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Freelance Tips - Jenn Hollowell

Most of the information presented here is based on my experience, on the spot findings, and progress in my own freelance writing career.

When life gets in the way, don’t give up on your writing goals. Today, I had many plans to work on my book, work on articles, and get some blog posts up. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to much of any of that . . . aside from a couple of blog posts.

I made these plans knowing that I had a full day ahead of me. I knew I was working my out of the house job, I knew I had a lot of housework to do, and I knew I was bringing my kids to see their grandmother this afternoon. Yet, I still made these writing goals.

That was my first mistake. Knowing I had all of these other life obligations and responsibilities to tend to, I shouldn’t have made these goals. My second mistake was that I wasn’t honest with myself about how long it would take to complete all the tasks I had in front of me.

We’re not super heroes, we’re writers. Be honest with your limitations, allow for life to get in the way from time to time, and stop fighting with your schedule. Now, if only I could take my own advice!

What do you do when you’ve made writing goals and life gets in the way? Do you find time to work on your goals later in the day, or do you wait until life calms down before tending to your writing goals?

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The Use of Morning Pages

August 23rd 2008 18:29

The other day, I wrote about how free writing will free your mind. This prompted some thought about the use of morning pages. Here is the definition of morning pages, taken directly from Julia Cameron’s book, The Artist’s Way (pgs. 9, 10):

“What are morning pages? Put simply, morning pages are three pages of longhand writing, strictly stream-of-consciousness. There is no wrong way to do morning pages. These daily meanderings are not meant to be art. Or even writing. I stress that point to reassure the non-writers working with this book. Nobody is allowed to read your morning pages except you.”

I’ve been writing morning pages ever since I started reading The Artist’s Way in 1998. I write them in what I call “ugly” notebooks so that it’s a reminder that what’s inside doesn’t have to be perfect, pretty, or correct. I allow the notebooks to get dirty, spindled, folded and everything else that I protect my journals and other notebooks from.

Why am I writing about this now? I’d like the writers here who are having trouble with free-writing to give this a try. Find yourself an ugly notebook, and write three pages of “nothing that matters” everyday for a month. Then, check in with yourself to see if you’re able to free-write after that. If you can’t, then I’ll try coming up with a different tip.

This tip has helped me tremendously in my freelance writing career. The ability to purge out all the useless thoughts, in order to really dig deep into what I wanted to write about has really been an asset. Sometimes I look back on these morning pages to see what I was thinking about and writing about on various days. Even that experience has placed some interesting topics into position.

Have you heard of The Artist’s Way’s morning pages prior to today? If you haven’t started writing morning pages before, is time your biggest obstacle? If you do write morning pages, what has been your experience with them?

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Re-Assessing Organization

August 23rd 2008 16:12

Now that I’m placing new emphasis on different aspects of my writing career, I need to take note of how things are organized over here. Typically, I’m a very neat and organized person. I can find things without trouble and get my house in order with no trouble.

This is NOT the case with my office – studio – whatever you want to call it – my creative space. (Yes, I think that’s the best fit.) There are piles of miscellaneous whatnot all over the place. My kids have managed to take up half the room without me noticing, so that needs to be immediately rectified.

I need to re-enlist the use of my organizational notebooks before I tackle the bit “this belongs here, this belongs in the trash, this is for sale” type of organization. I used to have month map notebooks for each of my gigs, and then I traded down to smaller reporter style pads. These work great, but they’re not well used if they’re sitting under a pile of half-finished scrapbooks.

If I’m going to be serious about the re-assessment of my career, I have to be serious about the organization of the tools I use to achieve my career goals. I have to look at the whole picture:
· My schedule and availability
· My income goals
· My print versus online publishing goals
· My promotional goals
· My organizational goals
· My personal creative goals

Each are important building blocks toward a successful career, and in order to be where I want to be on this little career latter I’m climbing, I need to address each one . . . including organization. I can’t keep putting that last. I do that because I tend to think my career isn’t as important as meeting other needs. This isn’t true. Constant reminders of that are necessary and blog posts like these help.

Do you struggle with the organization of your freelance writing career tools? What methods of organization do you use?

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Working on Weekends

August 23rd 2008 15:09

No one likes working on weekends, but you have to do what you have to do in this business. This is particularly true if you’re like me, and raising children alongside your career. I work during the days, mostly, and on weekends when I have help with the kids.

There are weekends when I would rather play in my flower gardens (well, the dream of flower gardens that is), visit my mother, or visit my best friend (both trips are few and far between, unfortunately). But, I know I have responsibilities to maintain, and I wage forward.

Working weekends isn’t necessarily a bad thing, mind you. There are times when the house is so quiet, and the day is so still that my mind is cleared enough to process meaningful thoughts and put together meaningful messages. This is very rare during the week (until school starts, that is).

So, on the weekends, I feel the ability to recharge my writing and prevent it from getting too stale. Do you work through your freelance writing assignments during the weekend? Do you send out queries on the weekend? Do you take weekends off?

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Deadlines Vs. Open-Content

August 22nd 2008 22:43

Are you the type of freelance writer who prefers working with deadlines imposed by editors, or do you prefer working with open-content websites or clients?

This is a tough question for me. While I love the stability of deadline-based assignments, I also love the idea of posting content to open-content sites like these:
· HubPages.com
· Suite101.com (once you’re accepted as a writer)
· Orble.com
· AssociatedContent.com (to a point)
· EHow.com
· Helium.com

The problem with deadlines versus open content sites are, well, mostly monetary. For all the efforts put into these kind of sites . . . I tend to wonder the obvious question: wouldn’t I earn more writing for a deadline based gig than an open-content site? The long and the short of it is, if you’re passionate about the topic, then payment usually ends up lower on the totem pole. It’s a trade-off of sorts, apparently.

Don’t get me wrong, there are a number of people working on the above sites and making very decent payments. However, this is not the norm as far as what I’ve seen reported as “experiences” on forums. Why? It’s hard to say, really, why one person would do better than the other. It could be that they’re a wizard at SEO, or that they possess excellent marketing skills. It could also be that they’ve established a large base of regular readers.

I doubt I’ll ever stop writing for open content sites because my mind is a whirl of thoughts that I constantly need to share. I don’t think it’ll ever be a part of my income-earning activities, though.

What are your thoughts on this topic?

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The Importance of Goal Setting

August 22nd 2008 18:16

Setting goals have been the bread and butter of my freelance writing career since I took my fist step into the writing pool in 1999. I firmly believe that, if goals are not in place, you never really know where you’re heading or if you’re on a solid path.

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What Am I Going to Write About?

August 21st 2008 11:53

In the life of a freelance writing, it is typical to come upon days when this very question is asked. How is the problem of not knowing what to write about solved? There are many ways to approach this issue. Here are some basic tips:

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Keeping Track of To-Do’s

August 18th 2008 14:25

I feel like I need some accountability today. There’s a lot on my to do list, including some very specific projects. Maybe if I list them here, I’ll be more apt to complete them. So, faithful readers, keep me on track!

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Getting an Early Jump on the Day

August 18th 2008 11:19

Getting an early start (5:00am) in comparison to when I usually start my day (between 8:00am and 9:0am) has certainly made a huge difference in my productivity today!

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Woman on a MIssion!

August 15th 2008 18:09

Rather than continuing with the boo-hoo’ness I started this morning about losing a steady gig, I’m going to turn those feelings into actions. It’s really easy to get caught up in the negativity of the situation, but I refuse to let that happen today.

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Everything is Different, But Somehow The Same

August 12th 2008 19:06

I’m amazed at how things have changed so much since I first decided to become a freelance writer. My first gig was for suite101.com in 1999 and, as quickly as all of that happened, it all seemed to change. Before, my sites were set primarily on being published in print or on high traffic websites.

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Follow Your Muse

August 2nd 2008 22:34

I’ve been listening and making note of this freelance writing tip for over a decade. It seems everywhere I turn; there are articles, blog posts, and comments geared specifically toward following your muse. So, why am I blogging about this today?

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August Already?

August 1st 2008 14:44

I have absolutely no idea where July went, but it is time to accept August is now upon us. What does the first of the month mean for freelancers?

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Penmanship Skills

July 31st 2008 17:45

Ever since starting my freelance writing career, I’ve noticed that I don’t put pen to paper nearly as often as I used to “back in the day.” I have found typing things out to be much quicker and more convenient, of course. This is true for most other writers I’ve come across, as well.

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