It is the time of Absolute Write Blog Chain. This time (July 2009), the rule is different. We are supposed to answer the questions asked by our previous participant and then after answering the questions, we have to ask some questions to the next blogger in the chain. Harriet was before me in the blog chain and she put a set of questions for me:

What are your writing routines? Where do you work? How long? How often? What do you do when things aren’t going well? And what if they are?

You can find the entry of Harriet here: Blog Chain

Before answering the questions, I like to say a little bit about my background and my works. I studied English Literature for my BA and did my Masters in Applied Linguistics and ELT. Then, I joined teaching and also freelance writing. I mainly used to write for newspapers and magazines in my city in my mother tongue (Bengali) and in English. Since it is a very poor country, earning money through freelance journalism is very difficult. So, I tried my luck in Internet and could get some decent success in blogging as far as earning money is concerned. In fact, since I live in a poor country, I just need to earn a fraction of someone living in USA or in Europe. So, I am perhaps the only participant in this blog chain who is not a freelance writer but a full time blogger.

Now, I am providing the answers here:

My writing routines

I do not have any fixed writing routine. I try to write whenever I can.

Where I work?

I work in my home. It is my office too.

How long do I work?

I work from the time I get up from sleep to the time I go to bed. However, that does not mean that I write all that time. I have to manage many things. I teach 2 students (private tuition), I train 3 persons to become better bloggers and I read a lot about blogging and Internet publishing and marketing. So, for the actual writing, I give 4-5 hours a day.

When things aren’t going well

It used to happen a lot to me when I was a freelance journalist. Since I became a full time blogger, things are much more stable. When things aren’t going well, I try to read a lot and this helps me a lot to overcome the stress. Well, I have basically 2-3 big limitations. My Internet speed is just 2-5 KBPS and it slows down everything. Secondly, Paypal still does not support my country and there is no other facility to send and receive money through Internet (online). They bother me more than anything else. Otherwise, I am a hard working person and I can really dedicate for the things I like.

What went wrong?

In the past, when I was a freelance journalist, most of the time, my main problem was that I did not get paid at the right time. Well, I live in a very poor third world country and very few people actually earn decent amount of money (to maintain a middle class life style) through writing. So, sometimes, it became a nightmare for me when I was supposed to pay house rent within the first week of the month but I did not get paid for my articles that were published 3 months ago.

Now, things are much more stable. All I have to do is to write some content in my blogs and Google does the rest for me. It brings visitors and also some money through Adsense.

Next in line is Forbidden Snowflake. My questions for her are:

You live in country where English is not a very important language. Do you suffer from limited opportunities to find writing projects? As a person living outside of the United States, do you suffer any limitation in freelance writing? These days, many newspapers and magazines in Europe and America are suffering a lot of financial loss and many of them are cutting their budgets for freelance writing. Are you worried about your future as a freelance writer?

The participants in this blog chain are:

DniC
BigWords
Fokker Aeroplanbau
harri3tspy
razibahmed
Forbidden Snowflake
bsolah
jen.nifer
Lady Cat
Fame<Infamy
rosemerry
aimeelaine
Proach
Apelle
lostwonderer5
upsidedowngirl
JamieMT