Thoughtful Thursday: How’s that Working For You?

By Terreece M. Clarke

Tuesday in “Date Your Publication” we talked about getting to know the publications you want to query and got some great feedback, specifically from Mary who commented on how frustrating her first year writing was because she hadn’t tailored her queries to specific publications. Once she started however, her success rate climbed. Mary is an excellent example of a great writer stopping to take stock in their career to see where things could be improved.

This time of year is a great time to take stock in your career and goals as Deb wrote in her “Setting Goals for 2009” post. What worked for you in your freelancing career? What didn’t? How is your querying process? Your time managment? What about your sources?

In other words, to channel Dr. Phil, “How’s that working for you?” A successful freelance career depends on being able to adapt so making the same mistakes – rush work, scrambled billing practices, not so great, or worse, tired sources are not going to get you to your goals. You’ll never be able to take James’ advice on “Preparing Yourself for Better Writing Rates” if you can’t justify an increase. Think about these areas of your writing life:

• Are you meeting your deadlines?
• Do you allow sufficient time to edit and proof your work or are you always rushing to the finish line?
• If an editor called you today to check on a sources’ quote, could you find the notes?
• A client is disputing a bill, could you pull up the accounting information, including hours?
• Quick, what are your average business expenses for a month?
• Could you find a clip in your clip file from 2006? What about last month?

Take a little time this Thoughtful Thursday evening and ask yourself “How’s that working for you?”

Happy Turkey Day!

If you are celebrating Thanksgiving today, I have one tip for you – get off the computer! We love the hits and your loyalty, not to mention your dedication to all things freelance writing, but seriously, go eat some turkey and relax with family or friends.

Not everyone has a family to go home to and that’s okay too, why not cuddle up with your pet, a good piece of pie and just reflect on what sends your gratitude meter into overload.

I’ll share a secret: I’m grateful for you, our FWJ readers, and not because I’m getting paid to do a job. You all are a great group of people and while I’m always thankful for a gig, I’m especially thankful because this is a gig I love.

Each day I receive feedback on how something I’ve written has been helpful or funny or whatever, is a day I walk a little taller. You see, writing is not only a love, this field has allowed me to stay home with my girls and to live a fantastic and interesting life. So thanks guys!

What are you grateful for today?

DOES it feel as good as your first time?

By Terreece M. Clarke

Do you remember what your first time felt like? The nervous, but excited fumbling to open it up (the web site or paper publication), the feverish scanning to take it all in (checking to see what the editor changed, making sure your name was spelled right) and the last cry of ecstasy (your paycheck!).

Dianne Burrell over at The Renegade Writer Blog is asking writers about their first time – literary experience you dirty minded thing. I want to know something different from the FWJ community – does it still feel as good as the first time, writing that is?

One of the keys to a successful writing career is you HAVE to love what you do. Not just like it or tolerate it. Writing is like another um, act – your passion and level of enthusiasm has a direct effect on the outcome. In other words, blah writers produce blah work.

We talk a lot here about the business of writing, the technical aspects of writing and the goals of writing, but I like writers to remember why they got into this business in the first place. The past is prologue – if you became a freelance writer to take on tough political issues, but you find yourself languishing in SEO article writing because it pays the bills you need to shake things up. If you aren’t reaching the same or surpassing the high you received from your first printed piece, you need to do a little therapy to get the passion back in your pen.

Love it, but it’s lost some umph

It’s a tried and true relationship. The bond you have with your niche or style of writing is steady, comfortable, but you miss some of the excitement. It’s time to try some new positions. Keep doing what works, but add some creativity. Try a new blog or a different type of publication. Shake up the way you format your articles: anecdote, statistic, quote, background info, bullet points, end quote, turn in article and repeat; that can get old after a while – stretch your legs and imagination.

Bring in another

Maybe your blog or column just doesn’t have the zing. Bring in a guest writer or blogger to breathe a little fresh air into your work. Use a guest writer and watch someone else have fun with and find the beauty in something you see everyday. Be careful not to get too attached or dependent, a guest could take over and before long you’ve lost the loyalty of your readers.

Practice makes perfect

Maybe you don’t write enough and when you do it just feels awkward. Keep practicing at every opportunity. Conduct additional research and work with in an expert or mentor if necessary.

While it will never be as special as your first time, your published pieces should continually feel just as good if not better as your first published piece. If it doesn’t make some changes!

What are you learning from your Feed Reader?

A common freelance writer ritual is, at some point, usually at the beginning and maybe again in the middle of their day, freelancers will take trip through their feed readers and see what’s happening on the ‘Net. The idea of the reader is to allow people to follow their favorite blogs and Web sites without having to go to each and every site to look for updates, saving precious time. But every so often a writer must ask themselves “What is my feed reader teaching me?”

Great writers read voraciously, are curious and follow other great writers. Are you following great writers or popular ones? Do you pick up someone’s feed because you like their work or because you see in their feed burner stats that 2000 others seem to like it? Are you constantly starring posts and news because it’s interesting, thought provoking and potential article or blog topics or do you find yourself scanning and then marking the whole feed as “read?”

If you can’t come up with three things you’ve learned from the sites on your feed reader you need to revisit what you have.

Great Writing

Your feed burner should bring you some of the best writing the web has to offer and not just in areas of your niche. Reading items outside your area of expertise is a great way to gain a new perspective and to broaden your appreciation for a well thought out turn of phrase. Great writing and successful sites are opportunities to learn what works well with audiences.

News to Me

Your reader should bring you news – local, world and industry news. I like to do a Google search of terms under the news tag and then save the search as an item to my reader, ensuring I get not only up-to-date general news, but news that is focused on my areas of writing interest. Nothing generates more hits, whether on a blog site or through a query to editors, than a timely piece on a popular news story.

Filter the Jobs and Junk

Another habit I have is go through my reader periodically and get rid of the sites I thought were going to be a wealth of info, but turned out to be either duds or not right for me. You can’t follow everything – you don’t have that kind of time – so be selective.

I also send job searches from Craigslist and others, through my reader. It helps me keep track of not only what gigs are out there for the moment, but what the market trends are like in my area. *Let me be clear, it’s not a substitute for the great work Jodee does because she gathers leads from all over and most writers don’t have time to go through all of the hundreds of thousands of gigs out there, including the repetitive ones.

So this afternoon or tomorrow morning as you scan through the latest feed reader entries ask yourself “What am I learning?”

Writing on a Schedule

By Terreece M. Clarke

Sometimes your creativity needs security. It needs to know that you won’t pounce on it after it has a few off days nagging, pleading and begging it to get with the program and the deadline. Sometimes your creativity likes, dare I say, needs a routine.

Many writers benefit from a writing schedule. An editorial calendar in combination with a regular writing routine is like giving your creativity a work-out schedule. For instance, my creative bug – which looks much like a ladybug wearing Mickey Mouse ears – knew I would be writing on this topic today after my baby went down for her nap, the topic is on the editorial calendar and the preferred time to write is available. My fingers were itching to get to work and as soon as I saw that little head go down to sleep my mind had started to write the blog.

A routine not only keeps the creative muscle primed, it prevents injury. Ever break out in a sprint when you hadn’t run in weeks or months and wind up paying for it later? Ever pull a muscle lifting something heavy? The same thing happens when we apply creativity in a herky-jerky fashion, it may often fail us or become injured in the process – idea formation takes too long, it takes more effort for a  piece to come together, the recovery (editing) process is slower and more painful.

And just like with working out, your creativity will crave activity if you go off it’s schedule. You may always schedule Tuesdays as source interview days, but find yourself with nothing lined up for the day. Your brain is itching for some Q & A, why don’t you call up that expert or source from a previous interview and see what’s new?

Regular creativity work-outs build up a heavy flow of creative juices that spill over into every assignment and opportunity. Schedule it, write it down and behold the wonders.

Do you have a regular writing routine or schedule? Tell us about it.

Break the election tension & boost your productivity

By Terreece M. Clarke

If you have not voted yet do not start reading this column. You are to immediately get yourself to a polling location.

Tension, excitement and curiosity is high around the country today as Americans vote and wait to hear the news of who will be the next president of the United States. Some of you are trying in vain to stay on task, but your finger keeps taking you to news sites to get updates and you’re having a hard time not following the updates on Twitter. There’s two ways to get past this time until the results begin to roll in and stay productive – volunteer with a campaign or organize your writing space.

Volunteering

It’s never too late to drop by a local campaign office and offer up your services. You may find yourself given the task of calling people to remind them of their polling location, helping at polling precincts to make the wait in line easier by handing out water and chatting people up. So how does all of this increase your writing productivity?

Sources and ideas. Writers have always sought the masses when it’s time to come up with new ideas and angles on articles and getting in there with the election crowd is no different. Where else can you find people of vastly different biographical backgrounds standing together in one place with nothing else to do, but talk to you? Fellow volunteers can also be a source of article inspiration or a resource that could be utilized at a later date.

Get Organized

Can you see your desk? Maybe I should be specific, can you see something besides the legs of your desk? If not it’s time to get with it. Take a day away from the laptop and organize your paperwork. Go through your ideas folder and if you don’t have one, make some up and separate them according to category. Update and fill out your editorial calendar. Compile your invoices and stubs – tax time will be here before you realize it. Sort through the tons of reading materials – magazines, trade pubs, etc. and keep only what you know you’ll need for references. Locate and catalogue your clips and test all of your pens getting rid of those that don’t work. Gather, organize and label your notes from interviews and research. Read more

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