Freelancer Journal Day Two (ish): "You Learn to Stumble, Before You Learn to Walk."

     Hello Readers,


     I don't know if you recognize the picture above, and if you don't, that's fine. I barely remember the movie myself. When I went to write this post today, I wanted to touch on something very painful for me, and I decided not to. I didn't do it because I was afraid to talk about it, but because I couldn't find a picture I was looking for. Does that make me lazy? Nah, it just makes me tired. Okay, maybe I'm a little lazy, but I just got back from a long walk with Christina and I's dog, Jak.

     On to the picture above. It comes from an old movie and this particular scene is from a song. The lyrics go, "You just put one foot in front of the other, and soon you'll be walking out the door, door, door!" and so on.

     Well you see, writing is a lot like learning to walk. As I said in the title, you've gotta learn to stumble before you can walk. I think anyone whose written anything (so everyone) can understand that the first time you go to do it, it's usually pretty crappy. I mean, when you're in school and cramming for a paper, you can bet every word on there is complete and total B.S, but that doesn't mean I didn't try. Lucky for me, I had the inherent ability to completely lie through my teeth while writing and still get a good score.

     When I first started doing Freelance Writing, it was scary. I made this whole profile on Elance, after creating an account, and I filled out all this tax information, and put a picture on there. Once it was set up, I didn't know where to go from there. I started applying to jobs, just anything that I thought I could do. It wasn't easy, and in most cases I didn't hear back, but there was that first time that someone replied. I had a client who wanted to pay me for my writing. This is how it started.

     I think the biggest thing you should take away from this post is this: you need to write out of your comfort zone. Sure I love horror, and science fiction. But, if someone asks you to write in a genre you're not familiar with, or completely comfortable with, you need to try and become okay with it. When you're first starting out, you're at the bottom. There are tons of people who will do what you do for less money and less time. You need to stand out.

     It helps if you're like me and you spent years writing your own stories that just sit on your computer. Stuff like that makes for great writing samples that you can use to make your application stand out. The other thing is not to use the same damn cover letter for each job. Read the description, get to know what the client wants, and appeal to that in your application. This is when the B.S stops and the real passion needs to show through.

     I've hand plenty of jobs through Elance alone and now I'm getting work through Odesk as well. I even have clients that I met on Elance and work with independently now. Anyone who loves to write  can do this, it just needs time and effort.

     One final note, and I'll discuss this more in my next post. When it comes to ghostwriting, you need to just do it. At the beginning, if you're doing this full time, you can't be obsessed with getting published. You need to make money before you can do that.

     That's all for now folks, thanks for reading and as always, be sure to tell your stories in the comments!

   Regards,
  Bradley "Yeldarb" Ramsey

Freelancer Journal Day One: "It Comes and Goes..."

     Hello readers,


     So I've been working as a full time freelance writer for, oh, about a week now. I promised on my Facebook (which I just started using again) that I would be chronicling my journey into the wide world of writing each and every day.

     Yeah, that didn't happen.

     Still, I've decided, just like the original "Success Baby" up there, to celebrate my foray into this wide world of writing by actually starting this journal/blog/place for me to talk to myself back up again. So, welcome one, and all (probably one). This blog is going to transform over the coming days, months, and years if we're lucky, into a place where writers can come to read about my highs, my lows, and my "eh" moments. I'm not here to brag (at least not all the time) and I'm not here to talk down to you. No, I'm here to show you my thoughts, my journey, and invite you to share your own.

     So, how did I start on this path? Well, I've wanted to be a writer since I was in middle school. Not even kidding. We had a fire drill one day and I was forced to sit outside my middle school with a composition book in one hand, and a brooding hatred for my English teacher in the other. We had always joked she was probably some kind of demon, but I decided to make that a reality in the pages of my composition book. And so, under the blazing sun in seventh grade, I wrote my story (that I remember).

     I had written stories before mind you, but this was the first one I remember. I know I won some kind of contest in elementary school for writing a story about velcro and Mars, or something like that, but I can't remember for the life of me what it was about. My composition book story started in ancient greece, showing a father and his son driving a demon out of their mother, only for the father to be killed and the son turned to stone.

     Fast forward to a modern era, and now that statue has been put on display by a teacher in the school. Meanwhile, the evil English teacher is suddenly possessed and proceeds to burn down her portable/classroom with her students in it! She then raises them from the dead and the only people who can stop here are some rag tag survivors who need to find a way to revive the man trapped in the stone statue. Sounds awesome, right?

     I don't know what happened to that story, but I do know that all of my greatest ideas flowed from that first spark of insanity. Today, I still chase that dream, and while I don't have that exact story, I have plenty more on the way.

      I don't want these posts to be overly drawn out, so we'll stop there for now. Tomorrow, we'll talk about how I got into the freelance industry, and how you can follow your dreams as well! The best part? It's not a pyramid scheme! Yay!

      Regards,
     Bradley "Yeldarb" Ramsey 

The First Step

Hello fellow Wanders,

I welcome you to my newly establish hub, or sanctuary as I'd rather call it. This place, entitled Imagine2Create, is a sanctuary for all things creative. All who would craft works from nothing, who would dare to pull ideas from the proverbial ooze of the collective unconscious. I am starting this blog as a place for my fellow writers, poets, and anyone else who feels the need to create, to come here and place their ideas into the view of the world without fear of shame or judgement.

All creations, from the simplest word, to the most grandiose soliloquy, deserve to be seen. People do not understand the true power of creation in the hands of us humans. They think that our capacity to craft worlds, characters, and events somehow comes naturally. We know that nothing could be further from the truth. Perhaps the gift is natural, but the skill is not. We hone our skills, we research, we read, and we learn.

We are the bearers of this gift and we wield its power with both excitement and fear. Emotions that any power should induce. Others will shoot your down, tell you your ideas are worthless, but I am here to tell you that anything is worthy of our eyes. You may not love your idea, or your poem, or even your novel, but someone will. I have been rejected countless times, and I expect to be rejected a thousand times more. It doesn't matter. Each rejection is a scar that heals over the wound it made. Each scar represents a part of me that came back stronger than before.

We are meant to be beaten down, so we can rise once again. Let them come with their criticisms because feedback is what gives us strength. You may see their criticisms as insults, but the opposite is true. Whatever faults they find are yours to mend and strengthen. They point out cracks in your wall so that you may seal them and become stronger for it.

Ladies and gentlemen, I care not from whence you came, I only seek to know where you are going. Tell me of your journey. Tell us your ideas, because we will embrace them here. Discuss feedback, suggest improvement, because alone we are weak. Together, in this sacred place, we are powerful beyond measure. We are writers, creators, and Gods amongst men. We must combine our power, share our knowledge, and bind ourselves together so that we may propel ourselves to heights never before dreamed of.

I look forward to hearing your stories, as I look forward to sharing mine.

Sincerely,
Bradley Ramsey

The Beauty of Dreams

Hello friends and strangers alike,

This is the first post on a blog that has been dormant for some time. Not that anyone has noticed, nor would I expect them to. This blog has never really been alive, more of a pipe dream that never got off the ground. A poor soul that was doomed from birth and left to fall into ashes. Luckily, this particular blog happened to be a phoenix, and so it has arisen from said ashes as something better, and hopefully more prosperous. Before we get into semantics, let me tell you a bit about myself.

My name is Bradley Ramsey, and I am a writer. You wouldn't think much from that statement, but I have indeed penned works that reside in the unknown halls of my computer hard drive and more so in my mind. I've self published stories, I've written articles, and I've worked freelance, but I've never known the fame or fortune of my contemporaries, and that's quite alright. I don't do this because I want money, or glory, or fame. I do this because I have to. Writing is an intrinsic part of me, the lining of my soul and the reason I exist. I have been gifted with the desire, the imagination, and the will to create entire worlds from nothing. I am the catalyst for stories.

Writing is more than a passion or a hobby for me. It's a dream. A goal that you chase relentlessly. It is truly a shame that everything in this world requires money because I would love to simply quit all my day jobs and just write because it makes me happy. I've been searching for a place, or a person who would help me in this endeavor. I almost had one dear readers. Almost, but not quite. I had been interviewed and called to write for a job where I would be referred to as a "Creative Writer." Quite the upgrade from my current full time job as a "Assistant Store Manager."

I waited, pushing through my grueling shifts at work for the last two weeks, only to find out today that someone else has been chosen over me. In this line of work, being disappointed is something you should expect, and be used to. If you can't handle the rejection, you'll just find yourself slowly turning inward until all you can do is hate from within, and it will constantly reverberate until you've convinced yourself that you can't write. But that's the thing, anyone can write, and everyone dreams.

It hurt, knowing that I'm stuck in this realm of retail for another undisclosed amount of time. It hurt worse than most things I've felt lately, and I've been trampled by my sixty pound dog Jak more times than I can count. This isn't the end though, but it could be. This is where I make a decision. On one hand, I can give up and let this dream shrivel and die just like this blog did so long ago.

On the other hand, I can take this defeat, this scar upon my body and use it as a stepping stone. I have been defeated, but not destroyed. The true test of a person is getting up when they've been knocked down. I'm still standing world, and nothing is going to stop me. Which brings me to the point of my post. A quote, from yours truly that I hope gets you through those tough times the way it helps me get through mine. Call me pretentious or what have you, but it's my blog and I sincerely wish to deliver whatever wisdom I can conjure for the people who have come here to read my thoughts. Here it is:

"The beauty of Dreams, is that they cannot die unless you let them. So long as you have hope and desire in you heart, your Dreams will follow you to the ends of the earth. And one day, you'll find them, only you won't be sleeping anymore." 

                     


Keeping chasing those dreams my friends. I know I will.

Sincerely,
Bradley Ramsey