Words on the Page

Monthly Assessment: February 2011

Posted on by lwidmer

What’s on the iPod: The Runaway by The Clarks I have a post up over at Anne Wayman’s About Freelance Writing. Go on over and give her some comment love. How was the weekend? We spent Saturday cleaning the basement and hauling stuff away. Finally, we can walk down there again. We’d had a minor,…

Friday Bread Crumbs

Posted on by lwidmer

What I’m reading: The Jungle by Upton SinclairWhat’s on the iPod: Something Good by The Airborne Toxic Event Wow. Never say out loud how organized you are and how you’re going to finish your project. The minute I typed those words yesterday, I watched my day go from centered to scattered. Projects came rolling in,…

Maximizing the Impact

Posted on by lwidmer

What I’m reading: The Jungle by Upton SinclairWhat’s on the iPod: Unbelievable by Diamond Rio I managed to finish my large project edits yesterday, four blog posts for another client, and an edit of yet another client’s project. Productive and lucrative day. I don’t normally track my daily earnings (it’s too nerve-wracking), but I did…

Finding Good in the Bad

Posted on by lwidmer

What’s on the iPod: Awake the Soul by Mumford & Sons Yesterday was a gift. Not that all days aren’t gifts, but this one was the gift of time. I had a large project I needed to put some polish to, and I was able to get through much of it yesterday. I was thankful…

Dude, Where’s My Check?

Posted on by lwidmer

What I’m reading: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot DiazWhat’s on the iPod: Almost Famous by Eminem I wished for, and got, a slow day yesterday. It was nice to relax and settle in on a Monday. There were a few projects I could have done, but I concentrated instead on the…

Weekend Recoveries

Posted on by lwidmer

What I’m reading: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot DiazWhat’s on the iPod: Keep Yourself Warm by Frightened Rabbit You know it’s been a good weekend when you come back to work to recover fully from it. We spent the weekend at the Scottish Irish Music Festival – literally. We showed up…

Things That Make My Head Explode

Posted on by lwidmer

What I’m reading: A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan DoyleWhat’s on the iPod: I Feel Lucky by Mary Chapin Carpenter Busy day again yesterday. I think I’m just going to paste that as my disclaimer at the top of every post. God willing, it will always be true. I got up and running on…

Market Value and You

Posted on by lwidmer

What I’m reading: A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan DoyleWhat’s on the iPod: Fell by Scott Blasey Yesterday was a day of new beginnings. Okay, they were small beginnings, but I managed to get some stuff lined up that will make March rock financially. Amen. I’m doing better this month, but the checks aren’t…

Easing Up on the Brakes

Posted on by lwidmer

What I’m reading: Night Crawler by Diane ParkinWhat’s on the iPod: Restless Days by The Clarks Yesterday was nuts. The amount of work I finished by 3 pm was astounding. I was spent, but I had a handle on what had gone from a relatively easy workload to a massive, need-it-yesterday pile in a mere…

Shooting Your Own Foot

Posted on by lwidmer

What’s on the iPod: Girls Lie Too by Terri Clark Last week was a bit of a marathon. I managed a lot of little things that add up to big projects. Two big projects will provide ongoing revenue streams. Plus I worked on article interviews. This week I get to put the story together, which…

Wendy

You have a personal life and a professional life. The two really shouldn't cross. Having a professional business branded as the Writing Mother of Three makes me not want to take you seriously. A personal blog or something where you're just shooting the breeze with friends is one thing, but your business?

Lori

Wendy, you've hit one of my biggest peeves. You are a writer. You are a mom. They are not combined in real life – why combine them in your title?

Paula

I can think of two examples, one very recent, the other was maybe a year ago. In both cases, I was fairly new to the magazines while the interview sources had known the publishers for years.

The woman from a year ago stunned me by bad-mouthing the publisher and then trying to pass it off as a joke when she didn't hear me joining in. She painted the publisher as a self-absorbed narcissist who succeeded by strong-arming others into doing things his way. Yet she was the one who demanded to see the article before I turned it in; when I refused she claimed "everyone else" does it that way. I didn't bend – that's when I realized she'd probably say the same things about me, since I didn't bow to her ridiculous demands.

More recently, I told a potential source the topic of the article, she scoffed and said she didn't see how they stayed in business re-hashing the same things all the time. Later, she said she used to work for the publisher – perhaps I was "re-hashing" one of her old stories?

I turned both situations around and ended up with good quotes. But will I ever willingly call on one of them as an expert? Not if I can help it.

Eileen

Avoid political rants. Period. I don't care if you're 100% in agreement with my beliefs – if someone disagrees with you even a little, it can cause bad feelings in the relationship. If you're going to talk politics at all, it must be done with the utmost respect with words like "I'm concerned about …" or "I don't think that's a good choice because …"

[hijack]
Wendy, did you get the email I sent you yesterday?
[/hijack]

Lori

Paula, it never sounds good to listen to, does it? Although, I did have a hilarious exchange with another writer once. We had just moved on to freelancing, and as we sent our introductory emails to each other, it was all cordial and positive. Then at one point I noted how quickly her last company had gone out of business and she said, "Oh hell, I hated working for them." We had a good laugh and only then did we share war stories. When we met in person, we laughed even more about the way we both danced around the obvious – we each didn't like our former employers.

Eileen, great one. I loathe political discussions of any sort. Too volatile. And honestly, it has no place in a business discussion unless I'm working for a politician (even she kept it politically neutral) or the government.

Jake P.

There has only been ONE occasion in which I gave a client both barrels. He's a client who’s overseas, so our main method of communication is chat. Further complicating matters, his English is shaky at best. He got very short tempered when I misunderstood some of his instructions.

Rather than trying to explain in different terms, he would REPEAT HIMSELF IN ALL CAPS. (Like the math teacher repeating himself louder, as if your problem was deafness rather than lack of comprehension.)

Finally, I responded to him very bluntly: “I understand that you are frustrated. I am too. I am not stupid, and do not respond well to being treated like an idiot. Please treat me with respect and you will get much better results.”

It worked like a champ. I earned his respect by standing up for myself in addition to doing good work for him, and the relationship has been excellent (and very lucrative) ever since.

Lori, you're too nice to work for a politician!