The Trick to Getting More Freelance Work

Many of us writers pitch our articles and blog posts. We do all the right things for those pitches, we identify the audience, explain why our article fits the publication, and we include the word count and resources we’ll be quoting. Perfect.

And when our pitch is accepted, we are overjoyed. We set about writing the article and we send it in, knowing that we’ve done a good job. We’ve finished the job and it’s time for a celebratory beer, right?

Photo credit: FontFont

But not so fast. If you’ve forgotten to include this one single trick when you pass in your article, you’re missing out on easy opportunity to consistently get more work.

That trick? Always be sure to include a suggestion for another project.

“Like this article on the behavior of local bears at the dump in the winter? How about another one on how the local fox population is dwindling due to residential development?”

“I’ve included a blog post on the best way to use social media, how about another follow-on post on best practices for using social media to create a network?”

I *never* return a project without suggesting topics for new ones. In fact, I have one editor with whom I rarely even return an email without pitching another story. Fortunately, she and I have a good working relationship and I know what kinds of stories she is looking for.  But still, I’m not going to wait around to be assigned a story especially if I have a few ideas in mind.

I want the work now.

The same goes for marketing work. Whenever I submit work (website content, blog posts) I’ll always include suggestions on how to make something else better.

“You know your “About Us” page? It’s not clear exactly what it is you offer your customer. Want me to take a look at that to make it stronger?”

“Here are 4 blog posts, want me to get started on another 4 for next month so you’ll have a queue ready?”

When you make additional project suggestions, not only are you seen as a go-getter, but you are also viewed as someone who is a critical thinker. Someone who is always wondering “how can we make this better?” and “what will keep the audience engaged?”

Editors tend to like those kinds of people.

I don’t know of an editor or a marketer who doesn’t appreciate additional article and work suggestions. In the case of the editor, you are helping to fill the publication. You’re actually making her job easier. In the case of the marketer, you are helping to sell work, and guess what? Marketers like to sell work, that’s their job. When they know you can upsell like that, they are going to come back to you for work.

Again and again.

This past week I was contacted by an editor who sent me a request for an article idea I had submitted last summer as an attachment to a finished project. She couldn’t use the idea then, but she did want me to write the article now. Could I still do it? She asked.

You betcha.

Not only will I do it, but you can be sure that when I send the finished article over, I’ll be pitching a few additional articles ideas for her consideration.

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Wendy Thomas is an award winning journalist, columnist, and blogger who believes that taking challenges in life will always lead to goodness. She is the mother of 6 funny and creative kids and it is her goal to teach them through stories and lessons.

Wendy’s current project involves writing about her family’s experiences with chickens (yes, chickens). (www.simplethrift.wordpress.com)

How about a post next week on the top 5 questions to ask when writing content for a website?

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Are you a “where” or a “how” writer?

I know of some writers who can’t start a project until they have the “perfect” title. Although I do admit, I’ve have stumbled across some title-worthy phrases (like “The Joy of Six” as a memoir title for our family of 6 kids) I have never really understood this approach.  Pardon my bluntness but for *me*, these writers seem to have it literally ass-backward.

I think that a more effective approach to writing stories, articles, and blog posts is to come up with the ending first and then create the story to justify that conclusion.

Remember the brilliant and hysterically funny movie “Blazing Saddles?”(Seriously is there anyone who didn’t fall on the floor laughing over the beans scene?)  I’m convinced that one of the reasons Saddles was created was so that Mel Brooks could film the ending. From the final dialog with the town’s people to the breaking of the fourth wall by having the actors get off their horses and enter a limousine. Brooks lets us know that although he makes some strong social statements, in the end, the movie is just that, a movie. Let’s all have a good laugh.

Every line, every scene led up to and justified that final gotcha image.

 

 

 

I suppose it comes down to whether you are a “Where do we go from here?”  type of person or a “How did we get here?” kind.

The “where” people’s stories tend to go all over the place, they never know what their characters are going to do or say from day to day. There is a certain freedom in this type of writing and I’ve spoken to many successful writers who use this method. They sit at the computer and let their stories dump out of their brains.

Others (like myself) are the “how” people. We know where our characters are going to finally be, but we need to work backwards in order to make sure that all steps lead to the ending. I have created what often look like reverse flowcharts for my stories.

Is this approach a little too analytical? Too stilted and restrictive of creative freedom? I don’t know. I’ve tried to work like a “where” writer and I always find that I get lost, I go down rat holes and spend time on material that ends up being cut in the end because it gets my characters nowhere. I tend to waste a lot of time.  But is that such a bad thing? Sometimes those who wander are not lost.

I’m not saying that either approach is better or worse, in the end if you are successful, then whichever method you use is the best. What I am saying is that you, as a writer, should be aware of how *you* compose a story. Do you tend to compose forward or backward? Identify which approach works best for you and then the next time you write something, don’t waste time with something other than what works best for you.

***

Wendy Thomas is an award winning journalist, columnist, and blogger who believes that taking challenges in life will always lead to goodness. She is the mother of 6 funny and creative kids and it is her goal to teach them through stories and lessons.

Wendy’s current project involves writing about her family’s experiences with chickens (yes, chickens). (www.simplethrift.wordpress.com)

Yes, I keep a flowchart on my wall of the book I’m working on. It helps me see where I’ve been.

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A tiny house within a large one in which to write

I did it.

It’s my very own tiny house inside of our big house.

I finally did something that I should have done ages ago. I carved out a small space at the back of a storage room to where I have relocated my desk, my yellow reading chair and a small file cabinet. I also went out and bought a wooden room divider essentially announcing to the rest of the family that I’ve marked my territory. Stay away.

It’s my very own writer’s cave.

And I love it.

No one is allowed back there but me and Pippin – and, as a result, guess what? When I need to use a pen, I can now find it. There it is, right there where I left it (as opposed to practically anywhere in the house because someone felt free to take it.) When I want to use my stapler, my post-it notes, I now know that they will be there in the second drawer because that’s where I last put them.

I have my music set up, a white board listing the articles that are due, and there’s even room for my daily calendar to be out and opened so that I can see the full week’s to do lists at one glance.

It’s a bit chilly but not to worry, I have enough outlets to plug in my computer, music, and an electric shawl that warms my shoulders while I type.  I’m ready to rock and roll.

It’s part of this writer’s renewed resolutions for 2013.  You know the ones, be more organized, track things better, and put my butt in the chair more often – it’s the universal January cry of all writers everywhere.  Well, I finally have my spot in which to write and while it might sound selfish of me to say that no one else is welcome here, it is what it is. With a dedicated spot, comes a sense of dedicated commitment.

In other words, if I have a desk to write at then I’ll write at that desk.

How about you? What are you doing to make sure that you can do your writing this new year?

***

Wendy Thomas is an award winning journalist, columnist, and blogger who believes that taking challenges in life will always lead to goodness. She is the mother of 6 funny and creative kids and it is her goal to teach them through stories and lessons.

Wendy’s current project involves writing about her family’s experiences with chickens (yes, chickens). (www.simplethrift.wordpress.com)

You’re welcome to visit, just be sure to knock first.

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Thankful for writing one word at a time

Wow, next Monday is Christmas Eve. Where has the year gone? How did the holiday get here so fast? I swear it was just February a minute ago.

I know a few people who haven’t done Christmas shopping or any holiday prep because of the fear of the world ending this Friday. I’ve never been worried about the date, and NASA was nice enough to let a video slip out into the mainstream a bit early to possibly help calm any remaining fears. The video was supposed to hit the Web on 12-22-12. It’s interesting to watch, and only about 4 1/2 minutes long. The Mayans were very intelligent folks and it’s amazing what they did without all the crazy technology we have today.

My Accomplishments List (aka Success Journal) has a lot of nice entries from last week. It’s one of my most productive weeks all year. There’ s a lot of work on my desk and I can get easily stressed about it, but Wendy reminds me “it’ll all get done.” Just saying that to myself a few times slows the heart beats and gets me breathing normally again. Writing gets done faster when I know “it’ll all get done.”

That mindset ‘thing’ is quite powerful. Thanks, Wendy.

I’d like to give shoutouts to my other fellow bloggers today, too.

Susan has beautiful images for this blog. I like this Christmas pic – a lot of elves are relaxing for a bit. I picture them sipping hot chocolate (with marshmallows) and their feet propped up on footrests for some must-needed rest. (See? This is how stories get started)

Lee has gotten me thinking a lot about what I read, what I have read, and what I should be reading, through some of her posts. It blows me away that she, and others, can remember what they read in high school. I’m lucky if I can recall the title of the book I’m currently reading. I track all my books in a spreadsheet, trying to top last year’s number of books read each year, but the fast few years have been low – I don’t count the manuscripts I edit, although maybe I should since I read them 2-3 times each!

Jamie blows me away with her posts – so much great information – and I wonder how she finds the time with all her other projects and personal life. But mostly, she’s quite an inspiration to a self-employed writer!

And there’s Diane, whose posts always seem to come at the right time. I love how she mixes in some coaching techniques here and there. Little tidbits that give me the right nudge seemingly right when I need that particular nudge. We’re going to be helping each other get some short stories published in 2013.

Deborah brings a lot of writing experience to the blog. I ‘met’ Deborah through her book “Into the Wilderness” when I interviewed her for my blog and reviewed the book. I like the glimpses she gives us into Vermont. I don’t get to the state nearly as often as I should. I didn’t actually meet her until this past July.

Julie, Julie, Julie – thank you so much for joining this blog. You bring your pep and theatre and mystery writer perspective here and it’s quite enjoyable. I know you have a busy year ahead as President of Sisters in Crime-New England and being on the committee for the New England Crime Bake conference in November — nevermind all your StageSource commitments!

I love being a contributor on this blog, and thank you Readers for being our audience. Your feedback keeps us going and keeps us writing, which is the goal. Always feel free to let us know if there’s something you’d like to know more about and we’ll get it covered for you.

I raise my glass and toast you all — thank you for letting me into your lives one word at a time.

Lisa J. Jackson is a New England-region journalist and a year-round chocolate and iced coffee lover. She loves working with words, and helping others with their own. As Lisa Haselton, she writes fiction, co-blogs about mystery-related writing topics at Pen, Ink, and Crimes, has an award-winning blog for book reviews and author interviews, and is a chat moderator at The Writer’s Chatroom. Connect with her on LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter. 

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Something from a Writer’s Prompt

I don’t think we’ve had many writing prompts on this blog (and maybe we should consider having a prompt on a regular basis.)

I love prompts mostly because I like to figure out a way to approach a story from a completely different point of view.

Writing Prompt -  a boy and a girl are in the park. The boy is holding a box with something in it that he is going to give the girl – what happens?

If you say that the boy is going to propose to the girl and give her an engagement ring, I swear I’ll just puke.

But, if you say that the the boy has a vial of harvested cells from his newborn baby brother’s umbilical cord that he has smuggled out of the hospital to give the girl so that she can use them in stem-cell therapy in order to live. And when she does live she wants to marry him but wait a minute, she has some of his brothers cells in her, does that make them related? Is she partly now his  brother? Would they be able to get over that situation to live their lives together? Oh and by the way, the younger brother was tragically killed and when the mother finds out that he “lives on” in the girl, she insists that the girl become a member of the family and is invited to Sunday dinners for the rest of time further complicating the lovers’ relationship.

All from a box in the park.

So go ahead, give it a try.

Here’s a photo with some objects, use some or all of them and in the comments below, tell me what would happen in your writer’s world.

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Wendy Thomas is an award winning journalist, columnist, and blogger who believes that taking challenges in life will always lead to goodness. She is the mother of 6 funny and creative kids and it is her goal to teach them through stories and lessons.

Wendy’s current project involves writing about her family’s experiences with chickens (yes, chickens). (www.simplethrift.wordpress.com)

No hints on this one.

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The Mother-daughter Integrity Book Club

I’m thinking about starting a project but I needed some help so I turned, as I often do, to my Facebook friends.

“What are some of the books from *your* youth where the main character showed good old fashioned common sense and a great deal of integrity when challenged. In particular I’m looking for strong girl characters. One example off the top of my head is Pollyanna. For this project I’m not interested in current books.”

Oh and here’s the project. We don’t belong to an organized religion but I’ve always wondered (feared) if my kids are not getting the value training that they might be getting if we did (for the record, I think we do a pretty good job at home but we could always do better) . We’ve got some testing-life’s-boundaries bumps going on and so in order to right a path and to emphasize that your reputation and personal integrity are the two most important things you will ever own, I am going to start a “mother-daughters” book club with these older books where we are going to read the stories and then discuss the actions and decisions. It will be just like a ladies book club but without the wine and cheese.

“What other stories/books can you come up with?” I asked my Facebook friends.

This is what they came up with – a list that simply begs to be shared.

• Nancy Drew comes to mind…and maybe Heidi.
• All of the Oz books — In the books, Dorothy is clever, kind, brave, honest and true. She was most certainly the girl I modeled myself after. Because of the era, there are other components of the series that are less lovely, but L. Frank Baum clearly showed a little girl who had what it took to solve problems for herself.
• Anne of Green Gables and Pippi Longstocking come to mind
• “Knee Deep in Thunder” obscure but wonderful journey of self-discovery. Also “The Borrowers” series by Mary Norton- Arrietty (my daughter is named after her) is pretty fearless.
• Little House on the Prairie
• Little Women.
• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
• A Wrinkle in Time. by Madeline L’Engle.
  Also can’t ignore Harry Potter series; Hermione is the smart one!
• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
  St Francis of Assisi
  Zorba the Greek
• A Girl of the Limberlost by Gene Stratton Porter, which I believe is back in print. She has backbone in spades! I think I read my Mom’s copy from when she & her sisters were young – my grandmother still had a couple of shelves full of kid’s books in their spare room for many years. I think I acquired my fondness for Zane Grey there as well, but most of his female characters are disappointing in this regard.
  The Dana Girls series (same author as Nancy Drew) were always my favorite mysteries, and they and their friends always seem to manage for themselves quite well.
• Scout from To Kill A Mockingbird
• Laura Ingalls
• 33 titles in The Happy Hollisters by Jerry West was actually written by Andrew E. Svenson(looked on Amazon they are $4.98 on kindle or $9.98 paperback) geard to 6 to 12 year olds . I read them all many times to myself and read them to my younger brother and sister. He contributed to established series as Franklin W. Dixon (The Hardy Boys) and as Laura Lee Hope (The Bobbsey Twins). The first volume in his own original series, The Happy Hollisters
• An Old Fashioned Girl by Louisa May Alcott. Still one of my favorite books ever. Any LMA book, really, but that’s the best.
• I’m also going to add to this list _ From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler – one of my all-time favorites
• These are not that old but the American Dolls have great stories. I read the whole Molly series to my daughter when she was about 4 of 5 and when she was old enough she read them to herself. Then she read all the other series. I like Molly because if took place when my mother was about the same age.
• Nancy Drew! She was my inspiration.
• I loved Pippi Longstocking!
• Donna Parker mysteries
• “Call me Heller that’s my Name” she knew what to do when caught on a train trestle and the train came. Anne of Green Gables
• “Cowslip, Slave Girl “was a very good book don’t know if it is in print
• Nancy Drew, and Trixie Belden….They were my favorites growing up!
• Anne Frank

What favorite stories from your youth are missing from this list?

***

Wendy Thomas is an award winning journalist, columnist, and blogger who believes that taking challenges in life will always lead to goodness. She is the mother of 6 funny and creative kids and it is her goal to teach them through stories and lessons.

Wendy’s current project involves writing about her family’s experiences with chickens (yes, chickens). (www.simplethrift.wordpress.com)

Pollyanna starts tonight.

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Hamlet and Thank you cards

The other day I was in our local department store picking up a few items. I’m one of those people who always (and I mean always) writes down what I need before I enter a store. Rarely do I ever come out with something that is not on my list. That particular day I needed detergent, a binder, and a box of Thank you cards. As I was walking down one aisle to get to store’s back corner, I passed a display of Lego minifigures.

For $2.99 you could get an unknown but always interesting little Lego character. In this series (series 8) there were 16 different figures available. There was a pirate, an alien, and even a football player. There was a fairy, a DJ, and a tiny Santa Claus. These little guys came in small sealed packets and you took your chances with which one you got. But of course, not only was there no Lego minifigure on my list of things to get, but I can also tell you that I truly did not need a minifigure in my life.

What I needed was a box of Thank you cards.

And yet those minifigures called out to me. “Buy me,” they whispered in my ear. “Take me home.”

I have always been a sucker with regard to surprises that rely on luck and chance. One of my all-time favorite gifts was a candle that had secrets buried in the wax. I watched that candle burn for hours as it slowly exposed each of my tiny treasures. I enjoy taking a chance and then figuring out if somehow the world is trying to send me a message.

So I said, “what the heck,” and I put a Lego packet into my basket.

Kid that I am, I opened the bag as soon as I got to my car in the parking lot and I immediately put it together.

I can honestly tell you, without doubt, that I ended up getting the neatest Lego minifigurine ever made.

“It’s perfect mom,” my daughter Addy told me.

“Wow,” said Spencer, “it’s like it was made just for you.”

This is the Lego minifigure that the world decided to give me on my way to buying a box of cards – a little tiny Hamlet holding his good buddy Yorick’s skull.

Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio; a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy; he hath borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is! My gorge rises at it. Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft. Where be your gibes now? (Hamlet, V.i)

Indeed, although I’m not sure where my gibes are now, I do know that my little Hamlet now sits near my computer, holding what remains of Yorick and giving me enough inspiration to get this post up before midnight.

***

Wendy Thomas is an award winning journalist, columnist, and blogger who believes that taking challenges in life will always lead to goodness. She is the mother of 6 funny and creative kids and it is her goal to teach them through stories and lessons.

Wendy’s current project involves writing about her family’s experiences with chickens (yes, chickens). (www.simplethrift.wordpress.com)

There are still 15 other figures in this series, just saying.

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Writing as a business

We talk a lot about writing, but we haven’t really touch on the topic of formally creating a writing business.

This post lists types of business structure options you have, at least in the U.S., for categorizing your writing or (self-) publishing business.

Since I’m neither an accountant or an attorney, please seek out someone who is one or the other, to help you determine the best structure for your needs. All states should have (at least) similar categories; these are for New Hampshire businesses.

The full definitions (these are paraphrased) can be found via the NH Division of Economic Development site:

• Sole proprietorship –  is a business with the least amount of legal formalities and simplest to form. You assume sole responsibility for the operations and finances of the business, including profit or loss.

• General partnership - is an agreement between 2 or more individuals, or entities/businesses, to jointly own and operate a business. Profit, loss, and managerial duties are shared among the partners, and each partner is personally liable for partnership debts. As entities, partnerships do not pay tax, but must file an informational return, while individual partners report their share of profits or losses on their personal returns.
• Limited partnership – offers some of the partners’ limited liability. It includes a general partner who organizes and manages the business and its operations, and limited partners who contribute capital, but have limited liability and assume no active role in day-to-day business affairs.

• Limited liability partnership (LLP) - is organized to protect individual partners from personal liability for the negligent acts of other partners or employees not under their direct control (i.e. licensed fields like law or medicine). Not every state has this category. Partners report their share of profits and losses on their personal tax returns.
• Limited liability company (LLC) – combines the corporate and partnership entities. Parties in an LLC control shares and their operational liability of the company is determined by their level of investment. However, like partnerships, income tax is not paid at the LLC level, but rather it is “passed through” and taxed at the shareholder level. It’s not an easy entity to explain or understand.

Two others categories are “C” corporation and “S” corporation. Each of these has shareholders and for the purposes of this conversation, aren’t what a writing or (self-) publishing entity would need – at least not immediatly.

But again, each of the above business structures has legal, tax, and other consequences. I’m a writer, not an attorney or accountant, but I think these details can at least give you a start if you’re considering turning your writing into a business, or you’re thinking about creating an entity to self-publish under.

Have you thought about turning your writing into a business at some point?

Lisa J. Jackson is a New England-region journalist and a year-round chocolate and iced coffee lover. She’s a sole proprietor and solopreneur. She writes fiction as Lisa Haselton, has an award-winning blog for book reviews and author interviews, and is on the staff of The Writer’s Chatroom. Connect with her on Facebook or Twitter. 

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A Child-like Way to Make Your Stories Glow

Today’s post is from guest writer Dr. John Yeoman.

“Some of you write better than I do.”

Or so I tell my first-year students at the university where I teach creative writing. And I’m not lying. I’ve spent 42 years as a commercial author. I have a PhD in creative writing. How come 18-year olds, fresh out of school, have the edge on me?

“True, you still have a lot to learn about structure, syntax and language,” I tell them. “No, Jed, you can’t use a comma as an all-purpose punctuation mark.” Sharon giggles. “Or spread one paragraph across three pages, Sharon. “ Jed smirks.

Freshness. It’s the master ruse of art. Geniuses get better at it. The rest of us lose it, somewhere around our 20th year. Maybe even in kindergarten.

The Russian critic Schlovsky called it ostranenie – the gift of seeing life with perpetual freshness. Perception without interpretation. The thing itself. Gertrude Stein hinted at ostranenie: “A rose is a rose is a rose.” Her sparring partner Hemingway perfected it in his later stories. Language is pared to the bone. Incidents are selected and structured but the author is invisible. The story appears to speak for itself.

Great writers like Hemingway find the words to express something they have felt, as if it has never been felt before. Hacks struggle to fake an effect that they have never felt.

Here’s how to recover a freshness of perception – and convey it in your stories.

It’s the Epiphany exercise. I send my students out to the coffee shop for 20 minutes. (This exercise is very popular.) I ask them to stop at the first thing they see. Maybe it’s a chair, a blank wall, or a sandwich. “Take five minutes,” I say. “Just perceive it, with all your senses.” Within the limits of propriety, they should also touch, smell, hear and even taste it. (I warn them: “Watch out for the security guards.”)

They then return to class and write, in three lines or less, exactly what they observed or felt. The results are often luminous.

“I felt the sadness of a poster that nobody had ever read.” “Three red chairs were chatting up a round grey table. It didn’t know which way to turn.” “The coffee shop lady said: ‘You’ll have to pay on the other side. And she frowned at me like a hell fire preacher.’”

James Joyce did this when wandering the streets of Dublin. A snatch of dialogue here, an observation there. They litter Ulysses. Ripped out of context, they appear fresh, even shocking. Brad Meltzer does this in The Book of Lies. Glittering phrases and sly insights leap from every line. The crime thriller transcends its genre. Despite its pulpy plot, it verges on magical realism.

Of course, some of my students never ‘get’ it. They want to be journalists and write reportage. An event is an event is an event. Who needs poetry? Yet the finest poetry goes beyond a game of words. “Annihilating all that’s made/To a green thought in a green shade.”  “A green thought.” The phrase couldn’t be simpler. Andrew Marvell understood ostranenie.

No doubt, some people can never learn the trick of freshness. They must discard their comfortable labels, those neat categories into which we bundle experience. That’s dangerous.

For Thackeray – a comfortable, literal-minded man – the streets of London were just streets. For Dickens, they were a Jurassic swamp, evocative of mud and dinosaurs. The trick demands the raw imagination of a child, a willful capacity to take risks. There was much of rawness, experiment and the child about Dickens.

But anyone creative enough to write fiction can acquire the art. Simply look at any mundane object, say a bookshelf. Suppose, although otherwise experienced, we had never seen a bookshelf before? It might be a mouth of giant teeth, a Bauhaus tapestry, a mausoleum of mummified ideas…

The labels become dislodged.

Suddenly, we find ourselves playing with new phrases. “Sniggering paperbacks,” “A room that reeked of paint and fresh books,” “Plaguey thoughts, mummified in old leather”, and so on.

Try that ‘epiphany’ exercise for yourself. Your stories will glow with freshness. If you can do it in a coffee shop, a Dublin street, or a library, you can do it anywhere!

Dr. John Yeoman, PhD Creative Writing, has 42 years experience as a commercial author, is a former newspaper editor, and one-time chairman of a major PR consultancy. He has published eight works of humor, some of them intended to be humorous.

John judges the Writers’ Village story competition and is a tutor in creative writing at a UK university. His free 14-part course in writing fiction for the commercial market can be found at: http://www.writers-village.org/story-success

 

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Meeting other writers

Do you find it hard to meet other writers? Writers are everywhere, but we aren’t a boisterous bunch.

Even if we work somewhere surrounded by people, we’re focused on our screens or our notepads. And even if we’re looking around, it’s uncommon to make eye contact when our minds are in ‘writer mode.’

The Burton Rascoe quote is perfect: “What no wife of a writer understands is that a writer is working when he’s staring out the window.” We might be looking right at each other, and not recognize a similar soul.

Letting the story work its way into my mind

But there are ways to meet other writers.

Blogs – such as this one. All of us are in New England, but we each have different networks and areas of interest.

Writer-focused or author Web sites can be a way to connect with the authors of the site, and their bio pages may then have names of writing groups or organizations they belong to. Then when  you visit one of those pages, you’ll find even more ways to connect with other writers and maybe even discover a group of like-minded writers just around the corner!

Cafés and coffee shops are natural places for writers to congregate, so check out bulletin boards and newsletters at these locations to see if groups meet that might be of interest. Asking a barista or bookseller at these places can lead you to local people, too.

Events coordinators at libraries can let you know if there are any local groups that meet. Local community colleges and high schools that offer adult education classes are also resources to check into.

Meetup.com is an international resource. You can find people with similar interests in your area – or if you’re planning to travel, you can easily find people at your destination to start a conversation with before you leave.

Facebook is another resource for meeting writers. I haven’t found way to search on multiple keywords, but there are certainly quite a few writing-related groups and pages there to get you started in meeting other writers.

In New Hampshire, the New Hampshire Writers’ Project offers “Writer’s Night Out” at various venues across the state on the first Monday evening of every month. It’s a fantastic way to get out and socialize with other local writers. Perhaps there’s something like this in your area. Start by searching for a state writing organization.

The best luck I’ve had to date is with book store writing groups and meeting writers through the mystery writer’s organization that I belong to. But lately I’ve noticed the more I talk about being a writer wherever I go, the more writers I’m meeting.

Maybe we just need to wear labels saying “Hi, I’m a writer”!

Where have you met most of your writer friends?

Lisa J. Jackson is a a New England region journalist and a year-round chocolate and iced coffee lover. She writes fiction as Lisa Haselton, has an award-winning blog for book reviews and author interviews, and is on the staff of The Writer’s Chatroom. 

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