of using that time to write online.  Over time, however, I've realized more and more that I've been having more taken out of me as I've lived in this "online-writing world" than I have had my free time enhanced by it.

As I move toward "phasing" farther and farther away from using the pen name, while also aiming to tie up some loose ends and not entirely abandon what wouldn't be practical for me to abandon, I thought this blog might actually serve some purpose for me now; as I - for once and for all - stop trying to write stuff that only sometimes, kind of, occasionally, fits on other people's sites; and instead exercise more of my own (shall we say) freedom of speech - and more importantly, freedom of thought, expression, and whatever other kind of freedom I plan to re-claim in my choice of subjects, style, and standards.

My pen name may only be a meaningless name attached to stuff that is otherwise as real as the real person I am in offline life; but when all is said and done, it is, after all, still a reflection and expression of the real me (not to mention that it's actually established at this point as kind of a "dba" name on some "paperwork", so getting away from it isn't as clean-cut and simple as it might otherwise seem).

Seven Years After Starting This Blog: Finally A Sense Of Structure And Online Direction

When I first began writing online I didn't really expect to do more than write whatever seemed like a good thing to write at the time.  I certainly didn't want to get into writing "Internet articles" because I started writing online in order to get away from writing stuff I didn't particularly enjoy writing.

If anyone were to go looking through a lot of the stuff I've posted on this blog over the years, he'd see that so much of my focus (at least regarding this blog) has been on trying to organize a mix of online writing. I won't write yet another post-ful of stewing over that, other than to say that when it has come to some of my writing it's often been very much a case of "write now, figure out direction later". Sometimes we start out knowing our aim and direction. Other times, however, time or life or efforts can have a way of pulling us toward one direction or another; and that's when we have a better picture of where we're headed or at least want to go. Or to put it another way, sometimes we have a big pile of stuff that can't be categorized very well unless/until we build up enough stuff to make categorizing make more sense. Over recent months I've decided to do online writing under my real name. That means having two different names to worry about as "authors". This is why I've set up a writing site for each name, and a blog to accompany each. My thinking is that between the two names, one of those four sites is going to be right if there's ever a time I want to spew whatever thoughts come to my mind without regard to whether anyone reads what I've written.  


OTHER SITES

 I've also set up several sites that are "themed" and not particularly associated with either of my author's names. These sites aren't entirely "embryonic", but they're still new and in very early stages. I have no doubt that I'll do some trimming out, re-thinking, etc. as I continue to add material to those sites; but each has a clear aim, and that aim will become clearer as I continue to add the material I've been saving up to add to each site. Although it may not be very obvious right now, those sites are the ones that will satisfy my own urge to create something worthwhile online. My aim for each site is to build it into a solid resource with a mix of types of material and (hopefully) at least a little something for most people seeking resources of one type of another. As I've considered what kind of material to post on the "series of sites" I considered not including my own writing at all and instead making each site nothing but "heavy-duty" resources. I decided, however, to include my own writing because not everyone has interest in reading "heavy-duty" resources, and the writing that presents my own research, experience, and/or understanding of a subject does not conflict with those "heavy-duty" resources. So for now, the sites have a pretty odd combination of material on them and kind of look like a case of, "What the heck is this?". I'm obviously yet to tie it all together, but one can't tie together very well what hasn't even been loaded onto a site. (That yet again goes back to that thing I mentioned about how difficult categorizing can be when there's not really enough stuff to categorize.)


BLOGS

With a number of "theme" blogs that are all essentially under-developed and neglected (mainly because of time factors), I'll no doubt do some consolidating and trimming out; but with each subject being meaningful to me, what my aim is for those that survive will be to allow them to exist on their own without a lot of drawing attention to them by me. With limited time to spend on any of these endeavors, I have to pretty much accept that some things will remain neglected until I have one of those times when I suddenly decide to focus on one of the neglected blogs and kind of get it in better shape. The blogs are very much a case of "They are what they are."

My smart phone isn't quite as smart as a lot of other people's smart phones are.

— M. E. Whelan (@MEWhelan1) April 23, 2013

Please Bear With Me As I Do Some Housekeeping Here

This blog has been in existence for several years; but as with anything that's been around for awhile, there can come a time for looking around to see what is no longer useful, wanted and/or necessary and for getting rid of stuff.  At this point, I have just about all posts back in draft form.  What I do with what remains to be seen.   As you can probably imagine, it's quite a job.  In the meantime, and with the beginning of a nice, new, year; I've decided to take a clean-slate approach with new posts and eventually filter back in some of those that are now unpublished.

Wishing you an amazing, healthy and happy 2013.   

The Blog-Sorting/Defining Post

This post is something I've really written as a way of putting into words what I have for blogs under this name, and kind of clearing up in my head what has to be done with each of them.  I don't expect anyone to read this post, but I figured I may as well post it since I've written it.  Writing it as if someone will read it helped me to organize it better than I may do for myself.

You'll see a long list of blogs shown down the right-hand side of this page.  There are so many that the list looks ridiculous, even to me.  Upon closer look, the number of blogs shown aren't really quite as ridulous as they may at first seem.  (They're still ridiculous in number - just not QUITE AS RIDICULOUS as they may AT FIRST seem.  Defending myself here, I suppose....).  Here's a breakdown of what they all are:

This blog that you're on focuses on all my online writing stuff, regardless of where it is.  It also focuses on me, as a writer (and as one who has been trying to sort out different things about writing).  Sometimes I'll post the occasional non-writing-related post, usually because I figure it's good to throw in some non-writing/non-me-as-writer stuff just to break things up.  I also occasionally post incidental other stuff to break up what I know is a lot of drudgery that nobody's interested in.  So that's this site.  This site also leads to all the other stuff I have online.

Then there's "Life on Key".  That one is aimed at focusing on my actual writing on a variety of subjects.  So, "Life on Key" is pretty much a writer's blog, but the focus is the actual writing.

"Online Writing Notes, Issues and Dilemmas" focuses on (as the title suggests) online writing and the issues I, personally, have run into over my years of writing online.  More specific and focused than this "central blog" that you're on is, "Online Writing Notes" is another "me-and-my-writing-associated-issues" blog, only it focuses specifically on online writing and less on some the extra "me-related" writing issues.

So that's those three - the "all encompassing but writing-related, the online-specific, and the my-writing-itself-focused blogs.

I've just started a fourth "me-centered" blog, "Words by LMW".  It's brand new (something will be on it very soon), and it's essentially a blank sheet on which I can do what other people do on their blogs, which is to write whatever I feel like writing at the time.  It's "me-centered" in that it is aimed at what I feel like saying, but what I plan to write there won't be focused on me (at least for the most part).  Actually, the urge to do some polite venting was what made me start this one; and although I can certainly think up some other things to vent about, some of what has been going on in the world of online writing is actually what gave me that urge to vent in the first place.

Then there's one other "me-focused" one, "Memories, Magic and Meldowns".  That one has a "life-as-me" kind of focus.  I started it with the idea of posting on it the way most people regularly post on their own blogs.   Since I'm of the "have-grown-kids age", I imagined the potential audience for that one to be women in my age range.  Of course, most often I don't imagine any audience because (as you've probably guessed from the first few blogs I mentioned, I'm more about writing than imagining an audience).

So that's it as far as the "me-centered" (or primarily "me-centered" blogs go).

Then there are the single-subject-focused blogs.  "Lightness - For Women" focuses on the positive side of being a woman.  "For Women Fifty and Up" (not much on that one, but the name speaks for itself).  "No Senior Coffee" is another one aimed at the fifty-and-up set, not necessarily just women (although I think if anyone have any interest in that one it's more likely to be women).  So those three are aimed at women and/or people over fifty.  "Unfinished Feminism" is about women but not necessarily aimed at just women.

Focus of other single-subject blogs includes:  Adoption, Premature Birth, Education, Stress/Challenges ("Storm Clouds and Wind Chimes"), Money Worries/Challenges ("Bootstraps and Bread Boxes"), Children and Parenting, Personal Reviews of "Stuff" ("Everyday Gadgets.."). (I pretty much hate reading or writing about "Stuff").

 "Dabblings in Verse" is for poems I've written (not really "me-focused, but poem-focused; especially considering where I get the ideas for writing them), and (somewhere not out there right now) there is a blog that focuses on a bridal shower theme.

"Christmas Card" was originally aimed at trying to offer some hint of Christmas spirit to those who have difficulty feeling it when the holiday arrives.  It's season, needless to say, and needs updating and work (and soon).

"Drunk Driving" is one I need to do something about.  I originally started it as a "message"/"cause" blog, but once I included the input that is, to me, personal and unique (as opposed to everything else that's out there on this kind of subject) I kind of dead-ended.  It's probably going, but since the message does mean a lot to me I haven't dumped it yet.  I didn't want to preach on it, and I didn't want to re-create everything similar that's out there.  Then, though, there's only so much I have to say and/or feel like saying about the subject, so who knows....  The blog isn't hurting anybody by being up.

There's also a kind of aborted "Daughter's Engagement" blog.  I'm not sure what will happen with that one.  The engagement period is over, and unless I want to write for other people's daughter's engagements....    You know? 

Oh..  There's a blog about the real life of a real WishNik, although a) there's a lot of embellishment in that one, and b) I'm not sure what I'll do with it now that I've had my fun creating it.

"Relationship Glitches" is one that I take seriously, and it's one that has gotten off to a slow start because I want to be very careful about this one.

"Running on Two Cylinders" focuses on Depression and/or Exhaustion.

"Coffee and Candor", "Straight Talk Sort Of" and "Letters" were all started with the same kind motivation as the newer "venting" blog above.  "Coffee" was originally intended to focus on general-life type issues and act as a "normal" blog.  "Straight Talk" was/is planned to write about a personal situation that I've never really been able to "talk straight" ("write straight') about.  I've always hedged and hinted about the subject, even though with the amount I've written on it one would never imagine the I've held anything much back.  "Letters" was going to be a kind "write-what-I-think" blog (like the "venting" blog) - only with a friendlier, less frustrated, tone.  The difference between "Words by LMW" and "Letters"is that the former is aimed at "nitty-gritty type" stuff.  The latter, aimed more at the nicer or more meaningful things in life.  As far as any of those go, I haven't abandoned the aims for them.  I've just not had the time to follow through on them.  

Then there are the "dumping ground" blogs.  They're "Verbosity" (for stuff that's really long and not really fit for too much of anything).  "Junk Drawer", which as the name suggests, is for stuff that truly isn't fit to go anywhere but a junk drawer (at least until I finish it, polish it, or otherwise fix it up).  "Aching Head" isn't quite the same kind of dumping ground type of thing, but it's close.  I had/have plans for it, but until I follow through on some of them not only is the blog kind of a dumping-ground blog, but it belongs in some dumping ground somewhere, itself.


So....  those are pretty much all the blogs I have under this particular name.  What doesn't show here is that a) I'm also in the process of sorting out some sites under this name, and b) I have other blogs and sites are my own name (and have to be particularly careful about whether they look decent or not).  Between these, other online writing I do, real work, and life in general; it's probably easy enough to see where the time challenge would come in.  I see it.  I know I have to do something about the whole mess.  The trouble is I don't even have time or energy to address the mess most of the time.  I've decided that what I need to do is just get whatever is here (and anywhere else online under this name) to a reasonable state of "decency" and organization, start clean, bury most of this stuff behind a bunch of links, and know it's all there in case I need it for one reason or another.  There's also been a whole bunch of other online writing (besides the blogs) that I've been trimming down and cleaning up, and with that project has come further making messes in blogs where links may have existed. 

A Note About The Blogs

As I've mentioned in a few other places here, I seem to live in a chronic state of re-organizing when it comes to online writing.  Because I've separated my spare-time writing (that I do under this name) into "its own thing", and because so much of it has been spare-time writing; however, the first thing to go when there's something more important (or better) to do is the whole re-organizing/organizing effort.  Some of the blogs on the list at the right are, as they say, "headed South".  I'm find that one cannot really organize/re-organize without first allowing the original bunch of stuff to stay around long enough to be "factored into" the whole effort.

I think I've said more than enough (WAY MORE than enough) to explain the state-of-affairs that I've got going here with my writing, blogs, etc.  Moving on to actual blog posts from here on....

Reconciling Online Life with Offline Schedules and Life

For awhile now, all-things-spare-time-writing have been in upheaval for me.  My work schedule has changed, both in degree of busy-ness and particular type of projects.  On top of that, the whole Internet-writing thing has been in major upheaval for about a year and a half now.  I won't get into why here.  Suffice it to say there's been lots of upheaval.  Moreover, I write on a site (HubPages) where lots of changes have been made, often in response to some of that major Internet-writing upheaval.

So, with pretty much all of my writing-related activities (business, "para-business", pleasure, saving the world, saving my own soul and sanity - whatever....), I've probably done what a lot of other writers have done, which is (I'm guessing and assuming) to keep going while also having it in the back of my mind that I have to re-evaluate the whole picture of Internet writing, my own aims, etc. etc.   Actually, when I refer to "Internet writing" I don't mean some of the kinds of writing I do online.  I primarily mean my spare-time, more casual, writing efforts (that have - spare-time and more casual or not - been amounting to an additional source of income for me for years now).

I've often considered just getting rid of this blog, because I don't imagine anyone much is particularly interested in anything here (especially now, while I've got so many earlier posts back on "draft" - or else deleted).  Sometimes, though, the point isn't really who, or how many, may read something.  I suppose, as a writer and as someone who uses writing for such a wide variety of purposes; I've got my own reasons/uses for this blog.  So, until I replace it with something that serves better purposes, I guess I'll leave it for now.

I've always felt kind of in-between things when it comes to my more casual, online, writing.  Online there are people who don't care about earning, and who just post their things, like creative writing, without regard for traffic and/or earnings.  Then there are people for whom Internet-article marketing is their business.  Writing is my business, which means that figuring out how to approach some things, and where, is a matter of finding a way to make my personal writing agenda go well with the agendas of many of the venues/"forces"/"cultural beliefs" that there are in the mix of "Internet people".  I have another blog ("Online Writing Issues, Challenges and Dilemmas") on which I address some of the issues I've run into; and I'll get more into the kind of stuff I'm referring to here in the near future.

The Winters, Springs, Summers, and Falls of My Discontent in The Age of Online Writing

My reading and writing life began long before anyone had ever imagined this thing we now know as, "The Internet".

My entire first year in elementary school was spent waiting for the next piece of phonics, which would move me that much closer to being able to read whatever I wanted to read. Even without having gone through all the sounds, I was delighted to discover that learning to recognize even some consonants, vowels, and blends allowed me to sound out photo captions in the daily newspaper my parents always left out on the table. Reading was, to me, one of the greatest pleasures in life.

Like most little kids, I "made books" as a young child. Like only the verbally-inclined among us, I would later become a kid who thrived on things like essay questions and any homework that involved writing.

My sister is four years older than I, and I longed for the day when I could read "grown-up" books, like those she brought home from school. When I was in third- or fourth-grade I'd seek out the biggest, fattest, books (with as few pictures as possible) and enjoy hours of being engrossed in reading. All through my childhood I gravitated toward reference books, but it was once I'd finished school that I had the time and freedom to begin reading whatever text/reference books I wanted to read (rather than reading what someone else told me I had to read).

I grew up to be an avid reader (sort of compulsive reader), reading everything from shampoo-bottle labels to text/reference works intended mostly for people in specific professional fields (or aiming to work in them). Magazines were something I really enjoyed, and I only read the ones that offered articles that had substance. I can probably count the number of times I've ever looked at Vogue. To me, that was "nothing but pictures". I read Redbook (with its 3000-word articles AND other material that interested young women. Psychology Today, Mademoiselle, Working Woman, Cosmopolitan, MS, and any number of others that had "real" articles in them were among my magazine-reading.

As far as I writing goes, from the time I saw what struck me as the "brilliance" and the "science" of being able to put together a couple of simple letters and have them mean something; to the time I saw the power in putting together a few simple words and having them move someone; I've loved writing - any kind of writing whatsoever.

And such is the history I brought with me into my first explorations of what, not so long ago, was "this new thing, the Internet".

It wasn't long before Internet writing sites and blogs came along. Coincidentally, this was around the time when tv programs and commercials began speeding up the rate at which viewers heard things; as well as "zipping up" and "speeding up" the general presentation because of the general consensus that "people have short attention spans".

As someone who likes to write, I, of course, began looking at blogs and writing sites to see if there was some outlet for my own writing. Although blogs have since become part of many businesses, the first were mostly written by individuals as daily journals. Since I don't happen to be very interested in the day-to-day doings of strangers who aren't doing anything all the Earth-shattering, I kept looking, to see if I could find more interesting blogs. What I discovered was that not all blogs are journals (which at least do have real writing with at least someone else's version of substance/a story). What I noticed was that a whole lot of blogs seem to be nothing but pictures, single-lines, links to other stuff (or other non-stuff) and anything else that the creator dreamed up to throw into the mix. Most blogs like this have an impressively polished appearance, to the point where my own inadequacy in creating something so visually impressive scream at me. " Still, with each impressively polished looking blog, most often I'd just find myself asking, "What on Earth is all this crap?" - and move on. I wasn't looking for "flashes" of words and links and images. I was hoping to find writing - real writing, complete with substance, words strung together to form grammatically correct sentences, sentences carefully crafted to present a larger pictures, writing that taught me something, helped me to understand someone else, made me laugh, maybe even made me cry.

While I understand that one teenager's potpourri of words and pictures associated with an ever-exciting life will appeal to any number of other teenagers, I'm not a teenager. Teens and the under-25 set are, of course, welcome to the Internet with which they've pretty much grown up; but the world is made up of a whole lot of people who aren't under 25. Maybe it's not considered "standard" these days, but I happen to be someone with a very long attention span. What's worse (for me or others, I'm not sure which) is that I'm someone who processes information through auditory means, which means I've never been one to really appreciate pictures. Even as a kid I despised comic strips. I didn't automatically see what was happening without having to slowly figure out what each character was doing in each frame; and the whole process was just aggravating. I once read that only 20% of people take in information through auditory processing, and 20% process information kinesthetically. The remaining 60% processes information visually (if the numbers I read are accurate), which means, of course, that the person who doesn't appreciate impressive graphics is in the minority.

Since, apparently, the long attention span (which served me so well when I was a kid in school; or, for that matter, in all other situations in life) has become out-of-fashion, I've become acutely aware that in the world of the Internet I'm pretty much a misfit. For everyone who seems absolutely content with finding a 400-word summary (and pretty much the same one as what 8 billion other sites offer) on any topic, when I search I want to find substance. When I'm looking for any kind of reading at all I'm looking for substance. While some people say they find "long writing" boring, I'm bored by other people's quickie notes, flashes of words and pictures, and ability to fill a most impressive appearing page with a bunch of nothing.

Anyone who has spent any time at all on writing sites has probably discovered the frequency with which remarks about how "nobody wants to read long stuff" are made. In over three years of writing online, I can't say I've ever heard anyone say, "I'm looking for substance." I've been shocked to discover that in debates about the importance of using proper grammar, it is usually a minority of people who think grammar matters in writing. The general online majority seems to agree that "nobody cares about grammar; all anybody cares about is what someone says."

The same division is there between people who "don't want to read some big, long, thing" when searching for an article; and those who don't want yet another carbon copy of every other 400-word blip that's online about any subject. Recently, I had something fairly important I was looking up; and I felt like I'd tear out my hair if I ran into yet one more quickie paragraph about a subject on which I needed real information.

It's not for me to question the wisdom of people who say, "nobody wants some big, long, thing". On writing sites it isn't just other writers who say that. It's anyone who knows what people are looking for (or at least who we trust to know what people are looking for). I can write a 400- or 500- word "blurb" of any article as well the next Internet writer can. There's no reason I can't abandon my own writing preferences and "give the people what all the other people say they want"
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Anybody who knows anything about the Internet knows that people have short attention spans - not long ones. Nobody but wants more 500 words about anything.

The thing is, though, that I don't want to write that same, condensed, 500-word, "blurb" (aka, "article") that "everyone else" has also written. As far as I'm concerned, if you've seen one quickie article on PVC piping you've pretty much seen them all. I know that for every time I've landed on some flashy, without-substance, page that causes me to think, "What the hell is all this crap?", someone probably lands on my pages of wordy text and thinks the very same thing.

In a few years of always feeling somewhat torn about what I "should be" putting online, what most people seem to do, and what I want to put online; I've so often felt inferior; because my writing is often neither a great piece of fiction nor a short-and-to-the-point, carbon copy, of every other searchable article out there. My blogs don't look like other people's blogs. They're not business blogs, but they're not cool, flashes of color, images, and quickie blips of words that will presumably grab someone's (although most likely not an adult's) attention. Instead of flashy pictures I've actually placed "introductions to what this is" on blogs I started as a way to create a home for some of my writing. I've haven't yet gotten past the stage of "include the starter-stuff first and make things more polished and 'bloggish' later".

I know I could be earning a lot more online that I do, if only I'd abandon what I really want to write and write what "everyone else" says makes the best money. Then again, if I abandon the kind of writing I think may offer "substance" (to anyone who has the patience to get through it), what's the point of writing at all? I can make money doing any number of things. Why settle for the low, Internet-writer, pay most people get?

And what, exactly, is the "kind of writing" I want to do? Any kind (or at least most kinds that don't involve writing yet another 400-word blurb of an article that looks like a million others online). I suppose there's a part of me that hopes to write something that will help someone else understand something about any given experience/situation in life; or else (as many writers hope) to let someone else know he is not alone in some situation.

While I leave most of the marketing to the marketing-inclined; and while I usually leave the science and medicine to the professionals; I usually write as someone who has spent time just being a person, and who sometimes hopes that others may benefit, learn, understand more, or be touched by something I've written. It takes a certain amount of bravery, and a definite need to set aside a little pride, to keep on posting material that will never be what "professional Internet people" say is what people want; or material aimed at capturing the short attention spans of, apparently, most of the Internet world. There's probably not a moment when I'm writing online that I don't have in the back of my head that what I'm writing isn't really what anyone wants. After all, this is the Internet. People don't want serious. They don't want long. They don't "lacking-in-colorful-pictures". Don't forget, most don't even (apparently) want good use of grammar.

The fact is, in this Internet age, people don't always particularly appreciate the kind of writing that was the kind that pulled many of us into a passion for writing and reading. Hey, Charles Dickens and Charlotte Bronte were "then". Heck, even Erma Bombeck was "then". This is "now". This is the Internet age. People have short attention spans (well, at least everyone other than I; and I still say I kind of resent being made to feel out-of-fashion over that).

Still, when all is said and done, most of us do write what we want to write. It's fine that a teen somewhere wants to express a little artistic creativity, while also entertaining his/her friends. It's fine that people who care nothing about writing will put together a quickie article in the hopes of earning some part-time income from it. Variety is the spice of life, and it's fine that the Internet is the Internet - and expecting more is usually expecting too much.

Here's the thing, though. For everyone who only wants to find the quickie article or the flashy blog, there are people who are looking for something more. Not long ago, a lady commented on one of my "big, long, serious" Hubs, which she found "by accident", as she searched. Out of respect for her (and the very sobering situation she's in), I won't share details; but I was incredibly moved and humbled when she said I had put into words exactly what she has been trying to express to people around her, as she tries to help them understand "where she is" at this stage in her situation.

Back when I was in my teens and expressed my interest in writing with my closest two girlfriends, they would joke about how I would one day write a bestseller, get to go on "The Johnny Carson Show", and have to select a great dress to wear. We didn't take any of it all that seriously, as we talked about what kind of dress each of us would choose in such a situation. When I wasn't engaged in lighthearted talk about my wishes to one day write; and when, instead, I was asking myself what it was about writing that I found so appealing, I would imagine how a person could spend a lifetime writing and only make a difference in the life (or even the day) of one person. I was never sure how practical it was to imagine spending all those years writing only to have an impact on one person, but I guess imagining the potential of the same words reaching any number of people was appealing.

Having outgrown seeing any appeal in going on The Tonight Show in a great dress (not to mention that Mr. Carson has passed away, and it wouldn't be quite the same with Conan O'Brien hosting); and having even outgrown the thinking that a lifetime of writing would be worth it if my words could be helpful to one person; I still see "the writer in me" not so much as the author of a bestseller - but, instead, as simply a person who knows the potential power of the written word.

I often wonder whether the Internet will eventually drive the people who like to read substance back to the shelves at their public library and local Barnes and Noble; and whether it will drive writers who generally aim for substance (even if they don't always succeed) back to query letters, file boxes, and hat boxes on the top shelf of the closet. Then, again, I sometimes imagine an Internet-revolution, where the "favor-ers" of substance may eventually drive the "favor-ers" of "fluff, quick, and color"  to their own corner of the Internet world; and where the general consensus changes from "nobody wants long writing" to "everybody demands at least a certain amount of substance".

As I said at the very beginning here, I have always loved all kinds of writing and reading. I have to say I more value, say,. Charles Dickens over the label on a shampoo bottle; and I'd like to say, too, that I don't particularly think the kind of writing I do ought to be the only kind on the Internet.

What bothers me, though, is that the Internet community so often sends the message that nobody wants anything that isn't one of those 500-word, condensed, articles that can found all over the 'Net; nobody wants "in-depth", and truly nobody wants "long". Between traffic concerns, attention-span concerns, and general impatience; most writing that doesn't fall into the narrow definition of "what people want" isn't all that valued. One thing I often think, though, is that sometimes it isn't about what people want, as much as it is what they discover they didn't know they wanted.

I'll never be the next Charles Dickens, but sh/e is out there somewhere. Chances are there are lots of them out there somewhere. I'll never be the next Internet marketing guru either. I have nothing to splash onto MySpace or Facebook, and I really don't care about anything anyone Tweets in so few characters. I guess I'll just keep writing whatever I feel like writing when the mood strikes me, looking over my collection of online writing and thinking, "What a pile of crap. Nobody wants that kind of writing on the Internet or these days;" and generally not feeling all that great about the kind of writing I do.

Then again, though, every once in a while there is that occasional e.mail that tells me that something I wrote was found worthwhile by someone who read it. Maybe there is still redeeming value in writing what isn't particularly aimed at page-views or fleeting attention spans after all.

Coffee and Candor: An Introductory First Post

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With increasing awareness that I'm thinking that becoming "an Internet recluse" might be a better and better idea (contrary to the the most popular idea that people should get themselves and their writing more and more "out there"), I started a new blog that has no purpose other than offering me a place to just write whatever I feel like writing (the way a lot of people write on blogs).  I'm still in the process of aiming to do whatever it is I've been aiming to do, but I have to stop worrying about a lot of stuff and just do my own thing every once in awhile.  (It may look to some people as if I HAVE been doing my own thing, but that's only how it looks.  Long story involving my own approach to Internet writing endeavors.  That's for another day.  In the meantime, "Coffee and Candor" will, I hope, offer not a shred of redeeming value to anyone (not directly, not indirectly, not at all).

I'm sick of aiming for "useful" and "informative" (and I'm even sick of trying to save little corners of the world by "promoting understanding in the smallest of ways).