Writing for Heart, Head and Hand

I'm free. Heart and head and hand, I'm free. Yes, I'm still paid for copywriting and for articles. That's the norm, being paid for writing. It's just that, since I don't work for someone else - I'm not on a payroll - I'm free to do what I want to do. I don't have the emotional buy-in to the place I used to work for. I know the point of having my own office. I have my own computer and my own words to persuade you to pay attention and to do something about what you read.

I am a writer. Copywriting and articles beckon me. They summon me with their words of unending possibilities.

Admittedly, there are easier ways to earn a living. Friends and family (gotta love 'em!) love to point out how competitive writing is. Yet, how much more is it than straight sales? Whether it's cars or shoes, the same dollars are vied for regardless which car lots or boutiques I go to.
So it is with writing, whether it's copywriting or articles or romance novels.

The biggest "competition" however, in my mind, isn't the sheer volume of words put out. It's the status quo. It's the inactivity that comes with "just can't be bothered to change" that's the hardest to overcome. This challenge can hit the savviest writer as well as the beginner.

Which is a big reason I finally broke with working for someone else. I wanted to pursue the worlds of words, of copywriting and articles. And yes, during the next four months, I'll write a romance novel too (already have the plot and the prologue).

It's a challenge I cheerfully (most days anyway) take up. I believe words make a difference. For centuries words have been - and still are - the catalysts between inaction and action. In English, 26 letters, put together in the best order, can prompt you to rise above the harshest life, or make that you buckle under the flimsiest veneer.

Action makes a difference too; I won't deny that. But, what started the action? Words. Thoughts before the action - ideas made up of words - created the decision to act. It is words that make you ignore the status quo.

Words. The first word of an infant is what Daddy listens for. The first word a child learns to spell is its own name. The words of a well-written letter compel action to save a child, an ocean, or the world. The words in an article push for action, if only to write a flurry of more words in a letter to the editor. The last "I love you" of a dying Mother lingers forever. Our lives, yours and mine, are expanded by every word we read or think about.

I write. I write well. I write succinctly. I write to touch the emotions, the feelings and the heart. I write to touch the mind, the logic and the head. I write to stir action, achievement and the hand. I write now to encourage you to write to that sibling you've lost track of, to insist on change in a law, to spur you to be the change you want to see.

This is why I make a living at writing. Because words are alive.

D. Kendra