Category Archives: advice

advice, editorial

Top Five Productivity Enhancers

Every once in a while–like today–I find the need for an extra something to keep the work flowing properly. Here is my list of current productivity enhancers:

1. The “off” button on my phones.

2. A large pot of PG Tips tea. By noon, it’s all gone.

3. iTunes on “shuffle”. Alternatively, Adam and The Ants “Dirk Wears White Sox” on repeat and very loud. I’m old-school.

4. Laptop and PC running simultaneously.

5. Once-hourly breaks for NPR news or some other update.

The most valuable is the “off” button. “Dirk Wears White Sox” makes me write faster for some reason, and having the laptop and PC on at the same time lets me multitask even more…I run all media from the PC, e-mail and research on the laptop, and sometimes compose on both at once. I’ll alternate between blog entries and articles and sometimes submit two unrelated pieces of writing within seconds of each other. This probably qualifies me as a bone fide nut job, but I don’t care. So far, so good.

Feel free to post your own productivity enhancers in the comments section, the stranger or more innovative the better.

advice

Missed Opportunities For Publication Credits

One of my biggest regrets as a writer is having missed the chance to get a few serious publication credits with a major retailer. My freelance gigs had dried up and I was running low on cash. I felt backed into a corner and took a job as a Loss Prevention Agent for Gap Inc. “Loss Prevention” is corporate shorthand for “store detective”, and I took the job feeling like it was a major setback and a symptom of my failure to hack it as a full-time writer.

Since I was feeling so sorry for myself, I completely missed viewing the experience as a way to get published and rebuild my writing career into a viable concern again. For starters, the anti-shoplifting angles would be great for any retail trade magazine, but I was so out of it that I overlooked an even better chance; submitting retail loss prevention how-to articles to the company-wide newsletter and corporate website.

Who wouldn’t love to have a writing credit for Gap Inc. on a resume aimed at other clients in PR, marketing, and trade magazine publishing? I blew it big-time, and realized it only after leaving the company for a brand new writing opportunity as a staff writer for a music industry daily.

Continue reading Missed Opportunities For Publication Credits →

editorial

We Are Watching!

People really should be careful how act in public. Of how they treat people. Of what they say to others. We are watching. The writers all over the world need to tell a story, and if people aren’t careful–it just might wind up being theirs. There is nothing that a writer loves more than to have material dropped in their lap with little effort. Many writers I know get their ideas for stories or characters by eavesdropping on other people’s conversations in line, at the store and during lunch.

Just the other day, I overheard a woman talking to her son as he tried to eat lunch. “You could have caught that fly ball, you know,” she snarled. His eyes drifted out the window, as if trying to escape to the street outside. “Hey,” she snapped, tugging soundly at his arm, “are you listening to me mister?” She was caught in the act and didn’t even know that someone else was watching this ugly scene.

And now you are reading about her. Just like that.

Continue reading We Are Watching! →

advice, editorial

Writing Advice From “Ask Pud”

ask-pud2.jpgPhillip Kaplan’s Ask Pud blog is one I come back to from time to time for no other reason than it’s amusing and gives me a break from writing-related stuff for a few minutes. I ran across an interesting post recently that definitely applies to writers.

Just take out the phrases “professional musician” and “rock stars,”  insert the word “freelancer” or “writer” and you’ve got the gist. You can safely ignore the snarky bit about heroin–that’s a musician thing, not a writer thing. Besides, what freelancer has time for THAT nonsense? What follows is quoted from Ask Pud:

Continue reading Writing Advice From “Ask Pud” →

advice, editorial

Pro Blogging: A Few Casual Observations

Ever since I landed my first gig as a paid blogger, I’ve been studying some “hidden” aspects of professional blogging. The one thing pro bloggers should do from the word go is take notice of the ever-shifting nature of the business, watch how it changes, and anticipate the future in order to keep those paychecks coming in. The bloggers who don’t change with the times will get left behind like the most primitive web 1.0 sites. And we all know what we think about THOSE, now, don’t we?

This little collection of observations is by no means representational of the whole industry, these are just my own opinions. They may apply in varying degrees to your situation, and I’m sure there are a few truisms in here. I suspect I’m not alone in observing some of the following:

Continue reading Pro Blogging: A Few Casual Observations →

editorial

The Editors Rant & Rave: “It’s EASY To Be A Writer!”

by Joe Wallace & Catherine L. Tully

From time to time we’ll do a joint post here, each giving our 2 cents on a given topic. Here is our debut!

Joe:

Newsstands, libraries and the internet are packed with writing-oriented publications. They offer tips and tricks for improving a writer’s chops, advice on how to land paying gigs in the industry and list the latest contests and fellowships. Some of these are worth the writer’s time and money. Others seem to encourage an unrealistic impression of what it is truly like to be a writer. You may have seen them–these magazines boldly exclaim “YOU can be a WRITER–TODAY!” and order the reader to start right away, illustrating how to keep diaries, create web logs and compile family histories.

This seems harmless on the surface, but for the implication that they hype is true–anyone is capable of being a writer. Magazine covers tell readers to start writing “TODAY”. But what does this really mean? Continue reading The Editors Rant & Rave: “It’s EASY To Be A Writer!” →