(www.thegoldenpencil.com)
I suspect many of you are like me. I started writing because I had some sort of a need to write. Somehow, maybe as early as sixth grade, I loved getting words on paper. It was probably around that time that the romance of being a writer began to creep in. Although I started reading Writer’s Digest magazine as soon as I discovered it, and buying Writer’s Market annually in college, I didn’t even submit anything over-the-transom until I was 32.
Of course, at any and every job I’d end up with the writing chores – never paid directly, but loving …read more

Deb Ng has a post today about what she plans to read this weekend. I found it because she’s linked to The Golden Pencil, which is cool.
But there are a bunch of interesting links there as well, most of which I’ll take a peek at this weekend. But I also intend to read some mind candy, which for me is uaully a mystery thriller. And I intend to do some playing too. There are times when I don’t want to read about writing… or write!
Write well and often,

Two newsletters:
Abundant Freelance Writing – a resource for freelance writers including 3x a …read more

Some freelance writers do marketing and PR writing, some don’t. But every freelance writer, editor, blogger, etc. needs to learn how to market themselves.
Common Sense PR is a b5media blog that covers all aspects of public relations. It’s written by Eric Eggertson and he recently posted a list of blogs and other ideas for his target audience. Some of it at least spills over to freelance writers and editors like us. Some of the links will probably be familiar to you; others will be a new discovery.
For example, I didn’t know about the World’s Top Surveillance Societies. (It’s getting more …read more

Arghhhh. Here I am, happily composing an exercise for my up-coming book on getting a book written. I decide it’s time to put some lines in… you know, the kind of lines that signal and allow you to fill in the blanks.
So, holding the shift key, I used the underline key to create a line. At least that was what I was trying to do.
¬¬¬¬I’ve been using word for years, and I still have no idea what happened. I ended up with some sort of object that only looked like a line… at least I think it was an …read more

A writing friend of mine had a contract to write an article a month for a year – 12 articles in all. The pay was spelled out and for the first few months, everything went well. Last month my friend submitted an article as planned, but this time the editor responded with something like “thanks, but we’ve decided to use a different writer.”
The question is how hard should the writer push for payment for the remaining articles, one written and several yet unwritten but contracted for.
This is one of those situations that’s madding. And it can be a huge distraction …read more

Contract Worker pointed to a great post by Ben Yoskovitz who blogs at the Instigator Blog called Exposed: The Pros and Cons of Freelancing. (I love the picture with the post as well.
If you’re wondering if you really want to freelance, this is a great list to examine and to use to ask yourself the tough questions.
Write well and often,

Two newsletters:
Abundant Freelance Writing – a resource for freelance writers including 3x a week job postings.
Writing With Vision – for those who want to get a book written.

What’s your worst nightmare about your writing business? I’m willing to bet it’s the fear of running out of business and, therefore, income.
Okay, what’s your second worst nightmare? How about having too many writing clients or writing projects at one time?
If you’re regularly marketing your writing business, there may come a time when you suddenly realize you’re about to step into more work than you can actually handle.
Admittedly, this is the kind of problem we’d all love to have, but when it happens it can be, well, a nightmare.
If you’re keeping track of possible work as well as actual work, …read more