Writing and reading humor for a Monday

I enjoy writer/illustrator Debbie Ridpath Ohi‘s site, Inkygirl blog, and cartoons she contributes to Writer Unboxed.  I wanted to introduce you to Debbie and share 3 of my favorite cartoons. Maybe she’ll inspire you, too!

A Reader’s Dilemma
Credit: http://inkygirl.com/

I’ve suffered from this – there’s no unseeing what has been seen!

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NaNoIdMoAdMo
Credit: http://inkygirl.com/

Writing challenges are great, but let’s be careful!

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Why we keep notepad and pen by the bed! Credit: http://inkygirl.com/

The voices never stop talking to us.

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Lisa J. Jackson loves working with words in her own work and with businesses. She also loves New Hampshire and is focused on completing several 5Ks in 2013 as a way to get off the couch consistently. You can connect with her on LinkedIn, Biznik, Facebook, and Twitter. 

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Run, don’t walk, to listen to Inside Creative Writing

If you’d like, you can listen to this post.

I am a writer, but I am not yet the writer I want to be.

I have had very little in the way of formal training. I do not have a college degree or an MFA. I have taken a few, scattered writing courses (most recently a class on writing fantasy at the wonderful Grub Street in Boston), but mostly I’ve cobbled together random bits and pieces – like a magpie collecting shiny things to adorn its nest.

Though my journey has followed a somewhat circuitous path, I believe that I have made progress. From a seven-year-old scribbling in a notebook that I pilfered from the supply closet at the bank where my dad was a VP, I have evolved into someone who makes her living with words – crafting content for my marketing clients, writing a column for my local paper, and even occasionally penning a feature piece for a regional magazine.

But, I am still not the writer I want to be.

I ache to write fiction, but as a single mama workin’ this gig, I can’t easily afford time to play in the speculative and financially unstable world of fiction. The writing that pays my bills takes precedence. Making time to practice and study the craft of fiction is a challenge for me, to say the least.

Enter the power of the podcast.

Those of you who’ve been hanging around here awhile already know that I am a huge and unabashed fan of audio books. If it weren’t for audio books, I’d probably only manage to read a handful of novels each year. But with Audible in my pocket, I am able to “read” while I walk, drive, do the dishes, run the vacuum, etc. It’s a beautiful thing.

Podcasts are another audio format that allow me to connect with content while I’m doing something else. I have been listening to several marketing podcasts for a while, but only recently decided to investigate writing podcasts. Long story short, I struck gold with a brand new podcast called Inside Creative Writing.

Brad Reed is the writer and educator behind this podcast. As a frequent podcast listener, I can be a bit of a critic, but this guy is doing a fabulous job. His shows are highly informative, entertaining, and actionable. I frequently pause in my walk to jot down a note so I don’t forget what he’s said about a particular technique or insight. He has put a lot of thought into his format – alternating one-man shows with interviews and always including a couple of closing elements – “Wise Words” (inspirational and thought-provoking quotes) and a writing assignment (not a prompt, but an assignment on applying the techniques discussed in the show). His production quality is great, his show notes are thorough, and he even has a way for listeners to participate in the show by leaving him a voicemail with a quote for the Wise Words segment, which he then edits into the actual show. (You can hear my debut appearance in Show #8.)

Can you tell I’m a bit of a fan?

The thing is, we’re only eight shows into this podcast, and I have already learned SO much. Reed covers topics in a way that is clear and non-threatening. He makes great use of examples to bring each of the concepts and techniques to life. He isn’t afraid to take deep dives on a topic, making sure you – as the listener – really have a chance to fully absorb and process the idea. Also (and this counts in my book), he’s a really nice guy. I emailed him a quick note of appreciation and wound up having a very pleasant email chat. I can tell that Reed is doing this with his community firmly in mind.

I really can’t recommend the show enough. I was talking to a group of writer friends earlier this week about our favorite writing resources – the go-to books, blogs, and magazines that help us get a handle on what the hell we’re doing. All the usual suspects came up, but then the conversation took a turn as one of the writers sputtered, “They’re all great, but I never have time to read them!” Too true.

I subscribe to Poets & Writers. It’s an excellent magazine (probably one of the very best on the topic of writing). I always learn something when I read an issue, but – like my friend – I can’t always find time to read them. As a matter of fact, I have four unread issues sitting in a pile next to my desk right now. I feel guilty and frustrated and a little defeated when I think about how long those magazines have been sitting there, waiting for me to find a few minutes to crack their crisp covers. Alas, I don’t see that happening in the near future. However, the Inside Creative Writing podcast is filling that gap in my education quite nicely. I can honestly say that I am learning as much (if not more) about good story writing by listening to Reed as I would poring over the pages of Poets & Writers. (And, that’s saying something!)

I guess the most telling thing I can say about how much I like the show is this: I’m willing to pay for it.

In the most recent episode, Reed invited listeners to become supporters by making a voluntary donation to help offset show costs. He called it the “public broadcasting model.” I immediately went to www.insidecreativewriting.com and clicked the “Donate” button. I plunked down $36 – what I might pay for a year’s subscription to a quality, writing magazine – and was happy to do it.

After all, I can certainly forego a few lattes in the name of becoming the writer I want to be.

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Jamie Lee Wallace is a writer who also happens to be a marketer. She helps her Suddenly Marketing clients discover their voice, connect with their audience, and find their marketing groove. She is also a mom, a prolific blogger, and a student of voice and trapeze (not at the same time). Introduce yourself on facebook or twitter. She doesn’t bite … usually.

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My muse enjoys dancing in the rain

In typing in the title for this post, I now have the song “Singing in the Rain” on high volume slamming around my brain. And I think some memories of middle school chorus are trying to push to the front of my memories. Oh my!

It’s amazing what the writer’s mind does with words, isn’t it? And that leads into my topic today.

Intense rain storm and flooding

I’ve discovered that my muse is very active and vocal on rainy days more than any other type of day. In fact, just saying ‘rain’ gets her doing jumping jacks.

She feeds me a lot of character dialogue in no particular order or manner, and seldom related to a single story. On the day I took this intense rain photo (in July ’08), Ms. Muse had all sorts of things to say, including children’s dialogue as they played at the beach, dialogue from animals (a la Dr. Doolittle) relocating from the country to the busy city, and dialogue from two 20-somethings trapped at the top of a local mountain in a blizzard.

Glorious sunshine

On sunny days, my muse is open to exploring the outside world in search of new ideas. In a way, she likes to sun herself and take it easy. She lets the world be her cabana boy and serve ideas to her instead of going out to find the delectable fruits and seeds of ideas herself. (And, yes, sometimes she falls asleep in the sun without sunscreen on, which brings a lot of adjectives out.)

Snow and Sunshine

On snow days, she likes to gander at the landscape and wonder about the critters and people moving around ‘out there.’ She feeds me ideas about how the birds don’t fall out of the trees (after all, they can get a lot of snow on their shoulders!), and wonders if all the chipmunks found their way into a hole safely (and have enough food for their families to survive behind underground for a few days). Eventually she thinks about humans getting outside and unburying their world. More poetry flows through my muse on mornings like that, than prose.

On dismal, cold days, I’ve discovered my muse likes to play around with dark fiction and suspense, anything that gets my heart rate up. It must have something to do with the brisk air. She’s very ‘sharp’ on cold days, especially evenings. Everything is pointed (like icicles), brittle (like wind chill), and dark (like the short days). She brings me a lot of visuals, movies in my mind. There’s always an over abundance of activity with the characters that I can’t possibly keep track of everything, but I do end up warming up.

During the fall and spring, when a breeze can kick up a lot of scents (I love the lilacs right now!), my muse enjoys reminding me about such things as being in my grandmother’s kitchen while she was baking, being at the sea shore, and the moment I reach the peak of a mountain after hiking through the woods. A lot of journal writing pours out of my fingers at these times.

Now I have “America the Beautiful” on a loop in my head.

Does your muse react differently to the weather and temperature?

Lisa J. Jackson loves working with words in her own work and with businesses. She also loves New Hampshire and is focused on completing several 5Ks in 2013 as a way to get off the couch consistently. You can connect with her on LinkedIn, Biznik, Facebook, and Twitter. 

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I Am My Own Boss, Part 2

          Even though I work alone, I’ve learned how to be my own best boss.

I have some managerial experience. For sixteen years I managed a medical office, and I took good care of my co-workers. It’s taking me about as long to learn how to take good care of myself.

Hands down, praise works best, so I try to appreciate any small step I take toward the larger task at hand – which is drafting a 100,000-word novel. One of the unintended consequences of this practice is that as I’m not just kinder and gentler toward myself, I’m kinder and gentler toward others. If I live long enough, I may actually become a genuinely nice person.

But I must admit that I still have days when I don’t want to sit down by myself to write a book that might never see the light of day. Some days, I’ll do anything to avoid writing, including putting off starting, going off on a tangent, or becoming paralyzed by doubt.

While I could try to turn these problems into an affirmation, “Hey Deb, you’re human!” I’ve found a more effective countermeasure to resistance.

Resistance is what keeps us from accomplishing our goals – from the little ones, like sitting down to write, to the big ones, like finishing a book.

According to nutritionist and writer Linda Spangle, it’s possible to defeat resistance by understanding its components and knowing what to do about them.. Resistance is manifested by Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt.

Typically, we respond to Fear with Procrastination. (Solitaire, anyone?) The best countermeasure to Procrastination is to Start: open a new document and start typing.

We respond to Uncertainty with Distraction. Ever start writing a piece and decide you really need to read War and Peace before you can do a good job? But before you can turn the page, you need to clean the litter box, which reminds you to put laundry detergent on the grocery list and make a dentist appointment for a cleaning six months hence? You get the idea. The best way to counter Distraction is with Focus.

And then there’s Doubt. Three quarters of the way through a draft and you become paralyzed by a needling voice that whispers, “You really think this is any good? Who are you kidding?” Doubt is responsible for countless unfinished stories in untold files around the world. But even Doubt can be defeated. Just Finish.

I have a Post-It above my desk. It says: Start. Focus. Finish.

Essentially, this is another way of saying, “Single Task” – which I wrote about in Part One of this post. And sometimes, I have to go through NAMS before I can Start, Focus, Finish. The more I practice these techniques, the better I get at sitting down, writing, revising, rewriting and returning to my desk day after day in what can be the most satisfying job working for the best boss I’ve ever had: me.

photo: M. Shafer

   Deborah Lee Luskin is the author of Into the Wilderness, an award-winning novel set in Vermont in 1964.

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Celebrate when you hit business goals and milestones

As a small business owner, it’s easy to get caught up in keeping the business moving forward.

You can always:

• be looking for the next client
• want to keep the best clients coming back
• spend time marketing
• connect with your market on social media
• build a support network
• spend time analyzing results
• get ‘caught up’ in deadlines

As a small business owner, you wear all the hats, juggle all the balls, keep everything moving forward. When you complete a task, you check it off and move on to the next item.

Similarly, when you hit a deadline, it’s easy to check it off your list and move on to the next project, but I think it’s important to pause and celebrate.

And before you say, “I don’t have time,” I disagree. At a minimum, I hope you’ll note the successful deadline completion in your list of accomplishments for the year. Whether it’s a success/achievement journal or a list taped to your wall, list the date and a brief description of the accomplishment.

For example: 4/20 – met deadline for (brief description of project) for (client      name) ahead of schedule/on time.

That’s the first activity I recommend. The next is to step away from your desk. Yep, don’t just push the chair back, actually get away from the keyboard so you won’t be tempted to work.

Take a moment to think about how the project arrived at your desk.

• Did you meet the client at an event? Pat yourself on the back for having made the connection that led to work.
• Did the client contact you through a referral? Congratulate yourself for having someone recommend you so positively.
• Did the client find you online? Give yourself kudos for your online marketing and social media efforts

Now think about the process of landing the project. Celebrate your successes of:

• Connecting with the client in a personal and professional way that resonated with the client
• Having your pitch/proposal accepted
• Being able to work with their deadline and other project parameters

And now that you’ve submitted the final work to the client, you get to celebrate the accomplishment, which is not something that happened over night. Recognize that. Appreciate it.

A different kind of celebration, but still a celebration

You’ve put in the effort and time, so take a few minutes, at least, to celebrate that fact! The ‘work’ itself may be easy to you, but that alone doesn’t make your business successful. YOU make your business successful with a lot of effort, so appreciate that and recognize it. (I’m repetitive with important points).

Talk out loud to the empty room: “I just finished X’s 2-week project and it feels GREAT!” (give your best Tony the Tiger imitation) “I look forward to more projects from X, and from similar clients I haven’t met yet.”

–As a note, yes, I do these things. I even do a happy dance – sometimes with music, sometimes without – to celebrate. There’s an exaggerated fist pump and a loud “YES!”, too. And laughter, because it *is* funny to be doing these things in an empty room. But it’s good – it’s fun – it’s celebrating – it makes me smile. I love to smile.

I believe that the more you can appreciate what you have, the more you’ll have. Business goals and milestones are worth celebrating.

And there’s another bonus to the celebrating: when you sit back at your desk to get back to work, you’ll feel more energized and have a fresh mind for the next project.

Have you been taking the time to appreciate all that you do for your business?

Lisa J. Jackson partners with businesses seeking to express themselves with words. She loves New Hampshire and is completing several 5Ks in 2013 as a way to get off the couch and away from the screen. She wasn’t a runner until now, and is thinking that someday she wants to complete the Alcatraz Triathlon. You can connect with her on LinkedIn, Biznik, Facebook, and Twitter. 

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Friday Fun – Who Inspires You?

Friday Fun is a group post from the writers of the NHWN blog. Each week, we’ll pose and answer a different, get-to-know-us question. We hope you’ll join in by providing your answer in the comments.

QUESTION: Literary great? A favorite teacher? Famous or not? Friend or family? Who inspires you?

Lisa J. Jackson: Hhhm. My grandmother is my inspiration for living the life that I live. She’s always with me, even though she left the living almost two decades ago. As far as writing inspiration, other than my co-bloggers here who are always inspiring me with their posts, it’s just myself. I don’t have a particular author that I want to write “like”. My dark fiction has definite touches from how many Stephen King books I devoured started as a teen, but my ultimate goal isn’t to be a great dark fic writer. There isn’t any writer who comes to mind who I can label as one who inspires my work per se. A few friends and one of my brothers want to to read what I write and I enjoy writing for them, and their nudges are appreciated – so they inspire me – since if I don’t write I know they’ll be sad. And I don’t like people to pout. I’ve been inspired to write since a young age – it’s the voices in my head who inspire the most!

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photo: M. Shafer

Deborah Lee Luskin: My children inspire me with their passion, intelligence, creativity, generosity and integrity. They give me hope for the future.

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Jamie Wallace: I am inspired by so many people, each for different reasons and in different ways. I am inspired by my mom’s amazing perseverance and attention to detail, her powers of clarity and ability to bring out the best in other writers. I am inspired by my dad’s imagination and vision, his artistic sense and the grand scale of his ideas. I am inspired by my daughter’s confidence and creativity, her sense of play and lack of inhibition. I am inspired by my beau’s limitless faith in my potential and tireless patience (as he listens, yet again, to all my plans, promises, hopes, and dreams). I am inspired by each writer I meet – the famous and the unknown. I am inspired by Nature (not a “who,” I know, but still a huge inspiration) – all the metaphors and magic that spring from that world. I am inspired by the characters of all my favorite stories, their courage, ingenuity, and faith. And I am inspired by the little girl I once was. She never doubted that her life would bring her adventure, love, success, and happiness.

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I Am My Own Boss, Part One

            There are wonderful things about the freelance life and being my own boss. For instance, I set my own hours. In the winter, this usually means working early and late so that I can be outdoors during the relative warmth in the middle of the day. In the summer, it’s the reverse: I row my single scull early in the morning and don’t show up at my desk until ten. And then there’s the matter of dress code. Mine makes corporate America’s Friday Casual look like haute couture. But the hardest, by far, is the issue of just showing up.

This is easy when I have a deadline with a paycheck dangling behind it. But then, I’m not really my own boss – I’m the pen hired by a client, writing to specs. But showing up to write fiction? That’s when being my own boss can be tough.

For one, it’s lonely. There are neither co-workers to complain to or about. There’s no office gossip. And there’s no one to motivate me when I’m in a slump or to reprimand me when I shirk my desk all together. This is especially true when it comes to writing a novel, which can take years to draft and more years before it’s published. I’ve never received a cold call from a perspective client saying, “I need an 80,000- word novel right away!”

But I’ve been writing novels – both published and unpublished – for a long time. Over the years I’ve developed different strategies for coping with the inevitable slump when I wonder, Why bother? One is to read the Help Wanted Ads. There are days when I think about going to work at a burger joint, or a bakery, or anywhere else but home.

Another strategy was to schedule a weekly lunch date with a fellow writer to set weekly goals, but that’s petered out. These days, I attend a weekly workshop, where I write with the delicious synergy of other writers, including poets and songsters, memoirists, and story-spinners like myself. It’s glorious, and it always picks me up, helps me keep writing along.

But during the recent and difficult process of finding my way into Ellen, the tentative title for the book I’m working on now, I’ve come up with a series of no-fail exercises that help me show up, sit down, and write.

The first I adapted from Joan Dempsey’s Literary Living. It goes like this: I show up at my desk and start the day with N.A.M.S.

N is for Narrate.

I’ve been journaling since I was nine, and keeping an electronic journal since Microsoft Word came out for the Mac, in 1984. Before that, I used to type – on a typewriting machine.  So narrating how I arrive at my desk is how I start my day. It’s a way of talking to myself about all the static of laundry, bills, spousal discord, unhappy kids, sick chickens, the weather. Whatever. It’s a license to kvetch, if necessary, as if I were talking to a co-worker about my existential despair. I spill it all out, typically in a few hundred words.

A is for Affirmation.

Next, I write affirmations. This doesn’t come easy. For years, my self-talk went something like, “Deb, self-pity is a character flaw. Get over it!” But that didn’t seem to help. So now I try to remember what I accomplished the previous day. I list every victory over turpitude and sloth, regardless how miniscule. Washed my face? Terrific! Sat down at my desk at 8? Fabulous! Worked through the temptation to eat lunch at ten? Excellent! Produced x-number of words, researched necessary information, advanced the plot? Another superlative day! Like any skill, I’m getting better at affirmations with practice. And I can tell you from my own experience: the carrot is much more effective than the stick. Also: it’s never too late to learn positive self-talk.

M is for Meditate.

I used to count my journaling as writing meditation, but recently, I’ve started sitting cross-legged on the floor and paying attention to my breath. I started doing this for five minutes (setting a timer), then six, seven, eight – until I could sit still for ten. Each day I added a minute, and each day I’ve been surprised by two things: the time seems to go by faster, and my mind is sharp and clear when time’s up.

S is for Single Task.

I’m now ready to Single Task: do one thing with my full attention. I’m amazed at how much I can get done when I set my mind to it. And when the first thing on my list is finished, I move on to the next.

photo: M. Shafer

NAMS is one of several motivational techniques I’ve learned to use as my own boss. In my next post, I’ll explain another technique I’ve learned to nip procrastination in the bud.

Deborah Lee Luskin writes in southern Vermont and can be found on the web at www.deborahleeluskin.com.

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Tackling a 24-hour short story contest entry

I like to enter writing contests now and again, and in general prefer not to enter any that have a fee. I tend to like money coming to me for writing rather than away, which I’m sure you can relate to.

But there’s a short-story contest that caught my interest a few years ago that I like to enter, even though it has a fee. It’s the Writer’s Weekly 24-Hour Short Story Contest and it’s put on 4 times a year. The fee is $5 to enter.

There are a few reasons why I like this contest:

• There are more than 85 prizes available
• Top 3 prizes include cash amounts of $300, $250, or $200; and publication. Incentive!
• It’s limited to 500 participants — 17% of total participants can win something (but, not all 500 submit by the deadline)
• I don’t know the topic or word length until the bell rings – no stress over the prep
• All participants have the same 24-hour period in which to write and submit
• The rules are spelled out in detail and communicated on the website, in a downloadable PDF upon registration, and again at the start of the contest
• Even though a prompt is the base of the contest, you don’t have to use it verbatim
• There’s a lot of writing freedom
• No specific genre
• Encouraged to think outside the box
• Tips are shared (i.e. it doesn’t impress the owner to have a character with her name or location in your story; put a title on the story; put your contact information at the end of the submission, and so much more)
• If I end up not submitting, I don’t feel guilty over the $5 spent
• I have time to write a draft and then step away from it (usually sleep on it), and then refine the piece before submitting
• There are more than 85 prizes available (oh, am I repeating myself?) That’s a LOT of opportunity to win something!
• It’s been around for quite a while
• It’s always on a weekend (Saturday 1PM EST to Sunday 1PM EST)
• The contest date It’s always announced weeks in advance, so I can schedule the time
• When winners are announced, a summary of all entries is shared – common themes and endings – as a learning tool
• It’s fun!
• It’s a great break from ‘regular’ writing
• I’ve placed in the contest a few times – and continue to strive for Top 3 at least once.
• It’s good exercise for the muse
• It’s a milestone to look forward to
• Winners are announced when promised (generally within 6 weeks)

Okay, so that’s more than a few, but I haven’t come up with any reasons not to enter. There’s really nothing to lose, and only some spur-of-the-moment writing-to-a-prompt experience to gain (at a minimum).

My method for tackling the entry is: read the prompt and word count limit as soon as the e-mail arrives. Scratch out initial thoughts. Go out for a walk or get lunch and think about the prompt – think about what the ‘typical’ responses might be (the 1st 6 or so that come to mind should be ignored or twisted into something new). Do a free write without worrying about spelling or word count. Pull the nuggets out from the free write. Write a ‘real’ story. Step away from it. Read it. Step away again. Tweak it. Sleep on it. Make final revisions and submit a few hours before deadline.

This past weekend was the Spring contest. The Summer contest is going to be on July 13, and is now open for sign ups. Yep, I’ve already reserved my seat.

Do you have a favorite contest, or one that you find worthwhile? I’d love to hear about it.

Lisa J. Jackson makes a living helping businesses express themselves with words and writing about NH. She has decided to complete several 5Ks in 2013 as a way to get off the couch and away from the screen. She drinks iced coffee year-round, and needs a stash of Peppermint Patties in the fridge at all times. You can connect with her on LinkedIn, Biznik, Facebook, and Twitter. 

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Friday Fun – Lost your mojo?

Friday Fun is a group post from the writers of the NHWN blog. Each week, we’ll pose and answer a different, get-to-know-us question. We hope you’ll join in by providing your answer in the comments.

QUESTION:  It happens to all of us. You’re working on a piece and it just isn’t going well. Last you knew, you were smarter, sharper, funnier or whatever-er than this miserable article, story, or blog post. What do you do to get back on track?

Lisa J. Jackson: Ah, yes, losing  Mojo, it happens. Mojo seems to run off when I have a lot of time to dedicate to my project. I look forward to my time to write on the project and tell Muse, show up, and then Muse is off on a carefree cross-country motorcycle trip with Mojo.

I get frustrated, probably curse a time or two, and then laugh at the absurdity of thinking I’m floundering. I mean, seriously, Muse and Mojo as a couple? Ha! No chance they’ll last longer than a few hours, and then both come racing back and want to be first in line with the apology.

It’s funny to see the imaginary expressions on their faces when they realize I’ve completed a brand new project that neither was privvy to, while they stepped out together.

Once Muse and Mojo are back at home, though, I can finish up the project they ran away from quickly enough, since they both go above and beyond to get back in my good graces.

Jamie Wallace: I smiled when I read this week’s question. The column I wrote for my local paper this week was a perfect example of losing my mojo. Ironically, it was on a topic that I thought would be a breeze: my cats. I had a mind mapped outline that sprawled up, down, and across a whole page in my notebook. I had plenty to say and passion for my subject matter, but try as I might I just couldn’t get the words to come out right. My column typically clocks in around 600 – 700 words. I think I wrote three times that over four false starts. I’d literally get 400 words into a draft and think to myself, “Nope. That’s not it.” It was exhausting. I eventually found my groove, but it was a grueling process.

When I find myself in this situation, it usually means that I haven’t prepared enough. I either don’t have enough reference material (often the case on client projects), or I just haven’t found the angle that makes everything clear for me. There are other reasons that come into play (I explored several of them in my series on writer’s block), but usually the underlying culprit is simply that I’m not ready – tactically, logistically, or emotionally.

What do I do? First, I keep writing – trying to pull something through that will give me the thread of an idea or perspective I’m looking for. If that fails me (and I haven’t backed myself into a corner by procrastinating right up to my deadline), I will walk away for a while – get outside, go for a walk, take a karate class – anything to get my head out of the work. Finally, I’ll read something – anything. Sometimes, reading someone else’s words can help me get mine flowing.

photo: M. Shafer

Deborah Lee Luskin: Yup. Happens all the time. My answer? A walk. A true, four-to-six-mile walk works best, but if I don’t have the time or weather for that, simply walking away from my desk and doing something else also does the trick. It’s a matter of time and space – giving my mind enough of both to freewheel through its mysterious processes. And just as mysteriously, it comes back. Learning patience and having faith that this is so has made my life as a writer much richer and more productive – and I’m a lot happier, as a result.

 

Diane MacKinnon: When I start to lose my oomph for my writing, I walk away and do something else, as Jamie and Deborah mentioned. I often plan for this–most of the time I write a blog post draft and then put it away, usually for a couple of days, occasionally only for a couple of hours. With my other writing, I am sometimes blind-sided by the sudden lack of enthusiasm for the project. When this happens, I do exercises to get back on track (since I’ve usually set aside only a specific period of time and I don’t want to squander it). Creative writing prompts, open-focus techniques, a short stint at meditating while sitting at my desk–all of these can work for me. In those moments, I just stay at my desk until I’m back into work mode (or my time is up!)

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Secrets of Successful Freelance Writers – Part 2 of 2

In the first part of Secrets of Successful Freelance Writers, we talked about the importance of finding the right work, learning to accurately price writing projects, and releasing your inner project manager. In today’s post, we tackle four more secrets that can help you build the freelance writing business of your dreams so you can make money from home … in your pajamas.

Here we go!

Study your craft.

You will never be done learning about writing. Whether your goal is to write feature articles or marketing copy, there is an infinite collection of resources and references that will help you hone your craft. From traditional books to blogs, online courses to community college courses, mentorships to internships, there are literally hundreds of ways to improve your skills and confidence.

In my case, I leaned heavily towards online sources. I became a voracious blog reader, devouring post after post, storing choice bits in my Evernote files, and putting my new skills to work as quickly as I could (lest I forget them). You can self-educate however you prefer, but don’t ever stop being hungry for more knowledge.

ACTION ITEMS:

• Do a search for blogs on your particular area of interest. Load a few into a reader (with Google Reader closing in July, I just switched to Feedly and I’m loving it!). Read them regularly.
• A great initial resource for anyone considering life as a freelance writer, Peter Bowerman’s Well-Fed Writer series are a perennial favorite – chock full of great advice and helpful templates.

Create your system.

There’s a reason that the assembly line had such an impact on the industrial revolution. Systems help you replicate and streamline a process so that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel each time you tackle a particular task.

In addition to being more efficient, systems give you and your clients a greater sense of confidence. You know how to break a project down so you can get it down. Your clients feel like they are in capable hands when you have a clear and defined plan to get them from Point A to Point B.

Like pricing, expertise with creating systems will come with time and practice; but you can get a good head start by studying other people’s systems and thinking consciously about what works well on your projects.

ACTION ITEMS:

• Keep a running log of the steps you take to manage a project. After only a few times doing this exercise, you’ll begin to see patterns for what works and what doesn’t.
• Formalize your system by giving each phase a name. Familiarize yourself with the optimal flow for a project and then share that with your client as you work through the process.

Pay attention to the details.

They say don’t sweat the small stuff. When it comes to writing, I disagree. In writing, you’re better off remembering that the devil is in the details.

In a perfect world, we’d each have our own private editor who would proof and polish our work for us before we release it to the client. However, this isn’t a perfect world, so that’s not usually possible. There are, however, two tricks you can use to help improve the quality of your work.

First, build “breathing room” into your development schedule. Too often, we are rushed. We write right up to the deadline and have to send our work out without giving ourselves time to walk away for a little while and then come back with a fresh eye. Whenever possible, make sure to give yourself enough wiggle room to let your copy “set” for twenty-four hours. You’ll be amazed at how many improvements you’ll be able to easily make even after that short a respite.

Second, read your work out loud. There are lots of things that look good on paper, but sound lousy when spoken aloud. Reading your work out loud makes it obvious when a certain word or phrase doesn’t work. Never skip this step.

ACTION ITEMS:

• To convince yourself of the efficacy of these tactics, go back to a piece you wrote a while ago. First, edit it just on paper and then read it aloud and edit it again.
• Adjust the list of tasks and template schedule you created to include “breathing room.”

Provide over-the-top service.

Finally, nothing strengthens your business like stellar service.

When you engage with clients, try to make the experience fun. Smile even if you’re meeting via conference call (people can hear smiles, you know). Keep a positive and upbeat mood. Be responsive to customer inquiries. Be a true collaborator. Be polite and helpful and respectful. Go the extra mile.

One of the best things you can do for any customer is make her life easier. Whether your clientele is made up of corporate marketing managers or solo entrepreneurs, everyone loves to work with someone who makes the work easy. Find little ways to take things off your customer’s plate. Become an irreplaceable resource.

ACTION ITEMS:

• Think about the types of customer service experiences that have wowed you. How can you incorporate some of those types of experiences into your own workflow?
• Then think about the worst service experiences you’ve had. How can you ensure that you never make those mistakes with your customers?

So, there you have them – my seven favorite tips for becoming a successful freelance writer. So far, they have served me well. I hope they will do the same for you.

Questions? Lay ‘em on me and I’ll do my best to answer them.

More tips? Don’t just sit there – share! 

Jamie Lee Wallace is a writer who also happens to be a marketer. She helps her Suddenly Marketing clients discover their voice, connect with their audience, and find their marketing groove. She is also a mom, a prolific blogger, and a student of voice and trapeze (not at the same time). Introduce yourself on facebook or twitter. She doesn’t bite … usually.

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Image Credit: seeveeaar

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