My apologies for being so silent here lately. Health issues, along with a great deal of writing work, have monopolized my attention lately, preventing me from focusing on brainstorming topics, locating info and resources, and assembling all these into helpful posts. Now and then I'll see a topic that I'd like to share, but a post never seems to materialize. That's why what I'd like to do today is share a few great writing posts that I've come across that can help you in the craft and business of writing. Hopefully, these will arm you with the information, motivation, and practical tools you need to take the next step in your writing career.
Writing Advice from Around the Blogosphere
John Hewitt, at PoeWar, has written a really practical post, called How to Treat Your Writing Like a Business. Check it out. I'm sure you'll find it helpful. In fact, I think you'll also find two of John's other posts particularly helpful to your career: The Realities of a Freelance Writing Career and Six Tips for More Organized Freelancing should get you off to a great start or keep you moving forward toward achieving your writing goals. Of course, I hardly need tell you that you'll find all John's posts immensely helpful to you in your writing. If you've never read them, you'll want to start now!
Other posts I'm sure you'll find helpful are the following:
A Dialog on Blogging Focus, Parts1, 2, and3, from Brad Shorr at Word Sell, Inc. Brad also offers a plethora of excellent content that's focused mainly on B2B content creation, business blogging, marketing, and SEO strategies.
Has Your Fire Fizzled? from Karen Swim at Words for Hire offers inspiration that can help get you back on track if you've strayed from your writing goals lately. Hard But Not Forever will also give you words of encouragement for the difficult times.
10 Things to Start and One Thing to Stop, from Joanna Young at Confident Writing, is short, sweet, and to-the-point and offers some fabulous tips on ways to increase your writing sensitivity, confidence, inspiration, and enjoyment. Joanna will be taking a break from blogging for a time, but you'll find so much great content in her archives that you'll have plenty to keep you busy while she's gone. Here's another brief but helpful post from Joanna: Make a Start by Writing it Down. Joanna has a wonderful way of distilling an idea down to its most basic--and important--elements, providing quick reads that are jam-packed with insight.
More Link Posts to Come
The blogosphere is, of course, rife with wonderful posts on writing, selling your writing, and living the writing life. Yet, I must unfortunately end my list here--for today at least. In the future, I'll do my best to provide links to other helpful blog posts, written by these and other experienced bloggers who have a great deal to offer the aspiring or active writer.
Enjoy!
Jeanne
Have you found these posts helpful and/or inspiring? Any one or two that seem particularly pertinent to your situation? Have you read any great writing posts lately? We'd love it if you'd share your thoughts with us!
We've just celebrated the third anniversary of Writer's Notes, and it's hard to believe it's been three years already! The time seems to have simply flown by. The last year, in particular, has passed with almost lightning speed, with so much happening to make it anything but ordinary. Some of these events have been good and others heart-wrenching, but each has been a growth experience that has added its own unique brand of quiet wisdom to my life's journey and, I think, to my writing, as well.
Transformational Events of the Past Year (2009-early 2010):
My Whoa Factor Phase
I was honored to co-blog withBrad ShorratThe Whoa Factor for the first half of the year (having been invited on board by Brad at the beginning of December, 2008). Though that stint came to a halt when Whoast, Inc. (the Chicago firm for which we blogged) was acquired by Straight North, I loved the time I spent there providing content beside a fellow blogger I've always admired.
My Battle-with-Mom's-Alzheimer's Phase
As most of you know, my mother became ill with an extremely fast-progressing case of Alzheimer's during 2009, at which time I became her sole caregiver (still keeping up with my writing as best I could), and Mom died of the devastating illness last May. That was a difficult time for me; yet, it also taught me so much. I won't go into the details of this period here, but suffice it to say, I learned many valuable lessons.
My Minimal Blogging Phase
As I dealt with the aftermath of Mom's death, I decided to give myself permission to blog less without guilt. At that point, I even (reluctantly) dropped my almost religious practice of writing a monthly comment-recognition post to thank everyone who had commented at Writer's Notes the previous month. That was tough to do, but it couldn't be helped. (I still haven't reinstated the practice yet, though I hope to soon.)
Rather than allowing myself to feel the stress and pressure that the need to post new content can sometimes bring, I focused on healing, on spending time with family, on dealing with the inevitable issues that always arise after someone close to us dies, and on writing only as much as I could and only when I felt I could. I still haven't fully regained my blogging rhythm yet, due in part to the residual effects of the topic I'll discuss in the next section.
My Personal Illness Phase
At the beginning of November, 2009, I came down with a bad case of bronchitis, which had me down for the count for about five weeks. As I began steadily improving—finally!—I noticed, to my dismay, that within several days (but before I'd gotten fully well), I began catching another cold, which immediately began moving down into my chest again. And hence, Round Two!
Unfortunately that wasn't all. After several more weeks of fighting the illness with herbal remedies and other natural supplements, and beginning to improve again, I've once again relapsed (thanks to yet another cold), and I'm currently battling my third manifestation of the illness, which seems to have decided to hang on for the duration. (It's been nearly three months since I've been completely well.) Finally got checked out the other day and various tests are underway to determine the precise cause of the problem.
My New Productivity Phase
Thankfully, I've continued working right through all this illness (which was, of course, easier to do since I work from home). I've in fact actually become even more prolific than ever in my professional writing since the beginning of the New Year, despite the health issues I've been battling. So, that, at least, is a plus!
Though I still haven't returned to blogging as much I'd like to yet, I am working on it—and succeeding to a fair degree. (You'll note that I wrote four posts in January--actually five, since it's still January 31st here in California, though Australia time [which is eight hours later] is used for time-stamping my posts, since Orble is in Australia.) This is a vast improvement over my posting frequency of late. Considering that in November and December, I only published one post per month, and only two in October, I feel I'm doing extremely well—even though I may not be feeling extremely well!
My New Outlook Phase
All this leads to my new, more optimistic outlook and the way it has helped my work. I've begun looking at my work in a more positive light, being more proactive in seeking work, more industrious in writing new content, and better able to (selectively) multi-task when needed without stress and without allowing it to throw off my equilibrium. These new developments have all been real pluses and real areas of growth for me, and I'm looking forward to perfecting them even more during Year Four of blogging at Writer's Notes!
Thanks so much for reading!
Jeanne
If you're a blogger, how long have you been blogging and what insights have you learned along the way, either during the past year or in general? If you don't blog, would you like to, and if you were to start a blog, what would you blog about?
In honor of Writer's Notes' third blog birthday, on January 27th, I've decided to make things simple and post a link to the first post I ever wrote here, Opportunities for Writing Online Abound! Hopefully, it will bring back memories for many!
I'm in the middle of writing a second post on this topic, which discusses some of the events that have occurred in my life during the past year, strongly impacting my blogging. I should be able to put that up later today or tomorrow. So, stay tuned.
How could I have let my third blog birthday pass unnoticed, you ask? Well, sickness and extreme busy-ness with writing projects played into it. However, despite these, I've decided not to let the day go by totally unrecognized--even if late--and hence, this announcement.
Thanks so much for reading and commenting here--despite my frequent fits and starts--for the past three years!
If you enjoy writing about ecology and the environment--or simply reporting on various innovations that help make our world and our lives safer, healthier, and more sustainable--you might find Hippie Magazine a great venue for your work. This online magazine is currently seeking "individual eco-rockstars" to contribute posts to its website.
A Few Details
Hippie Magazine pays $5-50 per post (for all rights) based on quality and length of post. You'll also receive a byline and an author page with a link to your website. Each post must be original and (of course) previously unpublished and requires at least one image. While compensation from this particular market isn't substantial, the posts I've looked at don't appear to have required a great deal of time or research to write. (Of course, a certain amount of research would be involved in simply finding innovative green applications, products, or methods--unless you happen to come across one in the course of your other work and decide to do a quick write-up for this mag.)
Mainstay or Supplemental Market?
Whether you're interested in this type of writing as a mainstay or prefer using it to supplement your other writing projects, Hippie Magazine could just prove to be a viable market for your work. Take a look at some of the posts the site has published in the past to get a better idea of the sort of content the publisher is seeking. Categories listed on the site include Business, Energy, Gadgets, Lists, Opinion, Politics, Products, Reducing, and Tech. These should provide a wide variety of opportunities to find a topic you'd be interested in writing about--even if environmental issues aren't your main writing focus. (My thought has always been that the more versatile a writer is, the more writing opportunities he or she will find. So, even if you've never written a "green" article before, why not give it a try. Today is always a great time to branch out and try something new.)
Have you written about the environment before? What do you like/not like about tackling this topic? Know any other viable green markets your fellow writers can tap?
As I was perusing Craigslist this morning, I came across a call for submissions for a teen grief book and thought this would be a great writing opportunity to mention on my blog. While I've personally had more than my share of grief experiences, my losses didn't occur during my teens--though I know that for many others, they did. That's why I'd like to share this opportunity with my readers.
If you've lost a parent or other loved one during your teen years (whether you're still a teen or an adult who experienced grief while in your teens), this might be a good opportunity for you to share your story, experience some healing, and in the process possibly help someone else who is battling grief right now.
Grief Relief Book in Planning Stages
After I found the ad, I shot an e-mail off to the Craigslist mailbox, telling the advertiser that I'd be willing to post info about the opportunity to my blog if I had a direct contact e-mail address. To my surprise, I received an almost immediate reply (from the advertiser and not an automatic notification from Craigslist about a closed mailbox)--a very refreshing occurrence from Craigslist!
Fran Hall responded, telling me a little more about her project:
My friend and I both went through this as teens and now volunteer working with other kids who have experienced the death of a parent/parents. We especially would love to hear from teens themselves, as well as from people who are now adults who lost someone close when they were adolescents. Finding teens I think is going to be the most challenging part of doing this so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
In a later e-mail, Fran elaborated further on her project:
Also it's probably worth mentioning in the post that this is not intended to be a cliche, uplifting type of book even though I'm sure some stories will be which of course is great. However, some people may have had horrific experiences like being left with an abusive surviving parent for instance, or maybe their surviving parent neglected them. (Horrible I know, but it happens!) We want to hear the good, bad and the ugly because we need kids in every circumstance to know that they are not alone. That is the main goal.
The Original Ad
Just so you have all the info, here's the original Craigslist ad:
Did you experience the death of a parent or other close loved-one when you were a teenager or young adult? Do you remember the isolation and the feeling that you were different from everyone else you knew? We're editing a collection of non-fiction stories about death and grieving that will act as a support group for teens/young adults that feel that they have no one to relate to. The book will be geared for adolescents and we want to hear your stories.
We are looking for the following types of contributers:
1)adults who experienced a major death when they were teens/young adults
2)teens/young adults who experienced a major loss
We hope to create a resource that will help normalize the feelings that a grieving adolescent experiences. Stories can be uplifting, funny, devastating, or whatever... just as long as it's from a place of honesty. The goal is to help teens through their grieving process, in whatever that means to them, so we are not looking for contributors to give advice or share tired cliches like 'time heals all wounds' or ' I know they're in a better place'. We merely want honest and heartfelt stories that reflect personal experiences.
Contact Info
If you think you might be interested in contributing to this book project--as either a writer or an interviewee--contact Fran at the following e-mail address: griefreliefbook@yahoo.com.
Since the project is still in the planning stages, Fran is currently collecting info from all those who are interested in contributing and plans to contact and interview each one at a later date. Contributors will likely receive compensation for their stories, though the amount hasn't been determined yet, since it's so early in the process. If this sounds like a project you might be interested in, drop Fran a line.
The New Year is a fantastic time to try something new! So, in the spirit of embarking on a new adventure, I've decided to try putting periodic videos on my blog. That seems a wonderful way to connect with my readers on a more personal level, and--while I'm by no means highly experienced in this creative medium--I hope you'll all receive this short message as a token of my esteem for each of you and my sincere wishes for your success in the New Year.
My 2010 New Years Message to My Readers
Your Feedback is Welcome
Please feel free to share your feedback in comments. While I'm well aware that my delivery needs a bit of work, I'm hoping you'll look beyond the obvious imperfections of this presentation and focus more on the message and the spirit in which it was shared. I could have redone this video countless times in hopes of making it as close to perfect as possible. But, I've decided, instead, to simply be myself and let this little impromptu time of sharing speak for itself.
Hope you'll enjoy it--but more than that, I hope you'll get some real value from it!
To your success in 2010!
Jeanne
P.S. Please let me know about any technical problems you may encounter while watching this video. I realize that volume could be a problem, since I didn't speak as loudly as I might have for optimal audio quality. (Will do my best to remedy that in the future!) Thanks for reading, watching, and commenting!
Today's Quote of the Day is "Don't go through life; grow through life." What a simple yet eloquent statement! It's so easy to just coast along, accepting life as it comes, following the same old boring routine day after day, and never even giving a thought to the rich lessons life has to teach us and the deep areas of personal growth that can result from living life with intention.
Today might just be a great day to pause for a few moments and ponder the significance of these words of wisdom. Perhaps a few questions would help prompt us to apply this great advice to our lives, helping us discover exactly what it means to us as writers to "grow through life."
Growth in the Writing Craft
What would be the next practical growth step for you in developing your skill as a writer?
Would it help you become more mature in the art if you were to
1. Take a writing course (online or at your local community college)?
2. Work with a writing coach or mentor?
3. Research a writing technique or style on the Internet?
4. Join a nearby writer's critique group?
5. Use writing prompts to simply exercise your writing muscle more?
6. Read more excellent writing and learn through osmosis?
7. Blog more (or start a blog)?
8. Do more free-writing, untethering your imagination and allowing it to draw inspiration from deep within while giving your internal editor the day off?
Perhaps you have even better ideas than these -- ideas that are more in tune with where you are in your own personal development as a writer. I would encourage you to give a little thought to some of the ways you might seek to grow in your craft. Doing so will make you a better, more competent writer, which will bring you real personal satisfaction. Whatever kind of writing you do, you'll find many valuable (and often free) resources, both online and off, that can help you grow.
Growth in Your Writing Business
What would the next practical growth step be in your advancement as a writing professional?
Would it help advance your writing career and bring you closer to your professional goals if you were to
1. Start a blog in your niche (or in a new niche that you'd like to break into) to establish yourself as an expert?
2. Write an e-book?
3. Develop your own website to sell your writing services?
4. Prepare an online portfolio of your work?
5. Start a link collection of the work you've had published online and use it in e-mailed job inquiries or on your website as part of your portfolio?
6. Make a list of your satisfied clients and ask them for written recommendations of your work?
7. Prepare various e-mail templates to use when inquiring about writing jobs, rather than reinventing the wheel each time you respond to a job ad?
8. Surf the Internet with an entrepreneurial spirit, seeking websites that might be able to use your writing/editing/web design or other expertise to improve their sites and contacting them to offer your services?
9. Offer editing or other website help to clients who have purchased your work (making your own content look more attractive on their sites and therefore better for use as writing samples for other clients, while improving their sites' appearance and earning a little extra money, as well)?
Many of these ideas are nothing new. Yet they are important techniques for moving forward in the writing profession. No doubt you can think of many more ideas if you use your imagination.
Now, It's Your Turn
The main purpose of the above questions has been to stimulate thought by giving you a few ideas that you can use as a launching pad for a few innovative ideas of your own.
Every writer is different -- Isn't that great news? -- and every writer's situation, goals, and desires are unique to him/her. That's why only you can personalize these ideas and adapt them to your own needs.
Only you can decide what it will take for you to "grow through" the writing life!
Best wishes for your successful growth!!
Jeanne
What ideas do you have for stimulating your own growth as a writer and/or writing professional? Or, which of the above ideas do you think would be helpful for you to implement or adapt to your situation at this point in your growth process? What exactly would it take for you to advance to the next level in either area?
For the past few weeks, I've been battling a bad case of bronchitis, which is part of the reason I haven't updated lately. So, partly to remedy my recent lack of content and partly to indulge my own desire to blog again, I've decided to present a list of wonderful quotes on writing. The following 20 quotes should give you plenty to think about where your writing is concerned and will hopefully motivate, encourage, and inspire you to keep on keeping on!
The Quotes
"The chief glory of every people arises from its writers." ~Samuel Johnson~
"The good writer seems to be writing about himself, but has his eye always on that thread of the Universe which runs through himself and all things." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson~
"It is by sitting down to write every morning that one becomes a writer." ~Gerald Brenan~
"The best antidote to writer's block is ... to write." ~Henriette Anne Klauser~
"One writes out of one thing only--one's own experience. Everything depends on how relentlessly one forces from the experience the last drop, sweet or bitter, it can possibly give." ~James Baldwin~
“Be yourself. Above all, let who you are, what you are, what you believe, shine through every sentence you write, every piece you finish.” ~John Jakes~
“Writing eases my suffering ... writing is my way of reaffirming my own existence.” ~Gao Xingjian~
"One writes to make a home for oneself, on paper, in time and in others' minds.” ~Alfred Kazin~
“I must write it all out, at any cost. Writing is thinking. It is more than living, for it is being conscious of living.” ~Anne Morrow Lindbergh~
"A classic is classic not because it conforms to certain structural rules, or fits certain definitions (of which its author had quite probably never heard). It is classic because of a certain eternal and irrepressible freshness." ~Edith Wharton~
"The skill of writing is to create a context in which other people can think." ~Edwin Schlossberg~
"A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will ask himself at least four questions, thus: 1. What am I trying to say? 2. What words will express it? 3. What image or idiom will make it clearer? 4. Is this image fresh enough to have an effect?" ~George Orwell~
"Keep writing. Keep doing it and doing it. Even in the moments when it's so hurtful to think about writing." ~Heather Armstrong~
"You must keep sending work out; you must never let a manuscript do nothing but eat its head off in a drawer. You send that work out again and again, while you're working on another one. If you have talent, you will receive some measure of success - but only if you persist." ~Isaac Asimov~
"The first step in blogging is not writing them but reading them." ~Jeff Jarvis~
"The way you define yourself as a writer is that you write every time you have a free minute. If you didn't behave that way you would never do anything." ~John Irving~
"A writer is a writer not because she writes well and easily, because she has amazing talent, because everything she does is golden. In my view, a writer is a writer because even when there is no hope, even when nothing you do shows any sign of promise, you keep writing anyway." ~Junot Diaz~
"Inspiration is wonderful when it happens, but the writer must develop an approach for the rest of the time ... The wait is simply too long." ~Leonard Bernstein~
"Learn as much by writing as by reading." ~Lord Acton~
"There's always something to write about. If there's not then you need to live life more aggressively." ~Min Kim~
So, get out and live--and then sit down and write!
"Life can be pulled by goals just as surely as it can be pushed by drives." (Viktor Frankl)
Some of the wisest observations about life have an uncanny way of applying not just to life in general but to specific, narrow segments of it. For example, if we substitute "writing" for "life" in the above quote, we'll see just how true this statement is.
Inspiration: Driven to Write
Many of us write because we feel driven to write, because writing is such an integral part of our intellectual makeup that we can hardly imagine not writing. In fact, putting pen to paper—or hands to keyboard—comes as naturally to us as breathing. And in one sense at least, for us writing is breathing, because when we write, we freely inhale the crisp, clear air of expansive thought before exhaling a stream of ideas, fully formed, to the world. That's why the highest form of this unbounded inflow of ideas is called Inspiration.
Planning and Goals: When Inspiration Tarries
Our inner drive to express ourselves through the written word does much to motivate us in our quest to have our ideas heard, to influence others, to make our mark on society, to earn recognition, and yes, even to change the world. Yet, the Inspiration that fuels that drive often eludes us—particularly in the early stages of the creative process. And this is where the pull of goals can spur us on, drawing us forward and giving us the impetus to begin writing and to stay with the task until Inspiration deigns to visit us.
Bridging the Gap Between Goals and Inspiration
This is such an important lesson for writers to learn. Though Inspiration is certainly the ideal for which we continually strive, it may sometimes be a luxury for which we simply cannot wait. When deadlines loom or personal projects seem stalled, we often must depend on the conscious goals we've previously set for our work to keep us on track and prevent us from giving up. Then, as we allow the magnetic attraction of our personal or professional plans to lure us forward, we so often find our project suddenly picking up speed—gaining forward thrust, if you will—as the subconscious motivator called Inspiration gradually kicks in and begins actively propelling us toward our deliberately orchestrated outcome.
Recognizing the Value of Planning
Our favorite writing times, of course, are those where Inspiration is our early visitor, coming upon us unannounced and uninvited—and particularly when this well-loved yet often fickle visitor's influence precedes, or even initiates, a project. Yet, it's wonderful to know that even when Inspiration tarries, we always have our old friend Planning to get us on our way!
While Inspiration may be our closest friend, let's not ignore our loyal sidekick Planning, who will always be there, standing quietly in the wings, patiently waiting to help us achieve our literary goals.
To goals and inspiration!
Jeanne
What have you discovered about goals and drives, planning and inspiration, as you've traveled your own writing path?
If you love blogging, social media, and other Web-related activities—and enjoy writing about them—you won't want to miss this opportunity to get in on Age of Conversation 3! Drew McLellan and Gavin Heaton are gearing up for their third annual collaborative AOC book project, for which they plan to bring together 300 authors from a multitude of backgrounds, fields of expertise, and geographical locations.
Last year's AOC 2 cover
Choose Your Topic—Before it's Filled!
Like Age of Conversation 2, AOC 3 will be divided into "themes," of which there will be 10. If you hurry, you'll get your choice of any one of the 10; however, only 30 authors will be allowed into each category, so your promptness (or lack of it) will determine whether or not you get your top choice.
Busy? AOC Writing Is a Breeze!
All of us live incredibly busy lives, but one great thing about AOC 3 (and its predecessors) is that each author's contribution to the project is a single 400-word chapter on his/her chosen topic. So you can see that this isn't an extremely time-consuming project. In fact, I'm confident that if you decide to get involved, you'll actually enjoy this wonderful opportunity to wax eloquent on whatever aspect of Web relations ignites your passion and sparks your imagination. An AOC chapter is the equivalent of a medium-length blog post or a short essay; so most writers/bloggers should have no trouble at all fitting it into their schedules.
Hurry to Ensure Your AOC 3 Slot!
Slots are going fast (almost half had already been filled by previous AOC authors by the time the call for authors went public); so, if you think you might be interested in participating, don't wait!
For more information about the project, visit Drew's and Gavin's blogs and get the inside scoop:
Like previous AOC projects, all proceeds from Age of Conversation 3 will go to charity. This year's recipient has yet to be determined; however, I understand that authors will have a say in choosing the organization that will benefit from AOC's profits this year. (Both previous AOC editions raised funds for Variety Children's Charity.)
Get on Board! The AOC 3 Train Is Ready to Leave the Station!
Why not become an AOC 3 author and use your writing talent, social media savvy, life experience, and/or business acumen to help make both the virtual world and the real one a better place!
See you in Age of Conversation 3!
Jeanne
What are your thoughts on participating in a collaborative book project such as this one, where all proceeds are donated to charity? Would the altruistic aspect be enough to inspire you to participate--or would your need for monetary compensation make you less likely to become involved? Would the wider exposure, the lure of having your work appear in print, and/or the great PR of donating your skills to a worthy cause play into your decision at all? I'd love to hear your thoughts!
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