“I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all.” – King Solomon
One thing you can count on from me, when it comes to giving you freelance writing advice, is that I’m going to tell you hard work pays off. Freelance writing isn’t for the weak or the faint of heart; you need to plug away, every day, if you want to succeed. That’s a mantra I’ve recited since day one on this blog.
But sometimes, even when you do everything right, things don’t go the way you want them to go. A client goes out of business, or you get sick and can’t write for a week. Time and chance happen to us all.
It’s little comfort to know that this isn’t just the fate of the freelance writer. When you’re the one that chance and time are unkind to, it doesn’t matter that everyone else from the CEO to the street cleaner is susceptible to them, as well.
Time and chance can be more devastating to the freelance writer than to other folks. Most folks can miss a couple of days of work without worrying about losing their job; when a freelance writer misses a couple of days of work, they can lose clients, which has a direct impact on their bottom line.
Still, I wouldn’t be a writer if it weren’t for time and chance. I’ve been broadsided by fate too many times to count, in hundreds of little events, that have pushed me to the place I am today. It hasn’t always been wonderful; at times it’s been downright painful. But it has also made me who I am, and it has brought me some measure of success.
Success as a freelance writer has little to do with being fast or strong or wise or wealthy. Success as a freelance writer comes by meeting the challenges of time and chance head-on. It means taking the bad along with the good, taking the famine alongside the feast.
There is an advantage that freelance writers have over some other careers, however. As a freelance writer, I have a heck of a lot more flexibility. It’s easier to make adjustments when life happens. That’s the trade-off.
OK, I’ve got three quick housekeeping issues today. If you’re not interested, skip down to the header below and get right to the good stuff!
- First, get on over to my post at Freelance Writing Jobs Business Tips on 53 Sure-Fire Ways to Lose Clients. That, or just subscribe to the feed and keep update on all of the useful tips and advice for your freelance writing business.
- You should also vote for Angie’s Pangie’s blog over at CD Kitchen. If you don’t know, Angie Pangie is my beloved wife and an amazing cook. Take my word for it, she deserves your vote.
- I also wanted to remind you that Thursday is the last day to secure your seat at Copywriting Success Summit 2009 at the early-bird discount rate (a $200 savings, 40% off the regular price!).
This is the premier online event for writers (from beginners to veterans) who want to generate better-quality leads, win higher-caliber clients and earn more.
If you want to grow your writing business, you’ll want check this out. Grab your seat at this online event before the $200 discount ends. And don’t forget they’re also including all of the sessions from the 2008 summit at no added cost.
Go here now: Copywriting Success Summit 2009
All right, let’s get on with it, shall we?
Michelangelo and Freelance Writing
You probably don’t realize it, but Michelangelo didn’t want to paint the Sistine Chapel. You see, the artist who created the Pieta and David saw himself as a sculptor. Like any artist at the time, he knew how to handle a brush, but his passion (and most of his income up to that point) had been due to his proficiency as a sculptor.
Not only did Michelangelo see himself as a sculptor rather than a painter, he’d never attempted painting a fresco.
It wasn’t Michelangelo’s idea to paint the chapel. It was a scheme, initiated by Michelangelo’s enemies, to trip him up. They thought he’d do a bad job and be discredited. At the very least, they knew his work would be off the market for several years while he worked on the Sistine Chapel. They managed to convince the Pope that Michelangelo was the right artist for the job.
Now, if you lived in Rome in 1508, you couldn’t tell the Pope, “No thanks, I’m a sculptor.”
Inexperience wasn’t the only obstacle Michelangelo faced, however. To paint a ceiling, the artist has to be positioned on his back on top of a scaffold, for hours on end. The scaffold raises the artist within just inches of the ceiling.
For four years, Michelangelo painted in this way.
The details of Michelangelo’s ordeal were chronicled by Ascanio Condivi, one of Michelangelo’s students, and eventually his biographer. For more from Condivi (and the source material for this article), check out Eye Witness to History. Here’s a bit of what Condivi had to say about what happened after the Sistine Chapel was done:
“After he had accomplished this work, because he had spent such a long time painting with his eyes looking up at the vault, Michelangelo then could not see much when he looked down; so that, if he had to read a letter or other detailed things, he had to hold them with his arms up over his head. Nonetheless, after a while, he gradually grew accustomed to reading again with his eyes looking down. From this we may conceive how great were the attention and diligence with which he did this work.”
What does all of this have to do with freelance writing? I don’t think I have to paint you a picture. Here are the lessons I walked away with from Michelangelo’s tale:
- Expanding beyond our comfort zone just might open up new opportunities. Don’t be afraid to try new kinds of freelance writing, especially if you’re new to the game.
- Don’t let your enemies or detractors get to you. Chances are, history will forget their names anyways.
- Being the best freelance writer you can be sometimes means keeping your gaze upward, whether you want to or not.
- Dilligence in the face of difficult or tedious work often yields amazing success. Don’t believe me? Just take a look:
If you’ve spent any amount of time online looking for writing tips, you’ve probably come across the essay 13 Writing Tips by Chuck Palahniuk, author of Fight Club (and several other novels, as well). In that essay, Palahniuk offers some excellent advice for writers. As with many novelists, however, much of his advice is aimed at the budding novelist, such as tip number ten: “Write the book you want to read.”
However, I’d like to take a look at his first writing tip and tell you how I apply it to freelance writing. Here is that first tip:
Number One: Two years ago, when I wrote the first of these essays it was about my “egg timer method” of writing. You never saw that essay, but here’s the method: When you don’t want to write, set an egg timer for one hour (or half hour) and sit down to write until the timer rings. If you still hate writing, you’re free in an hour. But usually, by the time that alarm rings, you’ll be so involved in your work, enjoying it so much, you’ll keep going. Instead of an egg timer, you can put a load of clothes in the washer or dryer and use them to time your work. Alternating the thoughtful task of writing with the mindless work of laundry or dish washing will give you the breaks you need for new ideas and insights to occur. If you don’t know what comes next in the story… clean your toilet. Change the bed sheets. For Christ sakes, dust the computer. A better idea will come.
As much as I love my business, there are times when I don’t feel like writing. There are times I downright hate writing. I don’t hate it the way that I hated configuring Cisco routers near the end of my IT career, but there are moments when I’d rather be doing just about anything else.
So, I do what Palahniuk recommends, after a fashion. When I’m really struggling with staying on task, staying motivated or just keeping from being totally perturbed at what I’m writing, I write in shifts. I set the timer to write for 90 minutes, and i plow through. When my 90 minutes are up, I stop for fifteen. It’s sort of my reward for being a good little writer.
During my free time, I might read a book, play on Facebook, play a video game or even take a 15-minute catnap. The important thing is to disengage – get free of my writing for a few minutes – so I can come back recharged.I’m not looking for “new ideas and insights” in the way that Palahniuk talks about. I’m just looking for a distraction – something to take my mind away from the writing for a little bit.
I guess there’s one more thought to add to this mix, too. I’m at the place in my writing business where I don’t have to take every project that comes along. I can turn down a project, or pass it on to one of my writers, if I think it’s going to be too monotonous or boring.
So, what about you? Do you use built-in “egg timer” breaks in your day? Do you need them with every project, or just with certain ones?
Today’s post is a guest post from David Gurevich. David contacted me with this post idea a while back. I think it’s a good addition to my 178 Ways to Improve Your Internet Writing post. Enjoy!
When we write, we leave the clutter and junk of our lives behind, and enter a world of possibility, where anything can happen. Yet our words are ultimately for other people.
Now matter how beautiful the dream, the original vision, it must be clearly communicated for other people to experience it.
Here are 50 tips to improve your writing. If followed, your writing will drastically improve.
1) Have a trusted editor.
This is number one on the list because it’s that important. An editor takes the decent stuff you throw at them, cuts out the words that aren’t 100% effective, and adds their perspective.
It’s like taking a diamond to a specialist for cutting.
2) Use the active voice.
For the most part, say what people do. Don’t say what is done. John plowed the field, not, the field was plowed by John. Active phrasing keeps your prose alive and interesting.
3) Know grammar – that way, you’ll know exactly what rule you’re breaking.
Read one of the books that make grammar fun like Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation
. It’ll make you laugh and teach you something, too. If you want to break the rules, just first make sure you know what they.
4) Always think twice when you use a big word.
It doesn’t matter if you know what eschew means, and it doesn’t matter if your audience might. Use the simplest words you can. It is easier to read and it’s more interesting.
5) Know your audience. Coal miners are very different from astrophysicists who’re different from High Schoolers.
Writing is meant to be read. Make sure you know who your readers are, how they think, and what they like. Write to meet their needs.
6) Keep paragraphs short and to the point.
Simplicity.
It’s effective.
7) Don’t use colloquialisms needlessly.
It’s tempting to include slang or new phrases to make your work sound hip and relevant.
But you risk a lot. First, you stand to alienate those who don’t understand. Second, it can lower the quality of your writing. And finally, with the rapid pace of change, a phrase everyone knows now may be archaic in a few years.
8.) Edit. Always edit.
Write something, then edit it, then edit it some more.
9) Focus on writing. Turn off the cellphone – no multitasking.
If you want to produce great writing, then dedicate time to doing just that – writing.
A little distraction is OK. Some people, after all, work better with music playing or other stimuli. What you need to avoid are things that require a significant amount of your attention, and so distract you.
Music, OK. Instant messaging? Not so good.
10) Adverbs are OK, but like fatty food, cut back on them.
Don’t substitute adverbs for effective description. Things can be done quickly, furiously, happily, whatever. The problem arises when you rely on those adverbs to describe things that are better shown.
For instance, you might write, “He furiously shut the door.” That gets you a B. It’s decent writing. But if you want to make it A level writing, you might want to describe with verbs and nouns what happened.
Adverbs are also a problem when they become too excessive in and of themselves.
11) Use imagery and central metaphors to build emotional impact.
Have themes to your work. Use powerful images and metaphors to build a lasting emotional impact.
12) Break up long sentences with short ones. And vice versa.
13) Write in a natural tone. Nothing stilted that would make your friends give you a questioning look.
If anything you write would make a close friend break out laughing – and not at your wit – then there’s a problem. Think of your poor reader. Now go, make your writing simpler. Use as few words as possible to say as much as possible.
14) Join a writing group. Group pressure means results.
15) Hold yourself accountable. Make goals and meet them.
Start small. Promise yourself that you’ll work at least 10 minutes a day on that big project you’re passionate about but never do. Then meet that goal. Before you know it, 10 minutes – which you can easily do – becomes 20, then 45. And at that point you’re making real progress on your dream of writing.
16) Know when you’re done.
Orwell thought his book 1984 wasn’t edited well enough. If he had listened to himself, he’d have kept working on it, and we wouldn’t have a classic. Now, you absolutely need to edit your ass off and make sure everything is great.
But there also needs to be an ending.
17) The vast majority of writing doesn’t use swearwords.
18) Cut out any unnecessary words.
Read a paragraph you’re not happy with. Find every single word that doesn’t need to be there and delete it. Readability will skyrocket.
19) Feel free to disregard your first draft. It’s just paper or kilobytes.
You don’t need to stick to your first draft. Feel free to start all over again.
20) Using “I” is OK if done correctly.
You’re taught as a kid that “I” shouldn’t be in your papers. That’s not always true. When you have a relevant opinion, it’s not a sin to put yourself in the paper. You’re the one writing it after all.
21) The more you write, the better you become.
I swear that I used to suck at writing. Teachers told me I had to redo work. I might still suck – that’s your call – but hours and hours of practice writing have improved my ability a lot.
Even if you’re not happy with your writing as it is, it will get better. Just work at it.
22) Read great literature.
23) Give yourself a writing space.
24) The best way to succeed is the Butt in Chair method. You sit, you work. No questions.
25) Realize that a critic may be wrong.
26) Have a consistent writing schedule.
27) Favor the most concise style, but you don’t have to be Hemmingway.
28) Don’t betray the readers trust with something absurd.
29) In writing, you first create a world – then have to follow its rules.
If casting a spell requires an animal sacrifice in chapter 1, then requires herbal potions in chapter 4, and finally in chapter 10 doesn’t require anything (George, our beloved protagonist, just starts slinging fireballs with no explanation), you’re letting your readers down.
Follow the rules that exist in your world. Consistency!
30) Have a writing ritual. Myself, I always have a cup of tea first.
31) Avoid cliches.
Cliches are best avoided. The problem with them is that they are too easy, and that they don’t necessarily add a lot to your writing. You want to be original.
32) Avoid excessively witty, self-serving in-jokes.
A witty self-serving in-joke would have been to write “avoid cliches like the plague.” There is, as always, a fine line, and err on the side of respecting your readers.
33) When being creative, suspend your inner critic.
You want to try something new? Cut off the electricity to the inner critic center in your mind, and start writing! Magic is happening.
34) Listen to your inner critic after being creative.
After you have a creative breakthrough, you then have to take the hard road of editing and revision.
35) Know the difference between British and American style.
36) Whatever you write about, do your research first. Know what you write about.
If you want to convincingly write about a car salesman, learn how they think. What phrases they use, what makes them happy. Knowing those details will shine through your writing and give it authenticity.
37) Show don’t tell for the most part.
38) Tell, don’t show, when doing otherwise would be boring or plain stupid.
39) Make your writing have an exciting, forward pace.
40) Don’t overuse ellipses or dashes.
Some authors liter their writing with… way too… often. Or – they uses dashes far too often – making things that don’t deserve it have it. Ellipses and dashes can be very effective. Just don’t abuse ‘em.
41) You start writing to please yourself, but succeed by pleasing others.
42) Don’t be afraid to describe something that has to be described.
43) Fancy fonts, underlining and bolding work – in business writing. Not fiction.
Different genres have different stylistic rules. Always write stuff that works without highlighting, italicizing, or whatever. But remember to take advantage of the presentation options you have.
44) Always prefer the word “said.” Grunting, snorting and chortling gets old fast.
45) Believe in yourself.
46) Be dramatic by being subtle.
47) Write for your readers.
Mentioned several times, but explicitly said here. Don’t write for yourself. Write to help your reader out, to entertain them, or to inform them. Their needs must be met, and you need to meet them.
48) Use punctuation appropriately.
49) Mix long paragraphs with short paragraphs.
50) Keep things moving along.
Take pride in your hard work, and reward important landmarks. Keep working hard and having fun. You’re the most amazing person, even if only to those who love you. You owe it to them to write your best!
David Gurevich is chosen by companies to make abstruse issues simple. You can check him out at his blog, Health and Life, a Medical Blog , where he blogs – logically enough – about health and medical issues.
