<<I’ve heard of writers saying they are afraid to submit something as it never seems good enough to submit. I know we have to get over perfection paralysis to submit. But even if I proofread something two to three times and submit it, it seems that if I look again, it’s like, ‘Oh, I missed that.’ Given you submit weekly newsletters, how do you proofread so as to be the best possible? ~Thanks, Roy>> Most of us, whether we admit it or not, believe we can proof our own work and get by. Who better to spot the mistakes than the person most familiar? Frankly, the reality is quite the opposite. This quote from a piece in Wired Magazine says it well: “We . . . take in sensory information and combine it with what we expect, and we extract meaning. When we’re reading other peoples’ work, this helps us arrive at meaning faster by using less brain power. When we’re proofreading our own work, we know the meaning we want to convey. Because we expect that meaning to be there, it’s easier for us to miss when parts (or all) of it are absent. The reason we don’t see our own typos More
How to Create a Portfolio from Scratch
/ 2021-04-26After I decided to stop practicing law and try something new, I discovered the world of freelance writing but did not know how to start this new career path. I didn’t have a portfolio, a journalism degree, contacts, or experience with non-legal writing. My lack of a portfolio was my biggest obstacle. Publications often required writing samples to accompany pitches. How was I supposed to get writing samples if I couldn’t get anyone to publish my writing in the first place? Below are four strategies I used to create a portfolio from scratch. Catchafire I joined Catchafire, a website where people can volunteer to help nonprofit organizations with a variety of projects including writing and editing. I had wonderful experiences on Catchafire and completed several copywriting projects. After a project, I always asked the organization for permission to use the piece in my portfolio, and everyone allowed me to include it. Professional associations I also joined professional writing associations for their networking and training opportunities. When I realized the associations were seeking submissions for their newsletters, I was unsure what I could contribute. As a newbie, how was I to advise others? So I looked to my other interests to find More
They Ought to Like Me
/ 2021-04-26A woman posted on a Facebook group recently how insulted she was that some of her friends and family do not appreciate that she writes romance. She commenced to explain why she wrote it and loved it and how it was the largest selling genre, therefore, it deserved respect. Others on the group echoed her concerns. Everyone was hating those who did not appreciate the romance genre. They had no business complaining. None at all. As a matter of fact, they were convincing people NOT to read romance with behaviors like that. The people they were fussing about had just as much right to dislike romance as the complainers did to like and write it. You might as well convince someone who doesn’t like broccoli that they ought to like broccoli. It makes that much sense. I’ll be wide open honest right here and now. I do not like to read fantasy, scifi, dystopia, cozy mystery, AND romance. However, I am friends with writers who write them and readers who read them. Just like not everyone eats broccoli, nobody reads all genres. That is their right and their choice. They are just trying to make their lives enjoyable by doing More
Scheduling Habits
/ 2021-04-23I just read a piece by Seth Godin (love him!), in which he talks about choosing what we do in our day-to-day existence. I preach something quite similar; just ask the people I teach at conferences. (Conferences…remember them?) We are somehow hardwired to plan our days. The only days we don’t is when we take a vacation, and even then, I would bet most of us still have to “plan” the vacation time. But there is an art to planning our time, and a lot of it has to do with serious thought. Most of us forget that part. All too often, we list everything we feel must be done, then jump into the list, beginning with those items most critical or have the nearest deadline. Procrastinators will often do the shorter tasks first, delaying those requiring more investment. Some start with those tasks that give the quickest positive results, because, after all, we love feeling good about our accomplishments. We often call it efficiency. But what’s missing out of all of this so-called planning is the thought process of creating that list. What often gets omitted are the things that matter more in the long run. Our dreams and More
The Niche of Paying Parenting Markets
/ 2021-04-09Being a parent, grandparent and now great-grandparent, has honed my niche as a writer. My children, grandchildren, and great grandson have been awesome food-for-story fodder which has also increased my earning power. The parenting market booms with magazines, both digital and print, blogs, and parenting anthologies. Parenthood, in all its myriad forms, single parents, same sex couples, interracial couples, etc. have one essential commonality. Parents want the best life for their children and ultimately want to mesh it together to groom the best life as a family. Parents don’t want to feel alone, either. They have insecurities and fears, especially now during a pandemic that has caused so many of us sleepless, fretful days and nights. After published personal essays and nonfiction articles in paying parenting magazines such as Scary Mommy, Parent Co., Guardian Angel Magazine, and Brain, Child Magazine, I have garnered nine tips to breaking into parenting markets that pay. Become familiar with the parenting magazine you submit to. Get to know the readership and the demographics. Are they young, affluent baby boomers living in the Midwest or are they hip urban New York couples? What are their interests, their lifestyle, and their values? You may feel your More
Notebooks of Your Talent
/ 2021-04-09I love notebooks. I keep three ongoing at all times. When I started out, I used one. It served me well then, and at the end of the year that notebook went into my income tax records. Then I evolved. Today I keep one for my business side of writing which incorporates ideas, phone calls, resources to check out, advertising, speaking engagements, and things to do by the end of the week. A weekly calendar sits near it, a week at a glance. I keep another notebook for the novel in progress. Ideas, dialogue snippets, plot twists, red herrings that I need to bring around, when I read that notebook, there are no other distractions from just that story. Often I throw those away, though admittedly, I keep them around for a year or two after the book comes out. Sentimental reasons, I guess. The third one, however, holds two things only. One is names I like. I’ve published 12 novels, written two more that will be published in the near future, and plan several more, and finding unique and applicable names without repetition or confusion becomes challenging. The majority of that notebook, however, consists of phrases that resonated so More
How to Use Your Writing Skills in a “Traditional” Job
/ 2021-04-03Not all of us in freelance writing do so exclusively. Yet those traditional jobs can also be golden opportunity to utilize the skills you’ve learned while freelance writing. One of my past employers had a long-running newsletter put together by the same person for years. After she left the position, I offered my services to edit it, citing my writing experience from crafting articles to covering various events and travel destinations. I didn’t get the opportunity at first, but it wasn’t long until the job of organizing the newsletter bounced around from one person to another among people who had no real interest in writing, researching, and formatting. Finally, they gave me the job. I was given a certain number of hours each quarter at my regular hourly wage to get the newsletter published. Because of my skills and insights gained from freelancing, I was able to add spin to the publication like employee profiles, a column by the director, plus a new look by using publishing software so the newsletters could be archived and put on social media. The newsletter became more available than ever before. In the process, I connected with co-workers and supervisors from other shifts besides More
A Different Reason to Enter Contests
/ 2021-04-03When I started writing seriously, I had a novel in mind. This was way before FundsforWriters. I spent two years working on that novel concept, after work, on weekends, and between hockey practices with my sons. But I was afraid of sending it to publishers and agents, for fear of rejection. My mother, of all people, suggested I send it to Fern Michaels’ literary agent. Little did I know that my mother knew Fern Michaels . . . just didn’t realize she was as big an author as she was. Mom commenced to getting me invited to one of Fern/Mary’s renowned parties (she flew in a band from Louisiana) at which time Mom introduced me to this bestselling author as a fellow author. Of course I was mortified, but I sucked it up and said I’d written a novel. Fern gave me an agent’s name and I submitted my novel. I was promptly rejected, probably with a nicer rejection letter than the average person got since I was considered at Fern’s request, but regardless, no means no. That scared me away from submitting to literary agents for a long while. We are talking five years. Ultimately, I rewrote that same story, More
Writing Listicles for Fun and Profit
/ 2021-04-02Listicles are not only great staples for seasoned freelancers, but are also a good way for new writers to break into print. I have been writing these bite-sized, easily digestible articles for years. Listicles used to be called refrigerator articles, because folks would cut these short informational pieces out of the newspaper and hang them on the fridge for easy reference. These can be written on any theme: humor, fun facts, pop culture, or “how-to” service pieces, and simply, they have two main parts: an introduction and the list. Look through your social media feed or the covers of magazines at the grocery store for examples of published listicles. Here are three I saw today: Shape magazine: “16 Foods for Peak Energy,” Yoga magazine: “13 Ways to Break Out of a Rut,” and In Style magazine: “Four Rules for Matching Prints.” Once you start looking, you see them everywhere! Want to try your hand at writing a listicle? Just follow the steps outlined below. Brainstorm Ideas and Themes The best articles are about your experiences, or a subject you found interest in. Have you figured out fun ways to get your kids to eat their veggies? Or do you have More
Accepting Advice
/ 2021-04-02Not long ago, I was in an online chat. A woman had just been offered representation by an agent, and she was over the moon. She was concerned, however, that the agent had asked that parts of the story be rewritten in a different direction. Others in the chat rose up in a banter about how much a writer should sacrifice for an agent or publisher. Writers do not know everything about what makes their story great. They write with blinders on. They have birthed this tale and think it is as it should be. Then along comes an agent, editor, or publisher that shakes the writer’s world by saying it could be better by adding this, deleting that, or taking a different path. The mature writer welcomes such suggestion. The mature writer realizes that they are not all-knowing. Someone who has handled dozens if not hundreds of stories, and seen how change can reform a manuscript into something grander, just might be able to take your good story and make it great. “Sure,” you say, especially when talking about someone else’s work. “They are professionals.” But when it comes to your writing, you tend to think that a critiquer More