A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post called The Dark Side of Diversifying, about how over-diversifying your career can make you feel scattered and at loose ends. As I mentioned, I work on a TON of projects: I write for magazines and corporate clients, write and market books, teach e-courses, do phone...
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Tags: diversifying, freelance writing, simplifying
Posted in Motivation, Observations, Organization, Personal yammerings, productivity | 8 Comments »
Last month, Jennifer Lawler wrote an excellent general copywriting copywriting and editing for universities adoption profile/”dear birthmom” letter writing (I’m starting up the website in a week or so) two e-courses Renegade Writer e-courses (taught by outside instructors) phone mentoring for writers query letter critiquing free query letter packet Review Copy Helper (a list...
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Tags: diversifying, freelancing, multi-tasking, multiple streams of income
Posted in Advice, Marketing, Observations, Personal yammerings, Rants, productivity | 4 Comments »
I have a guest post on the FreelanceSwitch blog today: When NOT to Invest in Your Freelance Career. Please read and leave comments…I hope you enjoy the post!
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Posted in Advice, Observations | No Comments »
I offer to bust readers’ excuses for not pitching magazines — or, if they’re pitching, for approaching only low/no-pay pubs. (By the way, if you have an excuse you’d like me to bust, you can send it to lindaformichelli@gmail.com.) Have a lot of excuses — or a lot of questions? I’m offering a 10%...
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Tags: freelance writing, freelancing, Magazines
Posted in Bust My Excuse, Motivation, Observations, Writing | 4 Comments »
Since we brought our son Traver home in early 2009, work seems to have gotten so much easier and I seem to have even more free time than I did before. How can that be? After all, as any freelancing mom or dad will attest, trying to get any writing done with a squalling...
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Posted in Motivation, Observations, Personal yammerings, productivity | 12 Comments »
I’ve been reading Dan Ariely’s new book The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic at Work and at Home. In it, he talks about how humans and animals alike need to find meaning through labor. Ariely conducted an experiment where subjects were asked to complete a simple puzzle on a sheet...
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Tags: freelancing
Posted in Money, Motivation, Observations, Personal yammerings | 15 Comments »
This is a guest post by Thursday Bram. Thanks, Thursday! For most freelance writers, there are two very simple ways to measure how productive we are: how much money we earn in a given day and how many words we write. Of course, there’s an obvious connection between the two, but I’ve found that...
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Tags: freelance writing, word count
Posted in Advice, Observations, Writing | 1 Comment »
Last week I posted on Facebook that an editor at Women’s Health was interested in my query. Another writer posted a comment saying something like, “A query to the glossies, how quaint!” I laughed, but then I started thinking…are queries passé? I don’t query nearly as much as I used to. Since I’ve been...
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Tags: freelance writing, query letter
Posted in Editors, Observations, Query letters, Writing | 23 Comments »
Renegade writer Steve Sears gave me permission to post his story: My wife had spotted a story in a local community paper, a history making event with regard to young woman with major health problems and a rare ailment who, against many a doctor’s advice except for one, gave birth to twins. She was...
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Posted in Advice, Ideas, Motivation, Observations | No Comments »
I recently downloaded the free e-book The Zero-Hour Workweek by Jonathan Mead of Illuminated Mind. The title is a play off of The 4-Hour Workweek, the popular book by Tim Ferriss. The e-book is pretty inspiring, but when you get right down to it it’s a guide on how to start a blog on...
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Tags: e-courses for writers, writing e-courses, writing scams
Posted in Hooks & Crooks, Observations, Personal yammerings, Rants, Self improvement, Writers, productivity | 15 Comments »