Category Archives: editorial

advice, editorial, social networking

Wanna Be Headhunted?

Joe-Wallace-Vinyl-Collector-and-authorby Joe Wallace

I’ve got a super-busy schedule these days; my writing gigs have increased exponentially, I’m enrolled in the Recording Arts program at Tribeca Flashpoint Media Academy here in Chicago, and I’m working the post-production end of my short film, 45 RPM.

So naturally, I have absolutely no time whatsoever to consider the gig that was offered to me today via e-mail; a digital managing editor slot for a startup near me.

I didn’t apply for this gig–far from it–it came to me in my inbox today from a creative placement agency. I didn’t have to wonder how they found me, as I’ve got a little strategy to help me track where my random e-mails come from and how I’ve been discovered on the Internet.

My resume site for my work in multi-media has a site-specific e-mail address. So does my writing-specific resume site. Ditto for my vinyl blog Turntabling.net and my filmmaking blog Now-Sound.com.

The headhunter found me, oddly enough, via my multimedia resume page. So it’s likely the headhunter did a keyword search for a set of specific terms and my site wound up in the page one or page two results.

If you want to be discovered this way, there are plenty of ways to do it–mine includes having a resume page that’s been online at the same address for a very long time, using SEO-optimized resume writing techniques, along with plenty of images also with SEO optimized filenames. But none of this is my point, really.

If you really want to open up some additional freelance options for yourself, I strongly suggest you check out the creative temp agencies in your market. They can be an important source of income for a creative freelancer. Some of my highest profile and best-paying work has come from agencies, and I did some good work for these household name-type companies.

If you’re frustrated with a lack of work, a creative temp agency might just open up some new income potential for you. I have no time whatsoever to consider the position e-mailed to me today, but maybe YOU do.

Joe Wallace is a writer, editor, indie filmmaker, multi-media artist and time management fanatic. He has many projects going at once, and has finally realized he’s not truly happy unless he’s beating deadlines, rushing for trains, calculating the amount of remaining natural light, editing video, and planning his next recording session all within the same day. He blogs about filmmaking at Now-Sound.com.

editorial, fiction, lifestyle

Find A New Dream

by Diane Holmes, (a) Chief Alchemist of Pitch University, (b) lover of learning, and (c) writer of fiction, non-fiction, and the occasional manifesto.

dream bigYour dream is about writing.  I already know that.  But what I want to know is if you’re living your big writing dream today? 

Because I’m not.

And, in a way, I’m farther away than ever.

(How in the world 20 years of hard work can lead you farther away, I have no idea!  But reality is like that.  It’s illogical and ill-behaved and apt to squash your hopes and dreams.)

Now, some of you are getting close to your dreams, so this article won’t help much.  But if you have worked hard every waking moment and still aren’t “there,” then this article might help you ask The Big Questions.

Should I let go of my dream?

Should I stop giving it CPR?

Should I find a new dream to dream?

The more you fear these questions, the more important it is to ask them.

And yes, your new dream can be a new writing dream. Or not.  I’m not imposing rules on your dreaming.  Not my job.  But basically you have all of reality to play with, so don’t panic.

The Importance of Today

In all my years of hard work and dreaming, what have I been doing?  I’ve been clawing my way toward a future goal.  The Dream.

I thought that was how it was done.  Everyone said so.  You set your sights on a big dream and then you don’t give up.  You use your fingernails if you have to, as you dig in and keep going. 

But now, I’m not so sure.

  • What about all the todays on the way to your dream? 
  • What if you don’t reach your big dream, ever? 
  • What if your fingernails break before you get there? 
  • Does that mean you have no dream to live, because you never made it to your dream location?

What if the future is today?  How would that change things?

The folks over at The One Question put it this way:

“…to find your life purpose you have to live your life purpose. You can start living your life purpose immediately.”

If you don’t live your purpose (or your dream), then you’ll never find it.  And if not today, then when?

Just For Today

Instead of a big dream, I wonder if the key isn’t found in what you dream just for today?

What you live for today

Maybe all you have to do is find your dream for today.  Or as John December says:

Find a way to gain some aspects of your dream today.

The pieces of the dream ARE the dream, just smaller.  To ignore these small pieces is to miss the whole point of having a dream.

Gain your dream, piece by piece.

Own your dream, today by today.

By owning a piece of your dream today, you are eliminating the space between you and your dream.  In fact, you and your dream are one.

Dreamer and dream.

Now Back To The Big Questions

Is it time for a new dream?

It really comes down to today, doesn’t it?

Do the small pieces of your dream create a wonderful today?

That’s the one question this whole article comes down to.

Until you can answer this question, you can’t ask any of the others. 

How can you know if you should let go of your dream–if you should stop giving it CPR–unless you ask yourself about the reality of how you live your dream.  Or how you don’t.

After all, if your dream doesn’t even exist until some dim future, then what are you planning on letting go of?  Something that never existed?

And what about if you decide to let go?

There are so many, many changes you can make to your dream and how you experience it.  And beyond that there are a multitude of dreams you can call your own.

You’re the dreamer.  It’s your call.

It’s okay to make a change.  It really, really is.  And it’s okay to keep your dream exactly the same.

I just wish we talked about the small pieces more.  The day-to-day tasks.  the way we tried to move forward.  About how we see these small pieces as “living the writing dream.” 

I think we might be a lot happier with a dream we live just for today.  A dream we can touch.  A dream that makes us… US.

—

clip_image004Diane writes two alternating columns for Freelance-Zone:Fiction-Zone: Leaps in Fiction Mastery and Marketing-Zone:Marketing-Zone: Marketing Yourself and Your Book.

advice, editorial

Team Collaboration For Creative Freelancers

Filmmaking Film production freelance sound designby Joe Wallace

Over the summer, I decided I wasn’t busy enough and enrolled in the Recording Arts for Film program at Tribeca Flashpoint Media Academy. The program began this week with orientation and on Day Two, we got right into things with a team-building exercise designed to help people understand just what they are getting into at the schoolhouse.

I am certainly not the only non-traditional (read, “older”) student there, but as we divided up into teams it was clear that the experienced students were spread around the room, giving us ample opportunity to make choices about how to proceed with the first team building exercise–a video project that required a quick bit of writing, some video capture, sound design and editing.

I’ve got boatloads of experience in these areas, but rather than dive right in and start organizing the team I was assigned to, I thought it might be slightly less egotistical–and a lot more educational–to simply wait for someone else to volunteer to take charge, take direction from them, and watch the team dynamic evolve.

And did it ever! We made some of the classic newcomer mistakes–letting one person take the lead (not me) for writing, directing, and producing and then sorting out the mayhem when that started to go awry. What was really great was watching the youngest team members–some right out of high school–begin to find their leadership legs when it was clear that nobody was going to jump in to save the day. (Not that they expected someone to do that, mind you….)

If a more experienced student had herded the group down the “right” path, none of that would have gotten to happen. It would have been easy to say, “You do THAT because you have experience with THIS, and you go take care of A and B in the script while WE undo problem C and D.”

Instead, the group evolved and team leadership roles developed organically–you could literally see the changes in attitude start to happen as the problems got fixed, the issues worked out, and the players finding their collaborative legs.

When you’re on a freelance creative team with many newcomers and new-to-the-field people, there’s a time to steer the ship with more experienced hands, and there’s a time to let people stretch beyond their comfort zones. The trick is knowing which is which. Leading a team of creatives–freelance or not–means finding the balance for the benefit of both the project and those working it.

Tribeca is a media arts academy, and while some might not see the relevance in any of this to the freelance life, I should point out that they tell you in orientation that a great many jobs waiting for those who graduate this two-year program are freelance by nature rather than staff positions. So for me, at least, this adds a whole new dimension to my work and my writing about the freelance life. Expect more multi-media musings from me here as they relate to freelance work, the coursework I’m involved with at Tribeca, and etc.

–Joe Wallace

editorial, fiction

Top 10 Ways To Tell If You’re Creative

by Diane Holmes, (a) Chief Alchemist of Pitch University, (b) lover of learning, and (c) writer of fiction, non-fiction, and the occasional manifesto.

Creative Child Hands

10. See a problem, brainstorm solutions.

You can’t help yourself.  It give you happy feet.

9. See the box, play outside of it.

Color the box.  Take an object from inside the box on a little trip outside the box.  Remove the box altogether. Cut box up into little pieces to see if they make something better.

They do.

8. Every word has a certain feeling to it.

You want to explain how valuable this is.  Sometimes you even try.  But ultimately it takes a Jedi to feel the Force.

7.  Mental leaps.  Take them you will.

Yet each looks totally logical, practical, and the speed of all worthwhile thought.  Everything else is slow and painful.

6. Stories are essential to mankind.

Good news:  everything is a story.  (Or would be if you ran the world.)

5. Real life can always be made more meaningful.

Especially when seen through the lens of fiction.  Also non-fiction and limericks.

4. Creative people can be fearless and full of fear at the very same time.

Certainty and uncertainty.  High gear and the emergency brake.  When people say you should create a balanced life, you think this is exactly what they mean.

3. The moments when we’re brilliant make everything else worthwhile.

You don’t even need very many of them. You can go for months on the fumes of one moment of creative genius.  Imagine what you could do with two?

2. Compliments are currency.

A fan letter is like an Oscar.  They like us!  They really like us!

Sob.

1. Epic idea = writing crack.

It’s your biggest superpower.  The thing from which everything else flows.  And this feels normal to you.  Totally, 100% normal.

Ordinary, really.  Like a wheat bran muffin, ordinary.  Except it’s made of sparkles and travels mach10 around 25 billion brain cells, in a world made of only your favorite colors. (Except the bran muffin is really chocolate.  But you knew that.)

After all, in an ordinary day, there’s always enough time for your mind to be blown.

And THAT’S how you can tell if you’re creative.

—

clip_image004Diane writes two alternating columns for Freelance-Zone:Fiction-Zone: Leaps in Fiction Mastery and Marketing-Zone:Marketing-Zone: Marketing Yourself and Your Book.

advice, blogging, editorial, social networking

Back From Chicon 7 In Chicago Illinois

Worldcon Chicon 7 Chicagoby Joe Wallace

I am a book nerd, it is true. I do have quite a background of sci-fi nerdiness too, so it was only logical that I’d attend Chicon 7 and cover it from a writer/producers/freelancer perspective. I didn’t go to the show thinking I’d find a ton of material for freelancers who specialize in non-fiction writing, but surprisingly enough, I did uncover quite a few resources and seminars non-fiction writers can get useful takeaways from.

Chicon/Worldcon, for those of you who aren’t familiar, is a science fiction convention that is held in a different major city every year. From Helsinki to San Antonio, there are cities the world over vying to host this show that features some of the legends of science fiction. This year’s luminaries included Ben Bova, George R.R. Martin (most recently famous for Game of Thrones now that it’s hit a cable audience) and Joe Haldeman. Neil Gaiman was there to accept a Hugo award for his work on Doctor Who, so you get the idea of how large this convention gets…

I discovered plenty of seminars and panel discussions aimed at working writers, artists, and other creatives; some of the most enlightening sessions covered raising money on Kickstarter, e-publishing, and social media. For a convention that would seem to appeal more to a consumer of books rather than a writer of them, this show offered plenty for the pro or would-be pros in our midst.

If you have never attended a genre-specific convention such as Worldcon (science fiction), HorrorHound Weekend (horror, naturally) or a related program, you might just be missing out on some interesting perspective on the craft and networking opportunities.

I attended Worldcon (AKA Chicon 7) looking for things to write about for Freelance-Zone.com but soon discovered some interesting opportunities as a filmmaker and script writer seeing as how there was an ongoing film festival featuring some high-concept sci-fi material, new projects by up-and-coming hopefuls, and Chicago indie filmmakers trying to make their mark on the scene. There was a whole lot of writing and filming talk going on–very inspirational.

So it was a show full of surprises. Yes, the standard sci-fi convention features were all there including people in costume, raucous after-con parties, and a dealer’s room crammed full of t-shirts and books. But there were plenty of hidden treasures to discover too–freelancers should give serious thought to finding a convention to attend and getting some new angles on their work they might not have thought of before.

Conventions are great networking tools for obvious business reasons, but they also get you out and about among people you wouldn’t otherwise meet–that’s the value of these events for me; the chance to look at what I do in a different way, through different filters, and thinking of new angles for future development.

–Joe Wallace

advice, editorial

Today’s Writing Tip: Using Your Spellcheck

sig2010

Previously I’ve written about the drawbacks of the spellcheck device in Word, Yahoo or Gmail, or Outlook Express.

There are many disadvantages to relying on a spellcheck, starting with the fact that it doesn’t always recognize homonyms, and it will frequently miss a typo if the word is spelled correctly. For example, the grammatically incorrect sentence, “I went to give him a huge” was not flagged by my Outlook or in Word.

However, despite all its frailties, it’s critical to use a spellcheck for e-mails, articles, blogs, and, in particular, manuscripts. Why wouldn’t you take advantage of that? It’s like doing complicated math in your head instead of pushing a few buttons on a calculator. I may know how to do a square root, but if a machine can do it for me and I know that it will be accurate, I would be foolish not to take advantage of the wonders of the 21st century.

The spellcheck is nothing like a calculator because it doesn’t have a 100% accuracy rate if you pump in all the right numbers like a calculator. But spellcheck will recognize a large number of misspelled words and flag all kinds of grammatical problems.

If you are writing a manuscript and submitting it to an editor, the editor determines his or her price estimate for your project based on how many hours the project will take. And if it’s not spellchecked, it will take a lot longer to do than a manuscript that has been checked. Deliver a clean product.

Enable the automatic spell-checking on your e-mail program and always push F7 when you finish an article or manuscript. It really makes a difference.

Sigrid Macdonald is the author of three books, including Be Your Own Editor http://tinyurl.com/7wnk5se and two erotic short stories, which she wrote under the pen name Tiffanie Good. Silver Publishing just released “The Pink Triangle,” a tale of friendship, lust, and betrayal. You can view her story here: http://tinyurl.com/6v65rgr