Writers Unbound

1. Procrastination + Perfectionism = Nothing Gets Done. Imperfect progress realized is better than perfection imagined.
2. No comparing. Comparison is never helpful; it just makes me think I can never achieve what I’m comparing myself or my work or my life to. I don’t see the imperfections of what or whom I am comparing myself with, so it reinforces that perfectionism tendency. Bad, bad, bad.
3. Just do it. Sometimes we really do learn from advertising. Nike is right. (So is Yoda.)
4. “There is a difference between striving for excellence and striving for perfection. The first is attainable, gratifying, and healthy. The second is unattainable, frustrating, and neurotic. It is also a terrible waste of time.” -Edwin Bliss
5. Movement of any kind toward a desired goal is progress, even if it is not the exact movement we have envisioned. We need to set particular goals, detailed goals, and have standards; we also need to have broader points of progress in place, and accept any movement toward them as successes.
6. “Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It’s quite simple, really. Double your rate of failure. You are thinking of failure as the enemy of success. BUt it isn’t at all. You can be discouraged by failure - or you can learn form it. So go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because, remember, that’s where you will find success.” -Thomas J. Watson
7. If you keep a journal, try logging both your failures and your successes for a week or so. Compare. Many times we fail in details but we let that seem so huge that we fail to see how we have succeeded in important things. Perspective matters. Failure teaches. Success follows.
8. Accountability, whether real or imagined, is a powerful motivator.
9. Some things simply aren’t worth it. Even an overwhelming sense of obligation (where does it come from?) doesn’t change that fact.
10. Some days are simply more productive than others, right?

    Right. Some days are simply more productive because they are better planned, better managed, and better executed. Productivity doesn’t just happen when the Happy Productivity Fairy appears and waves her DayTimer over your head.

11. You can be sure that there are always circumstances that fight productivity, that some days despite your best planning and diligent efforts, forces conspire to prevent anything productive from happening. You can also be sure that the default of any day, left to run its own meandering course through whatever pops up or whatever you feel like, will not result in productivity.
12. The disorder in your life will increase unless you continually add energy to maintain order and productivity. You’ve got to push that ball to keep it rolling, or else it will run out of energy and sit there and the moss will grow over it and soon you won’t even be able to find it anymore.
13. Keep moving forward.
14. Keep writing.

Make it a good day.

Image Credit: ‘follow me’ by woodleywonderworks.

1. Online Portfolio

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   You may or may not have a website/blog; regardless, an online portfolio offers your (potential) clients a quick, easy way to view your relevant biographical points, experience, and writing samples. There are several websites that offer a free way to put your portfolio on the web: The Whole Nine and Carbonmade will get you started.

2. Business Cards

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   If you do a little shopping around, you can find some great deals on very professional business cards. You don’t have to get a carload; start with 500. Put your relevant contact information, your website address, and what you do, specifically. Don’t just put “freelance writer” or “professional writer”. Make it targeted to the clients you want to gain: “food and beverage copywriting” or “educational consulting and writing.” The design, with business cards as with websites, is usually more professional and more effective when simple and sans bright and/or cutesy colors or logos.

3. Follow Up

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   Follow up costs nothing more than the five minutes it takes to write the email or make the phone call. When you’ve finished a project, an article, or a review, send a follow-up email within a week (assuming you haven’t received revision requests from the client). Make it brief, professional, but friendly: “Client X, I enjoyed working on Project Y with you. Please let me know if there are any changes needed, and keep me in mind for your future projects. A flyer/brochure/ezine would be a great companion for the project I’ve just completed for you. Regards, Me.”

4. Offer Help

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   Offering help also costs nothing more than the little bit of time you will contribute. Giving a little bit can mean a lot to people. When you notice a missing paragraph in a client’s website, write it up and email it. It took you ten minutes, maybe. That client will remember that you spotted the need and filled it. When they need a writer for website content or a company newsletter, guess who will be at the top of the list?

5. Medium-traffic Website Ads

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   Website ads can be very, very expensive, which is why many freelance writers just don’t go there. But quit checking prices on the Technorati Top 100 and start a little smaller. You can reach a good amount of people by perusing those medium-traffic sites, finding the ones that attract the clients you want to have, and purchasing advertising. Some of those sites may not offer ad spots; don’t let that stop you. Send an email and ask, or make an offer you think is fair. Be sure to track which websites end up sending you clients and which don’t return much of a response.

   Make it a good day.

   Image Credit: Print100 business cards by juhansonin.

Sometimes you need a change. If your current scheduling method doesn’t work, or if you don’t really have a method, change something. Try out a different plan for a week and evaluate the results. Successful scheduling should have you setting reasonable goals and making steady, trackable progress toward those goals.

No one method of scheduling is right. A system that worked for you might quit working as you mature, as life happens, as you take on different kinds of projects. Family life is, of course, a significant factor for a work at home freelance writer, especially if you are a work at home mom freelance writer. (That would be me.) My oldest (2 years old) doesn’t need a morning nap anymore. This has affected my writing schedule. I can fight it and try to keep things as they were, or I can look at what is happening and make the best adjustments.

Before you can change what you are doing, you need to know what you are doing (at least vaguely). Which of the following options sounds like you?

Option A: The Nibbler

The Nibbler doesn’t like to limit herself to just one project per day, or even per hour. She will eat a little out of many pies everyday, which means that she makes steady progress but it is hard to track. The Nibbler stays fresh on everything, because it never sits alone, but she also distracts herself and finds it hard to get over “the hump” in longer projects because she is not used to concentrating on one thing for so long.

Option B: The Prioritizer

The Prioritizer is all about the A-B-C priority list. He sets his priorities, checks them daily, and can rattle them off at any moment. First Priority projects will get most of his time in the day, and he will work his way on down the list. However, sometimes The Prioritizer can’t prioritize well enough (what if two projects have a tomorrow deadline?) and sometimes he uses his priority system to avoid the stuff he just doesn’t want to do.

Option C: The Snowplow

The Snowplow borrows her scheduling method from the big trucks that roam the streets after a snowstorm. She attacks her pile of articles to be written the same way they attack that snow: pushing straight ahead until they reach the end of the street. The Snowplow makes good progress through the early part of the day, but tends to get bogged down as her energy diminishes. And sometimes she ends up with a pile of papers bigger than that pile of snow.

Option D: The Time Blocker

The Time Blocker is the ultimate consumer of the hour-by-hour day planner. He actually defines the use of every single one-hour-block on the page. 1 hour on Article A, 1 hour on Project B, 1/2 hour on Marketing, 1/2 hour on Research, 1 hour on Book. The Time Blocker knows what he has going on and has a place for every single part of it. But not every opportunity merits a block of time, and The Time Blocker has trouble dealing with those pesky little items that are too small to schedule but too big to ignore. Like eating lunch.

Option E: The Scheduler

The Scheduler is a sophisticated combination of The Prioritizer and The Time Blocker. She breaks down the projects and papers according to a carefully estimated plot of time needed for researching, outlining, writing, and editing for each one. Then she plugs in the various parts of each project into her calendar, leaving herself a few days’ cushion before the deadline, just in case. Her careful planning keeps her on track, but sometimes her lack of flexibility causes her to miss one-time opportunities. She tends to underestimate her own abilities and her break down of projects can cause her to miss out on “the flow” that can happen during sustained work on one piece.

Option F: The Procrastinator

The Procrastinator checks email, and answers email, and checks email, and then rearranges papers, and then flips open a notebook, and then gets a cup of coffee, and then sits down to start working. Instead of tackling the big project that is due in a week, though, The Procrastinator will write a dozen little paragraphs that don’t serve much purpose, outline a new marketing campaign, and do preliminary research for a book he doesn’t plan to start writing until next year. When he realizes the project is due tomorrow, he will stay up till the wee hours finishing, all the while mumbling about being too busy and too stressed.

Which One Are You?

Which style sounds like you? And is that style working? Every scheduling system is full of flaws, but also full of possibility. Successful scheduling should result in you able to work without feeling panicked, accomplish what you plan, and get your work done in time.

Make it a good day.

Image Credit: Calendar Card from Joe Lanman.

1. From Writing-World.com, a step-by-step guide to launching your writing career. This is a great collection of articles covering all the basic topics, from the basics of getting started to setting goals to gleaning ideas to finding markets. A worthwhile couple of hours for anyone launching a freelance writing career.
2. From WritersWrite.com, a collection of self-publishing how-to articles and interviews. Specific topics: Choosing an Epublisher, How to Distribute Your Self-Published Book Offline, and How Three Publishing Myths Kill the Author.
3. From Small Business Guru, a free 26-page report: 10 Mistakes Small Business Owners Make. If you are working even part-time as a freelance writer, that makes you a small business owner. Maybe you don’t have employees or inventory, but you still have to make all the decisions about tax structures, marketing, and working with clients. You have to register to get the report.

From Nick Daws’ Writing World, a free downloadable report in .pdf: 30 Writing Tips for eBook Authors. The author is Jimmy D. Brown, and Daws has reproduction rights for the ebook and is offering it as a free download at his site. You don’t have to register for this one.

4. From EnhanceMyWriting.com, a guide to writing reference sites and internet reference resources.
5. From WorkingWriterHappyWriter, a free report: Top 5 Tactics to Boost Your Writing Business. You have to register and then you receive an email with the link to download the report (when you follow the link, click on the tiny text at the top of the page, not the very distracting advertisement that you will immediately see). It’s a good read and worth wading a bit to get to it.
6. From FreelanceWriting.com, a whole list of free e-books for writers, with titles including Creative Freelancing, The Active Author’s Guide to Copyright Basics, and The Lousy Writer’s Guide to Writing Persuasively. Just click to download.
7. From FreeBookMiners.com, 8 ebooks about writing and speaking, and lots more that cover online marketing. The online marketing list contains several, er, less than stellar options. (They sound kind of scammy.) There are several that look worthwhile, however, especially if you’re interested in writing for article databases or e-zines.
8. From New York literary agent Noah Lukeman, an ebook every writer should read: How to Write a Great Query Letter.. Love them or hate them, you have to write them. Do it well and you’ll have to write fewer of them.
9. From Write4Kids.com, several articles and 3 free e-books on writing for children and getting a children’s book published.
10. From Writers-Free-Reference.com, a nicely categorized list of internet resources. I can see this site being very helpful when you just need a little bit of information to finish up an article.
11. From CopyWritingSecrets.com, a free report: 3 Powerful Secrets of Online Copy. Even if you are not a copywriter, the ideas can translate into how you market yourself as a writer to gain new clients and expand your business.

From EducationPortal, a list of free writing courses avaialable online. Everything from Writing and Reading Short Stories to Technology for Professional Writers to Proofreading Your Writing to Introduction to Web Writing. Push to finish your work a bit early so you can do a little learning on the side and keep yourself growing as a writer.

This is the first in a series on (you guessed it) Work Principles for Writers. I’ll be posting these every Wednesday, and once I have enough accumulated I will compile them into a report which you’ll be able to download (free).

Feedback is great! Please let me know what you think. Is this information helpful? Too general? Redundant? Have you heard it all before? Do you have a different opinion? What are your experiences in these areas? I would love to add additional information when I begin the compiling process, so please offer any critique, comment, or question you have.

1. Imitate high quality.

We’ve talked about originality before, and how it is almost one of those unattainable qualities that resists pursuit. The more you try to be original, the less original you become. You can’t avoid universal themes, shared experiences, and common origins. A good writer will learn that originality is not the key; good stories, accurate information, and clear expression are. Find writers who produce that kind of writing and try to write the way they do. Imitate, but don’t imitate anyone. Imitate writers that tweak you, the ones who write paragraphs you remember for weeks, the ones who turn mundane stories into emotional experiences. Imitate quality, and soon you will find that the feel, the sound, the flow of that kind of writing. It will begin to be something you do with your own perspective, in your own writing. You might even find yourself being original without even trying.

2. Learn from successful people.

Not just successful writers, successful people. Read biographies, watch documentaries; better yet, define the successful people in your life and talk to them. Ask questions, listen, find out how they make decisions and set priorities and determine which risks to take and which to pass by. You will find that success has common themes regardless of the area. A successful mom of small children can tell you a lot about time management, juggling projects, and dealing with stress. A successful restaurant owner can tell you about dealing with people, expanding business, and trying new products. And, yes, successful writers can tell you a lot too. So find successful people in your world and learn all you can from them.

3. Ignore cheaters, scammers, and get-rich-quick promises.

Or, in other words, do not imitate or learn from low quality, unsuccessful people (writers or otherwise). Some people do get rich quickly in a completely legitimate way; more often, though, attaining “wealth” requires time, diligence, and a lot of hard work. I don’t say that to discourage you (I’m out here too; we’re all trying) but to encourage you to ignore plans and people that will simply waste your time.
Choose carefully, then, the websites you frequent, the books you read, the material you believe, and the conferences you attend. Test the legitimacy of the sources. Talk to other (unassociated) people who have worked with the company or individual and find out what they think. Trust your gut. If it is just a little too shiny, too sparkly, and too fluffy, let it go. Find the real substance instead.

What do you think?

Make it a good day.

Image Credit: Books by Bacteriano, Success by alter1fo, Money by Unhindered by Talent.

1. Update your photo and bio.

   If your bio ends with your current status ten or five years or even six months ago, bring it up to the present. While you are updating, get a photo that looks professional: a closer, well-focused head shot with a neutral, non-busy background will look more professional than that half of your face from the 1999 family Christmas picture. You can use a photo you already have and do a little editing. Blur out the background; maybe convert the picture to black and white. You might also check into prices on getting a professional head shot.

2. Add screen shots of the sites for which you write on your own website

   . This saves visitors the trouble of having to click to all your links, and it also saves you the risk of getting them so interested in a different site that they forget to come back to yours. If you’re not sure what a screen shot even is, go read this explanation from Wikipedia. Basically, you are taking a picture of what is on the screen, saving it as an image file, and then putting it on your website as a picture. You could put it into a writing sample of what you’ve done on that particular website, so visitors can read your work and see where it’s published all without leaving your site.

3. Provide a downloadable .pdf of your portfolio, resume, and/or writing samples

   . You have a potential client who is browsing your website while waiting for a flight. It’s just time to board when they start reading your writing samples. They notice that little “Download as PDF” button, click it, and now they have a copy they can read in flight. Providing options makes it easier for your clients to remember you and hire you.
   Most office programs provide a way to convert a document to a .pdf file, or there are several online options you can look into. Make sure the option is easy to see for your website visitors.

4. Document your areas of expertise with specific samples or clips

   . First, of course, you’ll have to list your areas of expertise. As you build up samples and clips in each area, provide links right next to the listed topic on which you are (becoming) an expert. This makes it easy for clients who want writing on a particular subject to go straight to your relevant writing samples, rather than browsing through your entire portfolio.

5. Have a professional header and logo made

   . If you got some graphic designing skill, make it yourself. Think simple and streamlined. Do a little internet searching if, like me, your graphic design skills are at a negative level. I have found several very affordable options and have been very pleased with the results. Having a uniform header and logo for your website makes you look professional, and it also makes it easy for others to link to your site in an aesthetically pleasing way.

6. Make your design/theme simple with muted or neutral colors

   . I give this advice with a big caveat: some very professional themes and designs incorporate brighter colors and more complex color schemes. But if you’re not sure what you are doing, of if your aesthetic sense is somewhat, uh, underdeveloped, err on the side of caution. A classic black and white theme promotes your writing skill, whereas a complicated, multi-color scheme might just prove distracting to potential clients. Obviously personal taste is involved, and the kind of clients you are pursuing matter, so take this advice with a big grain of salt. Sea salt. White sea salt.

7. Provide a table or spreadsheet with your rates

   . Make this downloadable as well, so clients can have it as a reference. It doesn’t have to be a complicated table, just a simple spread of the services you offered lined up with what you charge. If you have pricing options (by project, by hour, by page), then lay those out clearly as well.

8. Use your sidebar for shameless self-promotion, but in a classy way

   . If you have a sidebar, that is… Gather a collection of quotes from your satisfied clients, positive reviews, and a few of the best lines you have written. Convert part of your CV and areas of expertise into little factoids, then load up all those goodies into a rotating quote collection or other display format. It’s like a little snack bar of how talented you are.

9. Record an audio or video introduction of yourself and what you do

   . A caveat with this one as well: only do this if you can do it well. If you are a work at home freelancer and can’t find a quiet time or place to record, skip it. If, however, you have a friend who is handy with YouTube videos or podcasts and you can come up with a brief, smart script and a good place to record, do it. This could be the first thing visitors see when they come to your website, and a little click on the play button will let them “meet” you. It might be the extra effort that makes you stand out from the other freelance writers out there.

10. Offer a contact form, not just a mailto: command

    . This is a pet peeve of mine. I’m not always on the same computer, and when I want to contact someone who offers only a mailto: option, I have to copy the email address from the command line, open up my own mail server, and send the email. Offer a contact form option so that visitors only have to take one step to get in touch with you. If they are using a public computer or don’t have a default mail server set up on their own, clicking a mailto: command is far more annoying than it is useful.

Make it a good day.

1. Being Clever

   A knack for what is clever, as a sense of humor, cannot be forced. If you don’t naturally exude the ironic, skip it. Attempts to force the clever or subtly ironic will fail. I’m certain of this truth from my own experience.
   Quit worrying about it. Some subjects aren’t about being clever. Most subjects aren’t about being clever. Can you present information clearly? Can you tell a story? Can you analyze? Do you know how to construct a logical argument? Those are skills which, as a writer, you should both have and be continually improving. It’s a lovely thing to read a writer who can use those skills confidently without feeling the need to produce an accompanying witticism. Sometimes Plain Jane does the job best.
   When the irony flows and the witticisms rain, let them. In the meantime, though, just keep writing.

2. Being Original

   From a previous post:

   Originality isn’t really what we want… We want to hear ourselves, but a little bit different. We want to read someone completely different, but with just enough of ourselves that we can grab onto the similarity and expand into another kind of life.
   It doesn’t matter if you are writing a shipwreck survivor novel or an article about Christmas decorations. If you want originality, the best thing to do is forget about it and just write with honesty and vigor.
   Authors who write with originality as the foremost goal end up producing the literary equivalent of the teenager trying too hard to fit in. Somehow, the desperate expression of “Look at me! I’m an individual! I’m unique just like you!” becomes just another murmur of the mass-produced roar. The best way to be original is to quit trying so hard for it.

3. Being Academic

   During my college years, my very best professors were the ones who forgot to be professorial and just shared their passion with the people around them. We happened to be students. My very worst professors were the ones whose entire identity existed on a university motto and alma mater memories. Academia is great, but people who attempt to squish an entire life into an academic frame end up stunted. And annoying.
   Writing about academic subjects does not require anything more than knowledge about the subject and ability to write clear sentences. Leave the latinate diction in ye old ivy-covered halls. Be enthusiastic. Use simple words. Be clear, above all. Bring what is “academic” into the real world instead of the other way around.

4. Being Relevant

   Romeo and Juliet. West Side Story.
   Relevant? Yes. Irrevocably associated with a particular time and place? Yes, but they are still relevant. Stories about people are timeless. We all live in a particular time and place, and it’s best to acknowledge that. Trying to produce writing that is relevant beyond culture results in a very dry prose. We like the details. We like today. We like to know what people are wearing and what they ate for breakfast.
   What if you are writing product reviews, news briefs, a thousand home and garden articles? Let them be what they are and serve the purpose for which they exist. Don’t waste time making more or less of your subject than what it is. Much of what we write today may be relevant only for today. Much may last. Your burden is to write it best for whatever purpose it is to serve. In that way, your entire writing life is relevant. Piece by piece will be determined by forces beyond your pen.

5. Being Personal

   You are a person. If you write honestly about your subject, you will write personally. You can’t really help it, unless you are spending your energy trying to sound academic…
   I write what I know from the perspective that I have. That’s personal. If I am writing something in which I have no experience (research-based), I can talk about my lack. When writers become less self-conscious and more honest and realistic, writing becomes sincerely personal.

What do you think? Am I wrong? Do you find yourself working to be clever, original, academic, relevant, or personal? How does that affect your writing? I’d love to hear.

Make it a good day.

Image Credit: FredoAlvarez.

If you want to have it all - and I do - you have to make sacrifices of less-than-worthy activities, obligations, even relationships.

Ouch. Did I just say you have to sacrifice relationships? Well, yes. I believe I did. Let me say it again.

Sometimes you have to sacrifice unimportant relationships to reach important goals.

People are important, but not every person can be important to you. You can’t have twenty best friends and maintain a deep relationship with each one. You can’t say yes to every social invitation and keep your sanity. You don’t have to. You shouldn’t. Online social networking has opened a lot of doors, and, in some ways, has made life easier. You don’t have to call a friend or arrange a lunch date to catch up. You can just get the updates sent to your phone, or go look at the latest photos. Easy. Quick.

All the doors that have been opened, though, create many options. You have a list of 200 friends, the accumulation of all your past and present lives: childhood, high school, college, single life, working world, married, married with children, new career, hobbies, relatives, friends of friends. Now you have a list of 400 friends.

Use the tool with a little self-control.

I don’t write this to vilify online social networking. It is what it is: a tool, a portal, a means. It can make your life easier or make it much more complicated than it needs to be. The purpose of social networking is to meet people and make connections that can help you and help them. You do not need to be active in every single social networking platform out there to accomplish this purpose. In fact, you’ll probably weaken your effect. Ever hear that little phrase, “United we stand, Divided we fall”? Make it personal and apply it to social networking. If you run yourself thin trying to maintain a significant presence of five networking platforms, you are probably accomplishing less than you would by making a concentrated effort on one or two sites.

Limiting yourself can result in finding yourself.

That’s what I mean by sacrificing relationships. If you limit your social networking, you will lose some opportunities. You will miss out on the people who never venture out of their chosen platform. You may not be as aware of the social currents and teeming trouble (or energy) under the waters.

But you will be more aware of yourself, the friends you do have, and the energy you possess. You can develop relationships that go deeper than a daily text message. You can find out more than the surface status of the people you encounter. You can give more of yourself, provide a better value, and maybe find a way to really help someone. Along the way, you might find you are being helped more than you ever were before.

Online social networking makes it possible to stretch yourself over a breadth you could never reach with older methods, but it does not guarantee the depth of your reach. You might have a few miles of shallow water to splash around in, and you can have a good time at it. To reach the deeper water, though, to make real progress, to cross an ocean: you must focus, ignore the shallows, and plunge straight ahead.

What do you think?

Make it a good day.

Read the first installment here.

The next two steps are not needed for every piece, though they can get you moving again when you feel stuck even on shorter articles.

It’s time to do research.

After you’ve done your initial planning and outlining, it’s time to do research. Maybe. If you know what you need to know to write your article and you are ready to roll, then don’t stop to read what someone else has written. You can do that after you have finished writing, if you want to check additional material or resources. If, however, you need additional knowledge, sources, inspiration, or perspectives, if you’re feeling stuck, if you aren’t sure what angle to take, make use of the wonders of research.

I still think of the basement library stacks when I hear research. That may be where you need to go, but it may be much simpler than that. Call your Mom for research on frugal cooking, family traditions, or dealing with grown kids who won’t live home. Talk to your neighbor with the five kids about how she stays sane in the summer or what kind of advice she would give young moms. Shoot an email to an old college friend for his view on economic changes, the best financial software, or where to get great burgers in Boston. Read trade magazines for specialty articles and perspectives on any kind of industry. The internet, of course, is a wide, wide world of information. Just be sure the information you get is valid. Always give credit where credit is due. And if you’re using research as a way to get started on a shorter piece that doesn’t necessarily “need” it, give yourself a time limit and stick to it.

Outlining again.

After you complete the research, you may need to stop and outline again, or further fill in the outline you already made. Plug in those details you found under the appropriate main heading, or rearrange things to match the perspective you have decided to use. Don’t worry about getting it perfect, just get your ideas down on paper so you won’t lose them.

And then you write.

We have reached the step most of us try to begin on: Write. You should write, and you must write, but only after you have planned and outlined. Once that is done, sit down, pull out your calendar, look at your notes, and use your outline to start filling in those paragraphs. Feel free to break from your outline if, as you write, your piece takes a different direction. It isn’t meant to be a restrictive structure, just a helpful guide.

As you write, consciously turn your inner word critic to silent. Remind yourself that you are dedicating an entire step to the editing process, so there is no need to spend time on it now. Just get it down.

Then you edit.

If your schedule allows, take a break between the writing and editing process, especially for the longer pieces. If you must complete it that day, at least take a ten-minute breather. Walk around the block, get a snack, call a friend. Do something completely removed from the writing process, so that you can come back to it refreshed.

When you do come back, edit as if your worst enemy wrote it. Be merciless. Cut superfluous words. Find the right word, not a mushy one that will do, but poorly. Make sure your points are clear, your terms well-defined, your illustrations appropriate. If you aren’t sure of good editing standards, go read Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style. Then edit.

The final step is the most fun. You have completed the piece. You have done the work. Now you simply send the piece on to its final destination: post it, attach it, print it. Put in the appropriate format. Find related graphics or photos, if required. Append image or information credits at the bottom. Double-check formatting, then put that piece where it is supposed to go.

Ta da!

Make it a good day.

Image Credit: Swami Stream.

We writers make a lot of mistakes. Sometimes we cite articles that contain faulty research. Sometimes we misspell a name or use a comma when we should have used a semicolon. Our biggest mistake, though, is about the process rather than the product: it is thinking that writing involves just one step of sitting down and putting the words on paper.

It’s intimidating to give yourself only one step between blank nothingness and a bright-n-shiny article that will make your clients forever loyal. You are under pressure when you only have one move to make. If you mess up, you ruin everything.

Take a deep breath. You have room to make mistakes without losing momentum.

There are more steps in the writing process, and whether you acknowledge them or not, you perform them. If you take time to break them down and fully focus on each at its appropriate time, you will find that you can write more with less pressure.

The first step is planning.

Planning is a little different for each writer. It might involve searching for jobs, applying, and working out the details with the clients you obtain. Or, if you have regular work set up, your planning might simply be choosing which article to work on when. Don’t skimp on the planning.

My productivity has increased a hundredfold since I started spending regular time planning my writing schedule for each week. It doesn’t take that long and the time returned for my initial investment makes it worthwhile. I usually do my planning over the weekend, when I can steal an hour or two in between family life and house projects and social events. I have a basic, wire-bound notebook and a calendar. I sit down and determine what articles I will write for each project or client. Then I assign each article (or a series of articles for a particular project or client) to a day in my calendar for the next week. For longer pieces, I might break down tasks further: research, outline, and begin writing over the course of three days or so.

The next step is outlining.

I try to get this done during my planning process. I am not talking about a complicated Roman numeral-research paper outline. Simple. Three or four main points for each title on my list. A few side notes, references, or related ideas, if I’ve thought of any. An opening line or illustration, if I get creative. That’s it. The outlines are very basic, but they provide a kick start to your daily writing. They save you from a blank page, because when you sit down to begin work you find that you already have your work for the day waiting for you, with a beginning and a direction. You don’t have to come to the table full of creativity and inspiration on Monday morning. You just have to sit down and continue the work you have already begun. Chances are, you’ll find that the creativity and inspiration start flowing as your fingers start moving.

Tomorrow: The rest of the story on The Writing Process.

Full Credit: I first read about breaking down the writing process over at Angela Booth’s place. I mentioned her a couple of weeks ago in my Weekend Reading post; if you haven’t gone and read her articles, head over there now.

Make it a good day.

Image Credit: MissTurner.