What’s so hard about putting words on paper? Well it’s a lot harder than you think when you bring psychology to the picture. Take your thoughts for example. All those doubts, criticisms, and insecurities from years long gone have piled up. And sometimes when you’re not careful, they’ll peek out at you, disguising themselves as your own thoughts. And the results? Well, it’s not a pretty picture. What Holds You Back from Your Writing flickr photo courtesy of: Lady/Bird In Callings: Finding and Following an Authentic Life, author Gregg Levoy says, “If we don’t confront them, if we don’t even consciously…
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{photo courtesy of NBC.com} Would you eat at a restaurant called, “Saucy Balls?” That’s what America’s Next Great Fast Food Restaurant hosts Bobby Flay, Curtis Stone, Steve Ells and Lorena Garcia are deciding. A new reality show on NBC is taking fast food restaurants to a whole other level as the four hosts attempt to choose the right person and idea to invest in. What does fast food have to do with writing?
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If you’re an intimidated writing newbie, don’t sweat it. There are a lot of things you can do to get your start while you’re waiting for your experience to catch up with you. {photo by: kandyjaxx} Here are a few things that helped me early on flex my writing muscles and get comfortable before I started full-time freelancing: 1. I sent in mini practice articles. You might know them as the letter to the editor. I’ve been sending letters to the editor since I was in high school. Why? I find it’s a fast and easy way to get some…
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This post is dedicated to all of my writer and wannabe writer friends out there. flickr photo by: Angelina Cupcake Here is why I’m thinking of you this Valentine’s Day: 1. Your courage is admirable. Most people deal with enough rejection in their teens to never want to return to that time period again. But not you! You jump in the fire, putting your heart on the line and opening yourself up to rejection. That takes real honest to goodness courage. 2. Your determination is inspiring. To be a writer means you need determination. Even successful published writers can’t get…
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Call me a snoop or a blogger stalker, but I’ve been known to spy on a few blogs and bloggers to see what they are up to now and again. My curiosity was piqued when I started to notice that some had gained an increasing amount of attention in the blogosphere. Surprisingly, it’s not necessarily great design or title that did it. Instead they all had something special, an “it” factor, if you will, that raised their popularity. Here are five common characteristics I noticed of successful bloggers: They were helpful. From design bloggers to freelance writers, bloggers who did…
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{photo by: burnt out Impurities} I have to thank Laura Spencer aka @TXWriter of Freelance Folder and Natalia Sylvester aka @InkyClean for their Twitter conversation last week. It inspired me to put together this post. Do You Despise Looking for the Right Photo for Your Blog Posts? While I didn’t save the actual conversation, I can tell you the basics. We were chatting about the difficulty of choosing photos for blog posts. In this situation, I was definitely the minority since I L-O-V-E perusing sites like Flickr for just the right picture to match my posts. But I wanted to…
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{photo by: biblioteekje} What’s the key to success? Well I’ve shared my secret to successful freelance writing in the past. But this post is less of a secret and more of an observation. Here’s a hint: What’s Julia and Julia, Steven Rowland and Jeff Deck and Benjamin D. Herson have in common? They all did something most of us wouldn’t dare do. They took a huge risk and gained not only notoriety and dough, but revelation-a key piece to their success. Let’s look a little closer. The Players: {photo from squidoo} Julie & Julia. Julie Powell’s now become a household name…
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I admit I’ve been admiring this girl from afar and for awhile. There’s a reason why I signed up to her newsletters and follow her on Twitter and Facebook. Her and her team of refreshingly unique copywriters make writing oh so fun! Who’s that girl? It’s Holly Jackson of the innovative website Cottage Copy. And she’s making my day by participating in my new Writing Expert series. There’s so many reasons why I’m honored to have her join me here. I think Holly’s website’s super cool while her writing’s super hot. She’s got a lot to teach us. And boy…
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{photo by: penguinsix} On Facebook, I asked whether I should create a blog listing all the places I look for freelance writing jobs. At first, I was just curious to know where other writers go. But then, I realized I had a long list of resources and asked whether anyone would be interested in reading that post. Here’s one response I got from a sweet new Facebook friend: @ Jill Winburn “A post about it would be great! You have been answering my prayers on where to look for work. I am new at this, so this is very helpful. Thanks again for…
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I fell asleep last night and woke up to this blog title. Maybe it’s because I’ve been working hard at doing less these days and wanted to help you do the same. You see, there are some things that you need to do to have a successful business. Things like marketing, networking, applying for jobs. But there are tons of other things that are unnecessary and if we were to keep doing them could detract us from our true goals and real intentions. {photo by iko} And when you’re your own boss, time is money. So let’s spend more time…