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   Given the briefness of these opportunities I usually observe for as long as I can first, trying to draw in my mind before putting pen to paper. Usually once people notice they have become a subject I am done with the observation part, so I don't think it's too uncomfortable for anyone involved. It's much easier to look without being noticed, than to look-and-draw without being noticed, and I think it's good practice for the visual memory to divide drawing and observing in this way. In fact drawing in-your-mind only is something you can do anytime you want to make visual notes. Just look as if you really were drawing, following the contours and the forms. People get less mad this way, and it's amazing how much looking you can get away with!

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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]

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Last week Linda and I were commiserating about the unreasonable demands some editors have been putting on us lately, stuff like expecting us to work through the weekend, pursuing sources who are clearly not interested in being pursued, and waiting eons to get paid after our work has appeared in print. (I kid you not on that last one.)

I mentioned to her how in the last couple years, I’ve gotten less tolerant of these demands. Yep, you’d think that hustling for fewer jobs in this crappy economy would make me shut up and put up, but it has had the exact opposite effect on me. Some of it has to do with my cancer experience last year (I’m fine! To paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated) and getting a lesson in What Really Matters versus What Doesn’t Matter. Some of it has to do with getting older and seeing that my world won’t crumble if I say “No” or “That’s unacceptable.”

Mostly though, it’s confidence: I’ve been writing professionally now for over 15 years. I know what I’m doing, and I do it well. I bring good ideas to editors and I turn them into well-written stories that only need a light hand with edits. I’m professional and dependable, flexible, friendly, and easy to work with. What more could an editor want?

Plenty.

I remember the first time I drew my line in the sand. I was working with this new-to-me editor on a feature story. Things were humming along nicely, although once I turned in my story in, weeks passed and I didn’t hear from her despite my friendly followups. Then, around 4:30 on a Friday afternoon, I get an e-mail from her. “Great job on this! I’ve attached my edits; I’ll need it by Monday. Thanks!” She may have thrown in a “Have a good weekend!” for good measure, I don’t remember. The resentment grew as I looked at her edits. They weren’t simple; in fact, they necessitated more interviewing of my sources, and I was pretty sure researchers at Yale University were planning to have a good weekend, too.

I wrote her back immediately. “Thanks for this,” I wrote. “Unfortunately, I’m unavailable to work weekends. I can have it to you by Wednesday. Have a great weekend too!”

And at 5 p.m. I turned off my computer and enjoyed my much deserved two days off.

I can’t remember what happened after I drew my line in the sand, but I guess it didn’t end badly as I would remember that.

More recently an editor called me with a fabulous assignment. A big feature. A story I really wanted to write. Money that my checking account would squee over. The problem? Every time I’m owed money from this magazine, I have to beg for it. I had spent my Christmas agonizing over how I was going to pay for our utilities (trust me, I’m not exaggerating) while sending desperate e-mails to this editor that went unanswered.

When the new assignment came along, I decided I’d had enough and turned it down, letting the editor know that I could no longer write for her under these appalling conditions. A couple other writers asked me if she was mad at me. Mad at me? Hey, who did the work and didn’t get paid here? (BTW, I still haven’t been paid for one of the two articles I wrote for them, so if anything I’m relieved that I didn’t take the big assignment.)

I’m sure a few of you are reading this and thinking, “Geez, what a prima donna. Just work the weekend.” Or “What I wouldn’t give for an editor to call me with an assignm

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This is a guest post by Gwynneth Anderson.

How did you feel the last time someone sent you a personalized thank you note out of the blue? It made your day, right?

But here’s the kicker. The next time you were in a position to help the person who made you feel great, you did so willingly. That’s the funny thing about a thank you. It has a habit of bringing good things back to the few people who still send them out.

Thank you notes are the simplest, cheapest, yet most powerful tool freelancers have at their disposal. Here are a few reasons to start sending more of them.

Send a thank you; win a client

When an editor rejected one of my ideas last year, I did what I always do—I sent my potential sources an email thanking them for the interesting quotes but unfortunately, the editor had rejected the story. One person responded. She told me how much she appreciated being kept in the loop because no other reporter ever did. By the way, she worked for a mid-sized, PR company looking for a part time freelancer. She’d checked out my website samples and wondered if I’d be interested in writing some press releases for her?

Um, yes?

By the end of 2011, that simple thank you note earned me $2,300. If her final project hadn’t clashed with my other year end deadlines I would have grossed even more.

Send a thank you; build a bridge

Thank you notes are also terrific bridge builders and I ought to know since I demolished quite a few in my callow youth. Here’s one every freelancer should build.

Who’s your least favorite person in your freelancing world? How about the surly clerk in Big Company X responsible for cutting your 1099 checks? Yup, definitely someone in desperate need of a few bridges and let me tell you why.

No one ever thanks the payroll clerk.

Payroll clerks are grunt workers. They are paid crappy salaries to run reports, open and close the monthly books, process company payroll and research all sorts of mind-numbing things like that one missing invoice from 2003 that’s somewhere in a haystack of dusty filing cabinets. The unluckier ones cannot take vacation at month end, quarter end or year-end, let alone between January 1 and April 15. Toss in a bunch of whiny freelancers to this thankless pressure cooker and even saint would snap.

So here’s what you do. The next time you (finally) get your check from Company X, give that clerk a call. Let her know how much you appreciate her help when she’s so busy. Make that personal connection even if it’s just a voice mail. Then follow up with a real, honest-to-God thank you note (like the old timers used to write back in the early 1990s)–card, envelope, stamps–the whole works. Not only will you make her day (maybe even her month) but chances are you’ll start getting those 1099 checks a lot faster.

Send a thank you; exit gracefully

A thank note also provides a graceful exit strategy—especially with tough clients. I know, I know, but when firing a particularly difficult client do not give in to the temptation to say how you really feel.

Instead, take the high road with a thank you note. Let the client know that while you are sorry that perhaps things didn’t quite work out the way you’d both hoped, you appreciated the opportunity to work together and wish him the best for his future endeavors.

There are three very good reasons to do this.

1. It’s a small world (three cheers for LinkedIn!) and you never know who this client is talking to.
2. Do you really want someone’s last memory of you to be a wild-eyed rant?

Perhaps

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This sketch was done from my car. There was at least a dozen times I wanted to give up on it, but I'm glad I persisted. The light was fading fast and a storm brewing, but I think this all made for an interesting atmosphere.

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Another tree study. I don't know where all this observational drawing is headed exactly, but the last few months or so I've had the urge to draw the things around me. I do believe using real life, and nature as one's starting point is a good way to develop a visual vocabulary of one's own. I suspect something is being stored away in the back of my mind as I spend these hours looking at things and recording them.

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I found this nice place to study trees in my local area. There are some big old trees, and a few paperbark groves. It's quite untamed, and apart from the constant hum of traffic in the background, you might think you were in the countryside. Places like this eventually get manicured and developed, and one by one they disappear.

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I've just returned from a holiday in north Queensland. I'll be posting sketches from this trip over the next few posts. Here's two to get started on. I hope you like them.

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I’ve been seeing a lot of great posts on my favorite writing blogs recently! Here are seven of the best.

1. Saying No to NaNoWriMo

Marla Beck of The Relaxed Writer turns the tables on NaNoWriMo with 3 Reasons NOT to NaNoWriMo. Marla does more than give reasons to skip the event — she also offers a couple of alternatives, including doing it in the summer instead of November.

2. The Most Important Piece of Paper in Your Career

On the Make a Living Writing blog, Carol Tice discusses the importance of contracts with Why Freelance Writers Earn more with This Simple Piece of Paper. (You do work with a contract, right?) A side note: Carol is offering a 4-week Boot Camp on how to make good money writing online that starts November 8 — it’s free to Den members and $97 for non-members. I’ll be speaking on November 15 about query letters!

3. I Like This Post Because I’m 12

My almost-3-year-old boy loves it that fart jokes crack me up. PS Jones has a great post called Confident Freelancing on her blog Diary of a Mad Freelancer. You can’t beat a post that has a subhed “I’d never fart on a client.” Hilarious and on point.

4. Don’t Interview Without It

Over at The Urban Muse, Susan Johnston posts The Freelance Writer’s Interview Checklist. I’ve been hearing from some of my Write for Magazines e-course students that they’re afraid to do interviews, and this handy checklist should help every new writer feel more confident that they’re not forgetting anything important — like testing their recorder or asking the source for photos.

5. Reader Hint: Not Smooshing Bananas = Getting Your Writing Done

At one of my favorite blogs, Path of Possibility, Sage Cohen presents the amusingly-titled but very serious post It’s Never Too Late to Stop Smooshing Bananas. Read it to understand what smooshing bananas has to do with writing when you’re floundering. One great tip: “I was reminded that when you can’t act, planning can be both a satisfying and productive substitute. Can’t write for 2 hours? Spend 2 minutes imagining and outlining what the next 2-hour session will accomplish.”

6. Switching Niches

As someone who is starting (partly) over with my new career as a wellness coach and personal trainer, I enjoyed Steph Auteri’s post How to Start From Scratch with a New Niche on the Freelancedom blog. Quote of the day: “At this point, all the ‘how to boost your libido’ blog posts and mythology-based erotica essays are coming to you. But you know what’s not coming to you? Anything that’s not about your vagina.”

7. Got Clips? Use ‘Em

You’ve got clips — how can you parlay the into more work

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Yes, you can caricature trees... I think so anyway. The top one is an Umbrella tree, and the bottom one is a Paperbark, both very typical sights in Australian backyards.

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This is from a talk Andrew McMillen gave on a panel about freelancing at the Walkley Foundation’s MediaPass student industry days. Andrew has a lot of great insights, so I thought I would share his talk with Renegade Writer readers.

Andrew McMillen: Things I’ve learned about freelance journalism

The best way to be a freelance journalist is to wake up every day and be a freelance journalist. This means you’ll spend your day researching story ideas, pitching stories to editors, requesting interviews with people you wish to speak to, transcribing interviews, shaping stories until they’re as good as they can be, and then filing them to your editor. I’ve just summed up the entire job in a sentence. That’s what freelance journalism involves. You’ll think of an interesting thing to write about, pitch this interesting thing to an editor, get permission from the editor to write about this interesting thing in exchange for money, and then go out and do just that. Over and over.

In a way, it’s not glamorous at all, but it depends how you look at it. I choose to look at freelance journalism as: getting paid to learn things, and sharing that knowledge with readers. In many cases I know very little about a particular topic when I pitch a story, but through curiosity and initiative in approaching an editor to write about it, I get paid to familiarise myself with an industry, or a culture, or an issue that affects a lot of people. I’m not saying that I become an expert on something after researching it for only a week or two, but I’ll generally know more about it than the average person. And then when the average person reads my story, they too become informed. It’s a beautiful cycle, and it’s a wonderful way to make a living, as long as you have an interest in learning things. If not, freelance journalism probably isn’t for you. But you should still try it anyway, because you never know.

Ideas. You need to have absolute faith and conviction in your ideas, because ideas are your lifeblood as a freelance journalist. Without them, you fail. Without them, you’re nothing to nobody. But to have an idea is not enough: you need to conceptualise an idea in a full enough manner that an editor will read your idea and be willing to part with a few hundred or thousand dollars from their budget in order for you to bring that idea to fruition. When I started freelance journalism, my ideas were terrible. I look back on them now and I’m embarrassed by how lame and elementary they seem in comparison to what I’m pitching now. Like anything though, freelance journalism is a learning experience, and you get better over time. But at the heart of this game is the quality of your ideas, which you need to hone and sharpen and polish on a daily basis if you have any hope of getting anywhere.

Curiosity. Curiosity is currency. As I mentioned earlier, I see this job as being paid to learn, and to teach. Curiosity is key, though, because 95% of my ideas come from reading or watching something and wondering, “why is that?” Or, “how does that work?” Or “why did that person or company make that decision?” Generally, the question is “why.” The “why” should be a question that you ask yourself constantly. Not out loud, because you’ll probably sound like a lunatic, but as you move through the world, be curious. Story ideas should come easily if you keep listening to the “Why” in the back of your head.

Mentors. This might be the most important thing I’m going to say today. You need

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I’m back from my writing sabbatical! Thank you for being patient with me as I ran reprints on the blog. Now, it’s time for more original posts from yours truly and my guest posters.

As you probably know — because I never stop talking about it — I’m now a wellness coach. I offered 50 lucky people a free wellness coaching phone session to help me towards my certification (I’m full up, by the way!), and many of those people happened to be writers because they responded to a post about the offer on the Renegade Writer Blog.

As I coached these writers on their wellness, I started to see an amazing trend: These writers’ health woes were directly related to the state of their writing careers. For example, one client was an emotional eater who reached for sweets whenever she felt she wasn’t making enough headway on a writing project. Another blamed problems ranging from allergies to liver issues on the fact that she deferred her dream to be a writer due to a lack of time. And there are more examples.

It’s no secret that stress and emotional disturbance can lead to health problems. I’m not sure whether everyone’s job is so closely linked to their health, but I’d wager that the connection is stronger in creative professions where we consider our careers our passions — our very lifeblood.

So how can you improve your writing career — and your health?

The biggest obstacle getting in the way of most would-be professional writers is that between their regular jobs, their families, and their other obligations, they can never find the time to build their writing careers — time to brainstorm ideas, time to write, time to market.

The trick is to make the time — don’t find it. Many writers moan that they can’t find the time for their writing — and their frustration leads to health issues ranging from anxiety to emotional eating. The trick is, you can’t just find unused time lying around waiting for you to come along and use it for writing — you have to make time.

Ask yourself this super-secret coaching question: If your doctor told you that you had to work on your writing career right away or you would die, how would you do it?

I’ll bet if this happened, you would manage to carve some time out of your schedule. Maybe you would cut an obligation or two out of your schedule. Or ask your spouse for one kid-free hour a day. Or start ordering more take-out meals (healthy ones!) so you don’t have to cook and clean every night — or even take advantage of the many meal-prep places that are popping up. Or get up an hour early (or stay up an hour later).

See? There’s no shortage of ways to make time if you really, really had to. And trust me — you have to. If you’re a writer, your health depends on it. [lf]

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In a recent post, Steve Pavlina wrote, “The path of abundance isn’t the path that maximizes velocity. It’s the path that minimizes friction. If you try to maximize velocity, you end up maximizing friction too, thereby causing massive amounts of heat. Ultimately, you burn up.”

This really resonated with me. For the longest time, I chose options in my life that would require me to earn more money. I added expensive daycare, personal training, and more, and chose to live in an expensive area of the country. So I spent a lot of energy hustling for new work, coming up with new projects, and marketing my offerings. It was burning me out, big time.

Then I started making changes.

As I mentioned in a post last year, I went from working all kinds of hours to working under 20 hours per week, but still earned a full-time income. That’s because I learned to write efficiently and eliminate some of the worst distractions that made it feel like I was working all day when I was really surfing the Internet, checking e-mail, or otherwise spending pointless time at the computer.

Later, I cut expenses at the suggestion of my life coach. I ditched the daycare, cut out personal training (which I later added back when I injured my shoulder and needed help getting back into a workout routine), got rid of cable, and more. I ended up saving about $1,300 per month. Talk about eliminating friction! And just last week, we moved from New Hampshire (expensive) to North Carolina (less so), saving about $400 per month on mortgage/rent alone. My parents care for our toddler during the day so we can work without having to shell out for pricey daycare.

In his post, Pavlina also talks about eliminating friction by playing the game of life for a draw, not a win. When you play to win, others must lose, and they’ll do what they can to keep you from prevailing. But if you play for a draw, you’ll confuse your opponents because they’ll have nothing to block. I realized that that’s something I’ve been doing. In my courses and mentoring, I strive to give value that goes well beyond what the students are paying for. If someone needs to drop out of a course because of a change in their life situation, I offer to move them to a later session for free, or, if their situation is dire, give them a full refund even if I’ve already spent substantial time helping them. On the blog, my M.O. has always been to give away valuable information and ask for nothing in return, though I do occasionally use the blog to market my offerings.

As a result, I’ve been having writers banging down my door to ask for mentoring, e-courses, query critiques, and e-books. I decided to take two weeks off to settle in here in North Carolina, and within the first few days I had three writers write to ask when I’ll be back at work so I can mentor them or critique their queries. Several editors have asked me to let them know when I’m back in action so they can assign me stories. Again: Talk about friction-free! I don’t feel like I’m struggling to get something from people. I just give and the people show up. If I strained to market to people, cut corners with my assignments, and generally tried get more value than I’m giving, people would oppose me because for me to win, they must lose. When I give more than I expect, there’s nothing to oppose.

So: What can you do to eliminate the friction in your writing life? [lf]

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