Just a short message of inspiration for tonight: Don’t be afriad to write.
Earlier this week, I was talking to a good friend of mine. Said friend is fairly young, still in college, and extremely smart. He also runs with a “cool” crowd…people who don’t really understand geek-related activites. He used to write sci-fantasy when he was younger, but has since not picked up the pen, so to speak, mostly because he’s trying to it in more with his friends. IE, he wants to spend less time alone in his room doing things they don’t think are cool.
I may have smacked …read more

Way back when, this blog became part of b5’s Arts and Design channel, there were a several other blogs there about writing. It was a logical choice at the time.
Of course, things change as they always do and it became obvious that this blog, which is really aimed at the business of freelance writing belonged in b5’s business channel – and here we are.
Turns out one of the things we do in this channel is have a monthly theme day. The theme for October is fear. Well, that’s not exactly right or maybe it is, but the upshot is each …read more

Over in our forum, Barb asked if I had ever written about freelance writers and the fear of money.
I hadn’t, but as I watched the thread develop, I saw some themes, including fear of success, fear of talking about money, fear of making money, etc. etc. etc.
Of course, not every freelance writer has a fear of success or a fear of making money – far from it. But several people, including me, identified.
Money and Self Esteem
I don’t know how it happens, but for many of us, money – our ability to earn it, our right to have it, our …read more

Google news has almost 70 stories listed with headlines like “Massacre fallout: Charges for essay” and “High school senior charged after writing ‘disturbing’ essay.”
You can read the details but as I understand the story, a senior high school class in northern Illinois was assigned to write an essay that, among other things, was to communicate emotions. Eighteen-year-old, straight A student Allen Lee’s essay ended with a statement to the effect that some of the schools methods of teaching could lead to a shooting.
As a result, Lee was arrested after school and charged with disorderly conduct because his teacher was …read more