What do Ernest Hemingway, Jack London and Virginia Woolf have in common – besides being famous writers? They all committed suicide. This is just the short list, too. Even the “Top Ten” list of famous literary suicides barely scratches the surface. As a breed, creative writers seem to be particularly suicide prone. Why?

Readers, swept away by the beauty, intelligence and poignancy of a great novel or poem, wonder how anyone so creative would even contemplate suicide. Wouldn’t someone with such penetrating insight into the human condition possess the detached brilliance of the Buddha? Wouldn’t their fame and the accolades they receive from their admirers be enough to buoy their spirits? Is the solitary nature of the vocation responsible for all the tragic deaths?

Psychologists believe they may have the answer to the question: in a word, it’s depression. A disproportionate number of creative writers have been diagnosed as manic depressive. In fact, the renowned poet, Anne Sexton, took up writing on the advice of her therapist, who felt it would be a good outlet for her. That was in 1956. She quickly began to receive accolades for her brilliant work, finally receiving the Pulitzer Prize in 1967, only ten years after she began writing. Seven years later, still at the pinnacle of her career, she committed suicide.

Manic Depression, today more commonly referred to as Bipolar Disorder, is characterized by violent mood swings. In artists, a burst of creative energy is followed by a period of intense self-criticism. Some psychologists suggest that it is this very combination that makes creative writing the natural career choice for manic-depressives. They follow a feverish round of creative activity with an equally intense round of proof-reading, editing and perfecting their original work.

Fortunately for writers everywhere, depression is not a requirement for the job. While writing does attract more than its fair share of suicides, the majority of writers live until a ripe old age. Such was the case with the brilliant British novelist, Alan Sillitoe. Sillitoe was at the forefront of the “Angry Young Men” writing movement in the 1950s. Two of his early novels, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner were made into films. A true “working class hero,” Sillitoe exposed the cruelty of a social system that relentlessly punishes the vast majority of its workers – the very people who are the backbone of industry.

Thank you, Alan Sillitoe, for giving a voice to the voiceless. You will be missed. Alan Sillitoe died on the 25th of April, 2010 at the age of 82.

Note: The source for much of the information in this article was a fascinating piece by William Grimes, Exploring the Links Between Depression, Writers and Suicide, first published in the New York Times, November 14, 1994.

When I was in school, writing was my strong suit. My essay writing skills were what got me accepted into university. I didn’t know it at the time, but this type of intelligence is called “Verbal/Linguistic Intelligence.” According to a now widely recognized learning theory, there are 7 main types of intelligence. These include:

• Visual/Spatial Intelligence
• Verbal/Linguistic Intelligence
• Logical/Mathematical Intelligence
• Bodily/Kinesthetic Intelligence
• Musical/Rhythmic Intelligence
• Interpersonal Intelligence
• Intrapersonal Intelligence

Naturally, we all have a mixture of all 7 types, but usually, one or two are dominant. In my case, Bodily/Kinesthetic Intelligence came a close second to Verbal/Linguistic, with Visual/Spacial Intelligence running third and the others somewhere in the distance. Hence, my career choices have included designing and building designer furniture (Bodily/Kinesthetic-Visual/Spacial) and writing (Verbal/Linguistic-Visual/Spacial). Now that I am older and no longer as physically active as I once was, writing has become a very fulfilling new career.

I stumbled across Multiple Intelligence theory while researching right brain/left brain and triune brain theories. Neuroscience is a subject I love, but it was beyond me when I was in college, largely because of the way it was taught, which was largely geared towards Logical/Mathematical thinkers.

We all have our intellectual strengths and weaknesses. Multiple Intelligence theory teaches you how to maximize your learning abilities by identifying and utilizing your stronger skills when you study. In my case, if a multiple choice exam was looming, I accidentally did well if it was preceded by some essay assignments. If my assignments were strictly memorization, I struggled to get Bs or Cs. Even though I loved the ocean, I failed Oceanography, but later learned a great deal about that and meteorology simply because I loved surfing and wanted to know where the waves were coming from and why (Bodily/Kinesthetic).

What is your strongest suit? You can find out more about learning styles on this fascinating website: Ldpride.net. It is also about learning disabilities and how to work with them. Highly recommended!

A slight variation on this blog appeared first by about 10 minutes as the first post on my new website, Writing Resources. WR came about as a consequence of an earlier blog here where I mused on the strengths and drawbacks of this website. It dawned on me that writing was how I made my living, but that I didn’t have a website to promote my career.  I’m still not sure it’s exactly as I’d like it to be, but I think it’s presentable, anyway. Please have a look and get back to me with your feedback.

I just finished watching the second half of the most brilliant movie. I know I’m behind the times, so Into the Wild may not be news to most of you, but it is to me. I had no idea what I was watching, but when it was over, I just had to try and find out. Even though it’s late, I’ve fired up the computer and googled the only line I remembered from the film: “Happiness only real when shared.” Every time I type or think those words, tingles go through my body. They are so true. Frighteningly, I almost shared the same fate as Christopher at just about his age, so they are even more poignant to me.

I must not be the only person who has been moved by those words, because when I googled them, there were many references to them. Tellingly, most of the references were in non-commercial blogs. One in particular caught my eye because it started out almost exactly as I have. “I merely searched ‘happiness is only real when shared’ onto google, … So by not knowing anything about Christopher McCandless and only …” is all it says in the excerpt in Google. Let’s open it up and see what this person had to say. Hang on just a second.

Well, that was interesting. The quote actually came from a comment on the blog post, not the post itself, which was a real shocker. I don’t know who the “real” Christoper McCandless was any more than anybody else does, but I do know that he was too young to be judged so harshly for following his own chosen path and, tragically, dying in the attempt.

Remarkably, although the blog post was written in 2007, the comment I googled was written in February 2010. Just more evidence that Christopher McCandless moved a lot of people and continues to do so. Here is a paragraph from the comment:

I merely searched “happiness is only real when shared” onto google, and somehow your article came up. Only God knows how, because this is completely irrelevent to the statement “happiness is only real when shared”. This has to be the best movie I have ever seen in my life. Not only does it open your mind to so much information, it makes you feel less alone, less misunderstood. This movie is for the people who ARENT preprogrammed into thinking that this society is something we should grow accustomed to, and learn to accept and love. This society is truly sickening. Like “Truth” stated below ‘society has its benefits, but it also creates the worst in many and destroys the beauties of life’. I havent seen such a true statement in a long time.

I’ve just scrolled down to “Truth’s” comments on the blog post. He says a lot of great things and backs them up with quotes from McCandless’s diary. Here’s one of the quotes, from a letter McCandless wrote to a friend:

The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun. If you want to get more out of life, Ron, you must lose your inclination for monotonous security and adopt a helter-skelter style of life that will at first appear to you to be crazy. But once you become accustomed to such a life you will see its full meaning and its incredible beauty. And so, Ron, in short, get out of Salton City and hit the Road.

Does this contradict Chris McCandless’s final entry? Not at all, in my opinion. He was a young man on a Vision Quest, seeking wisdom or, as we say more mundanely today, he was a young man searching for himself. Clearly, he found wisdom when he printed the words, “Happiness Only Real When Shared” between paragraphs in a book he had been reading. Sadly, he died in the quest. Perhaps, though, that is not as sad a fate as is the fate of those who choose a safer route.

The movie was on Cinemax here, which usually specializes in old Chuck Norris films and the like. Usually they screen movies at least a dozen times a month, so hopefully I’ll be able to see it from start to finish. Again, it’s called Into the Wild and has a stellar cast. See it if you can. Better yet, read the book.

Here’s a link to the blog I’ve been referring to: http://www.nablopomo.com/profiles/blogs/997435:BlogPost:29578. Try to show some compassion towards the original poster before you scroll down to the comments.

And here’s a link to an article written by John Krakauer, the author of Into the Wild: http://outside.away.com/outside/features/1993/1993_into_the_wild_1.html in Outside magazine. Krakauer also wrote a great book about a mountaineering expedition gone horribly wrong titled Into Thin Air. I read it back in my rockclimbing days.

I’ve been working online for about two years now. Last week I discovered just how much I’ve learned. I submitted a proposal to write a Press Release and some articles to promote an upcoming documentary on the Discovery Channel. As it turned out, they needed more research than writing. Since half my job is research, I felt comfortable accepting that part of the job as well. Because I’ve worked for a major SEO company and am always reviewing SEO services and software, I also mentioned that I could help them out there, too.

The job spread out over the course of the week. First, the client wanted to review my Press Release. Then they wanted me to edit their original PR. Then came the job of finding appropriate websites and PR services for posting the PRs and attaching video clips. When all that was done, I was asked to do the posting.

Generally speaking, this type of work is outsourced to India or the Philippines, but the client had tried that and discovered that their Indian SEO firm, while competent enough in some respects, was unable to pinpoint their niche. It is a large enough niche, but also a very tribal one. If the content provided was not written in their jargon, it would backfire on them and if they paid to have it posted in bulk to all the article directories, it would just be a waste of  money.

I just finished up the job yesterday afternoon and am as “happy as Larry,” whoever he is. Within 6 hours, my PRs and videos had already been read and viewed hundreds of times and I knew that every single one of those readers and viewers now knew where and when they could view the documentary and where they could go to purchase DVDs from the company. Furthermore, I knew that they would be passionately interested in buying those DVDs. In other words, I had successfully targeted my client’s market.

Meanwhile, in my efforts to get more traffic to my own website, I have learned some harsh truths in the past few weeks. I love my little online bookshop and want people to come and visit. I’ve taken steps to increase traffic and have had some success. However, although over 300 people have clicked through to the brainwave entrainment software affiliate link I have, I am yet to make a single commission. I get almost no traffic to my bookshop and am yet to make a sale there, either.

While I say these are “harsh truths,” it is exactly what I suspected would happen. I have too many interests and instead of focusing on one niche, I write about a number of things. This article, for instance, is about internet marketing. While I do have some excellent affiliate links for the best affiliate program internet marketing tools on the market, I have not established myself as an authority on the subject and have not focused on writing content about it. Therefore, only pure chance would lead to somebody actually clicking through to one of my affiliate programs, much less subscribing to it.

I don’t want to spend the rest of my life writing content promoting other people’s products and services, so I know the day is coming when I will have to find a market niche that I can fill in my own unique way. In the meantime, here are a few quick tips for those of you who are trying to get online exposure and/or sell your products or services online:

1) If you outsource your article writing, you will get what you pay for. Cheap articles are cheap in every sense of the word. If it’s bulk writing you are looking for, you are far better off employing a good writer who can write good article sets for mixing for you.
2) If you are looking for SEO, employ a service that understands your market and can target it for you. Everybody knows about keyword optimization and automated submission services. If you only play the game that way, you will be playing against competition that has a much bigger SEO budget than yours.
3) If you are desperate for money, don’t look to internet marketing as your saviour. You’ll just end up getting suckered by “gurus” who tell you they can show you how to make a five figure monthly income.

I think it was Abraham Lincoln who said, “You can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all the people all the time.” I know for a fact that most of those guys who try to hustle “turnkey profit making systems” are not who they say they are. Stay away from them and stay away from affiliate programs that even smell like pyramid schemes.

Find your niche. Make it something you’re passionate about. Only hire help when you can afford it and when you do, don’t grab the lowest bid – take the best bid for the money. Now here’s my sales pitch: if you want a good writer, click here.

For an example of my PR writing, click this link to read the Press Release I mentioned at the beginning of this article. There’s a great big wave surfing video clip attached to it.

Well, it’s been a busy weekend. I got a gig writing content and researching for an upcoming surfing documentary to be released by the same people who made the Emmy award winning Storm Surfers videos. I did a little preliminary browsing for links and spent far too much time looking at surfing video clips. I’m not on the payroll, yet, though, so that’s okay.

It seemed like a good break from all the self development “deep thinking” I was doing last week, but clearly, even in the world of surfing, people think about karma. I pinched the cartoon above from a surfing website.

During my browsing for surf video sites, I also ran across a name that is very familiar to me. Alby Falzon made the classic surf films, Morning of the Earth and Crystal Voyager. I’ve often wondered what happened to Alby Falzon and discovered that he went on to make several documentaries about arcane spiritual traditions and traveled to some of the most remote regions of SE Asia and the Himalayas to film a variety of religious festivals. There is little else about him online and I could only find one link to any of his more recent work and no direct link to him. Although I don’t think it will be a hot seller on my blog (what is?), here’s a link to his Searching for Michael Peterson DVD. Michael Peterson is an iconic surfer from the seventies. He was one of the best surfers in the world in the 1970s. He was brilliant in the water but terribly withdrawn outside the water. Later he was diagnosed as schizophrenic. It’s probably a great DVD.

I’ve never met him, but I wish I knew Alby Falzon. He and I seem to share many of the same feelings about surfing. At heart I was always a “soul surfer” – there was nothing I liked more than surfing alone on big waves and in remote surfing spots. I even wrote a novel about it. One of these days I’ll offer it here.

I also finally got around to rearranging the bookshop. It’s not done yet, but it’s getting there. Check it out.