Well, here’s why:

1. Night Owl

I won’t deny the fact that I have always been a night owl.  I work better past 11pm, and find that not only are my ideas are sharper but my mind is more creative.

There is also something serene and peaceful about the night that brings out the best in me.  Perhaps it is the idea that there is nobody to disturb me at this hour, or perhaps I just simply enjoy being awake while others are sleeping.

2. The Troubled Pregnant Mind

I don’t know about other mothers, but I find myself generally more restless at night.  Sometimes I can’t sleep and my mind goes spinning around in circles over events of the past, things of the present and possibilities of the future.  I figure that if I can’t sleep anyway, I might as well be up doing something useful.

3. Peace and Quiet

Aside from the fact that I am usually the only one awake, there really is no one to disturb the flow of my thoughts and writing.  If I was aware of this on a subconscious level, I think it made itself abundantly clear today when I attempted to write in the evening while my son was still awake.

Now that there are more people in the house, additional eyes to watch my son and additional bodies to entertain him, I thought I might at least find some time to myself during the “regular” hours of the day instead of having to stay up into the wee hours of the night.  Not so.

Have you ever tried writing an article with a toddler interrupting you every five to ten minutes with a question or a comment?  Or how about when he climbs into your lap and attempts to “help” you key in letters into your wordprocessor? Well, it makes it virtually impossible to get anything coherent down on the screen.

I think the last reason, more so than the first two, that makes it so much more conducive for me to write at night after my son has gone to sleep.  Even if he stirs and wakes up in the night, the interruptions are few and far between (unless it is a troubled night – e.g. when he’s sick or teething, in which case I know it is not going to be a writing night for me).  Additionally, even if he does stir, he is usually fairly easily settled again.

Finally, I think that if I don’t do this now, I doubt I’m going to have time to myself again for a while once the baby is born.

Just by writing an article on my blog and attaching the appropriate text link, I could earn on average $5 per blog post containing a minimum of sixty words.  Sounds pretty easy doesn’t it?  And indeed it usually is, except for the cases where I am given specific words to incorporate into my post which are grammatically complicated.

Yet, despite the fact that I can write a sixty word piece and earn at least $5 for it, I still prefer to choose my own topics to write about on Helium where I can earn anything between zero to $1.  Yes, some of my Helium articles earn me $0 in royalties, and these are articles that I spend considerable time researching and composing.  They are also at minimum 400 words long, but usually in the range of about 700 to 1400 words long.

So why on Earth would I prefer to work harder to earn less?

Well I’ve finally come to realise that my desire to write for personal gratification is far greater than my desire to earn money from what I write.  Although I am still on the blogger’s role to write paid posts and do write these paid posts on occasion, I find myself looking more eagerly for topics to write about on Helium.  I also find myself taking greater pride in the work I produce on Helium compared to the paid blog posts which I almost never look at again after writing them.

When I write on Helium, I look back over my articles and I do on occasion attempt to improve them in the hopes of gaining a better rating.  With paid blog posts, there is no challenge and no desire to improve my writing craft.  Oh sure the money is easy and nice to have, but there is no satisfaction in what I write.

I guess this is one of those cases where you could say “money isn’t everything”.

Why do you write?  Is money or personal satisfaction a stronger motivator?

That was what I told my SIL2 when she said I was extremely competitive after expressing a desire to see my name at the top of the Wii Fit highscore list.  Well, it is true.  I’m not necessarily interested in beating others.  I just like to see my name at the top of a list.  That is the thrill I derive from writing articles for Helium and seeing my article appear as number one on the list.

Since I have finally accepted the fact that I either need a lot more practice with my creative writing or that I should give it up completely, I have turned my focus to writing factual articles.  Having studied five years of dentistry, I thought I should at least utilise the information I learned to help me dominate the dental category on Helium.

To my horror, my dental article was not as well received as my earlier parenting articles.  I wrote an detailed article about preventing tooth cavities and was appalled that it didn’t fly straight to number one the way my other articles did.  This was a topic about teeth – something I spent five years studying – and I couldn’t even write a number one article out of four for it?

So I went to check out the competition – something I never bother to prior to writing my article because I don’t want to be unduly influenced by what they write.  I hate to sound arrogant, but I still think my article was more informative and useful.  I can’t for the life of me understand why I was rated lower than the number one and two articles for this topic.

Okay, okay, you win some and you lose some.  I hear you.  But this is about teeth!  I could accept it if it was any other topic but teeth!

My SIL2 suggested that maybe I was too technical with my topic.  After all, that is generally a problem for individuals who know too much about a topic.  Being too familiar with the jargon we tend to use them like everyday words and forget that the regular lay people might not understand.  So I went back and rewrote my article for the lay person.

Let’s see how it goes…

In the end, the only thing I did do that contributed in anyway to my writing was surf Helium was interesting topics that I might want to write about.  The benefit of having done that was that it helped me create a pool of ideas that I could mull over during the day, and mull over them I did.  I even found myself developing angles for topics I had initially dismissed because I was struggling to think of what to write for them.

Although I don’t seem to be immune to the problem of writer’s block, at least I have found a relatively effective method to get around it.  It doesn’t exactly resolve the problem of wasting essential time that seems to be scarce these days, but at least it presents progressive a road forwards.

So here’s a little tip from me about breaking out of the writer’s block rut:

When you find yourself uninspired and struggling to coin two words together, don’t worry.  Stop trying to make a stone bleed by forcing the words to come out.  Chances are, whatever you write would only be mediocre at best.  What you should do before turning off the computer or putting your pen down is to make a list of ideas that you want to write about.

Brainstorm until you have a good list of ideas of topics you can write about the next time you come back to the computer or pick up your pen.  Don’t worry if you can’t even begin to think of an angle for any of these topics, just write the idea down anyway.  Remember, you’re having writer’s block.  If you’re struggling to write, it’s probably the same thing impairing your ability to think of a good angle to write from.

Once you have your list, read through it and remember the salient points.  Then go away and do something else – preferably something that leaves your mind relatively free to ponder over your list on its own accord.  In other words, don’t watch a movie or play computer games.  Ideally, it should be an activity that takes you out of the house.  Something like grocery shopping would work well.  If nothing comes to you, then spend the night sleeping over it.

When you next come back to the computer, you’ll be surprised by the flow of thoughts that have been taking place in your head.  It might have been conscious or it might even be subconscious.  Regardless, you should find it a little easier to build upon the ideas that you jotted down previously.

Recently, I started a project to increase the number of articles I have on Helium to determine just how effective Helium is for generating an income.  Unfortunately, I didn’t get very far with it.  My plan to write more articles was set in motion over a month ago and, to date, I’ve only added eight new articles.  To further the disappointment, none of the articles I’ve added has earned even one cent.

It seemed almost like a purposeless exercise until I edited an article for resubmission and discovered that my article went straight to the number one position.  Inspired, I wrote a few more articles in non-competing categories to add to my collection and eventually got brave enough to attempt the more challenging categories.

Another three more articles made it to number one – I’m talking number one out of twenty over articles, not number one out of one or even two (well, they were number one at the time I wrote this blog post).

• Tips for Avoiding Tantrums in Toddlers
• Breastfeeding Tips
• Breastfeeding is Best

The satisfaction of seeing my article at the top of the list has only fueled my desire to write more for Helium, irregardless of the financial rewards.  I guess my desire to write stems from more than just the desire to generate some extra pocket money.  There truly is some personal satisfaction derived from excelling in the craft above and beyond being paid for it.

Although I’ve always known this deep down inside from the fact that I would happily continue blogging with no financial rewards (for indeed that was initially what I did do when I started my first blog), the problem with blogging is that there is no way to gauge just how good your writing really is.

Sure, the number of loyal readers can be one way to measure the popularity of your blog, but blog readership is more a matter of successful marketing with quality writing being secondary.  Your blog could be one of the best blogs in terms of quality writing and you could still have very few readers if your blog marketing efforts are poor.  Similarly, a poorly written blog with useful content and excellent marketing could have a blog readership in the thousands.  Blog readership doesn’t really tell you how good you are as a writer.  It just tells you how interesting your writing content is and how well you market your blog.

The main benefit of writing on Helium is the ability to see how well your articles rate against other similar articles which offers some guide to how well you fare as a writer as opposed to being a marketer with interesting information to share.

Curious, I clicked on one of her articles and found them to be very thorough and very reader friendly.  I noticed on one of her articles that she had a five star writer’s rating (and here I am patting myself on the back for having two stars!) and naturally assumed she must be a dentist or someone in the healthcare field at least.

When I clicked on her name, I was blown away by the fact that she held the pole position on quite a number of her articles.  The fact that she had pole position on numerous articles wasn’t the amazing part, it was the fact that her article was number one out of as many as 40 to 60 articles.  Not only that, but her articles were right across the board.  She didn’t just write about dentistry, or even health-related topics, but she had articles under home and garden, entertainment, food and drink, parenting and pregnancy – even politics!

Lesson learned – you can write about anything and be good at it as long as you’re interested in the topic and willing to do the research for it.

“A jack of all trades and the master of none” – that’s what happens when you try to be good at everything – you end up being mediocre at everything but never brilliant at anything.

Then again, I tell myself there is a long of linkage between what I’m doing. Between writing on Helium, on Hubpages, on my blogs and submitting my articles to article directories – they are all part of the process of achieving the goal of making a written presence on the internet.  If my aim is to be known as a writer, then wouldn’t it make more sense to have articles on as many sites as possible?  Wouldn’t that be better than being really well known only on one site?

Dilemmas, dilemmas…

And if that weren’t enough, I don’t even seem to be sure of what sort of writing or subject I want to be recognised for.  Do I want to be a fictional writer or a factual writer?

If it is fiction, then what sort of fiction?  Romance?  Science-Fiction?  Fantasy?  Crime?  Chic Lit?

If it is factual, what subject?  Parenting?  Sports?  Health?

Without a definite goal, it’s no wonder I don’t seem to be getting anywhere fast.  I am interested in all these topics but I don’t have the time to pursue them all.  And yet, I’m still struggling to decide which is the topic closest to my heart.

So how should I decide?  Does anyone have any ideas?

After submitting a couple of articles to Ezine Articles for publication, I was delighted to discover that not only have they have been approved, I have also been given the title of “expert author“.  It looks I really was too hasty in judging the quality of my writing after all.

Although I have yet to get a proper assessment on my creative writing skills, I think as far as informative health and parenting articles goes, I might actually have something.  What a relief…

As much as I would really like to be an author of a best selling novel, I think I would still be happy just being recognised for my writing – regardless of the type and style.  Given the recent low I had been feeling towards my writing, it is nice to be able to revel in some achievements – no matter how small.

Let’s hope there will be more to come.  It inspires me to write more.

What happened?  Well, sometime back I rewrote my article on “Sleep Apnoea” for resubmission.  It was quickly rejected but I hadn’t realised that the time that the reason for rejection was because of poor formatting.  I hadn’t previewed the article to see how it would appear once it was published.

That’s the problem when you cut and paste your articles.  For some strange reason, there is always some strange “unseen” codes added to the article that don’t appear when you initially paste the article into the writing box but they show up after you’ve published the article.

Anyway, after correcting the formatting and resubmitting the article again, it shot up to the top of the list and is currently in pole position *pats self on the back*.  That change is also likely the cause for bumping up my writing score.

It still isn’t a star for creative writing, but it is a step in the right direction.  I guess it is a little too soon to trade in my keyboard and give up professional writing altogether…

On the flip side, however, my score on Hubpages is dropping again.  I think there is something to be said about publishing articles on a regular basis.  When I am consistently active on Hubpages, my score remains above 80 and has even broken the barrier into the 90s – given that I am writing useful articles, that is.

Looks like we’re back to square – there is no substitute for writing if you want to get better at it.

From the really Asian perspective, you could say I was altering the Feng Shui of my room for better energy flow – not that I knew anything about Feng Shui or even how specific changes in the furniture might affect energy flow.

Whatever it did, the effect seemed to produce the desired end result – which was a more industrious me.  I found myself able to study better, work harder, etc.

Since that tactic worked so well for me when I was younger, I thought I would do something different to the layout of this blog to inspire me to write more often and hopefully better.

After working on it for the bulk of an evening, this is what I’ve come up with.  Now let’s hope I didn’t waste my evening.