Angela Booth's Life Stream

Writing and more...

100 Day Writing Challenge: Starts Tomorrow

Are you ready for the 100 Day Writing Challenge?

The challenge kicks off tomorrow, so clear space in your writing schedule. Aim to spend an hour a day on it, if you can.

Here's the basic information:

* The Challenge's primary aim is to ensure that you're making at least $200 a day more from your writing than you're making now, and that you'll be well on the way to making at least $70 an hour from your writing;

* The program's conducted via email, you'll receive one or two messages a week;

* Budget at least an hour a day to work with the program and your writing;

* The program is helpful for writers at varying levels of experience, so whether you're a newbie or a pro, the program will help you to take your writing career to a whole new level;

* You can use the program to write anything at all -- develop a copywriting career, write a book, write for the Web... anything you choose.

Be accountable: blog your challenge

Several writers are blogging their challenge; it's a great way to be accountable. You can blog your challenge-experiences on your own blog, and /or on Fab Freelance Writing Blog too (contact me if you're up for the latter.)

I'm excited, and I hope you're getting excited too.

I've had several questions about your Challenge goal. Don't worry if you haven't set a goal yet. You'll set your goal in the first few days of the challenge.

More tomorrow -- enroll to join us.

Ready, Set, Enroll! 100 Day Writing Challenge

Judging from the numerous messages I've received, you're champing at the bit to get started on your writing challenge. Excellent! :-)

Enrollments to the 100 Day Writing Challenge are now open.

We'll get started on September 22, so get prepared. 

Please remember that the enrollment is time-limited; enrollments end on September 25. I want us all to be on the same page, so to speak, as we blast through the challenge.

Enjoy -- I'm looking forward to writing with you. And yes, I'll be working with my own personal challenge too. Just as you do, I want to finish 2010 with a bang, and head into 2011 with all guns blazing. :-)

Want to Document Your Journey?

If you'd like to share your personal experiences with the writing challenge, I'm looking for a couple of writers who'll document their journey on the blog. Just get in touch if you're enthusiastic.

Join us -- enroll today. I promise you you'll have fun, AND you'll achieve your writing goals for 2010.

100 Day Writing Challenge: "Where's the signup form?"

Over the past couple of days, since the 100 Day Writing Challenge site was launched, I've received many "Where's the signup form?" queries.

The form isn't live yet. Enrollment will be for five days only, so expect it to be live within the next couple of days. (The program starts on September 22.)

I'll announce that enrollment has begun in a short message to Fab Freelance Writing Ezine subscribers as soon as the form goes live.

The 100 Day Writing Challenge in a nutshell:

* The program starts on September 22 and ends on January 1;

* Its aim is to ensure that you're making at least $200 a day more from your writing than you're making now, and that you'll be well on the way to making at least $70 an hour from your writing;

* The program's conducted via email, you'll receive one or two messages a week;

* Budget at least an hour a day to work with the program and your writing;

* The program is helpful for writers at varying levels of experience, so whether you're a newbie or pro, the program will help you to take your writing career to a whole new level;

* You can use the program to write anything at all -- develop a copywriting career, write a book, write for the Web... anything you choose.

If you're up for a challenge, the 100 Day Writing Challenge is for you. Join us, we'll have fun. :-)

Writing and Your Creativity: Managing Traitorous Doubt

Do you doubt yourself as a writer? 

Most writers do. Writing is a career in which you're constantly starting afresh -- you're always looking at a blank page (or computer screen.)

Doubt strikes all writers, whether experienced or new, and never goes away. However, as you become more experienced, you start to recognize doubt as simply "doubt", and you pay less attention to it. You know doubt for what it is, and give it far less weight.

How do you handle doubt?

One of my favorite Shakespearean quotes gives a clue:

"Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt". (Measure For Measure, Act I, Scene IV).

If you acknowledge that fear's the problem, you can work with it.

Here's an exercise I find useful. I often give it to my writing students.

Start by admitting to yourself that you're scared.

Next, complete this sentence: "What really scares me is________"

Write as much, or as little, as you please. You'll be surprised at what you write, and you'll come to understand yourself a little more. Usually, what you're scared of is the last thing you'd expect. This is because your creative self tends to be child-like (rather than childish.)

Now you can be gentle with yourself. :-) 

Although the exercise is very simple, it's powerful, and will unlock your creativity. You'll find that if you do the exercise regularly, writing becomes much more fun for you, and you'll write more. 

Confusion Is Good, but Don't Let It Paralyze You

I'm fond of saying that confusion is GOOD. If you're confused, it means that  you're out of your comfort zone.

Stepping out of your comfort zone and learning new stuff is meant to be uncomfortable.

If you're a writer you'll spend lots of time in a state of confusion (also known as creative anxiety). You're always starting a new project, and no matter how experienced you are, you'll never stop facing a blank computer screen.

If you're not aware that confusion is a highly creative state, you'll tend to let confusion paralyze you. Instead of accepting that this state is both natural, and good, you try to get out of it.

Read "Confusion is good" for an excellent exercise which prevents your confusion from paralyzing you.

Article Writing Profits

A couple of weeks ago I launched a new article writing guide, and I'm very pleased with the results that writers are getting.

One writer, Gary, said:

"...wanted to let you know how well it's working for me. I put methods 3 and 7 into use immediately, turning a couple of existing articles from "overview => subset". Now, only an hour and a quarter after downloading it I've listed 69 article titles and written 4 new article drafts."

The ability to quickly write articles is an essential Web writing skill. You need to turn out articles not only for others, but also to be able to promote yourself, and your writing services.

I love the strategies in Increase Your Article Writing Profits. They're strategies I used every day, because they make it easy to write quality articles, without stress.

 

Rewriting (for pay): beware

There's a fascinating story at Ars Technica, "Is permission needed to retweet hot news?" about the copyright law protecting hot news:

think about our third question above, the one involving rewrites. These don't implicate copyright law, since nothing is being copied excepts the facts from the original article—and copyright law famously does not extend to facts and ideas.

Read the entire story. You should be aware of what's involved when you rewrite anything.

For example, you'll often find projects on the outsourcing sites which ask for bids on "rewriting" articles, or books. This is theft, pure and simple. The project consists of  rewording someone else's work. In essence, translating it. There's no originality involved. 

I suggest to my writing students that they steer well clear of all these dubious projects. Sooner or later someone whose work has been "rewritten" in this way is going to take it badly, and it will result in a lawsuit. Since the writer who took the job is the person doing the "rewriting", the writer will be involved in the legal wrangle, like it or not.

Mind maps: my #1 productivity tool

  1. Controls information overload. Freelancers – especially writers – often have to do a fair bit of research. Information overload can be a daily problem, but when using mind maps, it’s easy to build a reference map of articles, group and regroup information as necessary.

 

via geekpreneur.com

I use mind mapping constantly. It's my #1 personal productivity tool. It's not too much of a stretch to say that mind mapping keeps me sane.

Currently, my favorite mind mapping tools is iMindMap; I've got two other commercial programs on my Mac and PC, but iMindMap wins. (Not a surprise, since it was designed by Tony Buzan, who's popularized mind mapping.)

I love iMindMap for many reasons; not least because the program makes it easy to write while you're mind mapping. The notes window opens up into a large word processing window, and turns your notes into HTML, all ready to paste into a Web page or blog post.

Read the above article to discover how mind mapping makes freelancers (especially writers) more productive.

Today's writing tip: get the writing jobs you want, today

For many years I created  mini proposals for prospective copywriting clients. They were less than one page in length, and took me around half an hour to create. I sent these unsolicited proposals to companies with which I wanted to work. This worked brilliantly, for two reasons. The first reason is that I could decide exactly what I wanted to write and when; the second reason is that I could decide  exactly how much I wanted to charge.
via copywriter.typepad.com

Looking for writing jobs? Most writers go about it in the most wrong-headed way possible. They scrounge the job boards and the Web looking for advertised jobs.

I wrote the above article to show you how to get the writing jobs you want, when you want them, charging the rates you choose.

Creating mini proposals was one of my favorite tactics.

Today's writing tip: once you've written it, you can fix it

1. Identify what's not working in a piece of writing

2. Write down reasons you think it's not working

3. Once you know the reasons, choose one major reason and develop a strategy to fix it

4. Start the fix!

via copywriter.typepad.com

Worried about a writing project? If you are, chances are that you'll procrastinate on the project. Don't. Start writing. As I wrote in the above article, no writing you do is ever wasted, and once you've written something you can fix it.