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It can be scary to put yourself out there as a freelance writer.

“What if I screw up?” You ask yourself. “What if I make a mistake that ends my freelance career before it even starts?”

I have news for you: You will screw up. Royally.

But I promise you, it won’t be the end of your career.

Any (truthful) freelance writer will tell you that she’s made mistakes and lived to tell the tale. Some writing gurus like to put forth an image of utter perfection, but even the most published writer — if you gave him enough wine — has stories to spill about the times he’s messed up.

To show you how even massive goofs quickly become yesterday’s news, here are the top four mistakes I’ve made in my freelance writing career.

1. The Egregious Spelling Error

When I was starting out as a copywriter in the late 1990s, I wrote a sales letter to that proudly stated:

“I can spell zyzzygy, onomatopoeia, and Weltanschauung, and am one of the few people who knows the difference between it’s and its, you’re and your.”

I sent this out to oh, maybe 100 or 200 prospects via snail mail. And one day, I got an email from one of these prospects to let me know that the word is actually spelled syzygy.

* facepalm *

Man, did I turn red. I may have even tried to cover for myself in my return email. But the fact is, I bragged that I could spell a word that I couldn’t spell. I wasn’t even close.

And guess what? No one else seemed to notice. I went on to do copywriting for companies like Pizzeria Uno, Sprint, OnStar, Bay State Gas, Sarnafil Roofing, and Wainwright Bank.

2. The Worst Article Idea Ever

Way back when I first started pitching the national women’s magazines, I sent an idea to Family Circle and a few other publications called “Quik Dri Cheez: Why Advertisers Can’t Spell.” I promised to answer the pressing question of why advertisers and product creators routinely spelled product names in odd ways.

If you can’t see why this is a terrible idea for a women’s magazine, you need to stop reading now and sign up for my email list to get a free packet of 10 really good query letters — to see how much more spot on every one of those ideas is.

You’d think a doozy like that would inspire an editor to say “Please lose my email address.” But the more I pitched the better my ideas and queries got, and I ended up writing for Family Circle a dozen times.

3. The Embarrassing Query Subject Line

Once I read a great tip on how to format email subject lines for a query letter: Include the title of your query, the fact that you’re a freelance writer, and your name. That way, editors would be grabbed by your headline, understand you’re not a PR person, and be able to quickly find the query if it got lost by searching on your name.

What a great idea! I wanted to pitch an article on how to combat unpleasant body odors like bad breath and stinky feet, so I sent out a query with this headline:

Query from Freelance Writer: What’s That Smell? Linda Formichelli

As the email zapped off the screen I realized — too late — that it sounded like I, personally, was the thing making people wrinkle their noses in disgust.

Guess what? The article sold to Women’s Health.

4. The Time I Was Banned By a Magazine

Years ago, I read that if you wanted to write two articles about the same topic, in order for the pieces to legally be considered new, they had to be 10% different. That means when you rewrite an article, you have to make sure at least 10% f the copy was changed.

So when I wrote an article for a money magazine about the financial benefits of being healthy, and then reslanted it for a health magazine, I changed up the copy as much as I could and thought I was in the clear.

The first editor thought otherwise. Somehow he discovered that I had written a similar article for the health magazine, and accused me of sending him a “warmed over” version of a story I had already sold to someone else. He also made it clear I was no longer welcome to write for that magazine.

I was humiliated. How had that handy rule served me wrong? I lost a great client that day.

Now I know that when you write on a similar topic for two different magazines, every word of it needs to be different; you can’t reuse even a single phrase or quote.

I never did pitch that financial magazine again, but my career hasn’t suffered in the slightest. I felt embarrassed, apologized, and moved on. And here I am, still standing.

If you’re worried that you’ll make a mistake that will end your career, I hope these stories put your fears to rest. As long as you do your best, learn as you go along, and act like a professional, you can enjoy a long and lucrative freelance writing career. I made some scary-bad screw-ups and

How about you: What major mess-ups have you made in your freelance writing life, and how did they affect your career? Let us know in the comments below!

P.S. The Freelance Den — the learning and support community that helps freelance writers move up and earn more — is celebrating its 3rd anniversary this week! We’ll be opening to new members, and Carol Tice and I are offering a free Ask the Den Mothers Anything live call on Thursday at 3 pm EDT. We’ll be on the line as long as it takes to answer everyone’s questions. To be the first to know when the Den opens, and to get dial-in info for this call, join the Den waitlist now!

There are three ways to make a good living as a freelance writer.

You can work hard and earn a lot of money — or you can scale down your lifestyle and live on less. Or, you could do a little of each.

I do a combination of both. As I’ve mentioned here before, I earn around $70,000 per year working 20 hours per week on a combination of writing for magazines and corporate clients, teaching e-courses, and mentoring writers.

But when my husband and I (and later, our son) lived in New Hampshire for six years, even with my income and my husband’s freelance income, it felt like we were often living on the edge, making just enough to get by. All our bills were covered, but we didn’t have much of a cushion and we didn’t get to travel as much as we wanted.

I could have worked harder and earned more, because I was working only two days per week, with a few additional hours scattered here and there throughout the week. But I value my free time over everything else, and I didn’t want to bust my butt for 40 hours or more per week.

So we cut down on expenses.

Out went the cable, which we had only to watch Project Runway 16 weeks out of the year. Goodbye went the personal trainer. Sayonara, daycare!

We started feeling like we had more breathing room, though juggling a two-year-old at home and two writing careers was not easy.

Then we made the decision that really put us ahead: We moved to North Carolina.

I’d estimate our monthly expenses are around $1,500 less here than they were in New Hampshire.

That’s $18,000 savings per year.

For example, our health insurance is $600 less per month. Rent is $400 less than our mortgage was. Heat cost us $500 every month in the winter in New Hampshire, while here in North Carolina the amount is under $200.

We also homeschool and my mom helps out with childcare, which saves us the cost of preschool and, later, private school. Because we both work from home on part-time hours, we’re sure we can make it work.

That’s the great thing about freelancing: You can live pretty much anywhere, so you’re not stuck in a pricey area. And we freelancers tend to like our freedom and to make our own decisions, and we’re not afraid to make choices that others wouldn’t make, like homeschooling or pulling up stakes and moving.

Whatever you do, wherever you live, is your choice. Some people say they have no choice but to do X, Y, or Z, but that’s not true. You may not like your options, and you may be facing a risk, but you always have a choice.

And as a freelancer, you have more choices than most. You don’t have to go with the crowd. So why not use your freedom and independence to craft a lifestyle that works for you? [lf]

I just wanted to post a quick note this Thanksgiving thanking my wonderful readers for their support, comments, and e-mails. I appreciate that with so little time and so many options, you choose to read The Renegade Writer. Thanks also to everyone who has taken my e-course, signed up for phone mentoring or query critiquing, and bought my e-books.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

It’s almost Thanksgiving, and I’m feeling extra grateful. I love my job and I love my life, and I’m thankful for all the people who helped me make my dream a reality. In particular, I’d like to thank:

* My readers. It’s no fun writing into the void, so I’m grateful that you keep coming back to read the Renegade Writer blog. It’s my mission to help writers reach their goals, whether your dream is to get started or to quit your 9-5 job or to boost your writing income. It’s so gratifying when I hear from a reader that my advice helped her in some way.

* My mentors. I’m not afraid to ask for help, and even to pay for it. My life coach, the instructor of the Yoga of Writing retreat, my close writer friends, my goal buddy, and the writers who answer my questions on Twitter and Facebook have been instrumental to my success. They give me advice, listen to my rants, help me find sources and markets, and help me brainstorm new and better ways to do things.

* My editors and copywriting clients. Thank you for continuing to hire me for your writing projects. I love working with every one of you. Without you, well, I wouldn’t have a writing career. I’ll always work my hardest to make your jobs easier.

* My clients and students. I always recommend diversifying, not only to keep your income secure but also because writing, writing, writing can be a grind. Teaching my e-course and doing phone mentoring have been so much fun. Teaching lends variety to my career, and of course I really enjoy interacting with writers at all different stages of their careers. That people actually pay me for my advice is like some wonderful dream!

* My sources. I so appreciate that sources take the time to participate in my articles. Even when my editors ask me to go back to them with a dozen additional questions during the revise phase or when fact checkers call them with lengthy checks, they’re always gracious.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! What are you grateful for this year? [lf]

Today I interviewed the treasurer of a local university for their alumni magazine, and at one point in the conversation he said, “Your processes are geared towards getting you the results you’ve been getting. If you don’t like the results, then your processes are no good.”

I love this. It makes a lot of sense for the freelance writer: If you’re not getting the work you want, then you need to tweak what you’re doing.

The statement also resonated with me personally. Lately I’d been wanting to attract new magazine clients and mentoring/e-course clients, but felt stuck. How could I expand my business? My usual M.O. wasn’t working as well as I would have liked.

I had been viewing social media as a distraction to be used as little as possible, but by chance Eric got me a book called The Zen of Social Media Marketing from the library. As I read it, I realized that this is what I’d been missing. I can connect with people through this blog, but the way to bring people to the blog is to actually, you know, get out there and build my expertise on other platforms. I definitely need to keep tabs on the amount of time I spend on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, but I’m excited about this change in direction and look forward to connecting with writers in new ways.

I call situations like this, where you suddenly take a leap into a new way of thinking and working, mind shifts. It was a mind shift in the summer of 2009 when I decided to cut my workweek down to two days (while maintaining the same income), and it was a mind shift two years ago when a coach talked me into offering phone mentoring (when I was previously scared of the idea).

Sometimes mind shifts come on of their own accord, but there are ways to help spur a mind shift when you feel stuck. So if you’re having trouble finding article ideas, thinking up new markets, or dreaming up new ways to sell your writing, here are some ways to force a mind shift.

Meditate. Sometimes we get stuck because we spend so much time running around putting out fires that we have no time or mental space to tackle the big issues. When this happens, I force myself to take a few minutes to lie on the floor and meditate. I often come up with fresh new ideas as, ironically, I’m trying to not attach to random floating thoughts.

Sometimes, opening yourself up this way brings on benefits without your even trying. The other day I was feeling harried and worried about not having enough work, so I shut my laptop and lay down on the floor. When I got up a little while later and checked my e-mail, there was a message from one of my favorite editors asking if I’d like to write a column for her magazine! That night before bed, I did a guided meditation from The Meditation Podcast. When I woke up in the morning, there was an e-mail from a custom publishing company I had written to weeks before, saying they were looking for freelance writers and would be in touch. I checked the time stamp and realized the e-mail had been sent at 10:30 pm the night before — the exact time I was doing the meditation.

Ask a coach. Whenever I feel like I’m stuck in low gear and need a mind shift, I set a session with my life coach. She’s the one who talked me into teaching e-courses even though my initial market research was less than positive. And it was a coach at The Yoga of Writing re

I tend to have Seasonal Affective Disorder — for a month or two in the winter, I’m exhausted, unmotivated, and down. I use a light box, take vitamin D, go for walks, do yoga, meditate — all the things you’re supposed to do — and still the winter depression comes. My life coach suggested that I simply work my ass off the rest of the year and then take the winter months off as much as I can to do what I need to do, like sleep. A Harvard researcher I interviewed for an article on emotions recommended the same thing: He called it “honoring the season.” I love the idea, but I can’t figure out how I could put off clients for a month or two without turning them off completely.

However, I DO “honor the season” on a day-by-day basis. We all have days when we feel down and dragged out, and we just can’t bring ourselves to work. We haul our butts into our ergonomically-correct chairs and try to will ourselves to write, but all that happens is that we spend the day in front of the computer surfing the web. Then, at the end of the day, we still feel down and dragged out — only now we feel guilty, too.

I’ve learned that when I have a day like this, it’s best to just go with it. Here are my tips for “honoring the day” so that tomorrow, you can feel rejuvenated and ready to get back to work.

Get an Early Start

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, as soon as I get an article assignment I start lining up interviews and doing research. That way, I’m not knocked off track if a key source is unavailable or some snag crops up; I have plenty of time to deal with the snafu. There’s another reason to start early, though: If I have a down day, I can take the day off and it won’t affect my current deadlines. Unless it’s the actual day before deadline and my article isn’t done, I can usually take off a day and pick up the thread again the day after.

Make a List

It’s hard to honor the day if you’re feeling guilty and frantic about all the to-dos that are running through your brain. Yesterday, which was a down day for me, I took a few minutes to make a list of all the things I needed to get done the next day. Then I was able to relax.

Ban the Computer

If you have a down day, use it to really relax and rejuvenate. Don’t veg in front of the computer all day trying to work and not succeeding, or Facebooking other people who aren’t working. Turn the computer off. The e-mails can wait until tomorrow. Instead, read a book, call a friend, watch a movie, or do some light exercise (more on that below).

Get Moving — Slowly

I always find that light exercise helps me relax, take my mind off the work I’m not doing, and feel more positive. I prefer yoga. A local yoga studio offers gentle yoga classes, so that’s what I opt for when I’m feeling down. Also, if I have personal training scheduled that day, I ask my trainer, who’s also a certified yoga instructor, if we can do yoga instead of weight training that day. Another option is to get outside for a casual walk (no power walking!).

Sleep

Okay, I’ll be brief with this one: If you need to sleep, sleep!

Meditate

At the end of a down day, I like to do a guided meditation from my iPod. The Meditation Podcast offers free — guess what? — meditation podcasts. My favorite is the one titled “Positive Thinking.” Another good source for free podcasts is

I hear from a lot of freelancing parents who have trouble getting it all done. How can I do an interview, they ask, while the house is falling down around my ears? How do I handle mountains of laundry and my writing when I have only two hours a day while my kid naps?

I have a very active 21-month-old son, an exchange student, and a fairly big house. I have to admit that I’m very lucky that my husband is also a freelancer and is an equal partner in child care and housework, but I also have some tactics that help me juggle it all — without going insane.

1. Batch it up.

Any freelancing parent, no matter how many days she works, needs to cram all of her work into a short amount of time — when the kids are napping, after the kids go to bed, while the kids are at daycare. As you may know, “A href=”http://www.therenegadewriter.com/2010/01/30/how-to-work-less/”>I work only two days per week, but still have a full-time workload

I’ve found that when you have only a short amount of time, it helps to “batch” similar tasks. For example, I try to schedule interviews during the same two-hour block (even on days when we have child care). That way I can get them all out of the way and not waste mental energy thinking about interviews all day long. I also try to write blog posts in batches of three or more. When I get a Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn friend/ follower/ connection request, I drop it into a special folder in Gmail and process them all at once every one or two weeks. Finally, I answer my Write for Magazines e-course e-mails on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and because I have a separate e-mail address for this course, I’m able to answer my students’ e-mails in batches a few times per day.

I even batch some home tasks! Tonight, for example, we’ll be having some homemade mac-and-cheese, but it will take me only a minute of effort. That’s because a few weeks ago, I made a triple batch and put two pans of it in the freezer. All I have to do is toss one in the oven, and in an hour we’ll have a home-cooked meal. I also bake two dozen banana muffins at a time and freeze them so I have an easy breakfast for the kiddo on rushed mornings. Just add some fruit and we’re out the door!

2. Wake up!

For the past two months, I’ve been getting up between 5:30 and 6 am. That may not sound so early for you 9-5ers, but for me — a freelancer, and not exactly a morning person — it’s the middle of the night. Our toddler generally sleeps until at least 8, so that gives me two hours or more to read a book, relax, check e-mail if I feel like it, do little house chores if I need to, and so on. I’ve written entire articles before my family even gets up! I also spend a few minutes just looking out the window and setting an intention for my day. I might also go over my to-do list in my head, or decide what my most important tasks are for the day.

It’s hard to wake up at 5:30, but once I’m downstairs with a cup of coffee or tea in my hand, I’m fine — and it’s SO worth it to have some time to myself. What’s even harder than getting up early, for me, is waking up at 8 am and immediately having to be “on” — to have to rush downstairs to make our son’s breakfast and be thrown haphazardly into the day.

Try setting you

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post called The Dark Side of Diversifying, about how over-diversifying your career can make you feel scattered and at loose ends. As I mentioned, I work on a TON of projects: I write for magazines and corporate clients, write and market books, teach e-courses, do phone mentoring, run the Renegade Writer blog and classes, and write adoption profiles for adoptive families. And that’s just the work side of things; I also run a local moms’ group with over 100 members and am the founder of Creative Professionals for Animal Welfare, which has about 250 volunteers.

So I decided to simplify.

Due to some business reasons I won’t get into here, it was about to become much harder for me to run the Renegade Writer e-courses. In addition, updating the e-course page, promoting the classes, and collecting money add to my already full plate a bunch of administrative and marketing tasks that I had to accomplish for each instructor and each session. It was a difficult decision, but I made the choice to stop running classes other than my own. All of the instructors were very understanding (thank you!). (And don’t worry, the instructors are still teaching their classes — just not through the Renegade Writer. Go here for info on how to contact the instructors about their next sessions.)

Then, this week, I had a great session with my life coach Kristin Taliaferro. I told her that I didn’t feel like I “had it all together” lately. I was scattered and anxious, and felt pulled in a dozen directions at once. Kristin asked me what I would like to get rid of.

I had been thinking lately that I should give up Creative Professionals for Animal Welfare; I just don’t have the passion for it that I had before our son was born 19 months ago. I was doing the bare minimum to keep the service going, and wasn’t making the effort to build the volunteer list and reach out to animal welfare organizations that could use our services. It was hard on the ego, but I decided to find someone who would like to take over the reins and really make the service great. (Interested? E-mail me at [email protected].)

Then there was the moms’ group I run. Like creativePAW, the meetup group doesn’t take a lot of time, but it’s just another thing bouncing around my brain. I have some members who are much more active than I am in terms of hosting meetups, attending meetups, coming up with ideas for new gatherings, and participating in the discussion board. I decided that I would remain a member but step down as organizer. It was worth running the group for the last year and a half — I made a lot of friends with kids Traver’s age — but I would be much happier if someone else were making the decisions. It looks like I have someone I really like interested in taking over, which I’m excited about.

So how do I feel after all that simplifying? Much lighter, though I’m still looking for someone to take over creativePAW, and then there will be all the tasks associated with the transfer. But once it’s all done, I expect that I’ll feel more together and less scattered. When you have a million tasks and they’re all of roughly equal urgency and importance, whittling down your list of to-dos makes deciding which task to tackle much easier.

Now I’m on a roll and am looking for even more tasks and projects to eliminate. It’s difficult becaus

Since we brought our son Traver home in early 2009, work seems to have gotten so much easier and I seem to have even more free time than I did before. How can that be? After all, as any freelancing mom or dad will attest, trying to get any writing done with a squalling baby or toddler in the house is like trying to work with an adorable jackhammer going in the next room. And as a parent, I’m doing much more housework and cooking than I did pre-baby.

Here are my random thoughts about this phenomenon.

My priorities have shifted. Before, work was on my mind all. the. time. If I wasn’t brainstorming article ideas, I was worrying that a key source hadn’t gotten back to me or bemoaning the fact that I had a looming deadline. I never forgot an interview or a deadline because those to-dos were seared into the backs of my eyeballs where they would be visible to me wherever I went. But now, I have something much, much more important to think of. I actually need to check my calendar every day to make sure I don’t miss an interview, and am often surprised to see that I have a phone call scheduled in just a few hours. And somehow…it all gets done.

With Traver, I find that I have many more “in the moment” experiences, which is saying a lot for someone who has ADHD. Instead of thinking about all the work I have to get done, I’m becoming engrossed in a hot air balloon book or playing “criss cross applesauce” and marveling at my toddler’s little gap-toothed smile.

I’ve also set boundaries. Pre-kid, I had no problems working whenever someone needed me. Now, I generally work on Tuesdays and Thursdays so my other days are free to spend with my family. I do check e-mail on the other days in case an emergency comes up (and it rarely does), but I try to set my interviews for Tuesdays and Thursdays. And if I need to set interviews on another day (as I will this week), I set them during Traver’s naptime. (Luckily he takes three-hour naps!) I used to respond to e-mails within minutes, and now it often takes a day or more. And you know what? It doesn’t matter.

I parent, freelance (and earn most of our family’s income), and keep up the house — and still have plenty of free time, while a student of mine who is retired and has no kids recently told me that she didn’t have time to complete the course assignments. Part of it is setting priorities. Would I rather work or spend time with my kid? Spend time with my kid. Would I rather watch TV or work? Work. Would I rather surf the Internet or clean the house? Well, you know what I’d RATHER do, but guess which one I choose?

All of this has happened since we brought home our son. Does anyone else feel that having a kid forces you to reorder your priorities, often for the better? Parents, have you become more efficient in your work? Do you find, like I do, that you have more free time simply because you aren’t spending 100% of your time rehashing your to-do list? [lf]

I’ve been reading Dan Ariely’s new book The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic at Work and at Home. In it, he talks about how humans and animals alike need to find meaning through labor.

Ariely conducted an experiment where subjects were asked to complete a simple puzzle on a sheet of paper. For the first successfully completed puzzle, the subject would receive $.55; however, for each subsequent page after the first, the subject would earn five cents less.

In the first setup, the researcher asked the subject to put his name on the paper and then complete the puzzle. When the subject handed in the completed puzzle, the researcher looked it over with an approving nod and then put the sheet in a stack and asked the subject if he would like to do another puzzle for five cents less.

In the second setup, the subject was not asked to put his name on the paper, and the researcher would take the completed puzzle without looking it over and put it in a pile before asking if the subject would like to continue with another puzzle.

In the third setup, the researcher would take the completed puzzle from the subject and, without looking at it, feed it immediately into a shredder right in front of the subject’s eyes. Then the researcher would ask if the subject would like to do another puzzle.

The results? People who were acknowledged completed on average 9.03 sheets, compared with 6.34 sheets for the people whose puzzles were shredded. And those subjects whose puzzles were ignored but not shredded completed on average 6.77 sheets — not much more than the “shredded” subjects.

What this told Ariely is that money, while an important motivating factor, is not the only reason we do work. We also crave meaning — we want people to see and appreciate our work.

This got me to thinking about my own writing career. If I had to choose between having all my work read and appreciated but not paid for, and earning a very high income but having no readers, which would I choose?

On the one hand, I write this blog. I post two to three times per week, and I’m not paid for it. Sure, some people who read the blog also take my e-course, but when they pay $240 it’s for the work I provide during the e-course, not for the posts I write on the blog. They get $240 worth of work from me. The blog is additional and free.

Now, I could stop posting to the blog and try to sell my post ideas to Writer’s Digest. They pay me $.60 per word. Multiply the number of words I’ve written on this blog and multiply it by $.60, and you’ll see that I would make quite a bit. But when I pitch Writer’s Digest, not every idea is accepted. Also, I have to wait to see the article in print, and I rarely receive reader feedback. But when I post on the blog, I get to write what I want, see it published immediately, and read feedback in the form of comments and e-mails from readers. Don’t get me wrong, I love writing for Writer’s Digest — the topics are fun and the editors are top-notch. But the fact that I don’t try to pitch every blog idea to Writer’s Digest instead of writing it up immediately for the blog tells you I might value getting read over getting paid.

On the other hand, I write beauty product stories for a health magazine, and I love doing it. The editor asks me to write in an edgy style, and always says that I get the tone right on. But when the articles make it into print, I see that for space reasons they took out my clever bon mots and went with bare-bones descriptions

Did you ever think it’s not the economy, of the toughness of the industry, or just plain bad luck that’s keeping you from flourishing as a freelance writer — but your own limiting beliefs? Many aspiring freelancers are wonderful writers with salable ideas, but they can’t break out of the writing-for-cheap (or worse, writing-for-free) stage and make a full-time living doing what they love. And even while they complain about their lack of success, they have plenty of seemingly-reasonable explanations for why they aren’t even trying.

Here are some of the excuses I’ve heard from my mentoring and e-course clients — and how you can bust those limiting beliefs.

Excuse #1: “I have to pay my dues.”

Many writers believe they can’t write for magazines that pay a decent fee until they “pay their dues” by writing for markets that pay peanuts. But who decides what constitutes paying your dues, how long you need to do it for, and even that you have to do it at all? The term “paying your dues” is meaningless, because no one has defined exactly what it is and when it ends.

When I hear someone say they have to pay their dues before pitching the magazines they really want to write for, I know it’s a stalling tactic. I never hear a writer say, “Well, now I’ve paid my dues and it’s time for me to get cracking on my dream markets.” Because there’s no defined limit to paying your dues, writers just keep toiling away at sure-thing markets instead of risking rejection by the big guys. It’s the perfect excuse for not making the leap to better markets.

I’ve never heard an editor, when approached by a writer with a brilliant query and stellar writing, say, “I can’t possibly accept this — this writer hasn’t paid her dues.” In fact, consider this:

* I have a friend whose very first clip was for Cosmopolitan. She went on to have a successful freelance writing career and even write books on freelancing.

* Last year one of my students landed an assignment to write a short for SELF magazine. She had not a single clip before that. Now, she’s working on an assignment for Parenting that’s worth $1,300. She’s had only two assignments and she’s never worked for less than $1.50 per word.

* I recently had a mentoring client who kept “paying her dues” by writing for exposure and wondering why she wasn’t making more money. I convinced her to stop writing for free and cheap, and within ten days she had an assignment that was worth twenty assignments from one of her el-cheapo clients.

* My very first assignment, based on my very first query back in 1996, paid $500. I never paid a dime of dues.

Look: Paying your dues is just an excuse. No one is tracking what you do and judging whether you have written for enough peanuts-paying clients to start pitching your dream markets. If you have a great idea and you present it well, no one will care whether you slogged your way up from the bottom or just burst onto the scene.

Excuse #2: “I need to learn more.”

I hate to say this since I teach e-courses of my own, but some writers take every writing course they can find yet never feel like they know enough to actually get started pitching markets. “I can’t get started because I don’t know every single thing there is to know about query writing.” “Well, now I know how to write a query, but what happens when I get an assignment? I

I was doing a New Year’s cleaning of my computer files when I ran across my very first clip: a review of a text on dialectology for the journal Language, which I wrote while a grad student in Slavic Linguistics at UC Berkeley. In my first query letter sometime later, I mentioned that I had a clip from Language, but didn’t include it in the query package. (Can you imagine why?) That first query (which I unfortunately can’t find) landed me an assignment with EEO Bimonthly magazine for $500. [lf]

Speaking in our Tongues: Medieval Dialectology and Related Disciplines. Ed. by Margaret Laing and Keith Williamson. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 1994. Pp xi, 231.

This volume contains edited versions of the papers and transcriptions of the discussions which took place at the Colloquium on Medieval Dialectology and Related Disciplines held at the University of Edinburgh, April 10 - 12, 1992, hosted by the Institute for Historical Dialectology, School of Scottish studies. This conference examined the place of medieval dialectology not only within the fields of dialectology and medieval history, but also within the broader, non-linguistic framework of medieval studies. More particularly, the two major themes of the Colloquium were ‘problems and concerns common to the investigation of different medieval vernaculars’ and ‘how the study of language variation might be more fully integrated with the divers related disciplines which contribute to define its historical, cultural and social context’ (Introduction).

This interdisciplinary approach to medieval dialectology is reflected in the range of paper topics presented at the Colloquium, from the expected investigation of medieval vernaculars to such interrelated disciplines as palaeography, medieval literature and local history. The breadth of interests represented is rivalled by the range of the contributors’ languages of expertise: English, Dutch, French, Latin, Scots, and the Scandinavian and Celtic languages.

The papers are arranged in four panels. Panel I, ‘Taxonomy and Typology in Medieval Dialect Studies’ (17-66), is represented by Hans F. Nielsen’s ‘On the Origin and Spread of Initial Voiced Fricatives and the Phonemic Split of Fricatives in English and Dutch’ and Pieter van Reenen’s ‘The Study of Medieval Language in the Low Countries: the Good, the Bad and the Future.’ ‘Panel I Revisited’ (169-187) contains Michael Benskin’s ‘Descriptions of Dialect and Areal Distributions.’ The papers presented in Panel II, ‘Manuscript Studies and Literary Geography’ (67-116), are ‘Middle English Texts and their Transmission, 1350 - 1500: some Geographical Criteria’ by Richard Beadle; ‘A Palaeographer’s View’ by A. I. Doyle; and Jeremy J. Smith’s ‘A Philologist’s View.’ Under the heading of Panel III, ‘Languages in Contact’ (133-168), appear contributions by Angus McIntosh, ‘Codes and Cultures’; William Gillies, ‘The Celtic Languages: some Current and some Neglected Questions’; and Helmut Gneuss, ‘Language Contact in Early Medieval England: Latin and Old English.’ Panel IV, ‘Word Geography’ (195-231) contains Terry Hoad’s ‘Word Geography: Previous Approaches and Achievements’; Robert E. Lewis’ ‘Sources and Techniques for the Study of Middle English Word Geography’; and Gillian Fellows-Jensen’s ‘Place-names and Word Geography: some Words of Warning.’ Also included is the keynote address on ‘Historical Dialectology and Literary Text Traditions’ by Anthonij Dees.

The volume also assesses the current state of medieval dialectology and prepares the discipline for the future, with contributors offering new perspectives, calling for new research methods and discussing future outlooks for the field. For instance, in his paper ‘The Study of Medieval Language in the Low Countries: the Good, the Bad and the Future’ (31-49), Pieter van Reenen argues for a redefinition of how research in the field is conducted

Thanks to everyone who filled out my Renegade Writer survey — and congratulations to Colette Martin, who won a free half-hour phone coaching session with yours truly. I really appreciate that so many people took the time out of their busy day to offer their valuable feedback.

I received great feedback from 131 writers, and I thought you’d like to know what the results were:

29.4% of our readers have a part-time or full-time job and do freelance writing on the side, and 9.5% are stay-at-home moms and dads who freelance in their spare time. 20.6% say they’d like to become freelance writers but haven’t gotten started. 14.3% have been full-time freelancers for less than a year, and 17.5% have been full-time freelancers for 1 - 5 years. Only 8.8% of our readers have been freelancing full-time for more than five years. This was pretty interesting to me; I had no idea so many of our readers freelanced on the side rather than as a full-time occupation, and I also was surprised that so many are aspiring freelancers who haven’t yet taken that first step. I’d love to encourage newbie writers to overcome whatever obstacles are keeping them from breaking in!

When asked why they haven’t taken a Renegade Writer e-course or taken advantage of my phone mentoring, the vast majority (of those who have not already done a course/mentoring) say they can’t afford it. This makes sense in light of the fact that most of our readers are newer writers or aspiring freelancers who haven’t gotten started yet. Based on this info and the suggestions of some readers, I’ve decided to start offering my phone mentoring in half-hour increments so writers don’t have to purchase an entire hour. Also, in I’ll soon start offering e-mailed query critiques so writers can get one of the benefits of my Write for Magazines e-course without having to pay for (or take) a full 8-week class. As for the e-courses, all of our instructors offer versions with no e-mail support at half the price of the versions with full e-mail support; this option is perfect for self-starters who can work on their own (which all freelancers need to be).

I’d also like to point out that we offer a lot of free resources for new writers: The blog is of course free and there are hundreds of helpful posts on everything from marketing to the craft of writing. Diana and I offer a free packet of 12 query letters that worked for us — just send a blank e-mail to [email protected]. And my Free Teleclasses for Writers are (what else?) free.

Of all the types of posts I write, none was a clear winner in the hearts of our readers. But just edging out the rest was opportunities for writers. I do post opportunities when someone alerts me to them (and was very excited recently when a reader let me know she placed an essay in one of the Chicken Soup books thanks to a Renegade Writer post about the opportunity!). But there are other sites, like Deb Ng’s Freelance Writing Jobs, that do a much better job of scouring the web for writing gigs.

Many writers asked to see examples of queries that worked. I hear you — I have one going up this week, and have been searching through my query archives for other good ones to post. Also, I’d like to remind you that our book The Renegade Writer’s Query Letters That Rock has two dozen queries from different writers along with comments by the writers and their assig

This is a guest post from Pat Curry, who teaches our Writing for Trade Magazines e-course. Next session starts on January 11!

Recently, I made the decision that it was time to buy a new computer — and to make the switch from PC to Mac. It’s a big step, but one that will be useful as I grow my business in new directions.

The toughest part of the switch for me is saying good-bye to my keyboard. (I can’t imagine this one will be Mac-friendly.) That’s because, as my daughter likes to say, “Mom, your keyboard is hard-core.” And she’s right.

I have thousands of bylines that attest to the fact that I make my living as a writer. But it’s my keyboard that tells the story of the tens of thousands of hours I’ve spent at this desk working at my craft. I’ve completely worn the letters off of several keys. Several people who have used my computer to look up something online have commented that it’s tough to navigate my keyboard because so many of the keys are blank.

The space bar and the backspace key have gotten so much use that they’ve been worn down and are smooth, like rocks that are polished by constant contact with tidal waters.

But the real evidence is in the 15 keys that I’ve used so much that my fingerprints are embedded in them. Quite literally, my identity is fused into these pieces of grey plastic.

It’s put up with a lot being a writer’s keyboard — countless crumbs from my habit of wanting something crunchy to eat while I write, getting soaked from the occasional cup of coffee that gets tipped over on my desk, cats walking across the keys. Fortunately, I’m not given to fits of writer’s rage, so it’s never been smacked or whacked.

And, I’ll admit that I’ve tried other keyboards. In an attempt to reduce the number of cables on my desk, I swapped it out for a wireless one a couple of years ago and stuck it in a drawer. But the batteries kept conking out on me during interviews, which wasn’t acceptable. I needed to know my equipment was going to work when I needed it. So I pulled this out of storage and never looked back.

So, I think I might ask the computer wizards if there’s a way to make this keyboard work with whatever new piece of hardware I wind up buying. If they can’t adapt it, I’m going to turn it into a piece of artwork to display in my office, kind of like a retired jersey, a visual reminder that being a writer leaves a permanent mark. [Pat Curry]

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Last week, like millions of Americans, I sat down to watch the season finale of one of my favorite reality shows, The Amazing Race. OK, I know a lot of people think reality television is dumb — and a lot of it IS dumb — but I’ll argue that The Amazing Race is an outstanding hour of television. I even encourage my 8-year-old son to watch it … not that he needs much encouraging, because it’s a very exciting, entertaining show.

Anyway, we settled down to watch the final hour on Sunday, prepared to root “our” remaining favorite team to victory. There were three teams left: a young, focused athletic couple who’d been dominating previous legs of the race; two brothers, strong competitors who bickered a lot; and a young married couple who were inconsistent racers.

It quickly became evident that their strengths and weaknesses were going to determine how they placed at the finish line. Whenever the young couple was faced with a daunting challenge, rather than fall apart, they would say things like, “I know I can do this” or “I’m going to get it this time.” The two brothers, on the other hand, started going at each other like pit bulls when counting a million dollars’ worth of poker chips proved to be more difficult than it looked. The time they spent sparring with each other gave the athletic couple, who’d been behind, a chance to focus and pull ahead.

When things were going well for the third team, they were on top of the world. They were actually in first place for the first half of this leg. But when they couldn’t perform an acrobatic-type task at Cirque de Soleil, the wife fell apart and started screaming in frustration at her husband. It was painful to watch, because you could see the substantial amount of energy she spent flailing and screaming at the universe could have been focused toward grabbing the goal. In fact, once she had exhausted her rage and after the other teams had left the building, you could actually see her pull herself together. Once she was able to control her nerves (and her body), the goal became an easy reach. But by then, it was too late. She’d blown the advantage they’d had.

It was a fantastic lesson to show my son Sunday evening, and it hit home for me how your attitude can influence your performance. I admit — there have been times where I’ve found myself raging at the unfairness of it all. Now that I’m older (and wiser, I hope), I realize that cooler heads prevail in the race to a finish line. You make a mistake? You fix it. A project looks too difficult? You break it down and focus on one part at a time until it’s done. Take a wrong turn? You swallow your pride and ask for directions. You don’t waste any energy pointing fingers or stewing over what could have been.

What are some of the lessons you’ve learned from reality television?

p.s. If you’re interested in watching this last episode of The Amazing Race, you can download it at iTunes.

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A couple of weeks ago, someone posted a comment on this blog saying that in dissing content mills like Associated Content we “just don’t get it,” and bragged that she earns $1,200 per month on her articles on Associated Content and similar sites. (When I checked, I saw that the writer had over 1,000 articles on Associated Content alone; for writing 1,000 500-word articles, I would expect at least $500,000.) Then, on a writers’ forum I belong to on LinkedIn, a poster insisted that $25 for 1,000 words is the “going rate” for online writing.

Sometimes I feel like a dinosaur for insisting that writers be paid fairly for their time, effort, and skill. It seems the new way to make money is to churn out hundreds of online articles that pay a few dollars apiece.

Let me set one thing straight: I do not believe that writers who work for cheap are depressing the rates for professional writers. Sites that pay writers $4 per article are not going to suddenly pony up $1 per word or more because they can’t find writers willing to work for peanuts. That just ain’t gonna happen. If by some miracle these sites were no longer able to afford writers, they would probably simply go belly-up. And markets that pay $1, $2, and more per word are not going to start offering $4 per article “just because they can,” because they can see from these content mills the kind of quality that payrate buys. It’s like saying that McDonald’s grill-jockeys are depressing the rates for master chefs.

But I do believe that writers deserve to be paid a decent rate, whether they’re writing for online or print markets. And I believe it’s wrong for hobbyists and inexperienced writers to tell skilled newbies that all they can expect for their work is pennies.

Here are some of the arguments the cheap writers (and content mills looking for cheap writing) offer:

Get with it — print is dying, and these content mills and other cheap online markets are the wave of the future. True, there are a lot of changes happening in print media these days. Also true, some big-name magazines have been shuttering. But I write mainly for print markets, and even in this slow economy, my income has remained steady. (And I support my family nicely on this income.) I think writers see a few big mags shutting down, and they panic. But there are many, many more magazines than those you see on the newsstands. There are literally thousands of trade and custom publications that pay well and that are thriving. These days much of my income comes from custom publishers, and they all pay at least $1 per word.

$25 for 1,000 words is the standard rate for online writing. According to who? According to the content mills that pay that much, maybe. But early in my career a good portion of my income came from maybe a dozen online magazines, all of which paid at least $1 per word. And most recently, I had a blogging gig that paid $2,000 per month for four blog posts of any length I chose. On the LinkedIn discussion I mentioned above, a dozen writers chimed in with online markets they write for now that pay very well.

I write for these low rates to build up a clip file so I can break into better-paying markets. First, you don’t need a whole file of clips to break into paying markets — all you need is one. Second, your first clip doesn’t have to come from a market that pays cheap or not at all. One of the students in my latest Write for Magazines e-course broke into SELF — without a single clip to her name. She was

Saying No is something I have trouble with; if someone approaches me with an assignment, I’m (1) flattered, even though after 12 years of freelancing this is not a rare occurrence, and (2) excited at the prospect of moolah. So even if an assignment is not ideal, in the past I’ve typically said Yes. But after the project from hell I wrote about in August, I vowed to never again take on work that flies red flags (and I really really mean it this time).

So what are these red flags? How do you know when an innocuous-seeming project will turn into the assignment from hell? Here are some signs:

The pay stinks. This is an obvious one, and it is one situation where I’ve never been afraid to say No. I’ve come up with my own per-word and per-project minimum, and if an editor offers less, I try to negotiate. If the editor won’t negotiate, I walk away. It’s up to you to set your own minimum rates based on how much you need to make per hour to be profitable. The minimum I set is also simply the amount below which I know I’ll just feel bad. I know it’s often difficult to turn down any money at all, but keep in mind that you can use the time you would have spent writing for peanuts to seek out better-paying assignments.

The editor doesn’t know what she wants. If an editor can’t describe, in a few sentences, what she’s looking for — beware. Try repeating, in your own words, what you understand about the assignment and get the editor to confirm it. You can also send the editor an e-mail reiterating the assignment: “Just to confirm, I’ll be writing 1,200 words about why Linda Formichelli rocks, with a sidebar on ways we can worship her.” But if the editor simply can’t give you clear assignment specs, it may be time to walk. You can’t read minds, and chances are this “I’ll-know-what-I-want-when-I-see-it” editor will make you do rewrite after rewrite.

The deadline is unreasonable. Only you know what kind of deadline you can handle. For example, if I’m not busy and the topic isn’t too difficult, I know I can turn around an assignment in just a few days (though of course I’ll ask for a rush fee). But if the assignment is complex or I’m busy with other work, I’ll need a few weeks. If you don’t think you can do a good job in the time you’re allotted, the most professional thing to do is tell the editor, and turn down the assignment if he won’t negotiate.

The assignment is vague. This is another one I walked away from: An editor of a new magazine asked me to write about “the history of diners.” That’s it. Notwithstanding the fact that this topic could take up a whole book, I didn’t even know what aspect of the history the editor wanted. I took a look at the rest of the editorial calendar and noticed that the topics were all over the place. I ended up turning down the assignment, and later found out that writers were not receiving their checks. This is one time my intuition saved my butt.

You’ve had bad experiences in the past. I used to work for an editor who always made me do multiple rewrites. No matter what I turned in, within a few hours I would get back my article covered with red comments. Next draft — same thing. Then, months after the assignment was finally accepted and I’d been paid, I would start getting requests for more information. Finally I wised up and started turning down any assignments from this magazine, even though the per-word rate was good. One bad experience may be a fluke, but several are a trend. Don’t keep working for magazines that give you grief; again, you can use the time to find more writer-friendly magazines.

You have a bad feeling. This is the one I’ve had trouble with. I have no problem walking if the pay is too low, the deadline is too tight, or the assignment is too vague. But in the past, if an assignment simply gave me a bad feeling, I would ignore the warning signals and accept — with disastrous results. Your intuition knows if something is awry…learn from my experience and listen to it. [lf]

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In my post Extreme Productivity in early August, I talked about how I had my husband change my password to a time-suck writer’s forum and I downloaded a free Firefox extension called BlockSite to block other distracting sites. For a couple of days my fingers itched to type in those web addresses, but then the urge passed and I’ve been happy without these distractions.

Fast forward to a couple of days ago: I said to myself, “Gee, I’ve hardly been working. I need to start hustling.” But then I realized that I had plenty of work: Due in September I had four blog posts (about 500 words each), eight pages of website copy for a corporate client, a Writer’s Digest column, a short article for Muscle & Performance, a feature article for a major women’s magazine, and a profile for Antioch University. And yet, although I made good progress on these deadlines, I took off three days last week. That’s right — I worked only two days last week.

That’s when it hit me: Normally, I would have ass in chair for several hours each day — but that didn’t mean I was working that entire time. I would often click away from an article in progress to one of those distracting websites. What I didn’t realize was how much time I must have spent doing that, as I got done in two days last week what would have taken me a whole week before I blocked the time-sink sites!

Wow, this is an amazing feeling. To think that one simple change has boosted my productivity so much.

This week I’ll be working three days. I always worked fewer than 40 hours per week before, but now I’m putting in even less time. I’ve been using my newfound free time to go to the park with my husband and son while the weather is nice, meet up with other moms for lunch and coffee, hang out with our new exchange student, exercise, and generally relax.

As I also mentioned on this blog, I’ve made a vow to no longer take on assignments that have red flags and to stop working with clients that treat me badly. I haven’t had the opportunity to turn down any PITA clients yet (because none of them have approached me), but just knowing that I’ll only be writing for clients I like compounds the great feeling I have from gaining so much free time while still earning full-time income.

Here’s your challenge: Determine where the time-sucks are in your work life (Internet? TV? eating? sleeping?) and think of tactics — even extreme ones — to get your time back under control. What will you do this week? [lf]

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Last week, I quit a writing project that was worth more than $10,000.

When I got the project, I was coming off of a four-month famine, and I needed the dough. So I ignored the red flags. First, the expert co-author took so long playing hardball with the publisher that the deadlines were crunched. Then, she insisted on being the point of contact with the publisher, even though she had never written a book for a publisher before. (With this type of project, the writer is usually the point of contact.) Finally, she set deadlines for the chapters that were way earlier than the publisher’s deadlines — and even wanted Eric and me (my husband was also on the project) to write five chapters within 10 days — when we didn’t even have a finalized table of contents from the publisher.

But the lure of money was strong, and I thought, “I can do anything for three months.” Thereafter followed a month of what can only be called hell. I won’t even get into it here.

I spent last Tuesday evening on the verge of tears, and suddenly I decided: I quit! I’m done. This project is over. I sent our agent an e-mail (it was after hours so I couldn’t call and I wanted to do it right away), and that was it.

I should also mention that while I was working on this project, I got a ton of other work…probably more than 10 magazine assignments. Three of them paid more than one-fifth of what the entire book was to pay, and these articles were only one-hundredth the length of the book.

Before you start throwing things at me, let me say that I’ve reformed. I had a goal meeting with two writer friends the day after I quit the book project, and one of them convinced me that from now on, I’ll take on only projects that I love — and that pay well. I’m currently working on a proposal with my life coach for a book I would actually want to buy myself.

This writer friend also reminded me that I’ve been writing full-time for 12 years, and that I’m a pro. I don’t need to scrape the bottom of the writerly barrel for money. Even though I have famine periods like everyone else, the assignments generally come flowing in without my even having to query anymore.

So: Have you ever ignored red flags and taken on an assignment because you needed the money? What happened? Please share your experiences in the Comments section below! [lf]

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Before I jump into today’s post, I’d like to let you know that my next e-course on breaking into magazines, which has helped students land assignments from magazines ranging from Pizza Today to Woman’s Day, starts on Monday, August 3. That’s just a week away! Also, due to popular demand (no, really!), I’ve added a Gold version that includes not just eight lessons and assignments and eight weeks of unlimited e-mail support — it also includes weekly half-hour phone coaching sessions. To get the details on the three levels of courses available to you — and to sign up — visit writeformagazines.com.

My life coach Kristin Taliaferro gave me the idea for this blog post. She mentioned that if she asks her clients to add something to their lives, they resist. But if she asks them to subtract something that’s getting in their way, they’re energized. Collecting too many things around us, whether they’re physical items or unnecessary habits, can weigh us down.

That’s the idea behind getting rid of your tolerations, which I wrote about in March. But there are other ways we writers can use this concept as well.

For example, one way to get something off your to-do list is to, well, take it off your list. Just don’t do it. Is there anything on your list that won’t make an impact on your bottom line that you can delete? For example, maybe you’ve had “Send letter of introduction to X magazine” on your list for months, and you’ve been resisting doing it — so it just stares out from your to-do list, bugging you every day. Could it be that you don’t really want to write for X magazine, but you somehow feel you should? Ditch that to-do and free up mental energy for something that will really carry your writing life forward.

You can also remove long-term work habits. We all probably have things we do on a regular basis as a part of our writing lives that we don’t actually need to do. As an example, I’m going to admit something terrible: I stopped sending handwritten thank-you notes to my article sources. I felt terrible about it, but once we adopted our son, I kind of had other things taking up my time. I’ve always been a big advocate of the thank-you, but I dropped it. The result? I save time, and it’s had no impact whatsoever on my ability to get good sources for my queries and interviews. Do you have a work habit you can delete from your life?

Then there are the work-related items and services we pay for, some of which are just clogging up our writing lives. For example, I’ve been so happy doing my interviews on Skype ($3 per month for unlimited calls) using a $15 Skype call recorder that I’ve been able to relegate my digital recorder (and all the batteries and wires) to the back of my office shelf. And I’m considering dropping my $40/month landline at home, since I used it mainly for interviews.

Another thing I could consider dropping, though I’m not sure I’m ready to go that far yet, is my el-expensivo business cards. I pay over $200 for them every time I change my phone number or e-mail address, and yet I’ve probably given away fewer than 25 of them in the last year since I do 99.5% of my work online. I do love the design of my business cards, but if I ever get brave enough, that would be a great item to drop from my writing life.

So: Are there items and habits you’ve collected around your writing life that are weighing you down? Have you ever done a major purge, or do you drop things a bit at a time? What have the results been? Please share in the Comments section below! [lf]

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After our son Traver came home in January, I took off on maternity leave for the month, fully expecting to jump back into work on February 1. I didn’t really take off of work totally — I did send queries and letters of introduction, hoping to rack up work for February. But February came and went with hardly any work. And so did March. And April. It was the longest “famine” period I’d ever had, and I worried that it was more than a famine thanks to the economy.

Then, in May, things started picking up. By a few weeks ago, I had up to five assignments due per week. I picked up a regular blogging gig, and a Complete Idiot’s Guide assignment. My husband, a stay-at-home dad who writes on the side and runs BoardgameNews.com, also picked up some magazine work, and was hired with me to co-write the Idiot’s Guide. We had to hire a “father’s helper” to come in for three hours a few days per week to entertain Traver while Eric worked. (I work at an outside office.) I wake up with pangs of panic, and my neck and stomach hurt from the stress. My friends would say my house is clean, but it’s not clean to me — and I have no time to neaten up the way I want it!

That’s the freelance life for you: Feast or famine. If you want to make it as a freelancer, you have to be smart enough to save cash during the feast to prepare for the famine — and the fortitude to make it through parched periods of no work followed by avalanches of assignments.

I’ve become pretty good at making it through famines without worrying too much. Instead of going nuts about it, I pick up the marketing pace and use the rest of the time to enjoy myself. I know that the situation is temporary, and soon enough I’ll be drowning in work.

I’m not so good at handling an overload of work. I tend to get stressed, and then I get stomachaches, headaches, and a stiff neck and back. I don’t exercise as much because I’m so busy with deadlines, which makes the stress worse.

You’d think that after 12 years of full-time freelancing, I’d have come up with a way to even out the mountains and valleys in my freelance career. But no matter when or how much I market, the feasts and famines remain. So it’s just a matter of getting used to them.

Or celebrating them. After all, it’s hard to have too much work — but if you can put a kibosh on the worry, it’s nice to have so much free time during a famine. During the last, four-month famine, I had a great time with my husband and our new son.

So: Do you experience the feast or famine? Have you found a way to even out the bumps? Do you worry about the famines, or have you learned to deal with them? Please post in the Comments below!

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Every once in awhile I like to go through my journal to see what I was doing in this month in years past. Here’s what I wrote on May 29, 2007:

I plan to either not write for [magazine] again or to ask what we can do to make sure I don’t go through another experience like I am right now, when [editor's] boss decided he wanted the article to have a completely different slant — and he wanted me to do it over the holiday weekend and with no extra pay. Ugh.

I must have forgotten those words of wisdom, because this past week, for the first time, I turned down an assignment from this magazine due to the insane number of revisions the editors make me go through. Hey, it only took me two years!

It’s difficult for us freelancers to turn down work because we never know if it’s going to be the last assignment we ever get for the rest of our lives. Even if we have too much work, it’s tempting to squeeze in more, because who knows how long the famine will last once the feast is over?

Some writers say it’s necessary to turn down work that doesn’t fit our goals in order to make room for better opportunities to come through. Well, twenty minutes after I said no to this assignment, I received an e-mail from the owner of a social media marketing firm asking for a meeting to discuss working together. I’ve been wanting to do more work in blogging, Twitter, etc., so this is a great opportunity. Would I have been able to say yes to a half-day meeting if I had been busy turning around the article for the PITA client (which had a short deadline)? I don’t think so.

Next time, I won’t endure two years of PITA-ness before scratching a client from my list.

Have you ever turned down work? WHy did you turn it down? How did it make you feel? Did you get better offers afterward? [lf]

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This guest post is by Elaine Grant, a former editor at Inc. and current health and science reporter at New Hampshire Public Radio. Elaine’s course on Magazine Writing Basics starts on Monday…sign up today!

I just sent two tweets out in rapid succession and realized that I sound like someone with multiple personalities. On Friday morning, for my job as a public radio reporter, I’ll cover a hearing at the New Hampshire Public Utility Commission on renewable energy. But it’s only 7:00 now, and I got up early to write a draft of a story on female condoms for a national magazine. Weird? Not to me, at least not until I saw it in tweet form.

For me, one of the joys of being a journalist – be it freelance or on staff – is the luxury we have to learn about all kinds of things and to meet all kinds of people. I love the access, the opportunity given to us to ask whatever obnoxious questions we want. One of my cats is named Curious, and it doesn’t just suit him – it suits me. Just this week alone, I investigated tango-dancing entrepreneurs, dipped into same-sex marriage, interviewed a U.N. representative about female sex workers in Asia, and talked to a biologist about endangered piping plovers. It’s like a free gourmet buffet for a voracious foodie.

What keeps you going? Why did you choose this storytelling profession? What opportunities do you take to satisfy your curiosity – and which ones are missing? Comment on this blog or send me a tweet at @eapplegrant. I’m curious.

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This is my first week in my new office space in downtown Concord, New Hampshire. As you may know, on January 2 we welcomed Traver Maxwell to the world. Eric and I turned the home office into a nursery, and moved all my office furniture and equipment into Eric’s game room.

Now, Eric is no ordinary boardgamer — he’s the owner and editor of BoardgameNews.com, and the proud owner of more than 1,000 boardgames. New review copies of games arrive every week. In other words, the game room is crowded — and I can’t work in a disorganized space. On top of that, I have trouble working when there are things in the house that need to be done, like laundry and vacuuming. So when my Pilates instructor mentioned that she was not renewing the lease on her beautiful space, I snapped it up.

My interior designer friend Shawna helped me do the initial decorating — we went for a Zen look — and my writing buddy Elaine Grant (who teaches our Magazine Writing Basics class, which starts in next week) helped me move in. And voila! I have a relaxing, clean place to work.

Since I’ve been doing a lot of reading and thinking about how to create an inspiring work space, I’ve gleaned a lot of tips that other freelancers can use. Here they are:

1. Get Inspired

One thing I can do now that there’s no one else in my office to disturb is listen to motivational podcasts when my energy lags. I like the podcasts by personal development experts Steve Pavlina and The Morning Coach (thanks, Elaine!). If you don’t have your own space, you can download the podcasts to your iPod and listen to them using headphones.

2. Go Green

I think plants are very important for fostering a calm yet creative atmosphere. My old office didn’t have any plants, and I missed having them. I now have a money tree and a lucky bamboo — how’s that for perfect plants for writers? — and I plan to get even more. I bought these plants already potted at Home Depot.

3. Stock Your Shelves

Besides the usual writing books (like The Renegade Writer!), I have motivational books on business and productivity like Brian Tracy’s Eat That Frog, Take Yourself to the Top by Laura Berman Fortgang, and Work Less, Make More by Jennifer White. These are books I can pull out and skim when I need a little boost.

4. Sound On

Music can set the stage for a productive day of writing. Some writers like energizing music with a good beat, some prefer classical, and some like nature tracks like the sound of ocean waves. Me, I go for world beats like Thievery Corporation and Gotan Project, and albums like Buddha Bar, The Rough Guide to Indian Music, and Sahara Lounge. I brought an old CD player to my new office and have these CDs playing all the time. If you can’t play music in your space, can you listen to it on headphones when the mood strikes?

5. Keep It Neat

As the co-author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Cleaning, I love to clean — which is lucky for me, because nothing is more distracting than a messy office. It also hurts your productivity, since you waste time digging through stacks of junk to find that contract or magazine you need. If your office is overwhelmed by clutter, spend just 15 minutes per day clearing it out. On Day 1, you can clean one shelf of your bookcase; on Day 2, you can clean out a drawer of the filing cabinet; and so on.

Another tip: The “broken window” theory says that when a neighborhood has a house with a broken window that the owners neglect to fix, it starts to attract vandalism and other crime: people assume no one cares, so they treat it that way. The same can be said for your home: Ever notice that when you toss a magazine onto the chair in an otherwise clean room, suddenly that chair starts to attract all kinds of junk? Nip it in the bud by doing a quick neatening of your workspace every day before you leave work.

What do you love about your workspace? Post your comments below! [lf]

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I just heard from Marina Krakovsky, one of my travel writing workshop alumna, on the success she had in placing an essay she worked on during the course. I love getting news like that! And working with Marina, who is such an accomplished writer, was a total joy.

Marina’s goal, when she signed up for the class, was to find, write and publish deeper stories from her travels. This is a time-honored approach to travel writing, in fact, some of the finest examples of travel writing are in that genre, as opposed to what we call “travel service”, the nuts n’ bolts of how to travel, hotel deals and so forth.

Finding these deeper stories can be tricky — these are the less obvious stories, and they spring from the writer’s own unique curiosity. This is why I encourage my students to pay careful attention to the questions that pop to mind while they’re traveling, no matter how insignificant they may seem.

Also, I urge my students to pay attention to the moments when they’re puzzled or startled. Those are idea gold!  For instance, when I was in Barbados this past Fall, I was taking a tour of a synagogue, and met a guy that looked to me like a younger Joe Lieberman. He was actually a second generation Barbadian and spoke in an island lilt, which totally took me by surprise. (At first I couldn’t place the accent.) That moment of startle led to this piece in the Huffington Post.

Marina also shared with me the backstory of how another piece she’d placed from her travels came about:

During my trip to Moscow last summer  I wondered what the deal was with all the unsmiling Russians–and with subway posters urging people to smile. (Remember, I was born in that region there, and still felt taken aback by all the dour looks.) I asked people about the posters, and nobody could explain them, but when I got home I did some research and got my answers.

And she got a salable story, which she placed in Psychology Today – a magazine which she’d written for in the past.

Now, what’s extra interesting about that is that PT is not in any way a travel magazine. But that’s the beauty about these deeper travel stories — your options for placing them goes way beyond traditional travel outlets.

If you’re interested in trying your hand at these types of stories, my next workshop begins April 13th! Sign up here.

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