Tweet When I first started telling people I was going to quit my full-time job and go freelance, I think they heard “rogue” instead. It’s as if I just announced I was going to make a living making balloon animals or shooting to outer space. It’s hard to explain their expression-a mix of disbelief, pity and maybe even undertones of resentment. I initially chalked it up to my own insecurities. Maybe they thought I wasn’t good enough or that I was just being Brandi-you know irresponsible, only child syndrome. What they said was things like: You can’t be a writer.…
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Tweet Hear me out. Nobody likes bad luck. And I’m sure most of us would rather not be published than have something difficult happen in our lives. But not only do I believe writing is one way (and a healthy one I might add) to express yourself in the midst of hardship, I also believe that if you are a writer, this is a good opportunity for you to transform your bad luck into good luck by being able to write about your experience. Think Elizabeth Gilbert in Eat, Pray, Love or Laura Munson and her memoir This Is Not…
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Tweet No matter how much you pray, beg, and visualize, you won’t get better at your craft unless you do something about it. That’s where quick tip 5 comes in: Learn something new every day. I received one of the nicest compliments ever from a client recently. He said that I was open to new projects and I never disappoint. I’m still glowing from his kind words actually. But after I snapped out of it and got back down to earth, I realized that challenging myself and never getting too comfortable with anything I did, helped me to be a…
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Tweet Quickie Tip #2: Be Easy {This is only good for freelance writing and other career-related endeavors of course.} {photo credit} Here’s what I recently realized. I’ve found one of the greatest inventions ever for writers and journalists. HARO. Doesn’t it sound Star Wars worthy? It stands for Help A Reporter Out. Basically, it’s a win-win situation where journalists get quotes from leading experts in the industry and leading experts get free PR for their business. I’ve been using it a lot lately and have gotten several pitches returned from potential experts. Pretty exciting! But here’s what all that long-winded…
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Tweet {photo credit} Everyone’s been blogging about the best gift to get for writers. I’ve thought about doing it. Heck, I did it last year. And even outdid myself by writing about the things we writers wished we got for Christmas, but didn’t. You can see that post here. So I was going to write another one of those Christmas wish list post for writers. But then I thought, “If everyone else is doing it and I’ve already done it, then maybe I should pass this year.” Especially since the only thing I REALLY REALLY want for Christmas (besides…
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Tweet A writer friend confided something in recently. He said he grappled with the ability to step outside him self when writing. As a result, his creations at times were a bit foggy. Although they were clear to him, they were confusing to others. I completely understand what he means. Sometimes I’m up late at night after a day of writing and my writing brain is exhausted. But I push on. As the words flow through me, I get lost in a cloud of my own creation. I’m immersed in a jungle of ideas and steeped in the visualization of…
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Tweet Did you know in Paris, the city of love, there are bridges devoted to lovers? Our tour guide Berthon said couples come to the bridge to pledge their affection for each other. We strolled down the bridge to take a glance at their “objects” of affection and were surprised by what we saw. At first glance, you see a stream of metal locks bolted together to signify a solid commitment. But our guide beckoned us to look further. As we got closer, we saw knots tied together with strips of a plastic bag, ribbon or paper. Berthon said those…
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Tweet I don’t know if this is a girl thing. But my hair is my best friend and my worst enemy. I have a lot of hair! As a kid, I bemoaned the day I forgot to bring a rubber band. In swimming class, my hair floated around me. I was a body of hair with a tiny body attached. And it gave the boys extra ammunition to tease me that day and call me, “Medusa.” Boy was that hard to shake off! As an adult, my hair still gets in my way. When I’m working out it falls forward…
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Tweet You ever write and write, then write again. But you keep hitting a brick wall? Something’s just not quite right and you can’t put your finger on it? You may be suffering from the inability to let go. A frustrating writer’s syndrome. Second to only writer’s block. It happens when you’ve grown attached to your writing. You’ve spend weeks, months, maybe even years on the same piece. But it’s just not where you want it to be. Yet, you remember all of the good times you had together. The state you were in when you wrote it. The feeling…
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Tweet Yes there’s baby blues and even shopping blues, but freelance writing blues? Yep, I think so. If you’re in the low right now, when your phone stops ringing, people stop emailing and your blog is as empty as an ice-cream shop in wintertime, then you know what I mean. You wonder if this is it, the last shebang, the final sign that you didn’t make it, that your just not that good of a writer and you’re ________ (mom, sister/brother, father, uncle/aunt, cousin) was right. But before you throw in the towel and raise that white flag, let’s see if…