My 50th Hub and Writing for the Pure Joy of It

This is my 50^th Hub. How did I survive writing my 50^th hub in 2 months?

Survive writing 50 Hubs? Don’t insult me. It was my pleasure. There are days when I sit at my kitchen table in my jammies and my ratty hand-me-down Victoria's Secret bathrobe and do nothing but write articles for HubPages all day. And as long as I start my day with my two cups of coffee laced with sugar and cream, I can take on the world.

Who cares about housework? If my husband gets fed (or better yet, takes me out for breakfast, lunch or dinner), then my role as a housewife is done. I don't answer the phone, either. It's usually some telemarketers, trying to get into my wallet. Let the answering machine take care of them. Besides, if you've ever earned a living answering a phone, you will understand why I won't answer them.

Retirement is the art of staying vertical and above ground. And only doing what you want to do. After years of working jobs I absolutely hated or working for bosses who didn't know what they were doing or working with co-workers who stuck numerous knives in my back, don't you think I earned the peace of retirement? Yes, I did.

Why am I writing for HubPages? Well, because I can. It also helps that I am retired, so the day is mine. It sure beats sitting on my hands so I won’t spend money.

I found Hubpages after earning and taking $5,000 from a 7-month online project (I will from now on refer to my former employers as “The Other Guys”) and walking away. The Other Guys were nice to me as long as I produced 300-word meaningless blurbs (no byline given) describing neighborhoods in the United States for potential home buyers. Most of these places, I've never visited. $10 dollars per 300-word article is nothing when you finish doing the research, writing and editing your piece. Let's just say the online project required you to do too much bang for the bucks.

To be honest, The Other Guys had no concept of leadership or being firm on what they wanted from their writers. They winged it. For me, it was a game to write for them from the beginning for the project, but it got to be boring. The Other Guys always kept you hanging, so you didn’t know if you were going to have work or not. Yet, they expected you to always be available while they scrambled to keep their clients.

Fired? No, The Other Guys would love to tell you that about me. But I quit. It wasn’t worth working for this dog and pony show, where you didn’t know where you stood with the so-called project manager and editors. I took a big risk and didn't sign a contract. But at least I got paid through my PayPal account.

Sure, these days, as a writer, you make money any way you can. But I’ve been away from writing for years, and my goal is to establish quality clips and earn a byline. I’m back to pitching magazine articles, but nowadays, I’m more towards working on the first novel. Clips and a byline are valuable whenever a magazine editor or anyone else tied to the publishing industry wants to see a sample of your work. I’ve got some online articles I’d like to see vanish, but I learn from my mistakes and don’t repeat them. This is where you have to be careful with what you publish online. Those articles are out there forever, and when you overlooked the spelling, punctuation and grammar problems, it is a guarantee that you will turn off readers. You will also look like an idiot who doesn’t have command of the language.

Although I will never work for The Other Guys again, I am grateful for the experience. Now I know that a lot is left unsaid when you communicate only by emails. Personally, I would prefer going into an editor’s office and talking. As you know, you can learn a lot through someone’s body language, too. I couldn’t do that with my boss is in some office on the East Coast, and here I am in California. I am a team player, but when you work with other writers online, you have to get past the whiners. As usual, I was a different breed of cat while working for The Other Guys. I’m retired and have a pension. My major goal is not to make money. Yet, most of my co-workers on this project were writing and editing for pennies. And, they depended on these pennies to pay for basic expenses like their grocery and utility bills.

I noticed I had signed up for HubPages years ago, but did nothing with my account. I didn’t have a blog at the time, and the thought of writing for the site didn’t interest me. I was still trying to deal with retirement and the fact I wasn’t going back to work. I was waiting on an alarm to sound and running to answer it.

This is my 50^th hub, but I am still new to the process of HubPages. As a newbie, I am still learning how this entire thing works. When I take on something new, I can easily panic, but I do have a support system who will help me. I’m pressing buttons and wondering where I’m sending all of this information. It can be overwhelming, but the idea is to roll with it.

This morning, I got my first spammer. I pressed the Spam button on him, so I hope he takes his shoe business completely off HubPages. Please go away, Dude, and don’t bother us.

For years, I thought I had Writer’s Block. I used to spend hours trying to figure out which pen I should use or what type of notebook or what color of legal pad should I buy. I had a job I absolutely loved, so it became my first priority. I wasn’t ready to write.

Now, I get ideas for articles all of the time. I get them in my dreams and write down my dreams before I get out of bed and forget them. I listen to strangers talking and get ideas from their casual conversations. I can pull from my past experiences. Whenever I leave home, I take my writer’s journal with me. Anything I do or see is fair game. I take the time to write it all down and deal with it later. Or save the thoughts for a rainy day. Anything goes.

The same goes for photographs. I play tourist and always have my camera with me. As long as you are on public property, as my subject, I consider you as fair game. I use a simple camera that I can put in my pocket. When some people see an expensive camera with different lenses, they will freeze. I would rather take photographs when people aren’t aware of my camera.

So when I first started writing for HubPages, I noticed the Forum had something going on like “30 Hubs in 30 Days.” I thought I could do this without writing down the goal, taping it to my bathroom mirror and staring at it every morning. Works for me. HubPages allows me to write and illustrate my work. Nobody from The Other Guys offered me feedback unless they wanted to complain about the pay they were getting from the writing project or wondering if we would continue working at all.

Every morning, I am at my laptop at my kitchen table, writing something for HubPages, answering questions or giving up some wordy comments to another Hubber. During the day and before I go to bed, I check in. Is this my new addiction or obsession? Anyway, it sure is fun.

If you ever find yourself worrying about what you’re going to write next, entertain yourself by doing something else. Go out and live your life. If you let it, the inspiration for writing will come. Don’t force yourself to do anything you don’t want to do. Let the ideas come to you.

Although you might say this 50^th Hub is a landmark experience for me, I want to thank all of you for your comments and encouragement. As long as the ideas pop into my head, I’ll keep writing.

Writers, you’ve made HubPages a joy for me.