I figured I needed to put something on this blog about writing, even though I’m still not finished with the overall layout. I’ve lost my original focus and lost a lot of free time to explore the writing process. Perhaps I just lost my desire to write. I seem to get pulled away form writing and pushed toward writing, all at the same time. It’s a conflict that feels familiar to me, like I’ve been pushed and pulled from one creative concept to another throughout my life. The only creative avenue I’ve stuck with all these years is hairstyling and I wanted to quit doing that many times. Had it not been my primary means of income, I probably would have quit a long time ago.

When I started exploring writing as a creative outlet, I didn’t think of it as a way to earn money. I thought of it as a way to say something important in my own unique way. Somewhere along the road to writing bliss, I got lost and my inspirations were left behind on an unknown path I didn’t travel. I can’t seem to find my inspiration, my passion for writing a story with meaning, a story that might inspire others. The desire lingers in the back of my mind but the fire is barely an ember and can not burn without fuel. Every once in a while I throw a stick on the ember and it ignites but quickly looses momentum and surrenders to just being an ember. What I am very aware of is that I stopped writing when I stopped journaling and I stopped journaling when my father died. My fathers death probably affected me more than I want to admit and in ways I’ve yet to discover.

Humm, I didn’t mean to go off on a tangent. Maybe I will explore the deeper aspects of how my fathers death affect my writing at a later time. I actually started this post to complain about a site I found while looking for blogs about the writing craft. Blogit appears to have some good blogs on writing as well as most everything else one can imagine. My complaint is that you have to pay to read the information. Hell, you even have to pay to join and have your own blog. I’m not opposed to paying for the space a blog takes up, I pay for the space for this blog but I get to have my own URL and traffic for the price I pay. I am, however, opposed to having to pay to read the material. Yes, the writes earn a stipend for everyone that reads their blog regardless of how good or bad their material might be.

What happened to sharing information? The Internet was once coined the Information Highway. Now it has become the ecommerce highway. Everyone wants to make a buck off the technology or the use of the technology. When we have to start paying for information, the information is no longer information, it’s a product and as such it’s no longer accessible to everyone. Surely there are ways to earn income from the technology without denying the information to those who can’t pay? It’s a sad state of affairs in my opinion. I had hoped that the blogging phenomena would keep information free and readily available to anyone wanting it but I should have know that the marketing gurus would latch onto a good thing and turn it into a money making machine.

I know, I know … for the most part blogs still offer their information for free. I was just disappointed when it looked like I found a few good blogs on the writing craft only to discover that I had to pay to read them and if I linked to them as an informational source, I’d be advertising their services instead of offering my readers an informational resource. The money doesn’t change the fact that it is still a resource but it does change its accessibility for some.

There is my rant for the day. Maybe I’ll find another issue to rant about tomorrow.