Destination Freelance

NaNoWriMo: Less Than Two Weeks Away

2011-10-17T17:42:00.001-05:00

Image courtesy sxc.hu/svilen2_theauthor2
http://efffective.com

I finally wrote the synopsis for my novel I'm going to write for NaNoWriMo or National Novel Writing Month. It took me a while to decide to do it. I guess because it's up there and so many people will see it! Oh Lord! What a thought (sarcasm). It's very easy to write a blog or write stories or write anything, for that matter, including a novel, when no one will see it but you. It's a lot harder when it's something a lot of people are probably going to see. That makes it more important, more essential, especially in the eloquence department.

When I post my synopsis on NaNo, it's there, for all the world to see, and that means it's official. The novel is being born. It's in the conception stage, but soon we will be a beaming mama-to-be of a bright, shiny new novel. It's terrifying. It's not so scary when you're sitting on the bathroom floor in the middle of the night so you won't disturb your husband who has to be at work in a couple of hours, and you're scribbling hurried notes in your metallic yellow reporters' pad, using your super-special University of Alabama pen.

It's not so scary when you're picking out this year's super-duper new 'Notebook for NaNo' and your pen that will be the ticket to fame and fortune. It's not so scary when you're getting together all the stuff you'll surely be able to put to use this year until you eventually throw all that crap back in your office and use a Bic pen and a legal pad and your laptop. When it gets to be Bic pen and legal pad and laptop time, it starts getting scary.

Scary is when the count-down clock on the NaNo site tells you there are less than two weeks to make your final plans for notes. Scary is when the die on 'Dice City Roller' keep screaming at you it's time to get off your butt and start that outline, that the notes you've written won't put themselves in order. Scary is your office whispering every time you walk by, "You've been nesting for three weeks now, and I'm all cleaned out, and straightened up, and set to your liking, and now you have to admit you're avoiding me." (Of course now that the husband has discovered a new civilization game and is taking up his own corner of the office and yells every five seconds, "Look, baby, look at the smoke coming out of the smoke stack of my level 9 houses!", it's very hard to concentrate, so there's a good excuse.)

The news will have to be turned off, children turned away, dinner turned over to the husband and the phone turned to silent. It must happen. I have done it three years in a row now, and I've never won, and this on my BUCKET LIST. It must happen. There must be no fear, there must be no hesitation. I cannot continue to ask my husband if it is a month-long waste of time, knowing he's only going to tell me, "No, this year you are going to finish, all fifty-thousand words, and you're going to write a novel, and people are going to want to read it." So I have to quit fishing for encouragement, and just repeat the same things to myself I do every year at this time, that, "...it's almost time, it's almost time, it's almost here..." and get ready. That's it.

She's Baaa-ack. Again. Yeah, again.

2011-09-27T14:10:00.000-05:00

Professional Freelance Writing is open for business again, and here I am considering changing the name. Ah, the beauty of working on the internet. A tweak of the old HTML, a flick of the wrist makes a change of scenery, and POOF! you have a new business with a new design. It's like getting free paint and other materials to build a new business right on your old spot, and then having the products ready-made. Oh, I make it sound so easy don't I?

Well, for those of you reading this who have been hammering away at this writing life as I have, you know I have just made the understatment of the century. The work it took to get here should not be diminished by my nonchanlance, I suppose. It's just very hard not to sit back and grin. I am by no means the next Jackie Collins, or on my way to work for the Post, but it's nice to be able to sit back and say, "I'm a writer."

I love to tell people I have not seen in some time I am a freelance writer. Most people give me this look that says, "Wow. I wasn't aware you can read." I love to then say, "Yes, a real one. That gets paid. Money. For writing," which is usually how far I get before they stop looking astounded. Let's hope I have enough time to stick with the blog for a while. I get tired of disappointing myself.

And, as always, I like to make muhself laugh with the song.

Later.

Keeping Your Website Updated

2011-07-03T01:30:00.000-05:00

Keeping Your Website Updated

A post on my website blog

Freelance Writers: Photo, Logo or Gravatar?

2010-05-17T14:17:00.026-05:00

I have recently been asked several times whether or not it's best to use your personal photo, a gravatar or a logo on professional profiles and such. When I first began freelancing online, I used a head shot of myself, and not a very good one, for that matter. When I established myself as a business entity, I had a logo designed and now I use it as exclusively as possible. There are pros and cons for either side.

The pros for using your personal photo:

It makes your business dealings and writing more personal. Readers have a face to put with the work, and it gives an added insight into the essence of your writing.

It could possibly distinguish you, especially if you have a Image courtsey sxc.hu/saivann common name.

I guess if you're hot, life will go about like it does for pretty people, and you'll probably at least get extra views.

If you become a famous writer, someone might come up to you on the street and rip your clothes off and cry in your face.

The cons:

If you become a famous writer, someone might come up to you on the street and rip your clothes off and cry in your face.

It totally removes your privacy. If you get a crazy client they might come after you.

If you're ugly people might not want to hire you. We all hope anyone would have enough integrity not to even give such a notion any credence, however we all know they're out there, especially when it comes to on-site work.

The pros for a logo or gravatar:

You maintain more of your privacy.

It looks more professional. Check out my logo. It is the same logo I use anytime I can, no matter what I'm doing, if I'm promoting my business. It is my hope the world over will come to know 'The Quill'.

You don't have to update your logo as you would a picture, to keep up with the times or your age. You can't very well have your high school graduation picture going around as your professional photo if you are thirty. You have to keep changing your personal photo if you publicize your age.

If you do keep your publicity photo current, you advertise your age. Whether you like it or not, your age is going to work against you from time to time, whether young or old. Depending on what genre you are writing for, or what type of business, you may run into age discrimination. This could possibly be avoided by a logo.

The cons:

You lose some measure of the intimacy you wish to build with your readers. Some readers won't see an actual person behind the piece of writing, rather a company or corporate presence.

Unless you are into graphic design or at least fairly handy with some photo shop type program, you may have to have a logo designed, for which you will most likely have to pay. When you purchase a logo, it's yours.

A gravatar can be so generic that it literally is like that belonging to someone else. As in, the actual gravatar other use. Many sites that offer gravatars for commentators use the same one unless a specific image is specified. Even the sites that allow you to choose your gravatar usually have a bare minimum of choices, so you will no doubt have the same gravatar as many of the other members. Not exactly the best way make your work stand out.

So, what is your preferred method? Do you use a personal photo or a logo or gravatar? Do you use a gravatar in some places and your photo in others? Join in the conversation and tell us your chosen method for representing your presence online.

Professional Networking a Modern Marketing Solution

2010-04-02T16:59:00.000-05:00

I feel sort of like Alice puttering around in an LSD induced fog. Well, I've never dropped acid, so I don't really know what that feels like, but I know what it feels like to have lots and lots and lots of ideas and no idea where to begin. This year I want to write an e-book, try my hand at podcasts and video blogging, and of course, continue to build my writing business. I attended a webinar yesterday that really sparked my creativity. The webinar, hosted by John Souza of Social Media Magic, was called "Capitalizing on the Conversation" and presented by Greig Wells. They focused on using social media as a marketing tool. The insight they provided into the often confusing arena of social networking sites was priceless. They introduced attendees to the top eight PROFESSIONAL networking sites, some of which I had never heard of. They also explained how to use popular sites such as Twitter and Facebook to establish relationships, which then translates into more business.

I'm very excited to try these new marketing methods. I am going to follow their directions and set up a plan for utilizing social and professional networking sites, and then work it, baby! I've been watching Bob Parson's video blog on GoDaddy.com, and he offers some great advice about social networking as well. This is another guy who is just pure genius. I'm here to say I think social and professional networking sites are the ticket, especially for the nature of my business. I'm definitely in a business where I need to establish relationships with my clients, especially to keep them coming back. It's like I've tried to explain to the non-writers in my life: being a freelance writer is not like running a gas station. I have to handle every aspect of the business and the product: planning, conception, desingn, production, marketing, sales and customer service. In other words, I have to design the product, manufacture it (so to speak), market it, sell it, and then provide service during and after the sale.

When you basically have free, almost automated, advertising platforms placed before you, you would be a fool not to take advantage of them. Social networking sites provide endless opportunities to get new clients and build new professional relationships. This new digital world we live in requires the modern business owner to assume a broader array of tactics to promote themselves and their product or service. Social networking is a simple, economical way to market your business and establish professional connections with like minded individuals and companies.

Time-Management Can Really Be a Butt

2010-04-02T16:40:00.000-05:00

When I first started my writing career, I found it so hard to put things together, and manage my time. Once I learned the value of a schedule and how much more productive I could be, there was no stopping me. It took time, don't get me wrong. It takes ten times actively doing something or twenty-one days (depending on which old lady you ask) to learn to make or break a habit. Think of the glass as half-full. If you go ten days and stick to a schedule, you've got it. You're doing it.

Schedules are important for writers because they help them stay organized and make the most valuable use of their time. Most of the working productive world uses some kind of scheduling device, or nothing would ever get done, and the world would be in chaos. For professional procrastinators, those who don't manage their time well or are easily distracted, getting into the habit of following a schedule could mean the difference between a golden career opportunity and a hobby that never goes much of anywhere.

Anyone who operates their own business, whether a writer or a plumber, has to operate on some kind of schedule. There are professional scheduling systems and software, and then there are simple spreadsheets with chunks of time blocked off in thirty-minute or one-hour increments, for instance.

When I decided to get organized, I turned to none other than the queen of organization herself, Julie Hood. Julie gives away one of the most detailed, helpful organization kits I have ever seen. She has everything in there the professional writer could need to keep up with their time, their expenses, jobs completed, you name it. She even gives some printables that are invaluable to the new freelancer about how to manage time. The kit is free, but Julie offers classes and other books for sale. She also sends out the occasional newsletter telling what neat stuff she is going to be offering next.

After trying several different kinds of scheduling and note-taking systems, I seem to have found myself back at the old school, so to speak. I have a plain schedule with thirty-minute increments of time blocked off. There are no bells and whistles, but there are two blank columns, so I write my schedule on the left side and my notes, to-do list and phone calls on the right. As far as note-taking goes, here again I am not very technologically-inclined. I can do all of it, don't get me wrong. I have just found sometimes the old way works better. For instance, when I am reading my feeds, I take a fresh sheet of lined paper and put a label at the top with the date, that says, "Feed Notes". Then I write down the name of the site, and I write down any interesting headlines. Chock this up to my obsessive need to clean things out. I can't stand to leave my feed reader half-empty, for lack of a better way to put it.

Sometimes you find technology simply won't cut it, and the old way is still the best way. I love all these funky new electronics that will keep up with every aspect of your life for you, but for me, I'm still going old school, I guess. I write my notes on legal pads, and my handheld is a leather dayplanner. I like to tell myself I'm pretty technologically advanced with the dayplanner. Hey, it's not scraps of paper, right? But the point is, no one in business for themselves, especially freelance writers, are going to make it unless they are successfully able to keep track of all their appointments and to-dos.

What do you think? Do you have a snazzy little Palm, iThingy, or other such electronic device? What is your success story for managing your time? Leave a note and let us know what do.

2009-12-16T14:16:00.003-06:00

Many years past (thank Heaven), my friend Lee, in light of the many mornings he spent waiting for a cab with me after long nights of merriment only the young can appreciate, has been known to utter a begrudging, "Yeah, Trina is all about some cabs." Excusing the less-than-eloquent Southern vernacular, you at least have to give me credit for my hesitancy to put my life and the lives of others at stake due to my reluctance to part with a few dollars for safe passage home.

This is much less a pre-holiday pep-talk for the new year as is it a personal affirmation of (eeeK! where did that psychoanalysis jargon spring forth from?) that I am aware (and isn't that the very first step in recovery?) of many personal habits that are definitely keeping me from realizing my dreams and most importantly, I think keeping me from being able to fulfill my God-given destiny to touch people with the written word, for His glory and benefit. In other words, this is sort of a pre-holiday resolutions list; yet, the gist is far more important as, it is the result of deep, inner searching for more important changes such as weight, smoking and wearing make-up every day, pertinent though they may be.

Other things I am "all about" are new beginnings. I am the queen of fresh starts. I have made so many fresh starts the idea is actually starting to show hints of over-ripeness. However, it is in my nature to start a huge project with all the zeal of a young religious novitiate, only to walk away disllusioned when things don't go my way. Ok, at least give me a little more credit for being aware of this particular foible of mine, even if I am not necessarily ready to change my calcitrant ways as of yet.

One of the many things I appreciate about "fresh starts" is that we have an endless supply of them. Our lives are great big bags of blank canvases of all shapes, sizes and textures just waiting in delicious anticipation for some new new adventure to begin to come alive, and lived. A person could decided to change their lives completely in the next ten minutes. And then do it again ten minutes later. That's one of the great things about being analytical, creative creatures called humans. Throughout history, notable and forgotten individuals have decided they were not happy with the status quo in their lives, and to change it. Some of these most notorious choices have changed the course of history, some of them no one will ever remember, such as the millions of fresh starts that found their precipice on the shores of Ellis Island.

One of my more concrete, life-affecting bad habits is to make fresh starts, and often come in "like a ball of fire" as my (bar-none) most detested boss out in the "real" world attested to. I plunge into projects head-long, with all the fervor of a born-again thrice-convicted murderer. Often, though, my attention and exultation with my new project wanes, and alas, I depart from the formerly drastically important project, and move on to another, shiny as a bright new penny beckoning my attention.

Building an Enduring Blog Presence

2009-10-13T18:43:00.002-05:00

The other day, my eight year-old daughter handed me her notebook she practices her times tables in and declared, "Mama, this is not easy." My daughter is actually a very bright little girl. She just made her first bad grade in her short school career so far, and she cried like she had lost her best friend. That's why I was shocked when she seemed ready to give up so easily. Granted, having only so far made it to third grade, she hasn't really had all that much difficult school work. Usually, though, she is a little more proactive in her educational endeavors. I explained to her school is not supposed to be "easy", that it is about learning, which means being challenged and tested.

That conversation with my little got me to thinking late that night. I see a lot of blogs come and go. I have seen many blogs come to the scene with a bang, then fizzle out like a journey-belabored star. What gives Darren Rowse and Jennifer Mattern their staying power? What do Deb Ng and Seth Godin know the rest of don't? While I won't pretend to know those blogging superstars' secrets of success, I will tell you there are some basic principles that will lay the ground work for a relevant, enduring blog.

Know what you want to accomplish
v Entertain
v Inform/Educate
v Enlighten
v Propagandize
v Sell

Establish goals to help yourself reach milestones to measure your progress
v Certain number of posts/day-week-month
v Certain number words/post
v Certain number followers by certain date
v Building amount of commentary

Establish a routine with regularly scheduled tasks
Each day of the week, do routine maintenance:
v Link check: check for broken links
v Culling your ______ list
v Checking for any aesthetic mishaps
v Promotional maintenance
v Re-tweeting old post at least once a month
v Advertising for guest bloggers every month

Always be on the lookout for creative ways to improve your blog
v New kinds of ads
v Add your own white papers, e-books, etc on sidebars
v Don't crowd too much on blog-makes it too busy and difficult to read

Now that you have taken care of the aesthetic and technical details, what about the stuff you actually write?

*Keep it fresh-Don't do what everyone else is doing (ok, everyone does this one, but it's practically a requirement on a list like this, and I would be remiss to leave it out).

Seriously, is there anything that hasn't been written about? According to an advertising executive interviewed for a television show a few years ago, there truly is nothing new under the sun. We just have to learn how to keep improving everything. If you are one of those that buy into the theory everything has already been written about then maybe you could try jazzing up some of your old posts with updates from new information that has been discovered since you first published it.

*Don't decorate to compensate-Keep it simple:

With all the pretty colors and cool fonts available to computer users these days, it’s hard to control the urge to decorate to compensate. While you do, of course, want visual appeal to draw the readers' eyes, after that you just better be a darn good writer. Keep in mind some basic facts about Internet readers. They generally have such a plethora of information available to them and so people have lost the ability to just read. Now they scan headlines, bullet points, and emboldened & italicized print to get the crux of the work. However, remember using all sorts of different font and paragraph formatting is going to clutter the view. Highlight your high points, but *keep it simple*.

*Even if you feel like you have nothing to say, stick to your schedule:

Try typing the most mindless rhetoric possible. For example, as a freelance writer for my blog I might start out with the following: "Freelance writing is when people pay you to writer but you only work for yourself and you have to pay self-employment taxes." Not exactly Shakespeare, right? That's ok because since I have allotted the time from my schedule to blog, then I'm going to blog.

What are some ways you made your blog into a successful blog? What are your suggestions for someone new to blogging? Leave a comment and tell other readers what your methods are.

The "Corner Office" Becomes the office.

2009-09-14T12:34:00.003-05:00

Getting my very own office (minus one corner for a bed)! My step-son moved out to go to college, so I get his room for my office! We're going to leave a bed in the corner for him to crash in when he decides to come home, which he has already warned us won't be often. We have no reason not to believe him-he now lives one hour away and he hasn't been inside long enough to sit down since he started this semester. He said he is fine with me setting up my office in there. He pointed out there is little point in leaving the room empty for the (maybe) two days a school year he will spend here. I already have the color scheme picked out, as well as my desk and, well, everything else. My step-son even offered to come help me paint that end of the house, including his old room and the bathroom. I thought that was pretty cool.

So the "office" is officially becoming an office! No longer will I be tucked away in some corner, praying no one walks by and catches my laptop cord on their foot, or knocks a drink over on my keyboard. Now the rule will be: Stay out of Mama's office. Ok, scratch that. That sounds like I don't let my children near me when I'm working, which isn't true at all. If I'm working on a project and deep in thought, I'm a bear if one of them interrupts me, especially if my door is closed, but normally I leave my door open and turn on the radio on my alarm clock, with the volume turned down to where I can just make out what the song is. It provides good background noise to drown out my little ones.

I always hope to learn something in the process of writing. Many times I learn a lesson from my own writing, as I broaden the scope of my vision on different subjects. I guess this time I learned that while I have the drive (or acceptance) to grow (or not) my company and the ambition to go wherever the good Lord does (or doesn't) want me to go. I read last night that real writers have to have larger-than-life egos, and personality complexes, and essentially be theatrical and histrionic and full of themselves. This famous writer (whose name I, of course, cannot remember) went on to say that people who are meek and humble and full of just intentions will never make it as writers and eventually fail. I don't like to think that is true. Note I say I don't like to think.

Do You Express Your Beliefs in Your Writing & Networking?

2009-09-03T11:50:00.005-05:00

I was reading my tweets and feeds this morning, and it occurred to me I have wondered since I got into this business how professional writers handle the distinction between their professional persona and their religious and political beliefs, for instance. I have been told by some people professionals in every industry, whether freelance or employee, should keep their beliefs to themselves and keep it business. Still others have said their religious beliefs, especially are an integral part of who they are, that it overflows into the workplace. They say this would be true even in a public work environment, should they not be working for themselves.

Since I began my career in freelance writing, I have read the work of others and seen a mixture of both points of view. There are those who put their name and face out there and say what they have to say and that's that. Then there are those who are more diplomatic, you might say, and choose to keep their professional life strictly on a professional level, regardless of whether they work in an office or a home office.

It is one of the ironies of the freedom of freelancing to think we are free to write whatever we choose for the most part, within the limits of the law, yet the views on whether or not to air strong opinions within the guise of your professional life vary from person to person. I supposed your decision would be based largely on the type writing you plan to do, and who your target audience is. If you are shooting for a twice-weekly analyst's seat on Bill O'Reilly, you better start spouting some strong opinion. If you prefer to keep your reputation strictly to that of a non-partisan contract employee, then it is probably best to keep strong personal opinion out of your writing.

Your target audience will determine your best course of action. If you are looking to catch the eye of a certain group, to be sure you should either be completely for them, or completely against them. If your aim is to get paid to write in a non-personal, completely autonomous way, then you should stick to writing facts. I asked the question on several of my blogging groups to find out the general consensus on personal ideologies in writing. What do you think? If you are a freelance writer, do you have a blog or other site where you express your beliefs publickly? Or, do you keep your two personas separate?

Here are the links to the group discussions on LinkedIn the question started...

Informed Ideas for Writers

LinkedEds & Writers

Writing Mafia

Welcome Back, September!

2009-09-01T10:08:00.005-05:00

School Bells Are Calling My Name

The smell of fall is in the air. The kids are getting back on the buses (I know I'm not the only mom sighing in relief) and dragging around book bags and lunchboxes already. I waited for these days with bated anticipation throughout the summer. Well, to be fair I did, of course spend a lot of time with my girls. When it was time to sit down to work, and they were in my hair constantly, I dreamed of cool days and cooler nights with that singular spicy aroma that accompanies the arrival of the last days of the year. And school days. Those long, blissful days with a quiet house from when I get home from driving my girls to school until I have to go pick them up. Those scant seven hours are when I crank out work like a woman possessed. I plop down with my Coke, cigarettes (don't say it), and country music playing softly in the background, and I'm in another world until my husband comes home at lunch time. Half the time I ignore him and keep working. I love the school year, it's really great for my career.

What changes will the oncoming school year mean for your lifestyle and routine? My kids started to school August 8th, so I get a few more days than most of my writing counterparts. Our school years are planned with extra days interspersed because our weather is so crazy. You may be having a tornado one day, a flood the next week, a hurricane that caused the flood, and then and outside chance of snow just a few weeks later. My girls are able to continue to wear clothes they got in the summer to school for a couple of months, which is nice. I do buy them a few outfits and some new shoes, but the warm temperatures allow me more time to buy clothes for them as the year progresses.

Guarding Your Time Like Gold

If you have kids who are active and vibrant as mine are, then you probably understand my anticipation. During the fall and winter months I am able to make more money, simply because I have more time to work. I don't apply for as many jobs in the summer, nor am I able to take every job I'm offered, because I know I won't have the time. When fall rolls around, I start doing some work then, buddy. Everyone knows not to call me just to chat during the day. In fact during the week, they mostly let me call them. I'm nice about it, but I'm firm. It's no different than if I were at a "real' job. I can't sit around and talk all day if I expect to get things done. Too bad if others don't realize, care or understand that this thing is real, I'm doing this, it's happening, and it's my livelihood.

New Tricks for Somewhat Still-Young Dog

One thing I hope to do this fall season is start writing magazine articles and other seasonal stuff. I've only written a very few pieces about season subjects like Christmas. That is one of my learning projects, as I call stuff I assign to myself to learn about and grow more familiar with. What are some interesting new things you plan to try these last few days of the year?

NaNoWriMo, Here It Comes-O!

Finally, we can all start (snort, who hasn't already) anticipating NaNoWriMo, since it's just around the corner. Two months from today. Have you already got your plan ready for your novel, or are you just starting? Are you one of the insane ones who tries to wing it? I just got two big projects out of the way. Now all I have left is an important competition. So, I'm going to start working on my outline today. Except I still have no idea what my book is going to be about. Is that sad, or what?

I would love to know what changes the coming fall and holiday season brings for your life. Tell the rest of us about your plan for the last quarter of 2009, or how you bring together your NaNo plan.

Don't Cheat Yourself Out of Readers

2009-08-31T10:29:00.007-05:00

I was reading my feeds this morning, and finally started coming awake and paying attention when I realized I had just spotted the third occurrence of archived articles being reposted. Keep in mind, there is nothing sneaky about it. The authors all very clearly represent the articles as being from the archives. Many times the articles are relevant to the season or current events.

I have used retrospective posting a time or two, because the subject matter was relevant to some current event or trend. It seems as though using a stand-by method too much would reveal the author as not having anything to post. Personally, I enjoy links back to old posts, especially if they are all topically relevant. Posts that were popular when first published are good for referring back to.

What would constitute too much of a good thing in this instance? The thought has occurred to me it might be interesting to posts some of the more popular articles from the past month on the last day of the month. Maybe that would make things a lot more simple and time-efficient for bill paying, and cleaning up the financial end. Of course, you always want to make a review at the end of the month of what discoveries you and others have made on your blog.

If not overused, retrospective posting can be a good thing. Helpful in the way of time consumption, it is simple to set up, leaving more time for other tasks. It can be a good way showcasing articles some readers may have missed. Bloggers should be mindful they are being judeged by their creativity as well as how prolific they are. Using a stand-by method is acceptable from time to time, but should never be employed as a primary means of having blog fodder just to produce content.

Are You Ready to Take the Freelance Plunge?

2009-08-14T12:41:00.003-05:00

You can hear Ernie over in the next cubicle biting his nails and spitting them out. Yesterday it was so hot in your department you got sick right after lunch. Today it is so cold you are wearing a parka. It's June. Do you spend your lunches chewing your lip (after you eat your soggy tuna fish sandwich) and dreaming of working from home? Do you think you are ready to take the freelance plunge?

Still Waters Run Deep

If you think you are ready to quit your job and do the stay-at-home thing, ask yourself a few questions first:

Do you consistently arrive at work on or ahead of time?
Do you get right to work, or do you take time to make coffee, say hello to your co-workers, straighten your desk or read a few interesting news items?
Are you able to work alone and keep yourself within time limits, or do you require a supervisor to assign you tasks throughout the day?
Do you need a pat on the back every now and then, or are you able to find motivation within yourself?

Freelance writers find very quickly how much personal discipline is required to keep yourself on track when there is no one there to crack the whip. Will you be able to get yourself out of bed every single day, resisting the urge to sleep in just this one time? Are you able to make a schedule and stick to it? Scheduling is very important self-employed. It is very easy to allow yourself to slide into complacency. You tell yourself you are doing something fabulous just by making the mental jump into freelance mode. Then you find yourself resting on the laurels of the gigantic leap of faith in yourself. Now what?

It is important for anyone considering a freelance career to take into account all the variables. Will you be able to save for a rainy day, which is bound to happen quite a bit during those first days of branding and reputation-building? Arguably the most important question before even beginning such an endeavor is to decide if you have the funds (or access to income) to get you through the lean years. It is very important to have a primary source of income when first starting your freelancing business. Your freelancing 'job' should be supplemental income, not your main occupation. You should wait until you have a strong following and a respectable group of clients to establish a full-time business until it shows serious potential for being a steady source of money. I will be posting more articles geared to new freelance writers. I am also working on an e-book that will be a valuable guide for those young to the freelancing world. Keep an eye out!

Writing, Just Writing

2009-08-03T14:49:00.000-05:00

The other day, while reading my feeds, I came across a great article on Creative Writing Corner, "Taking the Pressure of Writing Well". The article was very insightful. Blair Hurley talks about her childhood, and loving to write as a child. She remarks on something a lot of "born writers" can probably identify with. For those of us who have always written, before the internet before it even occurred to us we could make money doing this, our childhood writings seemed to flow more freely. We didn't worry about penmanship, or grammar or spelling. We didn't usually go back and check over ourselves, especially if it was not a school assignment. While the technical qualities of the writing may have left much to be desired, the natural flow and lack of fear allowed us to explore our minds, and write down whatever we came up with. Maybe this is what is missing out of much of our writing today. When we find ourselves pumping out the same old boring stuff that everyone else has already done twice, it can be dispiriting, to say the least. It can be very hard to grasp that same careless wonderment that marked our writings as younger people. How do we get this innocence and wonder back?

"Charging Bull" Artist Charges Copyright Infringement

2009-07-30T10:28:00.008-05:00

Sometimes even the veterans make biiiig mistakes, such as Random House's use of a (reportedly) unlicensed picture of the signature mascot of Wall Street and the entire New York financial district. According to Galleycat, mediabistro.com's weekly newsletter, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday Arturo Di Modica, the artist who created the famed "Charging Bull" sculpture has sued Bertelsmann AG's Random House Inc. for alleged unauthorized use of its image on the front of their recently published best-selling book, "A Colossal Failure of Common Sense: The Inside Story of the Collapse of Lehman Brothers", authored by Lawrence G. McDonald. Galleycat went on to quote David Drake, a spokesperson for Random House, who refused a detailed comment, saying only that the company does not discuss current litigation. For more information, you can check out the full story in the Wall Street Journal.

If You Can't Be an Expert, At Least Be an Authority

2009-07-28T15:15:00.010-05:00

What defines someone as an expert in their field? This question has become more relevant as employment goes ever more cyber. With the downturn in the economy, and jobs so scarce a corporate CEO can't find a management job at a Subway franchise, many people who have extensive knowledge in some area are hitting the information highway and selling their wares to the highest bidder.

There are some rumblings of discontent amongst many of the "old-timers", the tried-and-true Internet entrepreneurs who have worked their way into dominating some little corner of the cyber market. It seems many people who may really have no idea about what they are hawking or promoting are promoting themselves as experts in their niche. So what constitutes an expert? It would be fair to say that the designation of expert derives from a relative perspective.

Would it be more fair to say some people are authorities on their particular interest? Is it really just a matter of semantics? It would be very interesting to see what other people, especially writers, think about greenhorns who tout themselves as experts, only to be denounced by their own inexperience and lack of knowledge.

Would you describe yourself as knowledgeable, an authority, or an expert?

This Working Girl Expects to Get Paid

2009-07-10T11:59:00.010-05:00

Having spent most of my working life in the restaurant industry, I try not to be a complainer. For those of you not familiar with restaurant work, it basically requires a lot of QA and dealing with customer (eeek, never, ever say customer, it is guest) complaints. So, I know what it feels like to have to listen to people fuss about some of the most ludicrous things. It has taught me to pick my battles in life, and let the little stuff go. Today, I'm in a complaining mood.

I have spent the last several hours going through all my job boards, looking for gigs. Something I am beginning to notice more and more is employers wishing to hire people for less than one cent per word. One job even offered unframed prints of urban art as compensation. Yeah, my kids really dig a good faux Picasso slathered in ketchup every Friday night when they watch their movies. My favorites are the ones that tout how much credibility you will build by working for them for free.

Ok, to be fair, my very first gig one that called for one post per week for three different blogs, all at five dollars a post. I have mentioned this one before. I actually still do this one when the employer sends me the work, just out of professional loyalty, I guess you might say. It was my first gig, and I appreciated it so much, and frankly, I am loathe to turn away sure work. As I've stated before, as soon as I got my feet wet, and other work starting coming in, and I realized how much my time was worth, I started charging accordingly.

That is why is galls me to see these so-called professionals who think people should just be glad to be allowed to jab at some keys on the keyboard. I have worked hard to build my skills and credentials, and it has taken time to build my professional reputation. I'm no Darren Rowse or Jennifer Mattern, but neither am I a high-school dropout looking for something better than that car-detailing job I didn't feel like getting dressed up for anymore. (If you lived in the deep South and understood our weather, you would get that particular snideness regarding working outside.)

Regardless of who I am or where I came from, my skills speak for themselves. I have to have that kind of confidence, or I may as well get up from this desk, put my apron back on, and go back to slinging food. I guess "real" writers who actually try to produce quality work look at those people who will work for next to nothing kind of like strikers view those who will cross a picket line. No, no, I am not getting into that particular incendiary topic, I'm just trying to make a point. Some of us are trying to find honest work, that requires skill and knowledge, so that we can earn money to feed our families and pay the bills, not so that we can call ourselves working and sit home in our pajamas every day. Yeah, I'm wearing my pajamas. But, I'm also about to go pay the light bill and then come back home and get to work on stuff I will produce that will be worth more than just "credibility".

I sort of hate the way all I just wrote sounds, because I don't like those people who leave comments on blogs ranting about how "some people don't even have the right to be writing". I fussed about that a few months ago. I think anyone who wants to should write. It's called the First Amendment to the Constitution. Achh, I don't even know why I'm ranting about this. It's a null point. I'm just ill because it's annoying to click on link after link only to see the compensation listed as "credibility" and, well, whatever other junk they try to offer. Still though, unframed prints of New York's urban art? Snort. I'm about to go tell my girls that's what we're having for dinner tonight. Then I'm gonna call the grocery store Wal-Mart and ask them do they accept "art" as a payment form. As an old friend of my used to say, "Bet that'll go over like doo-doo in a punch bowl."

So, what do you think of low-paying gigs, and the writers who allow it to continue? Do you take low-paying gigs? Leave a comment or email me...

A Warning for the Greenhorn

2009-07-02T14:30:00.006-05:00

I flat-out refuse to give people free work. The very thought goes against the very grain of my work ethic. I applied for a job yesterday, and sent in an extensive resume with several samples of my work included. I received a response today requesting a brand-new, original article of 400-600 words, any topic, as an "application". So, I posted this question to several of my LinkdIn groups: What do you do if you apply for a job using your resume and samples of your work, and they request an original article as an application? The response was overwhelming. The general consensus is DON'T WORK FOR FREE. That being said, some of the commentators said they had found some really lucrative work for providing more samples of their work, as requested. The first person to tell this included this wisdom, it depends on how bad you want to work for them.

Maybe I'm out of the loop, or whatever you want to call it, but I just cannot see myself giving away free writing pieces to try to get a job. I've heard of too many scams out there. One guy who commented told a complete horror story about how he spent a week working up this really intricate, detailed and (sounds like) expensive report to prove to some company he could write for them. Apparently, he finds out years later (no, he didn't get the job) these people had scammed several others he met at a writers conference. The company had essentially tricked five people into writing an extensive manual for them for free. Besides wondering how people like that go through life without getting beat up, I want to warn newbies to watch yourself. It's so easy to be scammed when you're just breaking into writing. You are so excited, and scared, and just want your first job sooooo bad...then you will be a "real" writer. See the post immediately before this one for a story about that. When you're green you will take the dirt-cheap jobs experienced freelancers turn their noses up about, just to have something to put on your resume. This is where it gets dangerous for the ingenue.

Trust me when I tell you it is possible to get jobs without paying for them, and without having to go through the frustration and humiliation of having your work stolen from you. Now, I know there are plenty of other writers out there who swear by those bidding sites you have to pay to join. And then there are those sites where you have to be a member to view their job boards. Maybe I'm just not ambitious enough, but...whatever, I can't bring myself to do it. I'm sure it could be said by some I may think a little too much of my writing. Hmph. I prefer not to go there, but I can obviously write, because people have paid me to do so. This really isn't just about myself though. It's about warning new writers about con artists who will steal your work just as quickly as they will your money.

If I'm missing out on the really great jobs, so be it. Maybe sometime down the road I'll change my mind. Something tells me I won't. Writing wedding vows for my friends and typing resumes is quite enough free work on my part, thank you very much. If it sounds like I have an attitude about this, it's just the timing of this blog post. That email is still on my mind, obviously. Seriously, this didn't start out as a rant, but I get angry the more I think about it. Now, to be completely fair, this job offer was more than likely completely on the up-and-up. But, I always try to follow gut instinct, and gut instinct told me not to go with this one. So, I deleted the email. Now I'm just going to forget about it and get back out there on the cyber-sidewalk and start looking for more jobs. I honestly feel like I avoided a pitfall this time.

So what about you? Do you have some war stories to tell about being scammed, or almost being scammed? Everyone is entitled to their opinion. What's yours?

Do You Know How Valuable You Are?

2009-06-29T18:35:00.005-05:00

When I think of negotiating the terms of a new project, for some reason, I think of my senior trip to the Bahamas. Literally, every time. It gives me a chuckle, anyway. I picture small, sun-browned people in straw hats and brightly colored mumus, standing under shaded little huts, haggling over their wares. Pricing your work can be about like that. You haggle with yourself, thinking, "What if I charge too much? Will they turn down my offer? What if I underprice myself and wind up losing out?" Here's an example I have seen offered by many other freelancers: My very first gig. Oh boy! I was so excited! I was going to be a real, true, honest-to-goodness professional writer! Oh what do I charge, what do I charge? So, just to get the job, I went against the advice of all the pros, Jennifer, Anne, Allena...and charged five dollars a pop for three blog posts a week. I figured I could churn out three blog posts in an hour easy, and then I'd be making fifteen dollars an hour!

Many gigs and lots more professional experience later, I still remember sitting up all hours of the night, trying to make these three little posts just absolutely perfect. It took me way over an hour to do each post, because they wanted additional research and an image for each one. Not that I'm blaming the client, I don't blame them at all. Heck, if I were looking for a problogger, and some nincompoop like myself offered to work for less than minimum wage, I would probably take them up on it. Actually, these days, I would probably tell them they were giving themselves the shaft and undermining their own talent. That being said, I was so proud to have the job, I didn't care. I would probably have done it for a dollar, to be honest, just to have something on my resume. Besides, at the time I figured I had been writing for pennies for Triond, Helium, and Ground Report. Five dollars was way better, right? Now I know better. Ah well, live and learn.

Nowadays, I'm aware my skills and time are far more valuable than rates less than minimum wage, and so I quote accordingly. I quote what I am absolutely positively sure I want to work for, and then, besides a little negotiating here and there, I stick to it. And it works! Other people agree my time and skills are valuable, and they are willing to pay me for them. The first step in pricing your work is to figure out how much you want to make. Duh, right? Sounds simple. Then you will probably have to consider this amount and tweek it up or down according to reality.

We would all love to sit at home in our pajamas and eat Cheetos while making a fortune banging out blog posts, but unfortunately this is the real world, and currently, it's in a state of crisis. That is another matter to keep in mind. Freelancers of the world hear this: the terrible economic client is making it easier than ever for contract workers in the publishing industry to find work. Clients are avoiding the big publishing and marketing firms, and going for the contract worker. Freelancers don't require benefits, or workers comp.

Companies are wanting to spend less on their advertising. I advise all my clients and prospective clients to maintain the same ad budget as much as they can, because when sunny days are here again, the big boys will be holding strong (unless they invested with Madoff), and the little Mom-n-Pop will need to have stayed in the loop. The only way for them to do this is to keep an active market presence. This is where you, the contract worker, comes in. As I have pointed out on my site, it is essential for businesses to maintain an active presence to keep up with those big guys who aren't necessarily going to be forgotten in the midst of an economic crisis.

Bottom line: If you underrate yourself, most clients are not going to be good Samaritans and let you know that you are doing so. It's not in their best interest to alert you that you are shortchanging yourself. If you have been doing this for any time at all, you have probably already figured out this takes a lot of trial and error. Such is true with fees and rates. Try this and that. You will come to find you will probably charge differing amounts depending on the service. This is why it is contract work. Most of the time, you will base your rates on the total amount of work, plus the intricacy and amount of detail. If the client wants you to do research or add imagery, you may want to increase your rate a little. If the client has several projects and wants you to consider a package deal, you may want to knock your rate down just a little for the whole package. This is still, for a while anyway, a free market, and you have the right to charge pretty much what you want.

That being said, keep in mind if you charge too little, all your freelancing friends out there will hate you, and you will be considered to be "wh**ing" yourself. You may not care if strangers hate you, but you will become burnt out very quickly if you're only charging a pittance for your work. Discouragement may begin to set in. That is why is is imperative you figure out quickly what your time and effort is worth to you, and begin to fiddle with market rates. All of this may sound kind of sketchy, but it really is a matter of trial and error. With all the freelancers out there hitting the newly discovered cyber-media market, good paying jobs are not going to jump into your lap. So, you just have to jump into the fray.

What are your thoughts about fees and rates? Have you been burned? Tell us your horror stories about being a greenhorn freelancer.

Everybody's Doin' It

2009-06-25T14:41:00.004-05:00

Ok, I had to stop reading my feeds for just a moment...just about every one of them is discussing writer's block! I'm not alone! Yippee! Not that I desire for other people to have a hard time doing their work, too-it's just that...well, it feels good sometimes to have someone to share your misery. I guess now would be an appropriate time to talk to a writing friend or mentor, if you have one. That's the thing. I am literally the only person I know (locally) who is a writer. Of course I have my network of writing buddies, but I can't really say I'm so close to any of them I can turn to them like my sponsor and tell them I have fallen off the word wagon.

Yeah, I guess I envy those who seem to have no problem sitting down and churning out post after post. But, more than that I envy those who have someone they can turn to. My husband is great, and very understanding and supportive, but he's a TV person, while I'm a book person. You see where I'm going with this. Take a look at this (hopefully) humorous post that gives you a glimpse into my world sans writers.

So, after I finished the previous post, I decided to go try to find some ideas. While reading all my feeds, I discovered there are either a lot of other writers going through writer's block, or they know someone who is. So, when you have writer's block, is the ultimate cure to write about...writer's block? I was actually surprised at what I found. One after another, they all talked about some aspect of writer's block. While it did make me feel less alone, it didn't do much for my Muse. She's still at the beach I guess. Traitor.

Where Have All the Words Gone?

2009-06-24T14:43:00.005-05:00

Why is it so hard, sometimes, to find your "Muse", and do any kind of decent writing? Don't worry-this isn't going to be more unsolicited advice about writer's block that half my readers probably don't currently have and won't want to keep reading about. Ok, maybe a little because I am currently in the clutches of a case of writer's block so bad I'm going to have to pick up extras hours at my other job to supplement what I'm missing by not being able to churn out quality writing like I usually can. So, yeah, I guess I will be addressing a certain aspect in the realm of writer's block.

What I mean is, to me writer's block is "not being able to think of anything to write about." I don't have that problem at all. I have so many ideas of stuff to write about it's ridiculous. Yet, the information is a garbled mess in my head. I'm really starting to ponder the possibility of late-onset attention-deficit disorder. Anyway, I have great ideas for "stuff to write about", like, constantly. But I can't focus all my thoughts into some coherent order to put it down so it makes sense to someone else. (I did mention ADD, right?)

A couple of days ago I sat down and tried use the listing method for a blogging project. I've tried every kind of "brain warmer" imaginable, and so far the "just sit down and begin writing" method still works best for me. That's how I did this. Humph. Look at that. Three paragraphs. I'm not holding out any hope the curse is broken.

Freelance Outsourcing a Popular Alternative to Marketing Firms

2009-06-03T10:55:00.004-05:00

A recent post by Apryl Duncan at About.com: Advertising discusses an interesting, yet to-be-released study conducted by The Future of Advertising Project, a collaborative effort between The Wharton School and the Advertising Research Foundation. The study found, among other things, the rise in popularity of DVRs has not adversely affected successful television advertising as was previously assumed. The study ultimately found television advertising can actually harm a company's bottom line. The two most profitable advertising mediums are currently online advertising and print media. Although stories and rumors of different newspapers and magazines closing are rampant and persistent, print media is still hanging in there. It is unlikely the only tangible form of advertising will be obsolete any time soon.

What does this mean for the business owner? It can mean a world of difference when advertising affects the bottom line, all the way around. Consider the cost of television advertising-still the most expensive form of advertising today. Then there is the revenue from the business brought in by commercials on television. Does the revenue from business gained from television advertising business offset the overhead?

Consider as well your level of exposure to the consumer. Television ads run at a certain time of day, on certain channels, a certain number of times a day, targeted for specific groups of consumers. If the consumer is not sitting in front of the television at the exact moment the commercial plays, the sale is lost. Every single person who did not see that customer is a lost sale. On the other hand, online print advertising is essentially "parked", meaning, ad copy on and for your site. The ad does not ruin chances at being seen if will definitely be seen, if not consciously noted by every consumer that "drive" past your parked ad.

In the current economic crisis, it is more important than ever to maintain a strong, consistent web presence. When the good times eventually start rolling again, consumers will be spending money. The big boys are not going to go away or be forgotten. You have to keep yourself on your clients' minds. You want to give prospective clientele a reason to come around and see you when hey confident enough to start spending again.

How is it possible for the small business owner to ever gain a foot-hold in the capitalist market, much less hold on to it, when everyone is pinching pennies? It is possible to downsize your advertising overhead without sacrificing professionalism, service and quality. Freelance writers are emerging as a popular alternative to expensive, impersonal corporate advertising firms. Freelancers are often more willing to negotiate on fees than large firms may be.

Another point to consider is what the freelancer has invested in your business, besides their time and effort. Remember that a freelancer writer's business is usually associated with their own name. It stands to reason anyone trying to build a professional reputation is going to carefully guard that reputation. A freelancer has to protect their name, because it is ultimately their brand. A person's name is not like an email address or user name that can be changed or deleted on a whim. It is not quite so easy to go to court to have your name changed. Therefore a freelancer is more likely to be careful with their reputation because they stake their livelihood on it.

When your name is your brand, it is ever more so important to build quality professional relationships. Good freelancers will prove their worth to the client time and again, and the business owner will reap the benefits of lower cost, and a personal touch to their writing that is sometimes missing from the standard fodder of the commissioned corporate account executives. To a freelancer, the client is not just a paycheck, or just another account easily replaced by another. Each and every client is a separate and distinct business relationship.

Live-Answers.com Provides Multi-Faceted Opportunities for Researchers & Experts

2009-05-25T21:40:00.004-05:00

One of the foremost challenges of new entrepreneurs who offer skilled services and expertise is finding a platform from which to promote what they have to offer. Corporate advertising firms can often be expensive and impersonal. On the other hand, one of the most important points Internet users complain about is not being able to find credible, useful information when they need it. Live-Answers.com, a paid directory of experts in every field and industry imaginable, is the mutually beneficial solution for both.

Live-Answers.com is a free service for those looking for information on a huge variety of subjects from art & design to zip drives. It is also the perfect place for experts to tout their knowledge and objectives. The premise is simple: researchers pay experts in their field either a flat fee or an hourly rate for advice, answers to specific questions, and consulting, amongst a range of other services. The experts advertise their valuable knowledge for free, and then get paid by the researchers. Gurus basically get free advertising in a directory of skilled service and expertise providers. Live-Answers.com is a more streamlined, custom approach to marketing services, in a niche not brimming with talent.

"Expert" tends to be a relative term these days, in essence meaning at the very least someone's relatives consider them to be an expert in something. Anyone with Internet access can throw whatever garbage they want at a wiki-wall, and everything sticks. Live-Answers.com only allows users to call themselves "experts" after their credentials have been carefully reviewed. Once a user's link has been approved, they are free to toot their own horn as loud as they like. In fact, that's the whole point. Not, of course, to encourage people to make embellished claims about their knowledge and experience, but to encourage researchers and those who have the answers they seek to come together.

Submitting a link does take a little time, but the most simple, efficient way is to make a bare-bones link, and after it has been approved, which the owner of the site does manually, the link can be modified to its publisher's contentment. In fact, once the link is approved the changes made after that will take immediate affect. Instant gratification! As soon I finished making my link, I wrote the owner an email telling him how sincerely excited I am to be on the forefront of this thing. I like the idea of being paid to tell people about stuff I like to talk about. Who wouldn't?

So, my link has been approved, which, in my case, took very little time, and it looks just the way I want it. I'm hedging my bets being in the only paid directory of experts on the Internet makes my time worth at least $25, which is about the going rate for single questions. Not too bad. Now I sit back and wait for someone to come along who needs to know something about what I call myself an expert in, right? If you answered yes, then you have missed the point entirely. The point is to get your knowledgeable self out there. Live-Answers.com provides a pool of researchers waiting to avail themselves of your ingenuity and proficiency.

Stay tuned for a review of Live-Answers.com's sister site, SpeaktoMe.com. You will learn more about this premier directory site, where users can actually request a face-to-face meeting with 'their' expert through services such as Skype.

Kick Yourself in the Butt if You Don't Get Off It

2009-05-25T01:11:00.004-05:00

Last night I was going through some of my old notebooks and I found an inspirational letter I had apparently written one morning when I just didn't feel like getting out of bed and doing much of anything. Please keep in mind this was back during a time when I was preparing to have major surgery, so I wasn't feeling very well to begin with. I digress. I was reading my little inspirational letter expecting some ho-hum first-thing-in-the-morning, wake-the-brain drill. I was quite surprised at what I found. I had written a somewhat eloquent letter to myself. I asked myself what I wanted out of life. Did I want to continue to hustle my butt off in restaurants for the the rest of my life? Or did I want to put this talent, that more people had told me I possessed than to allow myself to think they were just being nice, and put it to good use. I wanted to write stuff I was passionate about. I wanted to make people laugh and think and learn and care.

So, I just finished an article the other day about mold. Tomorrow I have three projects I simply must work on. I will be getting my weekly assignment from my very first client, who happens to still be my client, tomorrow. Sometimes I have to take a deep breath and look around and gather my wits about me when I realize: I AM DOING THIS.

Tomorrow (rather, today, just in a few hours, after I get some Zzzzzs) look for me to expound upon this. Hopefully, I will be a little more awake and making a little more sense and typing a little faster with fewer mistakes. Alright goodnight. We'll do this again tomorrow. Why? Because we love it.

Doing It 'Legit

2009-05-17T23:31:00.006-05:00

When I first discovered Likaholix, I was really into it for a while. Then I started getting more paid work, so I didn't have as much time to do "fun" stuff. So, on a whim I decided yesterday to go do a couple of "likes" on the site. Much to my surprise, after submitting a few of my favorite sites, which just happen to be from my feeds I read every day, I suddenly found myself bombarded by Twitter followers! I am not complaining, trust me. I'm just surprised. I feel somewhat like you do when an extra Dr. Pepper falls out of the drink machine, and you feel like you're stealing because you have two for the price of one, and you know in your heart you didn't pay for the other one. On a side note to that, I decided when that does happen ever so rarely I pay it forward, so to speak. In other words, I go ahead and stick another fifty or seventy-five cents in there, or whatever, and pay for it. I know somewhere down the line someone won't but oh well. Anyway, I digress.

Like I said I was so shocked to find myself suddenly getting mail every few minutes telling me I was getting new Twitter followers. So, I guess I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts. Beginner's luck? I don't know. So anyway, my thing with the feeling like I'm cheating is, well, just that. I feel like I didn't do much to gain these people's trust in my opinion, yet there they are, wanting to know what I like and think is quality web content. I am one of those people that I feel like my writing should speak for itself. Call me old-fashioned, but I don't want to feel like I'm "tricking" someone into coming to my site. I guess I feel better working it the out-dated way, by just advertising myself and putting myself out there, and announcing my services for sale, and then letting my writing be the deciding factor for my clients, not how snazzy and modern my page looks.

That being said, I'm all about working some SEO content, but I would rather know quality is what is making my writing sell itself. So, if I sound self-righteous I don't mean to. I just know the direction I want my writing career to go. I feel like if I go with whatever is the latest trend for "hooking" the client, then I'll forever be following trends and moving ever further away from my true passion, the art of writing. So, the whole point of this entry is to brag in an off-hand way about all my new Twitter buddies, but also to spell out the disclaimer about what my plans are as far as promoting and procuring business.

Distraction is the Understatement of All Time

2009-05-14T13:23:00.005-05:00

I don't even know if I spelled 'understatement' right, and don't care because I have a headache the size of awatermelon, and I have four projects I have yet to finish and the men who are putting a new roof on my house have yet to understand that there is a writer in the house and they should gently lay their very loud tools down on the roof. Why can't they tiptoe? I'm actually making myself laugh, picturing those guys tiptoe-ing across my roof like sweaty, hard-face ballerinas.

Really, I wish you could join me in my head right this second, the thought is truly hilarious. Only in my little daydream, I am not Renee Zellweger, who always seems to have bad luck and would probably have mean roofers who resented the fact that they were being asked by this stupid, whiny woman to tiptoe! across a roof. No, I am Pam Anderson, whom they would gladly crawl across broken glass to please. I don't expect all that. I would just nicely ask them to be just a little more quiet while I'm working...all the while handing them lemonade and watching them look at me goggle-eyed. Ok that was a great writing exercise. Btw, I'm in my big, fluffy flowery robe my kids gave me for Christmas last year, my hair is unbrushed and in a bun, and I have on my granny glasses. I did brush my teeth though. I wonder if minty cool breath would do the trick.

When Success Hurts Your Business

2009-05-13T09:14:00.003-05:00

A few weeks ago, I was having an email discussion with Anne Wayman about being so busy it hurts your business. I remember telling her I just could not wait until my business reached the point that it looked like I was going to have to start doing some outsourcing myself. Well, phew...that day has arrived. Actually, if you will look back at the last time I was able to update this blog, it began a couple of weeks ago. I suddenly found myself working nearly around the clock to try to finish all the projects I had due. Don't get me wrong: I am NOT complaining about having plenty of clients and work. I am so grateful and feel so blessed to have this opportunity. I'm just sitting back taking a breath for the first time in weeks. Wow, it feels good to breathe. I haven't felt this harried since my full-time days in the restaurant.

This has reminded me of a few hard-wrought lessons. First, anyone in business for themselves must set priorities and stick to them. You must set a schedule, and follow it as closely as is plausible. It is imperative that you use your time wisely, since you can't make or buy more of it. Without schedules and ways to keep ourselves organized, we will never have any kind of uniformity and control over our own business affairs.

Another bit of advice, don't overload yourself. You cannot give quality to every client if you simply have too much to do. When you have several projects going at once, it is definitely much more difficult to keep track of what you are working on, and when. There is no point in having lots of work to do, if you are only going to do it halfway. In fact, you will actually run the risk of damaging your reputation and your business, when word gets out that the quality of your work is shoddy. Remember that although the Internet is practically inexhaustible, every little niche on the Internet has its regulars. They remember. Trust me. They remember everything. If you get your name around enough, people start repeating it. You don't want words phrases like "poor quality work" to start bouncing around cyberspace with your name attached to them. Once you have ruined your professional reputation, it is nearly impossible to rebuild it. Business people are not your family. They are not prone to 'forgive and forget'. You can't show up at their house with a neck-hug and pound cake and make everything alright.

Remember just like any other 'job', you don't want to push yourself too much, especially in the beginning of your career and get burnt out. Burn-out is a very hard thing to overcome, even more so than writer's block many times. Writer's block leaves you craving words. Burn-out leaves you craving release. Think of the marathon runner who, knowing he still has a long haul, starts out at a moderate speed, keeping a pace that will allow him to go the distance without tiring out halfway through. Maintaining a steady, reasonable pace will prevent you from becoming overwhelmed and overworked.

With all the odds and ends there are to remember with any new business endeavor, it is important to keep your priorities straight, and to develop routines and habits. It simply is not sufficient to just do the work you get paid for. You are the developer, creator, marketer and seller of your product. It's all you, baby.

The Last General Store

2009-04-30T10:38:00.004-05:00

There are some days when you want to just go throw the towel in and go back to the real world and get a job. Don't get me wrong. I'm still excited. I still have a tiny grain of that freshness, that zeal left in me. Tomorrow I will probably have a whole bunch of it. Just some days like today, nothing is coming forth from the muse, trying to create another website is going completely awry, and I'm almost out of Sunkist. Mrs. Willene has already seen me twice today, volunteering as I went out the door of the gas station/deli, "Having country fried steak today, shug." She never even looked up from the gas tickets she was totaling. "Yes, ma'am. See y'all in a little while." And so my weird little "work-at-home" project has, at least for the last couple of days, included several unnecessary trips to the corner store. That is my newest stalling technique. I tell myself I'm just going to help make sure the store makes it since her husband, Mr. Larry died a few months back. I do like to go look at the picture of the sweet little old man they just installed next to the coffee machine. It's a good picture.

Little as I knew about the lives of those two sweet little old people who ran the little convenience store right down the little country road from my house, I am so jealous of their life. They have had their little store since Adam, and everyone for thirty miles around knows who they are. They were there bright and early every morning, long before the sun came up, brewing coffee, baking biscuits and sweeping floors. They cater to the breakfast and lunch crowd, not to mention the regulars who are in an out all day, in that way that seems to be unique to Southerners, to want to hang around the little country store. They did their own little thing, and they worked long and hard, and they really did stay closed on Sundays, and they locked the doors before dark. What a life. When Mr. Larry died a few months ago, it was unreal. People came in droves from every tiny country community in this corner of the state.

I'm from a much younger generation. Can I see myself working eighteen-hour days like they did? To be honest, no, not anymore, not on my feet and standing over stoves. I had to when I was a single mom, and it wasn't fun. I can't imagine doing it again. (Let me back down off my high-horse real quick. I pray I won't ever have to do that again. I'm careful to give credit where credit is due.) But, then again, to know you were doing it because it was your thing, and it benefited you and yours in the end, that would be pretty cool. I envy those sweet little country people because they were able to do effortlessly what I am feverishly trying to do everyday. They were, without even trying or realizing, helping to shape the community around them. How many young men on their way to the woods to hunt did Mr. Larry chat with on cold mornings, with free coffee, and oblivious to his own good deeds, impart some wisdom to his younger counterparts? I'm jealous of Mr. Larry and Mrs. Willene because they quietly, humbly and frugally made a life for themselves and their children out here in these little backwoods. They touched the lives of many people, right down there, mere yards from my house, just with smiles and free candy. They are truly, truly, the last of a bygone era.

So, I guess the moral of my story is not to get too bogged down in the techno side of writing. If we are writers, we should write. We should write like writers have always written, about the things around them and the things they notice and the things that touch them. There you go. I guess my little trips weren't so fruitless after all. They got some words out of me, at the very least. The last couple of days of have seen my brain stone-walling on learning and knowing and imparting. Here I sit, at this bastion of technological advancement, flipping through thesauruses, and researching and looking stuff up, writing, re-writing and throwing away, vainly searching for the wisdom I already found at the last general store.

Freelance for Mrs. Hotpants

2009-04-20T21:43:00.001-05:00

Never, ever again will I impose on a family member or friend for an idea of "what to write about." In response my to naive plea, "Gimme an idea, gimme something to write about," my husband puffed out his chest, stuck his lips out, stretched his arms down like a petulant child and said, "Freelance for Mrs. Hotpants." I haven't bothered to clear with him if I am Mrs. Hotpants or if "hotpants" was the very first word that came to mind that rhymed with "-lance." I arched one eyebrow at him, the only move I made, actually, as I stood there with my arms crossed over my bathrobe and my head cocked to one side, and waited. He slowly blew all the air out of his puffed cheeks, relaxed his arms, back and chest. He looked at me sheepishly and said, "Ok, that wasn't funny. I thought it would be cute. Sorry. Gimme a little while to think about it." A good forty-five minutes hence, "Medium" is is full trance, and so is my husband, sacked out in his Lazy Boy. Sigh. So much for family support.

In case any of you are wondering, yes, this did indeed teach me that, yes, indeed, you should shy away from pestering friends and family members for "ideas about stuff to write." Clearly, if they had ideas about "stuff to write," they would be writers. They're not. I am. So, it's my job to come up with the "stuff" and write about it, to entertain my readers. I am going to chock this up to a learning experience, despite the fact, I, like many comediennes, just threw my beloved under the bus for the sake of a story.

They come to understand, the loved ones do. It goes with the territory. He knows I won't get too outrageous with our family skeletons. The point is, we the writers, must learn to depend upon other writers for support, at least about writing. Other people just don't understand why, when in a frenzied stream of typing, Mama will come unglued if anyone disturbs me. They simply cannot fathom what I am thinking when I refuse a ride in the country on a Sunday afternoon because I have a deadline I just have to meet. Don't get me wrong, I do my best to balance work and family. But they don't understand and they never will. They don't understand the fickle nature of the drive to create, how it is so capricious, like the wind, leaving you never knowing which way it will be coming from next, or what it will bring with it.

What do you think? Tell us how you have managed to balance life as a writer and a spouse and/or parent. How does your family view your "job?" Email me or leave a comment...More soon!

FREE NEWSLETTER COMING SOON!

2009-04-16T16:06:00.000-05:00

I would like to joyfully announce I have a FREE NEWSLETTER in the works! In the once-weekly publication you will find advice and tips on freelance writing, blogging and other aspects of the publishing industry. Included will be news about some of the latest in technological developments for the professional writer. Readers' input is welcomed as to what to have in the newletter. Suggestions will continue to be taken from readers for issues and topics readers would like to know more about, such as starting out in the freelancing industry.

The information will transcend the boundaries of job type, lending some advice and tips and such that is useful to artists and those in other non-typical professions. The mission of this newsletter is to inform fellow artists, and to promote the continuation of the arts. There will also be requests for guest contributors, if anyone is interested in helping, with credit, of course. This is a very exciting prospect. If any of you have any advice or ideas you want to share, please do! When the newsletter is ready for publication I will include a link on all my pages and sites, and I will send an email to all my readers. If you wish to be included and want to go ahead and sign up, be sure to send an email to contact@trinalgrant.com.

Here's to All the Stupid People

2009-04-16T14:24:00.000-05:00

Stupid people uniting for a common cause. Apparently it is called a writer's forum. Nevermind. I'm being sarcastic about something I read today that ruffled my feathers a bit. I won't even go into it. Instead, I'll tell about what it inspired. This blog post is for all the stupid people. For all you dreamers, you ne'er-do-wells who waste your time on fairy tales and fantasy. Really at some point, you should just throw in the towel and give up, realizing and accepting that you are just no good. It is senseless to keep trying and trying to do something when it never works. To do so is the definition of insanity.

So, we are insane, huh? Insane to get up every day and face the day as if today, yes TODAY were the day. The day when we would strike gold, make it, score, reach the big time. Some editor would call out of the blue and tell us they have seen our writing and are ready to throw us an advancement of a million dollars just on a handshake that we will write a really good novel for them some day. Is that what the rest of you freelancers sit around doing all day? If that is the secret to making it big, then let me know where else I'm going wrong. I get up every day before my husband does for his "real" job, and I sit down and I read and I write and I query and I network and I comment and I ask and I answer and I encourage and I am encouraged and I do what I love and hope somebody wants to pay me to do it. And once in a while someone does. And then all my friends who encouraged me and whom I have encouraged celebrate with me. And we don't disparage anyone else's good fortune. We do not bemoan the fact that one of our friends picked up an awesome gig today and we're still cranking out the same boring stuff for the time being. Until our big day arrives and they are happy for us.

So, tell me, colleagues, fellow wordsmiths, do you feel unworthy when you enter a forum or some other arena for discussion, to ask questions and glean knowledge from your peers? Do you feel unworthy as you send out your queries and applications? Do you hide your head in shame when you make a mistake or someone whispers to you to correct a misspelling? None of us are perfect. That is why we all encourage each other. We're like a bunch of drunks at our meeting, except our DOC is perfectly acceptable. In fact, apparently, it is prized and hoarded. So, another question. Do you feel that there are some people who simply aren't worthy, shouldn't be allowed, even, to put their words out there for the world to read? Who is this Deity of All Things Writing, who ultimately decides who is worthy of the hallowed name, WRITER?

Brand Your Writing: Finding Your Style

2009-04-15T22:27:00.000-05:00

Check out my newest post on my site

Just a Quick Pep-Talk

2009-04-13T16:20:00.000-05:00

If you don’t have a six-figure deal by the time you’re thirty-five, you've failed. In fact, why even be a writer?
-James Atlas, essay: The Fall of Fun, "The New Yorker", November, 1996

Are you afraid to write because someone might read it? Have you ever noticed that the go-getters in life are the people who live as if living their life's dream is already underway? They are not the people we see sitting around waiting for life to happen to them. They know that circumstance is not going to fall in their lap. The "doers" of life don't let anything stop them or get in the way of what they want to do. They are not working on becoming writers. They are writers, and they have a business and they are successful, and they are experts and you would be insane not to hire them. Successful writers do not meekly sit around waiting for great writing opportunities to fall in their lap. They promote themselves. They charge forward fearlessly, or at least covering it well, brandishing the quill as a sword in the war on illiteracy.

Writers whose names becomes household words are not quietly sitting around typing words on paper. They are shaping minds, and carving history, and changing the world. Do you sit with your hand on the mouse, trembling and watching the little white arrow dance around the "submit" button? Have no fear! Charge ahead! Hit the "submit" button! Tell the world what you have to say. If one person, just one, reads anything you write, then you are a writer. If you sit down and express your thoughts and knowledge in printed words, if you are constantly scribbling little notes to yourself, and itch with the desire to put them out there for people, anyone, to read, then you are a writer. No one else will tell you that you are a writer. Declare it so. Make it so.

Image courtesy sxc.com/seebits

Quote courtesy of Quoteland.com

The Definitive List

2009-04-13T15:37:00.000-05:00

Check out my list of my favorite writer's blogs

THE DEFINITIVE LIST

Guest Blogger Invite!!

2009-03-31T13:43:00.001-05:00

I apologize in advance, but I just have to brag about my good news. I have been invited by Anne Wayman, author of the blogs About Freelance Writing and Debt and Dollars amongst others, to be a guest blogger! This is so exciting for me. This is my second time being invited to guest-post for anyone, and the fact that it is Anne doing the inviting is thrilling! Anne has been an inspiration to me since I started pursuing a career as a freelance writer. As I told her, it is such an honor to be asked to add my thoughts to her treasure-trove of knowledge. This is as much a public thank-you to her, as well as telling the rest of you how excited I am. I will let you know when to look for me over there!

Five Tips for Interactive, Engaging Blogging

2009-03-29T14:12:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone! I am back to work (writing) officially tomorrow! The other job will be a couple of more weeks. It has been a long haul coming back from my surgery, and I appreciate your patience while I was only able to post here and there during my recovery. However, tomorrow is the deadline I gave myself to be able to be up and doing my writing full-time again. So, without further adieu, let's get the show on the road, as they say...

I decided my advice in this post will go along well with the 'facing the world again' theme I have currently running in my life. I hope that in my absence none of my loyal readers have given up on me. In that light, I thought I would tell you five tips you can utilize to encourage your readers to interact with you more, and to expand your networking coverage.

Even when not immobilized for weeks after surgery, keeping readers interested and pleasantly surprised is always part of the challenge of writing as a professional blogger or any other type of writer of perpetuating media. This post will tell you how to specifically engage your readers in dialogue and interactivity on your blog, however you can check my archives for articles relating to Procuring and Keeping Readers. The following five suggestions will help you to receive more thoughtful, interactive responses from your readership:

Ask a provocative question. Do you use questions as a technique to engage your readers? Using a question to evoke your readers to express their opinions on a certain subject is a sure-fire way to receive plenty of comments and responses, especially if your topic is controversial. If your blog is primarily one-sided opinion, you will, of course, have plenty of comments from people who share the same views as you. It gets interesting when people who disagree with you leave comments. This proves your writing is intriguing enough to get a person who does not share your opinion on the subject to stop and read what you have to say. If you can catch the interest of those of the opposing viewpoint, their comments are likely to stir even more dialogue from your side. Thus you will have a continuous stream of commentary on what you write. And, there is always Twitter. You get a good enough debate or conversation going, and you can count on getting 'tweeted' and 're-tweeted' by those following the thread.

Take a poll on a current issue. Do you think polls are a good way to engage readers? Yes/No? Everyone loves to vote in polls. Even people who are not writers, and those who are not necessarily opinionated, will participate in a poll. Readers like to let others know how they feel, and most people are more than willing to do it in the easiest way possible. If you give readers a chance to tell their opinion to the world with the click of a button, most will take you up on it. This will open up another opportunity for commentary and debate.

Offer a challenge to your readers. Set a goal of a certain number of words per day, and then at the end of a certain time period, post the tallied words on your blog to give the writers some recognition for their efforts. For example, if you have a blog about book writing, challenge all your readers to a mini-NaNoWriMo. Dare your readers to post at least one blog post a day, and write two-thousand words a day for their novel. Tell them to send you the total number of words they write per day, week, whatever...then post the tallied numbers on your blog at the end of pre-determined time periods so the readers can give themselves and each other pats on the back. You don't have to be on the same scale as NaNoWriMo. Blog and website owners host these challenges all the time. It is a way for people to challenge themselves, network, and feel a sense of achievement that every writer needs a good dose of now and again.

Ask for readers' input. What would be good topics to make lists about? This may sound odd if your blog is normally an advice column of sorts. But, take for instance the "faves" lists that web surfers can now put on any type of web site, blog, home page, etc. Lists are very popular additions to blogs and web pages. What is it about our culture that makes us interested to know what other people think about, and like, and dislike? You could ask your readers for advice on what they would like to know about their fellow web surfers. What kinds of lists would be popular? You can do a new list periodically and change the topic from time to time.

Allow readers to submit material for guest posts on a certain day of the week. Let your readers know that you will have guest posts on a certain day of the week, and announce ahead of time the topic and the guest blogger. Fans of your guest blogger will be delighted that you have them contributing to your blog. People who are not familiar with your guest blogger will be introduced to a fresh perspective. Aspiring writers and burgeoning professional bloggers will be thrilled to be allowed to "host another show" for a day. You will be doing yourself a favor by networking, and making new friends who will certainly be only too glad to return the favor.

There are many ways to make loyal readers into avid fans. The key to keeping their attention is to keep your material fresh, and keep it coming. Remember that you are not just informing your readers but entertaining them. One reason that newspapers can't keep up with the Internet is they are not interactive. Keep up with trends and new gadgets to keep your blog exciting, relevant and current. Keep in mind your competition is just a click away. Don't disappoint your readers. Continue to strive to give them the excellent material you know you can deliver.

All photographs courtesy of SXC.com/svilen001

How to Gain Exposure as a Freelance Writer

2009-03-15T21:40:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the age of technology, where anyone with a keyboard and a general grasp of their ABCs can call themselves a freelance writer. The difference between a successful freelance writer and those who fade into obscurity is as simple as which one is better at hawking their wares to the public. In other words, who has better marketing? Pure writing talent notwithstanding, any person who has ever taken on an entrepreneurial endeavor knows that being able to advertise your product and get publicity is the other half of the battle.

For a freelance writer, the foundation of your advertising and publicity will be your website. I highly recommend that you purchase a unique domain, although many a well-known freelancer has operated exclusively from a blog maintained by the likes of Blogger and WordPress, arguably two of the most widely-used blogging platforms. My website, Trina L. Grant's Professional Freelance Writing is hosted by Microsoft Office Live. Office Live gives you one domain name for free for one year. After the year is up, you do have to pay a subscription fee, but if you decide to go with your name, as I did, you will find this invaluable as your home site. You may have other sites, but I advise you to keep your own name as your permanent domain. This domain name defines your business. It is you. It defines your web presence. You can have up to five different email addresses under one domain name with Office Live, all of them ending with "@yourname". The domain names ending in .com are most popular, so it can be difficult to find the exact domain name you want. You may have to settle for a domain name that contains a hyphen or numbers, if part of the name is common. You also have the choice of going with a .net domain, or .org, among several others.

You should definitely have at least one blog, and contribute to it at least once a day. Darren Rowse of ProBlogger says when he started blogging, he started by posting at least once a week. Now, he says he does it at least four or five times a week. I personally recommended every day, but this is just a practice in personal discipline, and, I believe it keeps the artistic juices flowing. Several blogs on several different hosting formats would be best. I currently have three blogs on Blogger, one on WordPress, one on Microsoft Windows Live Writer, one on MySpace, one on StumbleUpon...I could go on and on. The point is, while they are all in various stages of construction and usability, I have several places where my name is being seen, and they show off my writing skills on various topics.

Another way to get your name out there is to follow the blogs of other freelance writers, and others who specialize in whatever your niche is, and make regular commentary about their posts. Keep in mind a few points, however.

Be respectful, follow the usual netiquette. Don't harass others, or be rude. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. What would be the point of blogs and commentary if there was nothing to debate, to discuss? You won't make your point by being belligerent, or using threatening language, which includes using ALL CAPS. If you have spent more than five minutes online, you know everybody hates it. It is just not cool. You sound stupid. You lose points for your side, not to mention damaging your credibility.
Don't rant. Again, you are entitled to your opinion, but you want to have a point, not just a theme. You desire to have a voice, but, if you want to be allowed to be a guest blogger, remember that you have to present yourself as being somewhat intelligent, with something to say that has a purpose. You want to convince other people to see your point of view, not beat them into submission.
Be able to back up your points. Use citations and certainly give credit where it is due. Use examples and references.

After you have been a regular, articulate commentator, some blog owners will regularly invite others to post as a guest contributor. Definitely consider this as a way to get your name and your web presence established. Do not think of it as being the opener for the more famous guy, or giving away your services. Think of it as a guest spot on a popular radio show. Think of it as an opportunity to have yourself associated with a well-established person in the writing industry. Think of yourself as blessed. If you have been following a certain blog that you particularly like, and have regularly been posting thoughtful, eloquent commentary, then consider emailing the blog owner and asking them if they allow others to be contribute guests posts. Let them know that you have regularly contributed valuable dialog, and that you are a follower. You will have a byline. You will still get credit for the words typed. Think of the traffic that you may drive your own way, from the readers of the already established blog. You will network with other writers, an invaluable use of your time.

Volunteer your skills. A lot of freelancing gurus will tell you it is a mistake to give away your time and talent. That, in my opinion, is relative. I am just now getting involved with the American Cancer Society. By offering my writing services, I hope to provide free help for a much needed cause while getting some valuable experience. I am also volunteering my services to the church my family has begun to attend. It is a very small Christian church in the rural community that we live in, and we are part of an effort to build the church family again.

Think of the free advertising from another perspective. Every type of industry, and most businesses and especially large corporations have some kind of account set to the side for donations and charity. This gets the company's name out into the public, and gives them a good public persona. Plus, people will generally be glad to help you after you have established some kind of business relationship with them by volunteering your time and your product or service. The extra experience will give you some much-needed practice working with clients that will be invaluable when you have "real" clients who pay. You will also find that working in different aspects of the community will broaden your horizons, so to speak, and open new doors to ideas and opportunities for writing.

As always, you definitely want to be querying, submitting, emailing, and writing all the time. Opportunities for work are usually not going to fall in your lap. Just like every other entrepreneur, you are going to have to promote yourself and your talent, and "work it". Many freelancers give up after a short time because they do not get any "hits". The problem may not be with the writing, but with the advertising. You have to present yourself as a genuine business in order to gain and keep clientele.

Freelance Writers' Job and Advice Sites

2009-03-15T17:59:00.000-05:00

A few job sites from my very own favorites list...

About.com
My favorite channel on About.com is the Freelance Writing channel, which is hosted by Allena Tapia. She was the first freelancer I really started following and seeking advice from when I started this wild and crazy ride. She has awesome ideas for those new to the business.

About Freelance Writing
Anne Wyman hosts this blog that has great advice on the mechanics and business of writing.

All Freelance Writing
Another writer I really like to follow, Jennifer Mattern, has several websites, this one has a job board and a list of writers' markets.

Constant Content
This is a popular bid site.

Demand Studios
This is a popular bid site.

Fiction Factor
I think this site deals mostly with fiction, but it does have a pretty extensive list of job openings.

Freelance Writing Gigs
Another good source of writing jobs.

Helium
This site is where I really started learning the ropes. Although it isn't a direct hire site, per se, it does have the Marketplace, a job board about certain subjects. The good news is, if you submit and article to Marketplace that isn't purchased, most of the time it will transfer over to Helium, where it should start earning anyway. Keep in mind that sites like Helium, where the writer just posts their article without a job offering, pays according to ratings from other members and advertising clicks.

Guru
I have personally never gotten a job from this site, but it does have a lot of job listings.

Suite 101
This site has links to various job sites, as well as a job board its own. There are also countless quality article on freelance writing.

Writing.com
This is free-to-join site that offers a wide variety of jobs on its job board.

This is by no means an exhaustive list. For more advice and listings visit my website at http://www.trinalgrant.com.

Small Payoff

2009-02-07T14:51:00.001-06:00

I am ecstatic. That is the only way to describe my elation right now. I have been working so hard on my website, www.tringlgrant.com, and it has really paid off. Well, this may not be the most exciting news in the world, but right now, it is to me. I have never had more than about 50 or so views on my page in any given week, but in just the last couple of days I have racked up 106 views! That is awesome, and inspiring!

It is that little grain of personal "grit", that teeth-grinding fortitude that drives some of us to keep going, never give up, never give in, never stop reaching for our dreams. This can all be done in a reasonably socially responsible manner, of course. I am by no means advocating stepping on others to get to where you want to go. I am, however, advocating hard work, and persistence, and determination. If you don't have it, you had better grow yourself some, because assuming a great undertaking such as making yourself into a writer is not something to be taken lightly. It takes thought and planning, just like any other personally-owned business. The hard part for the writers is that they have to keep inventing the product, while still running the business. Yet, for those of us who do this, it can be exhilarating. It is, for those of us with control issues or OCD, which I have tendencies toward myself, a way to control so many more aspects of the whole business that if we were just running a store or managing a business for someone else.

First there is, as I stated earlier, the invention, design and manufacture of the product. Then there is marketing, sales, bookkeeping, public relations...I could go on and on. The point is that it feels good, albeit sometimes overwhelming to be able to utilize something that is your passion as a means of income, while being able to control most aspects of it. Beats the heck out of schlepping around in a restaurant.

Wafflers Welcome

2009-01-27T13:40:00.000-06:00

I try to find a different writer's page or blog to look at every day, just to get some new ideas, and see what other people are doing. Obviously I am off to a very slow start with this, but I have hoped that the New Year would find me getting more jobs, and possibly getting a lot more done on my novel.

After reading blogs, forum postings, etc., from many different people, I have come to the conclusion that almost unanimously, the hardest part about taking the plunge into writing is just to "get started". I cannot tell the number of postings I have read across various forums that say, in essence, "Where do I start?". And, again almost unanimously, the answer they usually get is, "Write". The next obvious question is usually, "What do I write?". It is usually at this point that I realize there are others like me who suddenly find themselves with an unquenchable desire to check MySpace for any messages when it's time to sit down and do some actual writing. Or I have to have a cigarette (I call myself trying to quit, which makes the fact that I'm putting off writing to smoke a cigarette that much more of a sacrilege). I get really hungry and thirsty sitting here, too. And I can think of anybody in the world that I haven't heard from since lunchtime to call right then. For all you other budding writing gurus out there, you can share your burden of shame with someone else, because I do it too. Then I find that an hour has passed, and I'm asking myself why I can't just muster up some self-discipline and do this thing.

I get a lot of inspiration from Jennifer Mattern, owner of several different blogs, including All Freelance Writing, and All Book Marketing. She has great advice on every aspect of freelance writing, blogging, etc. Another writer I really like, Allena Tapia, who is the freelance writing guide at About.com, has an enormous list of sites for writing gigs, as well as some very informative articles on every aspect of writing. Allena has a newsletter you can subscribe to, which I have found to be full of great advice. These are two sites that I visit frequently.

A few tidbits I have picked up along the way:

* A website is a must to market yourself

* You have at least one blog that you post to at least once daily (the pot calling the kettle black here)

* You should definitely network with other writers, writing maybe a solitary thing, but you need to know other writers to be able to learn and get your name out there

* A portfolio is essential so that prospective employers/customers can see what kind of magic you can spin with words

* I learned from reading one of Allena's articles that if you don't have "clips" or samples of your work to put into a portfolio, you can make some by posting to a blog and writing sample articles, which are just two of several options. Those are the two I like best

Of course we all know that starting out in any new business venture will require much patience, and lots of hard work. But there is plenty that us newbies can do to get ourselves off to a good start. You can't sit around and wait for fate to drop a writing career into your lap. Just like everything else, perfection takes practice.

You should try any and every manner of writing and marketing technique to see what works for you. Don't be pulled in by scams, though. Be aware, as with anything else on the Internet, that there are people out there who will take advice of some hopeful person, chasing a dream. Don't let some sleazy vanity book press turn your dream into a nightmare. Look at all this options, weigh everything out, and see what looks the best. Do your homework. Learn about any company you will be dealing with. Be sure to read all the fine print, and be aware of your rights. Being as knowledgeable as possible going into this will do great things for your success.

Writer's Block

2009-01-05T18:07:00.000-06:00

Writer's block is here to stay. I am writing this blog entry only because I follow my own little rule that whenever I can't think of anything to write I just write whatever pops into my head and just keep going, hoping I get some kind of great inspiration from something that I am rambling on about.

I asked my step-son, who is a visual artist (painting, drawing, etc.), if he ever experiences that great vast nothingness of the brain, in my case called WRITER'S BLOCK. Ugh, agonizing does not even begin to cover it. Those of you out there who have experienced this grotesquely disturbing personal trauma will understand why I do not feel like I am being a little dramatic about all this. Besides, it makes sense I am somewhat dramatic in thought and action, I am a writer, after all.

Am I a writer, though? What, exactly is the criteria for being a writer? Do you have be published? Or does the very fact that you feel dizzy when you can't find something to write on when one of those awesome ideas strikes make you a "real" writer. I don't consider myself a "real" writer yet. I haven't had anything published (except in the school yearbook and newspaper, woohoo), so I don't feel like I have achieved anything that gives me the right to call myself by that hallowed title.

So, everyday, diligently, I sit at my desk and I write, pretty much exactly what you are reading now. Today is one of the few days I have even allowed myself to put my lackluster words out there for the world to see. No torrent of thoughts, ever. I sit here, just as I am now, and I write meaningless words to fill a space. What will I do when I have run out of ways to rephrase a sentence over and over with the same words?

I have my desk set up the way I want it. I have my pencil (my choice of writing instrument, which I realize flies in the face of that which every humanities instructor I have ever had told me. They all preach to use comfortable pens, with ink that flows smoothly. I use a pencil and wide-ruled paper. I don't like to type stuff until I write it so I can check it before I post it on the galactic bulletin board. I like the scratchy way the pencil drags across the paper, and the way it sounds. I like it when it changes from dark to light and back again, depending on how I turn the tip. I am a compulsive sharpener, which I guess is one way that I waste time.

Ok this didn't help. I'm going to eat supper.

Stagnant Thinking (or Not Thinking)

2009-01-03T14:31:00.000-06:00

As I look down the long road called '2009', I wonder briefly to myself if I am wasting my time. Or rather, am I simply short on drive and will-power? Is the want not as strong as the can't? I know that there are countless other like myself, who geared up for 1/1/09 as a fresh start, a new beginning, a chance to prove to themselves, if no one else, that 'I really can, and will, do it. This year I will do it.' Now it is the third day into this new year, and already I am having a hard time forcing myself to get in here every day and sit down and blog. I run into so many easy obstacles. It's very hard to make time. My husband and my kids are always bothering me. I can't think of anything to write once I sit down at the keyboard, hence the rambling that you see here.

I read an article about search engine optimization, and I think to myself, "I'm nowhere near there. I'm still trying to figure out what to write every day, never mind how many times I can fit the same phrase into a paragraph. I guess my biggest obstacle is that I haven't finished college, and I don't really feel like I have anything worthwhile to say. However, the other day I did get a nice surprise when I got an email out of the blue from a lady saying that she had read THIS VERY BLOG(!!) and liked my style, and so she invited me to come contribute to a site that she has that seems similar to the likes of Helium and Triond.

So, I dug out this old college textbook, and starting trying to re-teach myself how to write essays, which is about what I liken to the types of articles on Helium and the others. I have a box crammed with ideas on little bits of paper. I have started five articles since January 1st, at midnight. I haven't finished any of them. I'm at that point where I need some direction, something to guide me, to give me a purpose, not just a reason to ramble. So, I guess this is my 'pump-primer' as my text refers to these little "brain-warmers" as I call them. LOL.

Fresh Starts...<>

2008-12-29T14:25:00.000-06:00

Boy, do I love fresh starts. My tumultuous life has been one "fresh start" after another. I'm beggining to get the idea that people who like fresh starts are people who just can't get things right, hence the need for numerous fresh starts. I was the little girl who salivated at the idea of a new bookbag and new paper and pencils at the start of the school year. I can literally remember sitting down with a new notebook and opening it to the middle and just smelling the fresh paper. As a writer, a person with a literary mind, I notice these things. Like, how toward the end of the year, or even earlier, that once fresh paper starts to bear more olfactory resemblance to the love child of corn chips and peanut butter than freshly printed paper. Ok, please bear in mind that at no point have I ever claimed I wasn't weird.

Back to fresh starts. I love it when the January 1 falls on a Monday. That just seems to set the wold on its true course once more. But, when it doesn't, it's still okay. Then I have options. Do I go ahead and make my fresh start on the Monday before the January 1, or do I wait until the actual day and start then? Then I have a safety net. If I choose to begin my self-makeover on Monday, and I screw it up from the get-go, then I still have the first to try again.

So, today I awoke late. Strike one against New Year goals. As of this point I'm still in my pajamas, although I have managed to brush my teeth and put my hair up. Between myself and my girls we have gotten a good portion of the house clean. Baby steps. So, I sent my girls to their rooms after they got in a physical altercation about whether or not the older should apologize to the younger about accidentally knocking something off her bed. Nothing new there. Now I am sitting down to try to get myself back in writing mode, which has been a non-existent state of being in my world as of recently. From the time I start getting ready for Thanksgiving, until January 2nd, my world is a carousel powered by jet fuel. Now I'm still coming down from the adrenaline of breaking up a physical fight between two " 'tween" girls.

I must, however, contradict a statement I made earlier, when noting that strife between these two girls is not new. While it is true that they do fuss and sputter at each other frequently, for step-sisters, they have been astoundingly close since we first brought them together. It is only here recently, as the eldest faces going to junior high school, has the dynamic between them changed. That will definitely be an interesting aspect to follow in the coming months.

Fresh starts bring with them the starry promise of things to come, the foggy notion of the future we desire. The New Year rings in more promises and vows to self, and others, and new bonds are made, while old ones are tossed out, the embers having finally died. Hearts will join anew, minds will set decisions in stone, and the world will keep on turning.

New Starts--Rambling

2008-12-26T18:48:00.000-06:00

I have been on a self-imposed hiatus from writing. That is probably evident from the date of my last post. Life has been a whirlwind, and it seemed like everytime I took a moment to sit down and try to write, I couldn't think, couldn't get in that place that we writers go to, without allowing some niggling seed of worry to creep in, to remind me there were other, more important things to tend to this holiday season. And yet, some lost straggler happened upon this very blog, and found it interesting enough that they invited me to join AllVoices.com. I don't know if this platform operates in pretty much the same way as Helium, Triond, Ground Report, etc., or what. I do know that anytime someone invites me to do something such as this, I am flattered, and more than willing to take them up on it. Any exposure is good right?

I did, of course, do as much homework as I could, in order to determine whether I was being scammed or not. As I said before, I think this site is similar to the more popular "write for hits" sites, as I refer to them. I hope I'm not wrong. Ugggh. The thought of someone not only committing identity theft but stealing my ideas, my thoughts, as well, literally makes me shudder. But, alas, I will take on this new challenge. I usually go into these things like a ball of fire, and them eventually my flame fizzles as I move onto other things, until I contribute when I have time and when there is a subject that really interests me.

Of course, it is that time of year again, when the cobwebs will be cleared, the reading glasses cleaned and shined, the compressed air will clean the crumbs out of the keyboard. I am one of those individuals who loves "fresh starts". I think any time is a good time for a fresh, new start. I have had to make many of them already and am fairly certain there will be many more to follow in the ensuing years. The new year brings with it the promise of a new start. Calendars are fresh-smelling and not yet coffee stained. I have funny little idiosyncracies (as in more strange than my usual idiosyncracies) that I like to do to usher in the new year. I like to sharpen a new pencil and get out a new pen. I like to wear a new outfit on New Year's Day. I like to do all the things I hope I will doing throughout the year. I like to promise myself, like the majority of the people in our culture, that this year I really am going to keep all these vows, to grow my nails out long and pretty, to wear makeup every single day, and do my hair, and wear cute outfits, and I even vow to myself every year that I'm going to write more neatly all year.

And so it is that this catalyst for the new dawning of my writing career has spurred me into action. It's only December 26th, though, so I hope I at least make it to New Year's Day.

Go NaNo!

2008-11-06T09:59:00.000-06:00

Finally, some help from NaNo! Thanks to the leader of my regional group, I can finally participate in NaNo! Yippee! Now I have to catch up! Thank goodness I kept writing anyway (that laptop is, of course, great incentive!) so I wasn't that far behind. In fact my leader isn't that far ahead of me, and some of the members of my group haven't even reported a word count! I am less than 100 words shy of 3000. I need only to write just over 5000 words to day to catch up! Phew!

The trouble I am running into is that I have a hard time keeping up with each of my "pages" due to the nature of my novel. Since the novel is made up of letters and journal entries, I have to keep them in order not only by date, but by subject. I am using Google Docs (since my wonderful husband whom I am madly in love with decided to lose the disc that installs Word on our computer), and it doesn't work exactly like Word. So each new "journal entry" or "letter" is a new document, all within a folder labeled with the name of the book. It's a lot to keep up with, and so I let one side of my brain write, while the other side of my brain simulataneously tries to come up with a better way to keep it all organized. I thought putting each new entry in a new, named document would make it easier to keep up with (instead of having to scroll allllll the way through a whole manuscript to make revisions). I guess in essence it is easier, but I just feel like there has to be something more efficient.

Anyway, I'm so excited that I can finally participate, and I'm planning to go to a write-in tonight at our local B&N. I guess I have never actually met a "real writer", or I didn't know if I did. I hope I do get to go tonight, although I feel like the new kid in school. All the other members have done NaNo in years before, so they know what they are doing. Plus, I work mostly on my computer, I don't use a lot of notes on paper....so....I don't know what I would take with me. I don't know what they do there, but I guess they help each other out with plot ideas and such. I don't know, it sounds like fun anyway, considering the highlight of this part-time-stay-at-home-mom/administrative assistant at the restaurant/writer's month is going to PTO.

Update

2008-11-03T14:16:00.000-06:00

I have obviously been doing things other than writing with my time since I last posted. Actually, that is not entirely accurate. I have been writing. I tried to enter NaNoWriMo, and I did get registered, but that site is so clogged, and my computer too slow to deal with it, I guess. Anyway, when I can manage to get on the site without being told that the link is broken (I'm assuming it does this when it's clogged, since it's intermittent), I cannot figure out how to upload my manuscript. I had been really excited about doing NaNo, because I had talked to a lot of other writers who had at least tried it. Now I'm really kind of over it.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with "NaNo", it's the shortened "NaNoWriMo" which itself is actually an acronym for National Novel Writer's Month. It's basically a contest where you challenge yourself to see if you can write a 50,000 page article by November 30. This sounds impossible, until you read what other people have written about it. The idea is to huddle down with your story in your head, and pound it out on the keyboard as fast as possible. The only prize, apparently, is self-gratification. So, I'm terminally incapable of doing this NaNo thing, but like I said it's ok. My husband told me if I could do it, if I could finish the 50,000 words by November 30, he'd buy me a laptop. Needless to say, I have put my nose to the grindstone the last couple of days.

The self-gratification aspect will certainly be nice, but a shiny new laptop is certainly incentive to get the creative juices flowing. Hence my actually being diligent about trying to post to all my blogs, check all my e-mail, and check all my group messages in one day. I like new starts, and this certainly makes a nice one. It's a Monday and I'm starting my writing career over. I laugh at myself as I write this because that's the funny thing about new starts, is that you can have them whenever you want. So, once again this post didn't follow much rhyme or reason, but that didn't seem to slow down that wrote Alice in Wonderland.

Scheduling

2008-10-03T10:44:00.000-05:00

One of my hardest challenges so far is developing a work schedule and sticking with it. It seems that when it is time to sit down and write, I can find a million other things to do. I was actually quite proud of myself this morning, when I sat down promptly at 9 AM and posted a neat little brain-warmer I had written about one of my writing groups.

I try to keep my three blogs on Blogger organized. Political Southern Woman is simply an op-ed column of sorts, dedicated to vocalizing my strong opinions on the American political scene. It seems especially important right now for every citizen journalist to make their voices heard. In my opinion people who do have writing talent should put their work out there, especially if it is meant to influence or inform.

Future Blog of Note (gotta love the title, kind of like how the Rolling Stones never made the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine...I'll probably never have my blog on Blogs of Note) is where I post my articles and writing pieces exclusively. I do not usually post anything very personal as I just like to use it as a portfolio.

Destination Freelance, while still part of my writing career, is more personal because in it I detail the ups and downs of this career I have chosen. I am also a contributor to a blog, McCain/Palin Bloggers, hosted by Lacresha Hayes, right here on Blogger. I am honored to have been invited to participate in such worthy, pertinent dialogue. Sometimes I just have a hard time coming up with enough material to cover my own political blog and the other!

Back to my original point (did I mention that going off on tangents is another bad habit?), I am starting to develop a pretty good schedule, I think. Like I said, I started writing at promptly 9 AM this morning, and I have been more prolific today than I have been in weeks. Oh, I've had the occasional lengthy discourse to write on this, that or the other, but this is one of the first times I have sat down and just gone through all my assigned tasks systematically.

An Exciting Invitation!

2008-09-25T15:26:00.000-05:00

I am so excited, and humbled...I have been invited to join in on a collaboration of sorts. My friend Lacresha Hayes is trying to start a blog, to be moderated by several different people, who all support the McCain ticket. She is hoping to have a different person to cover each day of the week, and encourage others to vote for McCain, while also covering the campaign front. This is a very exciting opportunity for me, indeed!

First, I'm extremely flattered that she would want to include me on such an endeavor, especially something that could be so important to our nation's welfare and future prosperity. Second, I recognize this as a jump-starting opportunity for me, as a still somewhat-uninitiated author, to collaborate with other writers, and learn from them, network with them, and maybe even change history!

All my loyal readers =+)~, please keep me in your thoughts and prayers as I begin this new career adventure. I realize that this is not only an issue about my career, but indirectly affecting the lives of all my countrymen as well!

Something that just came about in the wee hours of the morning:

2008-09-21T17:17:00.000-05:00

"Writing well" is like choreographing a dance between the writer and the mighty pen. A maelstrom of thoughts, a brainstorm of word becomes a passionate tango of fingers flying over the keys. Slow, steady ideas that inch along, compelling the writer to dig deeper, explore unknown emotions and ideas become an elegant, melodious waltz. Writer's block is the disharmony between the partners, a dull stagnation where the soul and pen cannot find the passion or the melody, each interrupting the other's rhythm.

Writer's Worry

2008-09-18T17:52:00.000-05:00

I paused a moment as I was posting to my MySpace blog. Sometimes I am careful about what I say, because these are people who actually know me. There are times when I will express something in my writing that I wouldn't necessarily want one person or another to know. In other words, I don't mind in the least letting complete strangers look at my work and critique all they like, but when it comes to friends and family, I am reluctant to share with them what I write. I guess that is strange, as I sit here and contemplate it now. It seems you would want most specifically the people you know and trust to give you praise for your work. Ah, but there is the rub. That is exactly what happens. You write things that you know may be a watered-down, diluted version of the facts as they so happened, so as not to step on any toes. In return, you get polite, watered-down versions of praise. So, that is why I do not like to show my work to the people I know. Why I would rather send a complete stranger living in another country one of my articles to critique than to my best friend. Am I the only writer like that? Are there more like me out there?

I don't personally know any other writers. Or, rather, I don't personally know any other people who are trying to make a career of writing. I live in a pretty small town, only about 60,000 citizens reside here, so I have yet to come upon any writer's groups in my town, although I would imagine if I were to go to the library and inquire, I would find plenty. I guess I am a pretty solitary writer, I don't think I would really enjoy doing writer's groups in person. I prefer the anonymity of the net for now, until I am fairly certain that people other than, well, my friends and family would want to read my work. Ahhhh, the doubts and angst of the burgeoning writer.

So, I am trying to meet other writers, both newbies like myself who can sympathize with the growing pains I'm going through, and polished performers who can offer sound advice on the wheres and whys of it all. I'm still at that stage where I am wondering at what point will I decide that I have tried, and failed, and now it is time to get back to reality. At this point I'm still in work-it mode, so I haven't given up yet.

I have submitted work to Helium, and Triond. I am currently blogging on Blogger, MySpace, Yahoo, and Microsoft Office Live. I am trying to network myself and get my name out there. I have noticed that I have been receiving a lot more traffic to my site. Since the problems I have had with Helium, I have decided to just start writing articles, and storing some of them and putting some of them on my blog, as examples of my work. I guess the thing to do now that I have a site, and blogs and have starting networking with other writers is too...well, write.

I don't know what the subject is...just had to write...

2008-09-04T13:17:00.000-05:00

If you are the same kind of writer I am, that is, since you can remember writing has consumed you...writing on scratch pieces of paper, writing my feelings right that second on the back of one of my order pads when I was a waitress. Yes, if you are like me, you can write a prayer, or you can write when you're angry...whatever, it has to come out. Being that I can, at times be a solitary person, I have oft found myself with no one to talk to. So, there's God, and there's the written word. I usually write letters to God, which is how I pray. I have a notebook that I guess would be a journal, although I don't write in it regularly. Some time I may write in it three times a day, while other times I go two or three days without writing in it. But I'm always writing, somewhere, something. It's how I express myself the best. You know how if you think about it, you can sort of hear your own voice in your head? Well, when I write, that is how I imagine myself really sounding, even though having been raised in the deep South, I don't "talk the same way I write".

I had not intended to ever use this blog to write my feelings. This is a professional blog chronicling my career as a writer. But something just happened that definitely, in my opnion, is "writing stuff". To keep the story short, the nice little old man who runs the mom-and-pop store literally within walking distance from my home has cancer. My husband called just a few moments ago to tell me he had just been in there and the man really doesn't look good. He didn't even say hello to my husband, and his wife was running the store while he was sitting off to the side.

On a side note, I did not ever intend to post anything necessarily political or religious on here either. Anyway...so I stopped working to pray for these people. I have been through the death of my dad at 13 due to stomach cancer, so I can certainly sympathize. My heart is breaking for these people. I know only too well the pain they are going through. So, as I knelt there and prayed, I found myself wondering, as people do, why death and disease and sickness has to happen. Not that I question God (in an insubordinate way), I just mean it's on my list of questions to ask Him one day. Then I thought about the old adage that everything happens for a reason. I believe it's all in God's timing...I just don't pretend to understand right now. I prayed that the family will have peace about everything that is going on, and that the man will not be in pain. See, those are life lessons you learn from the hard stuff. You learn that even while you pray that someone will miraculously be healed, you also remember to pray that should they not be,they will not suffer. And, that their family will be able to accept whatever comes, and not just be so devastated it ruins them. And so, I realized, all around me were swirling these feelings of comfort for myself, that I am able to look back at the tragedy of losing my dad, and take my experiences and use them to help others. And, relief that I know they are strong people, and he has been a good man and taken care of his family.

None of this was written in a professional tone, I'm not even going to check the spelling or grammar or punctuation. This was just one of those frozen moments in time when you have a dawning realization about yourself, and the universe. That being said, I'm going to close before I start talking a bunch of whack jive about being one with the universe or whatever...

Maybe this should have been called "Life Lessons"?

Frustration returns

2008-09-03T22:15:00.000-05:00

I am really stumped. I have lost my muse, I guess. I'm really starting to have doubts about whether all of this was a good idea. I am not providing any income for my family, and I'm trying to be a professional writer, and so many things keep happening! I am trying to make myself do the whole writing a certain number of words every day, for a certain amount of time, and I'm trying to be disciplined. But, dear God, life keeps getting in the way. And I try to tell my husband that this is like any other major endeavor, such as buying a store: I have to invest the time it calls for. I have to treat it like and 8-hour a day job. But now that I'm not working suddenly I have time to run this errand and that errand and help out in places where I don't know how they functioned before I got there to help them. But dare I say anything? NOOO! This isn't a rant...this is a "I'm about to cry and throw my hands up and go beg my old boss for my job back!" moment.

I try to tell my husband how I'm feeling, and how I just feel worthless and as if I'm contributing nothing to our family's future. What if this doesn't work out? But he just pish-poshes everything I say, so why bother telling him? This is all very depressing to me. And then my best friend calls up telling me about all this great stuff that is happening for her at work...and I just think to myself that I never see anyone, or talk to anyone, except my ex-mother-in-law and ex-sister-in-law whom I both love dearly but it would be nice to have people to talk to who didn't inadvertently bring up my ex-husband's name every little while.

The world is going on without me, it seems. My little girl is growing, like, ten inches a day, and she is already figuring out ways to get over on me. And I try to tell her to think about all the years it was just me and her, when were (according to her) twins, and (according to me) partners. I ask her, when I catch her trying to get away with something, why she doesn't think about that when we were being partners (and we still are, to me) that I didn't lie to her. I had her right there with me and we were in it together. Acccchhhhh...I give up for now...I'm going to bed. Tomorrow we (I) will start this little project over again.

Finally!

2008-08-29T15:30:00.000-05:00

Just when I was ready to throw in the towel and cry out in disgust that the fates were against me, I have finally figured out how to check one of my email accounts for my business that I had somehow locked myself out of. I guess the good folks at Microsoft got a nice chuckle this morning when they discovered all the frantic messages I had emailed to anyone I could at 2 AM. But, alas, my husband was right, and after I slept on it, I came home from work, sat down at the computer, and voila! Problem solved. I'm such a basketcase sometimes, I swear.

Frustrated to the max, here, folks!

2008-08-28T20:55:00.000-05:00

I have the website set up. I have paid for a year's worth of domain name, and then realized I didn't have to. Alas, it is mine. I have created several catchy sounding email addresses. Now I can't log into one of them because I got booted (sorry R********r Internet) before I could finish setting up my email account. Now I have two options to retrieve the password that I haven't even set yet. I can, one, have it email to me (which I need the password to access), or, two, I can answer a secret question, which again I did not set up yet. I'm dealing with all the frustration of this multi-faceted business of mine. I am starting to realize some of the headaches of a being a business owner. Mine are unique in that, like only other (dare I sat it?) artists know, a blown sale hurts a lot more when the product is literally your energy, and time and thought and heart and all the other things that go into writing.

Recognition!

2008-08-27T09:58:00.001-05:00

Ok, I don't know if I'm getting excited over nothing, but I got my first real outside recognition today. A lady that lives clear across the country in San Francisco left a comment on my article about credit on Triond. My stomach was in knots as I was waiting for that page to load, waiting to see what comment someone had left. I thought to myself I would just die, I would just pack it all in and give up if it was a bad critique. I'm trying to prepare myself for criticism (other than that of my husband which is a tad more gentle, I'm sure, than some strangers' would be), and I know sooner or later (hopefully later!) someone is going to criticize my writing, or disagree with my opinion, but I'm just glad my first ever comment from someone I don't know was a good one! Off to a great start, I'd say! I've started earning money more quickly on Triond than on Helium, but I still like Helium's platform, and the site is very aesthetically pleasing. I don't necessarily favor the lime green of Triond's site. Ok gotta go check my other blogs...more later

Excitement abounds!

2008-08-25T07:13:00.001-05:00

Ohhhhh yes I am excited. My article on credit repair was just picked up by Triond. I haven't started making any money yet, but now that makes two sites where I have published-DO YOU SEE THIS? PUBLISHED!!!-work! I am about to burst from sheer joy! I haven't even earned any money from it yet, but I don't care. Now it just shows me I can! More later!

Kind of Stuck

2008-08-24T20:44:00.000-05:00

Right now, I'm tired, I've been staring at the computer all day long, and I'm finding it hard not to get discouraged. I did manage to churn out one article on credit repair, which I titled "Home (Credit) Improvement". I submitted it to Triond and now I am waiting to see if they will publish it. I just found out about Triond and Associated Content. I am eager to explore some of the new publishing sites I've found. I love Helium because it was my jumping-off point for this whole endeavor, but I've grown beyond it in some ways, or else I guess you could just say I need a change of scene. I hope to expand into contract work fairly quickly. It will depend on just how much time I have in the near future to sit down and devote to writing.

Wow, I'm really tired. But, according to an article by a successful freelance writer that I read yesterday, she writes at least 5,000 words a day. I have no doubt I have gone above and beyond that number today. I have been a writing fool. I may have only accomplished finishing one article, but a lot of my time is taken up setting up all my different sites. That's something else I'm learning. All the freelancers that are so sucessful have a bunch of different sites they submit their work to, as well as several blogs. So I'm trying to stay focused and disciplined and make sure to write every day, just to keep my brain active.

Not quite the beginning...

2008-08-15T14:17:00.000-05:00

When I decided that I would give this writing thing a real try, I never imagined how much work-and fun-would be involved. Building a writing career definitely takes work. At first I didn't know where to start. Then I slowly started to realize that the only way to become a professional writer is to...write. So, I will do just that. If no one ever reads any of my blogs, it's ok. If my work is never professionally published or purchased, that's ok too.

Much of the time the work I produce is cathartic for me. I am trying to get away from the more personal aspects and do more reporting. I enjoying writing informative articles, and have a serious addiction to Helium.com. I have found Helium.com to be the most user-friendly, accessible site I have found. I like to write my articles there because they have "channels" that give you topics to write about, as opposed to your everyday blog, where you just write about whatever pops into your noggin.

Having a job where I have free time during the day when my kids are at school and my husband is at work definitely helps. I have all the quiet and solitude I want. Needless to say, I'm beating the keyboard to death from about nine in the morning until four o'clock or so. I try to use every second I can. Having limited times where this is possible makes having writer's block a nightmare.

When I first started doing this, I asked myself, "What, exactly do people put on blogs?" So, I had a look around and found some interesting ones, some weird ones, and some that I just couldn't figure out. What I was looking for however, is the answer to how it's done. I don't even feel like this post makes sense or serves any real purpose except to prove I'm not a writer. But this is the start. I will get better. I will figure it out.