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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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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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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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Meet pro bloggers and podcasters (and a rapper!) at Dallas writing event.

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This year’s Financial Blogger Conference has something special planned for members of the public. Despite its name, the conference isn’t strictly for those who write about personal finance (more on that in a minute).

If you’re interested in freelancing writing and/or interested in getting a handle on your money – and if you’re in or near Dallas on Friday, Oct. 27 – then you need to check this out.

“Your Money, Live!” is an eight-hour event with workshops, speeches by (including keynote speaker David Bach), and something called Ignite FinCon, which is TEDx style speaking followed by a networking party where you can meet personal finance writers, bloggers and podcasters.

And did I mention the appearance by rapper Dee-1?

 

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Slang: It’s not the bee’s knees.

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In a recent Washington Post article about John McPhee’s new book*, writer Michael Dirda recounts a talk that McPhee gave to his granddaughter’s senior-high English class.

McPhee read a list of things mentioned in one of his articles and asked the teens to raise their hands whenever they recognized something.

The entire class knew “Woody Allen.” Only five students knew who Norman Rockwell and Truman Capote were. None of them knew recognized Sophia Loren, Bob Woodward or Samuel Johnson.

The idea was not to embarrass the youths, but rather “to emphasize the brief shelf life of cultural references,” Dirda writes.

 

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Writing: You can ALWAYS improve.

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Think you’re already at the pinnacle of your profession? You’re fooling yourself. Even if you’ve been writing for years and years (and years), improvement is always possible.

Recently someone who’d heard about the Write A Blog People Will Read course contacted me about a coupon special* that I was running. The woman, whom I’ll call “Mary” because it’s nowhere close to her real name), told me she’s been writing for a long time. (Hint: She has a kid in college.)

Mostly her work has been in public relations. Lately she’s maintained a blog and is doing guest posts for others.

Mary has taken some other courses, so she wasn’t sure that she needed WABPWR. Given the depth of her experience, I wasn’t sure either.

And then I read her blog.

 

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Vanilla freelancing.

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A post by Suzan St Maur had me laughing out loud recently. In “Vanilla sex: Here, have another helping,” the writer, coach and humorist applied the idea of “vanilla” (boring) to concepts other than sex.

Such as:

“Vanilla Politics: Politicians, usually at local government level, who … hate cutting ribbons and are useless at kissing babies – and expect to justify their existence merely by represent the interests of their electorate.”

“Vanilla Friends: Friends who offer you absolutely nothing in the way of valuable social contacts, wild nights out on the town, parties straight out of Hollywood and air-kissing companionship … and simply exist on the basis of always being around when you need them.”

But it was her “vanilla blogging” example that got my attention. 

 

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Writing: Cheaper than therapy.

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(Happy Throwback Thursday! Hope you enjoy this blast from my blog’s past.)

One of the speakers at Press Publish in Phoenix dropped this little bon mot: “I didn’t have a therapist, so I started a blog.”

Judging by the lolsnorts that resulted, more than a few audience members have also found this to be true.

Understand: I am in no way snarking on therapy, having undergone it myself. In fact, therapy changed my life, or rather gave me the tools to create a life worth living.

That said, I completely agree with the premise. Whether it’s done in a locked journal or on a wide-open blog, writing can ease aggravations small or large and maybe even change a life – yours, or someone else’s.

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Try editing on paper.

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Three different sets of eyes went over the manuscript for “Your Playbook For Tough Times: Living Large On Small Change, For The Short Term Or The Long Haul.” My daughter, who’s also a writer, read it. I edited it as I wrote it, and read the rough draft from beginning to end more than once.

Finally, a former newspaper colleague gave it a careful going-over, to the point of testing each URL to make sure it worked. (Fun fact: Some of them didn’t, no matter how careful I thought I’d been.)

So guess what I found when I read the finished book?

 

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Win a ticket to FinCon17.

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The Rockstar Finance site is giving away a free ticket to the 2017 Financial Blogger Conference, which will take place Oct. 25-28 in Dallas.

Someone has to win. Why shouldn’t it be you?

Note: You don’t have to be a personal finance writer to enjoy FinCon17! In fact, you don’t even have to be a writer at all. Some people go because they’re interested in topics like FIRE (financial independence/retire early), paying down student loans, conquering consumer debt, video production, podcasting and awards travel.

But if you are a writer, or planning to be one, you’ll learn plenty about that, too.

 

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