Every day I do the Swagbucks* daily poll. Yesterday’s question definitely got my attention:
Today I checked the results: More than half (55 percent) the respondents want to be superior wordsmiths.
Naturally I wish the percentage had been a little higher. But as a writer and a writing coach, I’m glad to see that scribbling edged out singing.
I’m also curious as to why.
Back 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.
One year ago I started my online course, Write A Blog People Will Read, along with a writing coaching business and this writing-focused blog.
To celebrate, I’m giving away a copy of WABPWR. If you haven’t yet convinced yourself to buy it and take your writing to the next level*, you should at least enter to win.
F. Scott Fitzgerald allegedly said that using exclamation marks is “like laughing at your own jokes.”
Believe him!
It’s pretty simple, really: The exclamation point connotes “a high degree of surprise, incredulity or other strong emotion,” according to the Associated Press Stylebook, which strongly suggests that you “avoid overuse.”
Yes! Please do!
In my late 40s I went back to school to earn the degree that was interrupted by single motherhood and the need to make a living.
At the same time I was undergoing a drawn-out divorce (after a long-term abusive marriage), managing an apartment building, babysitting and writing three times a week for MSN Money. Tired? Always.
Without naps I probably wouldn’t have made it through, let alone graduated magna cum laude. Kept snoozing even after graduation because I was traveling regularly and taking on freelance gigs in addition to the MSN job.
Turns out I was in good company. According to an article by productivity author and coach Michael Hyatt, the list of famous nappers includes Leonardo da Vinci, Albert Einstein, Eleanor Roosevelt, John D. Rockefeller and Thomas Edison.
Naps feel luxurious, even when you’re taking them because you know you’ll be pulling an all-nighter. Especially when you know you’ll be pulling an all-nighter.
Not that long ago, people without access to publication (newspapers, magazines, books) would never have a chance to be heard. These days, blogging and social media let “lots of different marginalized groups” share their stories, according to Canadian blogger Anne Theriault.
The Toronto-based writer tackles some difficult subjects on her website, The Belle Jar. The toughest one was her first essay on postpartum depression, because she hadn’t done mental-health posts before.
Although worried about the potential reaction, she found – and continues to find – that posts about mental health issues get tremendous positive feedback.
“Allowing myself to be vulnerable creates a safe space for other people to be vulnerable,” Theriault said in an interview on WordPress Discover.
Think about that for a minute. About how putting yourself out there – being real, being honest – can make a difference in someone else’s life.
Recently I invited my newsletter subscribers to contact me with their blogging questions, issues or stumbling blocks. (I’d like to extend the same offer to blog readers, but more on that a little later.) First, I’d like to share one of the reader’s questions.
It sounded something like this:
“How much do you need to have pre-written before you start up a blog? I feel like I need a lot of them done in advance.”
The subscriber wants to buy the blogging course* and also hire Grayson Bell to set up a WordPress site for free.** However, she didn’t want to do either one until she felt more ready.
Naturally I want more people to sign up for the course. But I didn’t push her to get started now-now-now. Here’s why.
Too tired or uninspired to start writing? Maybe a little pressure will do the trick. I call it “the phantom deadline.” You can do this in a couple of different ways.
1. Make believe that you have an editor. Specifically, pretend that he’s an editor screaming for copy. Choose a topic, sit down and start writing. You should get into the flow within a few paragraphs and be able to create something readable.
And if you don’t? You’ve got something to edit later on. Point is, you’ve got something.
(Note: A version of this article originally appeared on www.donnafreedman.com.)
A Twitter hashtag called #TenThingsNotToSayToAWriter really got my attention a while back. Bet you can imagine why.
Some well-known writers (Jodi Picoult, Harlan Coben, S.E. Hinton, John Scalzi, et al.) played along with the rest of us lesser-known and unknown scribes. Collectively we whirled and howled about stuff like:
Were we being thin-skinned? You be the judge. Here’s the kind of thing that writers report having heard:
“It’s pretty impressive that you spend so much time on something that has so little chance of success.”
“I downloaded your book for free online. Could you please sign this printout of it?”
Trying to get a writing career going? You might be surprised to find how much it can cost just to set up shop – and all before you’ve sold a single paragraph.
Sure, business expenses are tax-deductible. But you have to pay for them up front, and wait a year to deduct. Given how long it can take to market a story or article, you will probably want to economize until the cash flow starts, well, flowing.
So when someone asks what you want for Christmas (or Hanukkah, or your birthday, or Arbor Day), don’t be embarrassed to ask for things that will help you step up your freelancing game.
