Your Online Platform: A Checklist of Website Essentials

November 8, 2011 by 1 Comment

I'm in love with my website. Is that conceited?

Earlier this year, I blogged about whether or not an editor would judge you if you didn’t have some sort of online platform. (Short answer: Yes.)

Since then, several clients have asked me for help in overhauling their own professional sites.

Which can be difficult. A website is a very personal thing. There’s no one right way to do it. It’s up to you to surf the web and bookmark examples of websites you like, making notes on what works and what doesn’t, and drawing up wish lists of your must-have features.

It’s also up to you to figure out what message you’re trying to convey (unless, of course, you hire a branding consultant).

What I can do is provide freelancers with a handy checklist of the basics they should include on their professional site. [Read more…]

Filed Under: marketing Tagged With: , ,

How To Harness the Power of NaNoWriMo… All Year Long

November 4, 2011 by 1 Comment

We’re just a few days in to NaNoWriMo, and the tweets and motivational blog posts are already flying fast and furious. Not that I’m participating, mind you. I’m not a novelist, and all of my attempts at “fiction” back in college were thinly-veiled, totally emo personal essays (as were everyone else’s). But I can’t help feeling envious that fiction writers have a month like this, during which they can go all in on that large project they’ve been daydreaming about for eons, a built-in support network (and hard-core accountability) just an email or dedicated forum away.

Of course, I get my motivation and accountability elsewhere. My writing partner, Lyz Lenz, sends me threatening emails every week.

But what about the rest of you? Where can you go to ensure that your writing goals are met, thanks to a mix of motivation, camaraderie, and abject fear? [Read more…]

Filed Under: motivation, productivity, Resources, writing Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Didn’t Get It Done? That’s Your Own Damn Fault

November 1, 2011 by 7 Comments

Things that distract me:

– my cats
– an opened bag of Candy Cane Kisses
– music that is particularly peppy
– the knowledge that there is an unwatched episode of The Sing-Off on my DVR
– the dust I just noticed on the far edge of my desk
– a sink full of dishes
– Etsy
– my sudden obsession with yoga bolsters, brightly colored jeans, or illusion necklaces
– Twitter
– etc.

This past weekend — at a time when I was supposed to be working on the first chapter of my book so that I could get it to my writing partner by Monday — we lost power (along with hundreds of thousands of others on the east coast, thanks to a freak October blizzard). Okay, fine, I thought to myself. I’ll give myself a pass. My laptop will die in under two hours anyway.

Then, on Sunday night, the power came back on.

By Monday morning, however, Internet had still not been restored. “Ooh!” I said to my husband. “I’ll take this opportunity to write that chapter without any distractions!”

I then proceeded to spend the next few hours watching Project Runway, playing Spider Solitaire, and checking email on my phone. [Read more…]

Filed Under: motivation, productivity Tagged With: ,

Why It’s Totally Cool If My Kids Skip College

October 20, 2011 by 23 Comments

I have a B.A. in Writing, Literature, and Publishing from Emerson College, despite myself.

I mean, there was never a question I would go to college. After all, it never occurred to me that any other path was available.

But I started out studying journalism at the College of New Jersey. I became disenchanted and discouraged by my choice of major. I fell into a depression after both the death of my grandmother and the end of an abusive relationship. I dropped out of college with the certainty that I didn’t need it to be a writer.

Which was true, but I wasn’t sure how to go about making money. I ended up in a crappy retail job, at which I lasted for two months. Is this all I’m capable of without a degree? I asked myself, horrified. It wasn’t, but I didn’t know that. I ended up at Emerson.

After graduating, I was lucky enough to get a job within two months (though not in my field). I was miserable there, and felt relief when I was laid off after six months. A year later, I had my feet planted firmly within the publishing industry. Finally. I was content… for awhile. But I soon realized I had no interest in working my way up the corporate ladder. I wanted to create. I wanted to be my own boss.

And so I made my circuitous way to the here and now, where I’m a happy, and pretty well-balanced, business owner. I’m lucky enough to be one of the few people out there who has ended up making money in the field they studied in college. But I could have gotten here quicker. I could have gotten here without incurring debt. I just didn’t know. [Read more…]

Filed Under: book review, career path, education Tagged With: , , , ,

You’re Doing Great. You Should Give Thanks and Chill the Eff Out.

October 18, 2011 by 13 Comments

In case you forgot, I was at a retreat this past weekend (neener neener). It was glorious, I didn’t have phone or Internet access, and I even found maple cotton candy while I was up there.

But I’m not here to gloat. (Or am I? J/K. Or not.)

I wanted to share something with you.

At the beginning of the retreat, we had a welcome ceremony, during which yoga instructor Erica Mather passed around a talking stick and asked each of us to answer a few questions. Among them: What are you hoping to gain from this retreat?

When it was my turn to speak, the talking stick shook in my hands. My eyes teared up. What was I looking for? I had been feeling a lot of anger and frustration lately, both from the continued lack of interest in our condo, and in my continued failure to get pregnant. I told the group before me that I was looking for calm.

At the end of the retreat — five yoga classes, five cooking classes, two hot tub sessions, a greenhouse field trip, a journaling session, and a s’mored up, drunken bonfire later — we passed around the talking stick again. What do you feel gratitude for? Erica asked us. What have you learned?

By that point, it was clear I’d received something much better than simple calm. I’m grateful that I was able to experience something like this, I told the group. I learned that I have a lot to be grateful for… so I should just chill out.

[Read more…]

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Spill It: Do You Unknowingly Waste Your Best Stories?

October 12, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Tomorrow morning, I’m heading up to Good Commons in Plymouth, VT, for a Revitalize Retreat organized by healthy travel organization Pravassa. I don’t travel (or unplug) often, and I’ve never taken a vacation alone. But I’m looking forward to daily yoga classes, and cooking classes during which we’ll prepare farm fresh meals. I’m looking forward to field trips to nearby sustainable farms. I’m looking forward to soaking in the hot tub, and stuffing my face with s’mores at the fire pit. I’m looking forward to spending quiet hours with my stack of books (Michael Ellsberg’s The Education of Millionaires, Elizabeth George’s I, Richard, and Karen Russell’s St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves), and to meeting other blissed-out, beginner yogis.

When I told my yoga instructor about the trip, he was all, “Cool! Are you writing about it!?” And then I hemmed and hawed and finally admitted to him that it hadn’t occurred to me.

But this is only half true. Another part of me had thought about it in passing, and had then decided that I wouldn’t be able to come up with a compelling story angle. Or that it would be too much of a long shot to sell a story that wasn’t about sex. And was it worth the effort? Wasn’t I supposed to be having fun? Unplugging? [Read more…]

Filed Under: spill it, writing Tagged With: ,

Are You a Typical Freelancer?

October 10, 2011 by 1 Comment

When Thursday Bram approached me with the idea of a post exploring the idea of the “typical” freelancer, I was intrigued. I’m of the mind that there’s no such thing as “typical,” that the best freelancers carve out their own, unique path, and that a successful freelance career can look different to every freelancer. But as Thursday points out, beginning freelancers often want to know the right way to do things. They’re desperate for answers. So what does the typical freelance path look like? Thursday — a full-time freelancer and the co-founder of  Enhanced Freelance, a membership site for freelancers ready to up their game — has your answers. [Read more…]

Filed Under: career path Tagged With:

How to Start from Scratch with a New Niche

September 27, 2011 by 1 Comment

This is a metaphorical lump of dough.

Like any good love affair, even a thriving writing career can get into a slump. And by “slump,” I’m not referring to the lean times in your typical feast-or-famine cycle. I’m referring to a successful business that — for some reason or another — you just feel bored with.

You know the feeling: Every targeted press release seems to say the same thing. Every forthcoming book you’re offered for review seems to have the same premise. And when your favorite sex toy purveyor offers you the latest and greatest vibrator with all the bells and whistles, you just feel meh.

While your niche may once have been a passion (and perhaps still is), it doesn’t seem to leave room for all the new interests in your life.

But is it worth it to switch gears? Will food editors be interested in a piece from a veteran health and wellness writer? Will tech editors care what the go-to sex columnist has to say?

[Read more…]

Filed Under: career path, writing Tagged With: , , ,

Want Freelance Success? Watch Your Health

September 22, 2011 by 4 Comments

At the beginning of June, I started ghostwriting an ebook with a very aggressive timeline. I didn’t take on many other projects during that time, aside from a blog post here and there, and some copyediting work. I also didn’t take breaks for lunch. I stopped going on my afternoon walks. My topless living room yoga sessions became far less regular. And I ate a lot of takeout Chinese.

Finishing that project (the last of the edits were completed in mid-August) was like coming up for air. It was freeing, but I also felt burnt out and unmotivated. I lost all momentum. For weeks, I did the bare minimum, telling myself I’d get back in the saddle after “that trip” or “that holiday weekend.” But I never did.

Then I started making yoga a bigger part of my life* and, suddenly, I was able to jump into new coaching work, start singing funerals again, and write a book proposal. Magic? Not quite. [Read more…]

Filed Under: balance, productivity Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Should You Add Ghostwriting to Your Freelance Toolbox?

September 16, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Just the other month, I asked if you write for the bucks or the byline. As someone who had stumbled into a fairly steady stream of ghostwriting and co-authoring work completely by accident, I wondered: Is my ego too big to give up the byline? Should I suck it up because the money is good? How do other people feel?

Then I decided, why not just add it to the mix? Because — as someone who juggles sex writing, career coaching, funeral singing, and (now) ghostwriting — I’m all about finding that perfect mix.

Of course, if I was going to be serious about this, there was only one person I could turn to: the lady who wrote the book on ghostwriting. [Read more…]

Filed Under: book review, writing Tagged With: , , ,
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