I’m writing this on Write or Die: Dr Wicked’s Writing Lab. I’ve set the challenge to 250 words and 10 minutes.

I’m one of those writers who sometimes needs a challenge to get work done. I love downloading new writing software, especially if they make creating fun. Yeah Write and the Q10 programs were my favorite programs, but once I switched to a Mac, they were no longer available to me. What was fun for me about both of them was how you could work in different screens, in different formats, in different fonts and colors.

I don’t typically like blank white screens. I love black screens where the words appear in white or green. Even though I learned typing on a computer, the sound of typewriter keys makes me feel more creative.

When wannabe writers become professionals, we sometimes lose that creativity and that fun that drew us to writing and creating in the first place. It becomes all about deadlines, grammar, writing for the readers, and getting it right. We forget to enjoy it. We forget that the act of creating itself is what was attractive about this career and this lifestyle. Being published and paid is just icing.

Of course, if writing is your career, you should treat it as such. Write every day, submit your stories on time, treat your editors professionally, know the needs of the market, ask to be paid well for your work. But don’t forget to have fun.

Because that’s why you chose this.

I’m arguing with myself daily. My career’s going in so many directions at once, all of which I’m really excited about, and there doesn’t seem enough time in the day to fit all of them in. I’m going to need to make some choices.

I continue to write for magazines because I love that work and because I do need the money. I also want to maintain those contacts and those assignments. Then there’s an investigative reporting class I’m taking, which I enjoy so much that I always want to be updated on what’s going on with it. And I’m working on at least one big project there. Oh, and then I’m beginning to learn video, and there are videos to be made, submitted, critiqued. I’m learning what makes a good news website, and I’m also laying the groundwork for a future business. And the dream of a book continues.

But I also know that life is a constant series of choices. Coming to Berkeley was a big one. It came at a time when one of my dream publications was willing to buy regular work from me as a correspondent in New Delhi. The whole point of going to journalism school or learning the craft is to be able to work for a publication like that, yet I’ve always jumped on opportunities to learn and grow. I eventually figured that the publication would hopefully still be around when I was in Berkeley or once I was done with it. But when again was I going to get the chance to live in America and be a part of such a prestigious journalism community?

I’m convinced now, more than ever, that I made the right choice, but at the time it was something I struggled with.

Now again, I have so many choices, so many directions. Berkeley’s such a great school, and I’m learning so much, it sometimes blows my mind. I have to pinch myself often to believe that I’m actually here.

If you write 4 articles per month at $200 per assignment, you make $9,600 a year, I wrote on my blog a few days ago. If you write the same four articles at $2,000 per assignment, you make $96,000.

(See blog entry: http://www.mridukhullar.com/journal/2008/03/18/numbers/)

The trick is, a reader commented, to go from that $200 to $2,000. How do you do it? Here are some tips:

http://www.fundsforwriters.com/from$200to$2000.htm