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You’ve been given a gift.

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(Happy Throwback Thursday! This article was originally published on May 3, 2016, but its sentiments remain fresh.)

Ever question why you need to write? Not want, need. According to Gary Garrison, it’s because you have “The Gift.”

That’s the name of a short essay that Garrison sent out to fellow members of the Dramatists Guild of America. A friend sent it to me because she found it inspiring and, well, true.

Although Garrison was referring to playwriting, his words apply to bloggers, short-story writers, novelists and others of that ilk. All of them “have the ability to create whole, intricate, dimensional worlds and to people them with infinitely interesting, complex beings.”

Wait…Bloggers create worlds?

 

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Freelancers: Jury duty can cost you

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Earlier this week I spent six hours at the courthouse, listening to multiple potential jurors be dismissed and anticipating every moment that the next name called would be my own. Jury duty seemed inevitable.

Fortunately, it wasn’t – and as a freelancer, I was mightily relieved.

To be clear: I know how important jury duty is in a democracy and I do take it seriously. It would never occur to me to try and weasel out, e.g., to make up a story about how I didn’t trust lawyers and could therefore never be impartial. I’ve been called for jury duty several times and actually served once, in a robbery trial.

But the very words “jury duty” make even conventionally employed people flinch. They grouse about the hassle of parking, the boredom of waiting, the bad coffee in the jury pool room. (That is, if there even is coffee.) A much bigger potential problem, though, is the potential loss of income.

If you’re lucky, your employer will keep paying you even if you spend a day or two (or a week or two) serving on a jury. I got called in the late 1980s, when I worked at a newspaper, and my pay was not docked.

Freelancers don’t have that option. Back in 2010, when I got called to a Seattle jury pool, I sent a letter explaining my situation: How could I do interviews and research if I were in a downtown courtroom all day?

They ordered me to report anyway. And when I got there, I found people who were a lot worse off than me.

 

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Hurry! Win a scholarship to FinCon!

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I’ve written before about FinCon, aka the Financial Blogger Conference, which I’ve been attending (and speaking at) since 2011. It’s full of programs that can help personal finance writers get better at what they do, and take their websites (and the earnings) to the next level.

However, it isn’t strictly limited to PF writers. Scribblers from other genres can also learn from programs that tackle topics of general writing, blogging and social media interest. Networking is huge, as is the opportunity to meet companies looking for freelance writers.

(Not sure you can write PF topics? If you’re a good researcher, you can. Personally, I backed into this kind of writing after 18 years in newspaper journalism – without any particular emphasis on money.)

FinCon takes place from Sept. 26-29 in Orlando, Florida. This year there are two opportunities to attend for free or on the cheap. Here’s how.

 

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Major proofreading fail.

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A while back I offered to proofread a book by a former co-worker. It was for a regional publisher that has its own in-house copyeditor for proofreading, but my friend wanted to go the extra mile.

In fact, he hired yet another former co-worker – who’d spent many years on a newspaper’s copy desk – for a third set of eyes.

A total of five pairs of peepers (including those of the author and the publisher) pored over that manuscript. After finding a handful of typos and misspells, we congratulated ourselves on making the book as clean as it could be.

You can guess what happened in the finished product.

 

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A free peek at “The Complete Writer.”

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If you’re a freelance writer, a homeschooling parent or even just a word nerd, listen up: Week by week, Dr. Victoria Hay has been making chapters of her upcoming book available for free.

“The Complete Writer: The Ultimate Guide to Writing, Publishing and Living the Writer’s Life” is based on Hay’s considerable knowledge of the written word. For decades she has been making a living as a writer and editor, and also taught writing at Arizona State University.

Every Friday she posts a new work-in-progress chapter on her writing blog, Plain & Simple Press (“Independent fiction and nonfiction”). Currently she’s up to Chapter 9.

Here’s some of what you’ll be getting:

 

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The flexibility of the freelance life.

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Sometimes the freelance life is frustrating: isolation, long hours, dry spells between assignments, no paid time off.

Sometimes, though, the freedom to order your own days makes it all worthwhile.

A few days ago I was just about to tackle a current deadline when my teen-aged nephew, M, called from the school counselor’s office. He’d just learned that a friend had committed suicide, and was too shaken to finish out the day.

His mom had okayed his leaving but could not break away from work (she’s a teacher) to come get him. Was there any way that I could?

You bet there was.

 

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Free summit from Work At Home School.

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Not everyone who took my Write A Blog People Will Read course expects to make a full living as a writer – at least, not right away. Some of them wanted to blog for their own fulfillment, and some took it to become better communicators at work and in personal relationships.

Similarly, not everyone who wants to work at home will be a writer, either full- or part-time. Quite a few other options exist out there, and you can learn about them at a free program from the Work At Home School.

The six-day Work At Home Summit features more than 40 speakers who will talk not just about potential jobs (some of which you may never have heard of before), but also about things like time management and how to create a viable business plan.

 

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A writing retreat for women.

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thBack in the early 1980s a writer I know earned a residency at the Hedgebrook writing retreat for women writers. The experience crystallized writing as a concept. Specifically, it defined it as a vocation.

That happened when the writer tried to help clear the table after dinner and the residency director told her to knock it off – she’d already done her work for the day. It was the first time anybody had said writing “was a real job,” she said later.

The writer was Dana Stabenow, and she went on to hit the New York Times best-seller list. Since then she’s published nearly three dozen books and shows no signs of slowing down. And now Stabenow is creating her own writing retreat for women.

 

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Get a discount on ‘Earn More Writing.’

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One of my personal finance writing buddies has an online course designed to help earn more writing. Starting on Black Friday she’s offering a short-term, 20 percent discount on her Standard and Pro packages.

Why take the course? Because Holly Porter Johnson knows what she’s talking about.

“I make my living as a freelance writer, not selling courses,” Johnson says.

In other words, she practices what she preaches. Rather than spend all her time promoting her course and selling webinars, she’s a workaday writer who routinely bills five figures per month. Last year she earned $225,000 as a freelancer.

Interested yet?

 

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Writing career tips from a veteran.

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A former editor recently received recognition from his state’s press club. It was sort of a “lifetime achievement” award, although that’s not what it was called.

The guy’s writing career stretched for half a century and across multiple media. His words have appeared on radio and television, in newspapers and magazines, and more recently books and online articles.

A young reporter at the banquet asked for career tips. The editor offered some, and gave me permission to reproduce any that I wanted. The trio I chose may not all apply to your genre, but all three are food for thought.

 

Never turn down any assignment.

 

This is particularly true for freelancers, who may experience long dry spells until they develop their abilities at pitching stories and getting themselves known.

 

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