Tweet What you write is worth the effort. Even if it never gets published. Anywhere. Even if not a single person lays their eyes upon it. Even if no one emails you, calls you or messages you that it’s the best thing they’ve ever written. It’s worth it even if it’s the worst thing you’ve ever wrote. Even if it follows hundreds of rejection slips. Even if it’s tucked in a drawer, never leaves your computer or your laptop. It’s worth it simply for the act of writing itself. Let your words write itself. Don’t judge it. Don’t tear it…
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Tweet Your muse. That nefarious, unpredictable, fickle elf (but don’t tell her that, I want to get on her good side!). Many writers say you don’t need one. Just put fingers to keyboard and type. Me? I need one. When I write when I’m fatigued, when I’m ill, when I’m uninspired, my work is kind of trashy. Ends up being deleted the next day. In my opinion, sick days are best for transcribing and editing. But there are secret ways I’ve learned to ease the muse out. It’s the reason why I’ve been bubbling up with ideas lately. I can’t…
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Tweet It’s not over once you get that writing gig. To sustain a prosperous freelance writing career, you need to do more than get a job. You’re going to need to work hard at cultivating a mutually satisfying relationship so editors and clients will want to call you the next time a writing job comes around. How do you do it? Here are 4 agreements (inspired by Don Miguel Ruiz’s book The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom) to help you be that editor/client’s next go-to writer: 1) Be impeccable with your word. Being impeccable with your word means…
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Tweet Since Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, I’d thought it’d best to cover the topic of how to make an editor fall in love with you your writing. The key is to approach your new connection as you would a new relationship. Most writers take for granted how busy editors are and they send off an email as if they were already well-acquainted. But it’s a process. Take it slow and you’ll skip the fling and end up in a long, mutually satisfying relationship. 1) Get to know them.You don’t want to come across as a stalker so…
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Tweet Finding writing gigs used to be a job on its own. I needed a full-time job to pay for the full-time writing job I was supposed to have. It was a ton of work and not much return. But that’s sort of to be expected when you’re just starting out. However, I quickly learned there were avenues of the freelance writing job search other writers were not taking advantage of. Here are a few less travelled paths that could help you find more freelance writing work no matter what stage of the writing game you’re in: 1. Online ads:…
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Tweet Businesses hire freelance writers all the time. That’s a great thing for us! And for them. Freelance writers are flexible, come with a variety of skills and companies don’t have to pay us benefits (though it’d be nice wouldn’t it?). One of the tricky things about working with companies, particularly small businesses with little experience hiring freelance writers, is that you’ve got to help them along the way. As someone who’s worked almost exclusively with small companies and start-ups, I have a few lessons I’ve learned. Here are a few parcels of wisdom for freelance writers applying for writing…
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Tweet Talent can take you far in life. But hard work will push you further than talent alone. What I’ve learned in the last 6 years I’ve been freelance writing is there are other skills besides writing that can benefit the successful freelance writer. And that’s a good thing! This means that I don’t need to be as creative as Young House Lovers John and Sherry, funny as Martha Beck or as pushy as some go-getter writers to be successful. Talk about a load off of my back. If I had to be naturally talented like the authors I drool…
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Tweet As the holiday approaches, you may be winding down your freelance writing business. Or you may be reaping the benefits of less saturation in the market. More writers taking a holiday means more work for you! If you’re looking for fresh ways to add more work to your portfolio, here are a few tried and true methods that have worked for me in the past and is sure to work for you: 1. Peruse your local pubs. I get about 5 free local publications sent to my address every few months. They’re like hidden job ads for writers sent…
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Tweet Hurray for daydreaming! It’s the thing you loved to do in school, but what you were most likely to get punished for. Well now there’s legitimate reason to zone off when bored. Yes, according to author Jonah Lehrer’s book Imagine: How Creativity Works, it’s those moments when you’re dazing out the window that your getting the most work done. Perhaps all of us writers knew this intuitively. But Lehrer’s book provides actual research to back that statement up. In it, he describes the work of psychologist Jonathan Schooler and his research on daydreams and their benefits. And what…
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Tweet I’ve been struggling with the editing process for awhile. A part of that is psychological. I would rather pretend that my piece looks good enough instead of deal with the agonizing reality that it’s far from perfection. But if you want to be a successful writer, this won’t bode well for a long-term career. That’s why I’ve developed a quick system to insure I won’t make a fool out of myself by submitting less than par prose. It’s easy as 1-2-3. After you’ve worked on the final draft of your latest endeavor take a breather. In a day or…