Tweet Having a full-time freelance writing career can wreak havoc on your soul, not to mention your wallet. Why? Well the latter is obvious. But for many people who are not in it, us creative artistic types tend to sway towards low self-esteem. It’s a given since most of us are born sensitive and tend to grow up in families who are less than enthusiastic about our dream of being an artist for a living. But if you want to have a long-term career in an artistic field, you need to get beyond the ups and downs of your creative…
-
-
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:…
-
Tweet All artists have trouble with their egos. Maybe it’s because unlike other fields, our sense of self and our creation are personally intertwined in a beautiful, yet complicated relationship. We often get defensive when editors pick away at our prose. And when finally hitting send on that perfect piece we spent days on, we’ve never felt more vulnerable. That’s why it hurts so much when we’re rejected. It’s not just an attack on our work, but it feels like an attack on our soul. But allowing our egos to get wrapped up in our work isn’t just unrealistic and…
-
Tweet I just started blogging for Intuit. So if you are a small business owner with questions on your businesses success, please check out my new pad there. I’ll still be here writing and fighting for my fellow writing peeps. But I’m also expanding out to greeting card writing and feature articles for print pubs in addition to my biweekly blog for Psych Central. Hope to see you around here or there!
-
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…
-
Tweet I hope not because I’d cringe over my early parcels of prose. And whether I consider myself to be a “great” writer on any given day may force me to close up shop. Yet many people (disgruntled writers, elitist writers, etc.) may persuade you otherwise. In fact, that writer may be you. If you’re waiting for your portfolio to catch up with the title, you’ll be waiting forever. Anyway, the writer you are today is much better than who you were yesterday. It’s a rare few who enter this world brimming with talent. Most of us have to learn…
-
Tweet After I got my second degree (my first was a BA in English and then a MA in Counseling Psychology), I reached an inevitable confusion spurred from a lifetime of being a professional student. It was 2006 and I had suddenly wakened from my reverie. I spent most of my twenties sitting down in the career section of Borders thumbing through guides with titles like, What to Do With Your Life. And now that school was over and my pocketbook showed no chance of going back, I realized it was time to finally answer that question for myself. In…
-
Tweet It’s always exciting to see your name in print no matter how long you’ve been a writer! This is especially the case since packing up my life in the Bay Area to move to Kailua, Hawaii where there were just reminiscence, crumbs really, of my Hawaii writing past. High school newspaper clips, college letters to the editors, and jobs in marketing. But nothing substantial to base a new writing career here in the islands. Thankfully, my ambition overpowered my fear and after a successful jaunt at a handful of networking events, I scored a few assignments for Element Media,…
-
Tweet In The Courage to Write, Ralph Keyes says: “Just thinking about being a writer can be scary (as well as thrilling; the two tend to go hand in hand). Saying-even to yourself-“I’m a writer,” or “I’m going to be a writer,” or even “I guess I’ll do some writing now,” feels presumptuous; like a five-year-old playing make-believe for bemused grown-ups.” What makes calling ourselves “writers” so scary? Doctors, teachers, heck even my husband can spout out their careers as if they were describing the weather. Whereas I? I fumble through the word inaudibly. Fear of Being Judged I think…
-
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…