Writers Unbound

I was recently blessed to come into contact with Leo Babauta, who runs a very successful blog, Zen Habits. He started up a new writers blog, Write to Done, and allowed me a guest post. I also interviewed him for About Freelance Writing.

In a recent post at Write To Done, Babauta suggests that one copy the style of other freelancers. He advocates reading great copy (stories, whatever) and then making it your own.

I was also able to get a review copy of Christina Katz’s Writer Mama, which I will also cover at About Freelance Writing shortly (I’m on the last chapter). Christina echoes Leo’s suggestion. She advises those who are looking to get into magazine print to break down the articles of your target publications. For example: how many subheads are standard? Does the author use humour or is the copy completely serious? Does the word count seems standardized across issues, features and departments, or is there some give and take? You are then to use your investigation in crafting your submission.

Finally, I’m thrown back to my undergraduate years, when one of my favorite professors lectured on Ben Franklin and assigned his autobiography. It happens that Franklin taught himself to write by carefully dissecting great works, studying their pieces, and then attempting to reconstruct the text as the original author had. Talk about self taught! Sure enough, Franklin’s autobiography is a piece of precise writing that accomplishes its purpose without self-aggrandizement.

Study the masters. Choose a muse and find out what it is that draws you to that muse. Take the pieces that you will from them, and make those pieces into your own work and styling. Now, go write!  

Happy Thursday. Read these blogs. (Short and to the point, right?)

• Writer Beware: “Literary scams, schemes and pitfalls.” Got a question about a publisher or agent? Wondering if you’ve been scammed? This is a great place to start looking.
• Grammar Girl: Study up! My personal recommendation for better grammar? Add a second language to you repertoire.
• MFABitch: “A litblog for all those bitches who survived their MFA.” I’m guessing if you weren’t a bitch going in, you’ll become one before you get out?
• GalleyCat: Rhymes with allycat (which is mynickname, no stealing!) Keep up with the ups and downs and superdowns of the publishing industry.
• Workerette. I read this blog but don’t communicate in it much, but don’t let that fool ya- it’s really a good read for working mothers (ie writing mums like myself).
• Well, let’s not leave off working men- check out Men With Pens. They recently dived into Why Your Novel Isn’t Written Yet. 
• Indigenous Issues Today. Ok, so this is a personal interest of mine. Simply replace this suggestion with your own personal interest. The point here is to read a blog about something that interests you- not having to do with your work!
• Meagan Francis. This is a local(ish) writer whose columns I tend to read. She also has a book out.
• Inkthinker. Follow this freelance writer’s quest for 100,000 in one year. (My husband, the tax accountant, is frowning over there at her goal. Hope she doesn’t let ‘the man’ take too much of it!).
• Plagiarism Today. If you’re a writer, you need to have a clue what plagiarism is (and what it’s not, which comes a little harder for some apparently).
• The author of Write For Cash has a PhD in feminism. Sounds GREAT to me!
• Here’s one that will make you LOL: Nice Mommy, Evil Editor.
• Last, but certainly not least, Mom Writers Lit Mag.
• Bonus Blog: Like books? Who doesn’t? Visit The Bookstacks.

Happy reading, don’t forget to bookmark!

Good morning readers and writers. It’s Writers Work Wednesday. Let’s get some dollars going.

• Avalon sure is friendly to potential authors. Their ”want list” is almost always updated. They’re currently putting the call out for a guide on travel to Honduras.
• Are you new to blogging? You may want to see if you can get on board with the Families.com blog network.
• Veteran writers based in San Francisco may want to check out this posting.
• Tech and custom car blogger needed. Be sure to bookmark this board, it’s great because it tells you how long ago the job was posted.
• Here’s a magazine I would read: Mexico Xpatz is seeking freelance writers. I’m burned out on writing about Mexico right now, so I won’t compete with you! (I’ll just subscribe and read you later!)
• Habitat Magazine is looking for journalists.
• Novelists: Twelfth Planet Press has put out a call for novellas numbering between 20,000 and 40,00 words.

 Another thing I want to bring up this Writer’s Work Wednesday is this wonderful book I’m reading that WILL get you motivated to query magazines and GET ASSIGNMENTS. I’m not even done with it, yet I CANNOT wait to recommend it to you: Writer Mama by Christina Katz.

Christina takes you through the process of becoming a writer for magazines, from beginning to end (and beyond). One book has never generated so many ideas for me before. I am reviewing it for About.com Freelance Writing, and carefully crafting my review. But don’t wait, get it today! 

I know I know: I write about freelancing way too much. Let’s veer away from that for a bit, shall we?

On Monday, my 7 year old had the day off school, so it was just her and I here at home, which she doesn’t get a whole lot of. I was helping her fill out her iPOD with song selections from the the video library on cable TV. I was happy with her tastes in music: J. Lo, (Latina) and Ingrid Michaelson (talented writer) among others. (Although I’m a little dismayed with her crush on Justin Timberlake- but, hey, she’s 7, she can’t be perfect. Yet)

I was also pleased that she wanted to read the captions during the videos. Sometimes the words just pop, you know, and you can tell the songwriter is also a poet. People like Tori Amos come to mind here. I was happy to introduce my little to-be writer to the concept.

I was reminded of this one teacher I had in high school who actually got my younger brother interested in poetry by exploring Pearl Jam lyrics (yes it was the 90s).

Another place I’ve found some inspiration lately is from my photo albums. My WIP is set mostly in Mexico, and it helps to access the photos and get me into the right frame of mind.

I’ve mentioned my WIP before, and that it’s set in Mexico, partially, and that I wrote it in Mexico. I’ve talked about this before. I’ve really got to make it come to fruition, so that I don’t reread this post someday and want to kick myself.

I’ve really got to get rid of the IP part of my WIP.

Hi Readers & Writers,

Short n sweet today because I got stuck in the Big Apple this week for longer than I intended, and my work is inexcusably behind. So some quick tips from my New York City trip:

• When you meet other writers, authors and editors, pick their brains. It’s amazing to me how many people use different resources. On the net, almost every writer I run into knows most or some of the same sites and resources I use. However, when I met my colleagues in NYC, we all got some new perspectives.
• People watching on the subway is excellent practice in characterization.

I got the Thursday Thirteen idea from my fellow 451 blogger “JM” at the Book Stacks and Write Anyway… or perhaps Thursday Thirteen is a common blogging thing… I don’t know for sure! Either way, on to my Thursday Thirteen!

Thirteen Writing Prompts For a First Person POV

1. You live one house down from railroad tracks, and…
2. Your a MySpace addict, even though you’re 46.
3. You meet the man of your dreams and find out he’s 15 years younger than you.
4. Every night you write a novel in your head, and every morning you’ve forgotten everything about it.
5. You go to Atlanta for a writing conference, and discover such freedom from your responsibilities that you…
6. Your family pet slowly turns from black to white over the course of one week, and…
7. You meet your childhood best friend on a listserv. You’re delighted, but she doesn’t remember you.
8. You’re running late. You decide to take your children to school in your pajamas. Surely you’ll have no reason to get out of the car, right?
9. You’re 39 with a happy family and two children. You find out you are quite accidentally pregnant. You…
10. With a sudden windfall of cash, you finally get that facelift you’ve always wanted. You’re astounded when your friends react by . . .
11. You realize you’re neighbor has been spying on you. You decide to get them back by. . .
12. You’re daughter develops a special bond with an elderly neighbor. One day she passes on, and. . .
13. Your son decides to join the military upon graduation. You’re a pacifist…

I’ve got away from my life goal lately, which is to leave the world a better place than I found it. Some may say I’ve got pretty far away, and I’d have to concur.

The reason (excuse?) for this is that my writing business is booming, and I simply am treading water one day to the next. So, over the past weekend, I began to brainstorm ideas to combine my two worlds, and this is what I’ve come up with:

• Query articles that help the world. Examples would be travel articles that have a humanitarian slant, education-based articles aimed at segments of the population who may need some help in navigating the system, or inspirational articles such as first-generation college grads.
• Copywrite for humanitarian organizations. Everyone needs copy!
• Offer pro bono grant writing once or twice per year to targeted agencies.
• Start a blog to keep your humanitarian goals accounted for.

I’ve done a couple items on this list, and have written others into my 2008 goals.

By the way, as far as grant writing goes, the ladies at Freelance Parent wrote an exceptionally informative series on it last week.

Good luck and feel free to leave YOUR thoughts on writing and the world.

Do you get writer’s burn out? I guess I get mini-burnout- it’s usually solved by a short weekend. But I’ve read some tales of big time writer’s burn out, and I never want to go there. Here’s a round up of some ideas I found when researching writer’s burn out.

Errant Dreams has a particularly long list, including taking the requisite vacation, journaling and reading. I especially agree with the reading part- that always inspires me!

One of Mar Com Writer’s suggestions particularly hit me: Write in a different genre. I can see that. I recently switched my blogging jobs all to one day. By the end of that day I am so so tired of blogging!

The Urban Muse suggests a hard time to turn off the computer. (Wow, that sounds like a fantasty to me as I drip my week’s posts at 7 o’clock on a Sunday~~!) 

I am open to YOUR suggestions on burnout, although we do have a “comment eating monster” we’re working on here at 451. So, please, feel free to email me gwpublications at gmail dot com and I’ll take care of your comment myself!

I’m with you on this one. Seems I only get through one or two books per year, usually over Christmas Break or on a plane somewhere.

However, this year, I just got tired of it, and one of my resolutions was to fix it. This is what I did.

1) Begin with outlining what challenges you, i.e. Why is this so difficult?

Me: Time, too many books, and too many books half-read.

2) Brainstorm the challenges one by one. Figure out which is the biggest challenge. 

Me: It wasn’t really about Time. In reality, I always try to pick up a book or magazine at the end of the night. If my computer is backing up or taking time to upload, I try to pick up a work-related book to kill the time. So the other two challenges were the real issues. Really, it came down to not knowing which book to pick up, and/or where that particular book was.

3) Solve the big one. Solving the biggest challenge will in and of itself help the others along. Therefore, put your effort into this specific one first and foremost.

Me: It was all about organization and location. So, I cleared a shelf and designated it as mine. No one else’s books can go on this shelf. Then, I resolved to read one book at a time! No more half read books lying about the house.

I placed the books in order that I want to read them on the shelf and voila! a book is always right out front, easy to find, and ready to go at the end of the night.

As writers we all like to read, right? But let’s remind ourselves that it is absolutely vital that we hone our craft by picking up others writing. Let’s make a commitment to training ourselves in this way.

So, what’s your #1 reading challenge? 

Sorry readers, we’re going to have to go with short n sweet today…

I have a sick cat that needs to go to the vet ASAP, an overdue project, a plumber coming out to possibly replace our water heater, and a potential client meeting this afternoon. How crazy is that? How much work do you think I’ll get done today? Who wants to see me cry?

What’s keeping you from writing? Just know that you are not alone!