Category Archives: The Writing Life

Posts about writing for fun and profit.

Getting Back to Writing

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I ease back into writing for hire.

One of the things I’ve been working on part-time for past few years is getting back into writing articles for publication.

Waterway Guide

Although I thought I had a working relationship with Waterway Guide, that fizzled out pretty quickly. The publisher was initially excited about working with me and made some suggestions about how much money I might earn writing for them. I did my part to help build content on their site with a never-ending stream of marina and anchorage reviews. (I still get the occasional compliment for my reviews.)

But after months on the Loop, I just got one article assignment — and I never got paid for it. I was very interested in helping to update the Skipper Bob books — especially the one for the Erie Canal — but was told other people were doing it. No other work was forthcoming. So I stopped writing reviews. I’m a professional writer, after all, and I’m not going to go out of my way to build content for a for-profit publication without getting compensation for my work.

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Getting Sucked In to the Traveler’s Notebook Craze, Part 3

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Four months on, I’m using my notebooks regularly and have made them part of my life.

Note: This is part 3 of my Traveler’s Notebook saga. You can find Part 1 here and Part 2 here. – Maria

Time has gone by. I haven’t written much in this blog, mostly because April, May, June, and most of July have been crazy hectic for me. I finally got my boat into San Juan Yachting’s charter program, I made jewelry inventory for and attended four art shows, and I even managed to spend just over two weeks on the boat with a good friend of mine. Along the way, I planted my garden, maintained my vehicles, cared for my home and pups, and socialized with friends.

In other words, I lived a busy life.

I wouldn’t have it any other way.

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Battling Irrational Beliefs

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Some comments related to an excellent blog post about the ABC model of Rational-Emotive Therapy and being a writer.

One of the blogs I’ve included in my RSS feed reader is called Writer Unboxed. It presents anywhere from 5 to 10 blog posts related to writing each week. Some are extremely specific, such as a recent post about including blurbs with published books. Others are more general, such as the one I’m touching upon today, which discusses psychology.

If you’re serious about writing, whether for yourself or for publication and (hopefully) profit, this is a great blog to follow. I won’t say that I read every post in detail, because I don’t. But I find that many of the ones I do read give me lots of food for thought. I usually share my thoughts in a comment on the blog post — that’s why I really like blogs that allow commenting — but sometimes those comments will trigger a blog post here. That’s what happened today.

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Getting Sucked In to the Traveler’s Notebook Craze, Part 2

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I make my own Traveler’s Notebook and fillers — with limited success and lessons learned.

Note: This is part 2 of my Traveler’s Notebook saga. You can find Part 1 here. – Maria

About two weeks ago, I blogged about my attraction to and doubts about the Traveler’s Notebook system. If you didn’t read that post and don’t want to, the very short story is this:

  • Traveler’s Notebooks — originally by Midori, a Japanese company — combine a leather folder-like cover with inserts held in by elastic cords. They are highly flexible, allowing you to build a notebook with the components you need.
  • Traveler’s Notebooks were wildly popular about 10 years ago and still have an almost cult-like following among people who journal or take notes on the go.
  • Traveler’s Notebooks are relatively expensive to set up, but YouTube has dozens of DYI videos to teach you how to make your own.
  • I decided to make my own, following the very detailed instructions in a specific video.

And that’s where I left off. I’ve since made the notebook and started using it. Here’s what I’ve learned.

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Getting Sucked In to the Traveler’s Notebook Craze, Part 1

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I catch the Traveler’s Notebook bug and make plans to dive in — with a homemade notebook and fillers.

And yes, I know I watch a lot of YouTube

I have a YouTube premium subscription and it is worth every freaking penny to get rid of the ads and actually enjoy what I’m watching. There is a ton of documentaries about all kinds of things and plenty of how-to videos that really teach. And all the late night comedians and SNL! Yes, I know theres also a lot of crap, but no one is forcing you to watch it. If you don’t like a channel, you can tell YouTube to stop recommending it and it does. The algorithm does a decent job of showing you content that might interest you. I use it nightly as a sleep aid on my iPad; I set it up next to my head and put on the most boring video that comes up. (Egyptology and art history really knock me out.) Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it.

A few weeks ago, I stumbled upon a YouTube video about something called the Midori Traveler’s Notebook. Originally made in Japan, it consists of a leather folder with elastic straps on the folded edge that you can stick accessories into. As you can imagine, there are lots of accessories, including all kinds of little notebooks — either blank or printed with lines, dots, grids, calendar days, etc. — folders, zippered pouches, credit/business card holders, etc., etc.

Traveler's Notebook
Here’s one of the marketing photos from the Traveler’s Company website.

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