Disappointment in Majority Rule

Recently, my writer's group was given an opportunity to write for a company who owned a travel website for our city.

The offer was this:

The website generated 30,000 hits per month from travelers interested in what to do, where to eat, and what to see. The company was hoping to get some local writers to give the website an edge over the competition.  How much more interesting would it be to visit a website and get personal travel tips and ideas from locals? 

On the downside, no monetary compensation could be offered at this beginning stage of the site development.

Sadly, my group voted to turn down the offer. They didn't believe that "writing for free" was a benefit to them.  I don't know most of the group members well, but I didn't imagine most of them were getting 30,000 monthly hits on their personal websites or blogs - I don't yet - but even if they are, they were unable to see the value of 30,000 ADDITIONAL readers.

I understand not wanting to give your work away, but I'm not sure how 30,000 guaranteed readers can be a bad thing. The company was willing to give us our own spot to promote our blogs and websites for free. Seemed to be a fair trade to me. We weren't being asked to write novels for nothing...just short pieces to give tourists an insider's view.

It seemed so easy to me.  Put 250-500 words on the page, draw new readership to your blog, and increase your visibility.  A half hour to an hour you've got it written and proofread. As a local, there shouldn't be much time taken up with research - we already know what we like. I recommend things to newcomers all the time.

I still don't understand the argument made against writing for this website, but I've gained a new insight into what writing should be. Let us not, as writers, ever become too big for our britches or too important to write just for the love of it. Once in a while, it's OK to give back. 

New Women's History Blog

I'm passionate about women's history and several years ago, it was the topic of a column I wrote for Ms.Adventure. Sadly, the publication closed due to lack of funds. While women's history is becoming more mainstream than when I was in school, it seems to me, there is still a void to be filled. I hope Her Own Vision is part of the solution.

Published article titled "Through the Trials, Comes the Triumph" in The Post and Courier, Charleston, South Carolina on June 1, 2012.

Writer's Digest Contest #41

I just submitted an entry to the Writer's Digest Contest #41. Write the first line to a story with the three words: Cinderella, midnight and behave. Deadline is April 10, 2012.

New Home, New Writer's Group

Since moving to South Carolina in September, I've been missing one very important part of my life:

I haven't written diddly squat.

Sure, a certain amount of this can be dismissed by the stresses of a cross country move, starting a new job, and being without my husband for the first three months. Now that he's here and I'm able to find my way around without having my hand held by my GPS device, it's time to refocus.

I've joined a writers' group I found on Meetup.com. This amazing website allows you to find other people who share your interests anywhere across the United States. For writers, this is particularly valuable because writing is a largely solitary activity.

For me, the strength of these groups is in seeing how other people's minds work. For example, everyone in the group looks at the same photograph and writes whatever comes to mind. Sometimes stories are similar, but never are they the same. It opens my mind to other possibilities, other stories.

Let it open yours.