John Updike’s Writing Wisdom (part II): Write Daily, Read What Excites You

by Erin Dalpini

Want to be happy? Do something every day, so says Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project, a bestselling book and popular blog.

It sounds pretty mundane, but according to Rubin, it works, and it can apply to any sort of habit—making the bed, working out, doing the dishes—do it every day and you might find “pleasure in the routine.” Getting into a daily habit, I think, is is a great way to keep from procrastinating doing something you know is good for you, but is hard to start doing–like flossing. Or in my case, writing. And writing query letters.

You see, I have a day job, which is actually writing-based, but outside of that job I find it sometimes incredibly difficult to motivate myself to get to work on a new project or, heaven forbid, just do some good old-fashioned free-writing or journaling.

In fact, inspired by Rubin, one of my New Year’s resolutions was to write daily.

Um . . . it’s March right? Still working on that.

… Continue Reading

Grammar Tip: It’s Vs. Its

First of all…if you haven’t yet taken advantage of the free app from Dictionary.com for the iPhone, Blackberry or Android, don’t waste time–get it now. This is a great resource to have with you on the go, and you never know when you will need it. Plus, it’s free.

Next. Grammar.

I’ve seen it one time too many lately, and I thought I would share a great resource for knowing when to use it’s as opposed to its. Once you know the rules, it isn’t hard. (Or should I say it’s not hard?)

As I was writing this post I realized something. It’s so easy to get lazy as a writer. To avoid looking up rules and just go with another choice when trying to put together a sentence. I’m going to start sharing the tidbits I have picked up along the way with Freelance-Zone readers. Consider this the first of many!

Check Out All Freelance Writing…

by Catherine L. Tully

Hey! Just a quick post to let everyone know that I will be doing a regular series on “Writing For Print” on All Freelance Writing. This is a great site and I highly recommend it for both new and experienced freelance writers. Owner/Author Jennifer Mattern has pulled together a very eclectic group of freelancers–and they are all sharing advice and opinions that can help you advance your career.

Drop by and take a peek–and bookmark this site–it’s terrific!

Try This: Write a Greeting Card

Happy birthday! Although it’s more likely in this digital era that you’ll receive Facebook posts and texts acknowledging your day of birth rather than a hand-written greeting, the average American still receives more than 20 greeting cards each year, contributing to an industry that grosses an estimated $7.5 billion a year, according to the Greeting Card Association.

I venture that’s because there’s something special about giving or receiving the perfect birthday card. You know, the one that fits to a T the personality of the recipient, the birthday card you receive that makes you laugh out loud. But who writes those funny or sentimental messages? Who keeps them fresh?

Enter Oatmeal Studios, a humorous greeting card company, and their pool of freelance writers and artists. Do you have what it takes to be a greeting card guru? Dawn Abraham, Editor at Oatmeal Studios tells all . . .

Freelance-Zone: Oatmeal Studios has been around for about 25 years. Can you tell writers a bit about the company?

Dawn Abraham: Actually, Oatmeal Studios has been around for more than 30 years. It started as a family-owned business with a few designs and grew into a large, alternative humorous card company with sales internationally.

FZ: How did you come to be involved with the company? 

DA: I started writing for Oatmeal in 1986 and because I lived nearby, it was a natural progression for me to start working in the company part-time as an assistant editor in 1987; I have been working here since then (with one break when my kids were little)…

… Continue Reading

John Updike’s Writing Wisdom (part I): Book Reviews

by Erin Dalpini

I’m working on a new project—a book review of a contemporary novel I recently read; although I’ve done this before, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what makes a fantastic book review.

Last fall, when I was doing some research for a review of Toni Morrison’s newest novel, A Mercy, I dabbled around on the Internet to see what others were saying about this book so that I could join in that conversation. I’d already read the book and had formed an impression of it, but I knew I needed to know what the experts thought.

One of the first pieces I found, a review in the The New Yorker caused me to sit up and take notice—it was an engaging, entertaining, and also gave me some new insight into the novel. When I looked for the byline, to my surprise, it was the literary legend John Updike. Updike, though best-remembered for his extensive body of fiction (short stories, novels, poetry), produced an equally-impressive array of literary criticism and essays. In short: the man was prolific. And he had an extraordinary way of making a book review anything but mundane. This piece was sharp, witty, informed, concise—essentially, it was the best book review I’d ever read and it left quite an impression on me.

So, returning to the writer’s block, I was curious: what did Updike have to say about writing book reviews? And what do modern day writers do when they have an obscure question like that?

Right. Turn to Google.

I was fortunate early on to stumble across a post (from a book blog I promptly bookmarked) pointing to hidden treasure: an older post, from the blog of the National Book Critics Circle, citing helpful tips from the master himself (one that’s so dated it redirects readers to the new host that, from what I can tell, does not have the piece archived). The advice is from Updikes’s Picked Up Pieces, a collection of his assorted prose. Three points (of six) I found incredibly helpful… … Continue Reading

Word Warriors

by Catherine L. Tully

Wayne State University has a little gem of a web page that I stumbled across the other day called “Word Warriors“. It lists a “word of the week” that you can check out to keep expanding your vocabulary. I heard once that the average person stops learning new words at age 23. Not sure if that is true–but it scared me! Now I actively seek out ways to keep expanding my cache of words–and this is a great resource to do it with.

Oh–and they are on Twitter and Facebook too.

6 Freelance Job Resources You Haven’t Thought Of

by Joe Wallace

Looking for freelance gigs? You’ve probably been all over the map in search of more steady work, but there are a few places that haven’t been beaten to death by the scraper sites..though they probably will be after we publish this. Best advice? Keep your BEST job resources to yourself as long as possible to avoid the bandwagon syndrome.

That said, here are a few that haven’t been ruined by scraper sites yet…and some that NEVER will be due to the nature of the job sourcing:

Reddit Jobs is pricey for editors to list gigs on–300 a day for 30 days–so you won’t be troubled by a bunch of spammy ads from the usual places offering you three bucks a post or “revenue sharing”. At press time, the problem with Reddit Jobs for freelancers is that some fields are underrepresented, but that obviously changes depending on supply and demand.

Artisan Creative. The reason why Artisan won’t be scraped out of usefulness for a busy freelancer? They have a screening process for candidates. This isn’t an “all-comers” source of freelance jobs, it’s a situation where talent actually matters. Artisan is a creative staffing agency that places writers, coders, designers, and many other freelance specialties. The jobs are heavy-hitting, too. Major companies, household names. I have personal experience with Artisan Creative and am very happy with them.
… Continue Reading

J.D. Salinger, the Anti-Freelancer, Dead at 91

J.D. Salinger, author of Catcher In The Rye, has died at the age of 91.

Most writers want to hit it big and milk the cash cow for all it’s worth. Not so in J.D. Salinger’s case; he wrote one novel and a collection of short stories and by 1959 he’d had it. According to Time, Salinger still wrote but never published. After dying at home of natural causes, will any of his unreleased work ever see the light of day?

America has lost one of its most influential (even though profoundly inactive) voices. Catcher In The Rye was required reading for probably 99% of the entire currently active freelance writing world. Salinger was a mystery, but there’s still hope that we’ll get something more to read posthumously by what many describe as the “hermit crab of American letters.”

J.D. Salinger 1919–2010

Guide Gecko

by Catherine L. Tully

Need a travel guide book? Don’t want to pay through the nose at the bookstore? Check out Guide Gecko, a site that sells PDFs and books to the public at reasonable prices.

Another cool feature is the publishing wizard offered which enables authors to create their own guidebook and sell it on the site. Authors receive a percentage of the profit, as well as a visible platform to sell their work. Interesting concept.

I’m always fascinated to see what people are coming up with out there, and I thought this was a creative site that FZ readers might want to check out. Enjoy!

The Problem With Job Boards

Freelance gigs are posted and reposted like crazy on your favorite writing sites. Even we have posted jobs here when the mood strikes us. While we enjoy doing it when there’s time, we fully recognize one overriding problem with getting leads from “the usual places”.

If 75 people who are all looking for freelance writing opportunities look at a single job post, the editor is likely to get 75 query letters or resumes. That’s some pretty stiff competition.

That’s not to say you shouldn’t use the freelance writing job boards, just be prepared for a lot of no-reply situations unless you can get on the bandwagon early and beat the rush.

I have a dirty little secret I use for just such purposes, and it involves looking at the freelance writing gig sites, taking a few notes, and then not responding to ANY of the items posted there. My secret? … Continue Reading

Using RSS to Snipe Freelance Jobs on Craigslist

by Joe Wallace

Some writers I know swear by Craigslist; I used to swear by it myself until the advent of the CL scraper sites where “freelance jobs” means every CL post known to mankind along with all the other popular writing job sources. Now those who post jobs on CL are flooded with a massive amount of replies from writers from every skill level. Some who used to post jobs on Craigslist have given up and while there are still legit jobs to be found there, you have to wade through such an enormous amount of crap that it hardly seems worth it from where I sit.

But there are PLENTY of people who still love Craigslist as a source for freelance jobs. And in spite of the clearinghouses (a nice way of saying “Craigslist scraper sites) there is a way to beat the system. It’s so obvious that I’m sure many of our readers here are already doing this…but for those who aren’t, let me explain why you absolutely DO NOT need to rely on ANY third party website to get the Craigslist info you need. … Continue Reading

Putting a Price on Your Work

by Mike O’Mary

Hello Friends! Throughout my career as a writer, I’ve done creative work (mostly for fun) and corporate work (mostly for income). On the corporate side, I’ve worked as a corporate employee who sometimes hired freelancer writers and editors, and as a freelance writer and editor who sought work from corporations. 

One of the things I learned by working both sides of the corporate fence is that corporations think in terms of budget, whereas most freelancers think in terms of hourly rate. Even I made the switch when I went from being a corporate employee to being a freelancer… … Continue Reading

Dream Of Things

by Catherine L. Tully

Today I have the pleasure to share with you something really interesting. Editor and writer Mike O’Mary has come up with an idea for writers that I think will go far, and I interviewed him via e-mail so that I can share his ideas with Freelance-Zone readers here today. Let me know what you think, and be sure to sign up for more information at Dream Of Things.

FZ: Tell me a little about your background as a writer/editor.

Mike: I like writing essays, and I’ve also written fiction, drama and sketch comedy. The highlights are the essays I’ve published in various Sunday magazines, and writing and producing sketch comedy in Chicago. As for editing, I’ve edited several books, and I’ve written and edited lots of speeches and annual reports. So I’m a pretty good editor, but to me, writing is more fun.

FZ: What is Dream of Things?

Mike: Dream of Things is a book publisher and producer of videos and whatever else we decide to produce. It’s also an online community where writers and other artists can come together to 1) suggest ideas for books we’d like to see, and 2) write or contribute to books built around themes/ideas that spark our interest. Dream of Things will publish the books, and writers and other contributors will share in the royalties.

FZ: How did you come up with the idea for this?

Mike: I have always enjoyed working with creative people…writing workshops…working with actors, directors and musicians on theater productions…working with photographers, illustrators, graphic designers and video producers on other projects. I am very fortunate to have a lot of very creative people as friends, and I wanted to find ways for us to work together more often. I also hope to make a lot of new friends and to work with many of them… … Continue Reading

To Japan With Love Has Arrived!

by Catherine L. Tully

The wait is finally over. Joe and I were both recently published in the book To Japan With Love, and today I received my complimentary copies of the book in a box–all the way from Hong Kong.

It was a cool moment–I have to admit.

Being published in a travel book is a big deal in the writing world, and I am just thrilled to have two stories in this guidebook. It is my second time getting published in a book, and it is just as neat the second time. Every once in a while it is just fun to share an accomplishment with FZ readers. Thanks for being there…and keep working toward your dreams…they really can come true! (* And special thanks to Celeste Heiter for her great work editing this book–you are terrific!)

Travel Tips From Rick Steves

by Catherine L. Tully

If you have plans to go to Europe anytime in the near future, don’t miss out on these travel tips from Rick Steves. Here you’ll find everything from “outsmarting theives” to “tipping tactics” and more. This is a very helpful resource, and even if you are traveling somewhere other than Europe, it’s worth a peek.

Be sure to look at the packing list while you are there…and take note that there is a special one for women.