A sad day yesterday – I learned over the weekend that my first boyfriend lost his fight with cancer. It wasn’t unexpected, but I don’t think anyone can really be prepared to hear that sort of news. I’d done my mourning, said my goodbyes, resolved in my own mind that which wasn’t resolved decades ago….
Why Your Writing Blog Sucks
Remember your first blog post? Remember all those plans you had for posting regularly, growing the readership, increasing your business awareness? So what happened? I know plenty of you who have terrific, must-read blogs. For very different reasons, each of you has attracted an audience and has found a way to distinguish your blog from…
Being Memorable
What’s on the iPod: Nothing – no time to listen! I’m still plunged deeply into the large project with little sight of any finish line. But I managed to get some other client work done before nine a.m. yesterday, which opened up the rest of the day to chunk down this project. Also, I had…
The Cross-over
Yesterday was one of those days where I got up from this chair and walked a mile. I’d been sitting in the same spot, powering through a big project, since 7:30. At 5 pm, I was toasted. Today it’s a second pass on some of the smaller sections, and pushing forward again. I had sent…
How Low Do You Go?
At this writing, I’m sitting at my new desk. It’s a solid oak mission-style desk with a keyboard drawer and no other storage. And yes, that’s exactly the way I want it. I’m a hoarder of sorts – not to the level of being on a reality cable show, but I save books, papers, notes…
Freelance Screw-offs
Thanks to everyone involved for the great discussion last week about new writers and some of the over-inflated expectations they have of us who’ve been at it a while. I hope it didn’t chase any newbies off, but that it helped you understand the frustrations we face when we try helping and run right into…
Brain Freeze
Today’s workload is much lighter. I labored through a complex article, complete with Congressional debates aplenty, expert advice up the wazoo, and more than enough last-minute debate to keep me reading every release up until Congress took its break. Today, it’s on to cloud storage. My life is one evolving issue after another. Because my…
Freelancers: Why We Don’t Owe You All That
Oh, if I had a nickel for every time a new or somewhat-lost writer chastised me for not helping more…. well, I wouldn’t even have a nickel. I’ve been fortunate. I’ve yet to come across new, lost, tired, burned out, or otherwise unmotivated writers who think I owe them not just advice, but hand holding…
Worthy Tip: Reuse, Recycle, Repeat
Ever get those days you think you worked three times harder than others, but accomplished half? That was my yesterday. Got a client project done in the morning, but like bad Chinese food, it repeated on me twice. Minor stuff, but it made me realize that reminding clients to send all information ahead of time…
Time to Take Up Juggling
Yesterday was much more productive than I expected. I finished a smallish project in the morning, then devoted the afternoon to research and outlining an article. A large project due in a few weeks ago has a delivery date – I should see it by the end of the week/Monday of next week. That gave…