If you’re having trouble establishing a writing habit, it may be because you don’t think of yourself as a writer. Call yourself a writer first. This may sound silly. You may be thinking, “well, I only make a few dollars from writing,” or even a few cents. That doesn’t matter; if you write, you are a writer.

Start with the name.

I’ve been writing every day for over a year and made money after the first month. But I’ve always considered myself a writer. Even when I was writing in a journal daily for my own satisfaction.

Identifying with the…

Nomadland will mostly walk away with at least one Globe this Sunday. If not more. Not only is it well-acted and beautiful to look at, but it also paints an accurate picture of the American dream for most people in this country after they’ve worked for 40 years plus in a minimum wage job — nothing. And sometimes, still have to enter the gig economy in their retirement years just to afford to eat.

Nomadland is based on the book “Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century” by Jessica Buder, a journalist who writes about subculture. She spent months living…

So you’d like a writing career, eh? It sounds fun. Right? Just post a few articles on Medium a couple of times a week, and you could be making up to 10K a month while fulfilling your dreams of being a writer. You see visions of yourself sipping espresso in a café, dressed head to toe in black with a copy of Viktor E. Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning next to you while you ponder the larger questions of life and put the answers into coherent sentences for your audience so they know the them too.

The reality is, it is much harder than that.

Some stats and background: My last payout was close to 6K, but that took a ton of effort.

What it took:

So you’d like a writing career, eh? It sounds fun. Right? Just post a few articles on Medium a couple of times a week, and you could be making up to 10K a month while fulfilling your dreams of being a writer. You see visions of yourself sipping espresso in a café, dressed head to toe in black with a copy of Viktor E. Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning next to you while you ponder the larger questions of life and put the answers into coherent sentences for your audience so they know the them too.

The reality is, it…

It doesn’t matter that something I’ve written before turned out well — received a ton of views, clasps, and shares. My last notable piece of writing or viral story will never write my next one for me or the one after that.

This is what makes writing challenging.

Each day, you have to decide to write. Like you choose to make your relationship a priority. If you have a love of writing, it’s similar to other loves. You have to work at it if it’s important to you.

You have to get over that feeling, ugh, do I really have…

Woody Allen is one of my favorite directors. I studied his films in college, have seen Annie Hall more than 25 times as well as Manhattan and Crimes and Misdemeanors. Annie Hall and Crime and Misdemeanors are near-perfect films. I don’t think there is a Woody Allen film I haven’t seen several times. The name I gave my daughter came from one of the characters in one of his films.

These reasons aren’t why I have my doubts about the sexual abuse allegations against him.

At the time of the famous Allen v. Farrow custody battle in the early 1990s…

Since keeping a journal as a child, I’ve considered myself a writer, long before being paid a dime. But not until I made an income from my work did I take a closer look at some things in my life that were holding me back from greater success.

I knew I had to make some changes and even give up some habits to gain the kind of success I want to see from my efforts.

Here are Seven

1. Ego

Rejection doesn’t feel good. It is a hit to our self-esteem. We tend to take it personally, so we do anything to avoid rejection. Even…

Senator Ted Cruz seems confused about what constitutes “hypocrisy” and what doesn’t. His recent tropical getaway to Cancún only two days into his state’s power and water crisis left even his friends aghast, striking an even lower bar for Cruz when the bar is pretty low already.

Cruz attacked Democrat Mayor Stephen Adler of Austin not too long ago in December for taking a trip to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, while telling his constituents to “stay home” during the pandemic.

This week Cruz took a trip to Cancún, Mexico, at the start of a severe state weather crisis on top…