Writing for life

It took me all of fifteen minutes to set up this blog.

Fifteen minutes — from nothing to fully functional blog. Not bad hey?

I just installed WordPress through my hosting provider’s Control Panel, configured it and hey presto… a new website is born.

I run three other sites — www.imageinvitations.com, www.cjwriting.com and www.reenascreena.com — all of which run on the open source (as in completely free) content management system Joomla, which is a doddle to set up, easy to administer and has some pretty impressive features. There are plenty of others out there too — you can “suck them and see” at OpenSourceCMS.com.

About five years ago I was working as a Project Manager for a web software development company in Cork. They’d developed their own content management system and were building client sites using it. Bespoke dynamic sites could cost well over €100K to implement — now you get more features and almost unlimited expandability out of the box… and all for nothing.

It’s staggering!

If you want to set up your own website, but have a limited budget, check out open source options before getting a web developer — you could save yourself heaps of cash, and end up with a more functional site that you’re in control of. You can even get free templates for most of these systems online, which makes customising the look and feel of your new site a doddle, you can buy “premium templates” for a few Euro that usually come with full customisation instructions or if you want a truly bespoke design, you can hire a freelance designer who has experience of your chosen system to give your site that unique look.

Whatever you choose, chances are that choosing an open source framework for your website will save you time, save you money and deliver a site with all the bells and whistles you could ever want.

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Why is it that every time I open up a web browser I seem to fall into a black hole?

I go online to check my e-mail and look up one or two things. Three hours later, after navigating countless sites, browsing (and occasionally posting in) several forums (or should that be fora?) completely unrelated to my original quest, and comparison shopping for things I have no intention of buying, I eventually find myself on e-bay.ie bidding money I don’t have for things I don’t need. It’s mental!
Sometimes I wonder how we all managed before the internet — but more often these days I find myself contemplating how much more I’d get done without the constant distraction of a gazzilion websites just the other side of my browser.

Discipline… must have discipline.

Hey… there you go, I just found my New Year’s Resolution for 2007. I SHALL BE MORE FOCUSSED WHEN SURFING THE WEB!

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I write a weekly column on parenting in the WOW! (Women on Wednesday) supplement of The Evening Echo — one of Ireland’s leading regional daily newspapers. It’s been running continuously for over three and a half years now, and while the girls (twin 6-year-olds and their 3-year-old little sister) are an endless source of inspiration, sometimes it’s hard to find that spark.

Sure, I get good ideas for the column all the time — but I’m finding translating those ideas into a well-written and entertaining column is getting more difficult as time goes on. You’d think after 3½ years rattling off a 600 word piece would be easy — and sometimes it can take less than an hour — but more often I find myself staring at a blank screen wondering what I’m going to write about this week.

What I’ve come to realise is that when I’m struggling, it’s generally because I’m thinking about it too much… trying too hard.

The best writing flows almost effortlessly. If you find yourself labouring over a particular piece, it can often be better (deadlines permitting of course) to walk away — do something else for an hour or two, then come back to it. You’ll often find things easier when you revisit the piece, and that ease will shine through in the end result.

If you labour too much when you’re writing — whether it’s a piece of web content, an article, a marketing brochure… whatever — it tends to be reflected in the content. If something’s proving difficult to write, that generally translates into it being difficult or laborious to read… and that’s the last thing any writer wants.

By the way — if anyone out there has any hints and tips on keeping things fresh when it comes to long-term, ongoing writing assignments then I’m all ears.

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