Motivational

Why Dog is the Best Companion for a Writer?

Sometimes, being a writer can be lonely. You might be married and have a family but there are writers who are single and live alone out there.

Imagine having to write at home, alone. Watch TV alone. Eat alone. You have to do everything alone. Life sucks although you are making big money from your writing career.

If you are a writer, living in an apartment alone and wishing to have somebody to accompany you while you work, consider adopting a dog (or a cat but I prefer dog so I am going to talk about dogs only).

funny pictures of dogs with captions
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The reasons why dog is the best companion?

  1. Dogs are comforting. You get tired, you look at the dog, you feel better. You need to relax? Go down to the park and play fetch. This way, you get some exercise too. You can even jog with your dog. Remember the dog in Rocky’s movies?
  2. Dogs don’t talk. They bark and yet you get peace while working although once in a while your dog might break the silence with a bark.
  3. Dogs do what they do best, guard. It is an added security for your home.
  4. Give your dog a hug when you need a hug.
  5. Share noms (food) with your dog. Watch TV and share snacks.
  6. Dogs never complain. They are content with the food you give them. They are happy to see you. They are happy to have a place to live. They are thankful. Occasionally they might want a bone or two. Just give in to them if they behave well.
  7. They walk on 4 legs. They are funny to look at. They are cute. They give you puppy eyes. They know what to do when you are sad. They make you happy. You can never resist a smile when you look at them.
  8. Dogs are loyal. Loyalty is important. They won’t leave you for no reason.

Why not get a dog now if you are lonely? Once you get a dog, your life won’t be so lonely anymore.

Adopt a dog

Life as a Writer

writer

There are many writers out there and every writers live a different lifestyle.

For example, I would wake up at 10am and work (writing, editing, more writing, social networking in between) until the wee hours (maybe up to 3 or 4 am). I usually don’t eat lunch and wait until dinner time to eat but if I do eat lunch, I would get a quick fix from a café down stair (I live in an apartment).

food

Breakfast is reserved for weekend (how weird. I used to eat breakfast when I woke up at 7am, getting ready to go out for work but now at 10am, I don’t feel like eating at all).

During weekends I would spend time with my husband shopping or simply going to a movie. Otherwise, we would stay at home and watch TV or DVDs. I love to watch DVDs and I have quite a collection by now.

However, what about you? What is your lifestyle? Are you happy with your lifestyle?

I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER?
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I am thinking about adopting a cat (although I am a dog person) but that would be really bad for my health because I am sensitive towards fur and dust. My husband on the other hand loves cat very much (cat person).

Iz sowwy. no mor eat shuuz. pwomisez. can com bak inz naow?
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I spend more than 12 hours a day working and socialising on the internet. Since I work more than 12 hours now, I spend more hours working as a freelancer than as a normal employee in a company. You can find me on social networking sites most of the time unless if I am truly, really busy for the day.

Why do I choose to be a freelancer? Why spend more than 12 hours when I can work a normal 8-hour shift just like everyone else?

No, I need to do something that I like. Something that I enjoy and satisfy. Otherwise, I would be spending my life doing something I hate, which is definitely not what I want in my life. Life is short, way too short to be wasted doing things that I don’t like.

How do you live your life as a writer?

Life as a writer.

Live like a writer.

How Difficult it is to Work at Home?

The answer is:

a. Very difficult
b. Very easy

Why is it very difficult?

Because you don’t have the skills and the tools to work at home.

Why is it very easy?

Because you have the skills to work at home. Skills you need depend on the type of work you want to do. Most important is because you have the tools to venture into ‘work at home’ type of jobs.

How?

To be able to work at home as a writer, you need to be a strong writer. Many people want to work at home. Some of you might want to be a designer, a freelance accountant and even a blogger.

You can do anything you want to do, as long as you know what you are doing. For example, you cannot be a writer if your skill is only in designing. You cannot be an accountant if you only know how to do coding. The point is ‘know what you are doing’.

If you want to be a writer but you are not sure how you can sell your writing, first of all, you will need to learn about writing. Read up about writing. Practice your writing. Soon you will be able to write for money. The same thing goes for designing, accounting or even blogging.

Do you have the tools?

Do you have a PC or laptop?
Do you have internet connection? It can be from TM, DiGi, Maxis, Celcom or P1.
Do you need a phone & fax line?
Do you need to have a webcam? Most laptops have webcam.
Do you need to install any messengers? YM? MSN? Skype?

If your answer is mostly yes, you are partially ready to work at home.

If your answer is all yes, you are definitely ready to work at home.

If your answer is all no, and you have no idea what they are, then you are probably not suitable to work at home.

To work at home, or not?

To find out, take this test.

Read why you want to work at home.

Decide on the reasons why you want to work at home.

If you have 0-1 reasons, you DON’T WANT to work at home.

If you have 2-10 reasons, you WANT to work at home, but you are NOT SURE.

If you have more than 10 reasons, you REALLY WANT to work at home.

Why Writing Is Like Sex

Warning: This is not a dirty post. I try to make sure it is as clean as possible. Read at your own risk!

No, this is not about sex. This is about why writing is like sex.

Yes, I know it sounds like I am writing more about sex but trust me, writing is very similar to sex and in many ways.

A famous quote:

“Writing is like sex. First you do it for love, then you do it for your friends, and then you do it for money.”
— Virginia Woolf

To be honest, the quote is rather true.

1. First you do it for love.

I am sure all writers love to write. This is why they become a writer in the first place. Would you do something that you don’t like? I love to write, so I become a writer. I might not be good at writing, but I know if I love to write, I can learn to write. If I don’t like writing, no matter how many writing lessons I attend, I won’t be able to write excellently.

Most of us have sex because we are in love. If we are not in love, we won’t be able to enjoy sex. Do you enjoy your sex life as much as you enjoy writing?

2. Then you do it for your friends.

Ok, this is not really related to sex. At least I don’t see how it is related.

Sure your friend would ask for your help from time to time. Whether it is to write a press release for their sites or whatever it is they need to be written, you would be their first person to call for help because of your talent in writing – and sometimes you do it for free.

3. Then you do it for money.

Yes, you can earn money as a writer, so why not? In fact, some writers are making so much money that everyone wants to follow their footsteps. Even I do.

However, you won’t be able to earn thousands of dollars on your first day as a writer. You will need to work your way up though.

Now, Virginia Woolf is not the only one who mentioned this.

Stephen King

[photo credit: MSNBC]

In fact Stephen King has something to say about it:

In writing as in sex, the best advice is to relax and let nature take her course.

This is also very true. Why?

The first thing to understand is that you can never force yourself to write something if you have no interest in writing at all.

I have a friend who is really bad at writing and no matter how she convinced herself to write, she can never write a paragraph of story properly because she is not interested in writing. When the English examination is around the corner, she had to ask me to teach her how to write for the sake of the exam. When the day came, she could answer the questions properly but for the essay part, she did rather badly. Still she managed to pass (barely made it). Since then, she no longer writes.

She told me, no matter what happen, she would not write again. I said to her that not everyone can write and writing is something natural. Some people were born to be writers while others were not.

So, if you are working on a short story, focus on it. There is no need to work your short story into a novel if you can never find the words and the will to write it out. Nature will work out everything for you, whether you should stick to writing short stories or working on a novel.

The key is you have to love writing in order to be a good writer. The same as you have to be in love to totally enjoy sex with someone you love.

5 Ways Towards Happiness

I feel that I have to write about happiness in order to feel happy. I am really scared about losing a job.

Lose your job or having to find a new job? It is indeed depressing at this time of the era when the economy is not doing good and people losing their income when they need to provide for their family.

I am suffering at this moment considering that the currency exchange is never stable and in fact right now, it is dropping so I am losing more.

However, in times like this, there is always a way to put a smile on your face. Not easy to do that but I am sure there is no way you want to spend your life whining and regret about what happened to you.

Here are five ways to put a smile on your face.

1. Start by smiling. Yes, begin your day with a smile will ensure that the rest of your day is a pleasure. Even if smiling is not in your routine, you should learn how to smile every once in a while. Try to smile even when you don’t feel like smiling.

2. Make friends and spend more time with family. This is well said. Friends and family will keep you company even in the worst time.

3. Money is not going to buy long term happiness. I believe that money can buy us short term happiness such as we go on a shopping spree when we are upset but after feeling good about ourselves, we start to feel bad about spending too much, which will bring us back to the original state of unhappiness. Start putting family in priority rather than money.

4. Exercise. It is not only to live a healthy lifestyle but also to boost your confidence and happiness level.

5. Stop comparing with others. You have your own ability and others have their own. Stop envy others for being able to purchase whatever they want, a car or a house. Live your life according to your ability.

I know some of these are hard to do, but give it a try.

At least I would start by smiling 🙂

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