Why are you only a GUEST?

Dear guests and non-members,

I often ask myself, “Am I stupid?” I annoy my friends with this question. Frankly I don’t understand why they don’t understand why I say that so often. I accidentally found my way to Writing.Com. I know it was by invitation, but I am sure that it was because of a chance meeting or turn of fate.

What a wonderful place Writing.Com is too! How long has the Internet been available to the general public? Well, I have only been an Internet user for a couple of years. Stupid, huh? And how many years has Writing.Com been around? It would have been as simple as putting the word “writing” into a search engine like google to find out, but I did not realize that until just recently. So is anybody going to keep arguing with me when I say that I am stupid?

I will say this. I am not stupid about money. I know a good investment when I see one. Yes, I do. And I don’t understand why there are always more guests online than members every time I log on to Writing.Com. What is it? Are there that many people afraid of commitment? Are you not willing to invest a few dollars in yourself?

I have a dream of being a real published writer. I buy and read books and magazines about it. I google the subject of writing every chance I get. I am filling my portfolio on Writing.Com with work that demonstrates my efforts. Soon the fruit of my efforts will reflect what other Writing.Com members have so generously shared with me in the way of very constructive critiques. The point is that this was my choice. Writing.Com allows a member to keep their work private if that is what you want to do. A member can also chose to display their work but only allow people to read not review and rate. The point is Writing.Com is a place where writers can field their writing to a ready and willing audience of readers and other writers alike, or Writing.Com can serve only as a personal tool resembling something like an electroni private diary that provides so much more than a mere blank page where on to pen your most personal thoughts and feelings.

Everyday I'm reading, entering contests, and learning something new about writing. I have almost regained most of the writing skills that I had many years ago. Many of which were nearly lost because I had forgotten, or because I was so stupid that I had almost given up on my dream of being a published writer.

I am aware that everyone may not share my dream of being a published writer. It is just that I believe everyone has a unique story worth telling and sharing. Traditional paper journals get lost or damaged.

Even as a reader, your membership would support the writers that write here that you are here to read. So maybe I am stupid, but I honestly do not understand why more people are not jumping to join the ranks of registered authors on writing.com. We all have something to say. We all have something to share. This is a pure and simple example of where race, creed, color, nationality, and all that stuff makes a really big difference.

Tell me, show me with your words what it is like to be a child of the 40’s, 50’s, 60’s, 70’s, 80’s. Show me with your words what it like to be young, old, white, black, red, green, orange, whatever, and explain to me why you believe what you believe! No, I may not agree with you! I do not have to agree with you to want to read and understand what makes you tick. I don’t have to agree with you to want to understand what makes you YOU.

I have discovered a vast range of interesting reading on Writing.Com: poetry, prose, fiction, non-fiction, and educational entries. The vast majority of which are truly amazing.

I post my work here. I could drop dead tomorrow, but my work goes on. If I scribbled it in a journal somewhere my family would probably stick it in the attic. They might even throw it away. How wasteful is that? I lost a lot of writing I had in journals to a fire. Now if I would have posted my writings online at Writing.Com I would have been so much less traumatized. You are here now reading this, if you are a guest and you do not have any kind of a membership I sincerely want you to consider all the levels of membership that are available to you right now at this very moment in your life, and make a decision.

Free Membership: limited, trial-like level, allowing anyone to join in and benefit.
• Basic Membership: Entry level membership; perfect for getting started!
• Upgraded Membership: Well-rounded; the usual choice for casual members.
• Premium Membership: Feature-Rich; avid members get the most out of Writing.Com
• Professional Membership: Premium membership plus our web hosting and community features!
• Enterprise Membership: Best for small businesses who host more than 1 client web site.

I personally recommend the basic membership package to start with if you have been on Writing.Com as a guest more than once. The basic membership package will cost you just $15.00 for one year. That breaks down to just a $1.25 a month. It is nearly impossible to find a cup of coffee that cost only $1.25, much less a notebook and inkpen for a $1.25. The cost of being online is not a consideration because you are already online. You just have not invested $15.00 in yourself that will allow you to get a real taste and feel for Writing.Com.

At the very least it seems more than resonable to ask that after you have toured the site as a guest to wonder why you do not sign up for the FREE membership option. Sign up, stand up, and be counted in the number of people who find reading and writing an activity worth supporting with your membership. Numbers matter to the bean counters of this world that have a strangle hold on all the purse strings that make this world of ours go round and round. A site like Writing.Com does not create itself; it is created by the members that read and write here.

Another wonderful, probably little known feature of Writing.Com is that this sites' amazing administrators actually have a provided a special class of membership for writers that have crossed over to the other side. If any of you ever see a white case that indicates that the member writer has died and their portfolio is being maintained on Writing.Com indefinitely. While this is not a class of membership that any of us should aspire to belong to the fact remains that this is a touching and honorable way to memorialize members that have placed their soul on these electronic pages. (I hear that the white case was developed because a fellow Writing.Com member died in the World Trade Center on 9/11.)

Individuals that never had time, or took the time to read the writings can visit the words and musings of a parent, spouse, child, sibling, or best friend. Families and friends will have time to back up the work of their loved one before it is lost forever. The work contained and maintained within Writing.Com can then be saved in a scrapbook for many more generations to come.

My goal is now to pay for and maintain a one year membership every year for as long as I am alive. My membership will then enable me to become the best writer and poet that I can become in whatever time I have left in this reality with the help and support of my fellow Writing.Com members. Knowing that if I really work at my craft when the time comes then I too might be worthy of a white case on Writing.Com only encourages me more to be a better writer. Now, I just need to figure out if there is any possible way to post from “the other side.” I wonder if John Edwards (not the Senator running for President) could handle posting my future writings for me?

So, the point is: GET A MEMBERSHIP TODAY!

Since Writing.Com is on the Internet, and actually has a global market it would be appropriate to include information about real time dollar conversions. For all Writing.Com guest and members that need information concerning the exchange rates for currency please try this site:

http://www.xe.net/ucc/

For example: If the basic membership cost $15.00 in American dollars then the exchange rate on this site gives this information:

Live mid-market rates as of 2004.02.06 13:56:13 GMT.
15.00 USD
United States Dollars = 11.8512 EUR
Euro
1 USD = 0.790082 EUR 1 EUR = 1.26569 USD

My point is: Do not permit something as simple as conversion or exchange rates be a factor in determining if you will become a member of the Writing.Com community.

The Internet gives everyone the ability to exercise the right of free speech, regardless of your physical location on this planet. If you are online you have the ability to be heard through your words.

Put your favorite recipes in your portfolio. Write poetry. Tell the story of your childhood. Get busy. Too much time has been wasted already. Your life is definitely worth knowing about. Let's hear it.

THANK YOU.

Sincerely
THE CRITIC