Flitter Flutter Losing Focus

The past few days have seen me finding it hard to concentrate again as my Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) kicks in.

I wonder sometimes if this isn't cyclic, since some things do happen on a monthly cycle? Maybe it's related to the moon cycle, but I think in my case my Attention Deficit Disorder is strongly linked to my frustration level.

I ended the week publishing a Movie Trivia Quiz, which was received very well, and then started the weekend adding another quiz, which people seem to have enjoyed, but as the weekend dragged on, with tasks for me to do that I didn't relish doing, my frustrations began to build, and with them my inability to do anything but sit and play stupid games, like Farmville.

　

　

Associated Content Page Views

I am by nature a creature that needs to know how things are going, especially since I keep trying to succeed and more often than not fail to achieve the goals that I set for myself.

I am constantly looking for that golden topic where I can write an article and have it picked up and viewed by the masses, but to date the only article that has really gone close to achieving this is one that I wrote about Chat Roulette. That only picks up about 50 page views a day, but it's a start. Enough of these and I will have a constant stream of page views coming in, but 50 is still nothing compared with some authors on Associated Content who claim 30,000 page views or more on a single article. That is as many as I have had since I have been on Associated Content!

And so every day I wait patiently for the stats to update on Associated Content to see how my articles from the previous day have performed, and the last few days have been extremely frustrating for many of us with the update process being broken, and so all weekend I had no idea how things were going, the only indicators that I had were the number of comments received on my articles.

Last night (Monday) at least we saw the updates completed, but oh boy Sunday turned out to not be a good day for me with page views. I had published a slide show on the Lizard Peninsula in Cornwall as well as my second Movie Quiz, but the page views for the day were less than any day in the last two weeks. I put it down to it being Mothers Day in the USA and hope that this assumption is correct, since I have two more Movie Quiz articles almost ready to go, and I really enjoy putting these together and coming up with cryptic rhyming clues.

My wife of course has been getting frustrated with me all weekend, as I keep spouting out clues from movies at her, but I hope to keep going with this series, and maybe if I can get the SEO right they will take off outside of Associated Content as well.

　

　

The UK General Election

The General Election in the UK is a topic that has sparked a lot of international interest, but I am not an expert in Politics and therefore find it hard to write about this subject in great detail. The closest I did was to write a Limerick about Gordon Brown's Bigotry remark and also a Haiku about the outcome of the election, a Hung Parliament.

The area that I may write more about in the Political arena is benefit reform, which I touched on in my General Election Blues article back in April.

It seems to me that it's too easy for people to sponge off the taxpayers these days, and while I feel sorry for those who are genuinely out of work or who have hardships, I feel no remorse for those who have no intention to work in their life. This could be a good article for me to vent my frustrations at the social benefits system. I will have at it one of these days...

　

　

US Visa

My wife has been getting really wound up in the last couple of weeks as she has to go up to the US Embassy in London next week to try and get a visa so that we can travel to Florida this summer to see my daughters.

I covered some of the background to this in my article about out local Member Of Parliament, Chris Huhne helping us out last time with getting a visa, but the stress of going to London on the train and then spending most of the day in the Embassy being grilled has been showing.

Yesterday things came to a head as she tried to fill forms out online and had problems saving and printing them. They ask for so much information, and having been denied a visa previously she is fearing yet another bad experience at the US Embassy.

Although I am now a US Citizen which ought to help enormously, we just want a visa that will allow her to enter the country as a tourist, since having been denied a visa in the past you are no longer permitted to enter the USA under the Visa Waiver Program.

Since she also felt awkward when we were in Florida over Christmas, with my ex wife making things difficult for us, as well as for my daughters, she suggested that I go to Florida this summer on my own to see them, which would be cheaper, as I wouldn't have to go during the UK school holidays, which is more expensive.

I don't want to go on my own though, as I love doing things together, and although it will cost more, money that we don't really have right now, it would be so much nicer to be together.

Well I guess we will have to wait and see what sort of visa she gets, the last one only lasted a year, and it costs close to $200 to apply for the visa, plus the cost of travel to London, and phone calls that cost over $1.50/minute.

So yesterday my frustrations rose to the point where I couldn't focus on anything, and the only article that I managed to publish was a slideshow entitled Mary Goes To The Beach, which has photographs from one of those moments when you say to yourself "what are those people doing?" but are afraid to ask.

　

　

Associated Content Assignments

Many assignments are hard for me to write about since I don't have enough knowledge in those areas and would have to do a lot of research, but this morning to my surprise I opened my mail to find that I have not one but two assigned to me, but one is on the 2010 Georgia US Senate Primary Race and the other the same but for Florida.

Since I really don't know a great deal about the political system in the USA, and I have never lived in Georgia (just driven through), the research that I would have to do on either of these to create a "so-so" article isn't really worth the $6 up front payment that I would get for it, assuming it was accepted of course.

However I do view this as good news, since I am now getting assignments sent to me. Hopefully next time I will get an assignment that is right up my street.

　

　

What Do I Have Planned For The Future

Well so far I don't have any magically amazing articles up my sleeve, certainly nothing that I expect to hit the big time.

I do have two more Movie Quiz articles ready to publish, and tomorrow is Wednesday, and if you don't know what Wednesday means by now, Wednesday means it's Offbeat News Day!

Offbeat News is proving to be very popular, but still only within the Associated Content community. I need to break free of the chains and to get my articles seen outside of Associated Content.

One hope is to maybe make a series of these as a lens on Squidoo where I also write. This, combined with my other Humor themed lenses might just help to generate me some more traffic.

　

　

The Cornwall Project

Cornwall, where we went on honeymoon in April, might also prove to be a good theme for getting outside traffic.

It's a unique part of England with Celtic roots and an ancient language of it's own, therefore as soon as you enter Cornwall you start to see lots of strange place names. Cornwall is filled with quaint old fishing villages and has a rugged coastline, and I think that a written article that links my slideshows of Cornwall together might be good.

A more detailed version of this will I think also make for a good lens on Squidoo, and if I can achieve this, could help to gain more external traffic for me.

　

　

Well this is my situation right now, and funnily enough, writing about my problems with Attention Deficit Disorder and my mind flitting backwards and forwards, has helped me to focus on one thing at a time. It's also helped me to come up with my first article for the day, and inspiration for several more.

I believe that I am not alone in finding that a good cure for writers block is to write about what is causing your writers block, either as an essay or in poetic form, and more often than not this will remove the blockage.

We all need inspiration, so if you can't find anything outside to inspire you to write, put pen to paper and find something from inside instead.

　

　

Sources:

Personal experience

Related Articles:　

I Have Writers Block

Hitting My Targets

Brain Dead Again

Struggling To Keep Up And Meeting Targets

Going Viral And Failing Miserably