The Relaxed Writer

Step Up Your Freelance Writing Career (free MP3! offer expires Saturday)

Yesterday I offered an inspiring, info-packed teleclass for freelance writers.  People are still writing in to tell me how much they appreciated the simple model and practical tips I shared:

Did you miss it?  There's still time to grab a free recording of the one-hour class, but you need to do it before Saturday night:

• http://www.coachmarla.com/teleclass.html

Enjoy! 

2 Tips for Happier Writing (for freelance journalists, copywriters, creative writers & others)

You are so lucky to be a writer.

You're powerfully endowed with creative, investigative, analytic and/or expressive abilities.  (Not so, you say? Then try this: "I'm actively developing my creative, investigative, analytic and/or expressive potential, and have a vast array of free instructional resources available to me whenever I log onto the internet.")

Given your writing abilities and potential, how can you enjoy your writing more today? 

My suggestions are simple.

1. Find silence. 
2. Use your words for good.

Find Silence

"Go to where the silence is and say something."  - Amy Goodman, journalist

I love the sense of the sacred invoked by this quote. I also love its utility, its global usefulness to creative writers and journalists and technical writers and copywriters...you name it.

If you're writing creatively today, read "silence" literally.  Still yourself with meditation before you write, or preface your time at the writing desk with a long, ambling walk, a la Brenda Ueland.

If you're thinking about new stories to pitch, train your investigative eye on the silent spaces in the culture at-large.  Give voice to an under-examined trend, an overlooked causal relationship, a neglected-but-important population, region, cause or initiative.

If you're writing copy or content or white papers, "find the silence" by looking at your audience's needs with fresh eyes today.  Discard your assumptions and ask your audience directly what they need.  Find out if there's an angle or an important question you've overlooked, and address it.  

Use Your Words for Good

The journalist I quoted above has devoted her career to activism.  Whether you share her progressive stance or drive, you can still use Amy's words and example to inspire your writing.

See if you can set an intention to direct your talents to "good" today. 

When you draft a fiction piece or examine your experience in memoir or essay form, you're expressing your individual stance and serving others.  Good, creative writing is a form of service and has the power to bridge gaps between people.  (Ever read The Help?)

When you publish a newspaper or magazine piece, you're directing attention to a particular subject.  As you formulate a new pitch this week, challenge yourself to tackle a subject you care deeply about. 

When you sit down to write copy, content or white papers, consider what skillsets you're using.  (Marketing savvy?  Analytical or creative thinking?)  Dream up a small and meaningful project you can take on this holiday season.

• Could you offer a 1/2-hour brainstorming session to that friend who's struggling to launch a non-profit? 
• Could you outline your own instructional e-book?
• Could you offer to generate infographics or give one-hour copy review by phone to a favorite organization you belong to? 

I know you're busy, and the point here isn't to add more projects to your workload. 

I'm simply asking you to consciously acknowledge your gifts and recognize that you have a choice in how/where to use them.

Find silence.  Use your words for good.  Two simple practices to help you enliven your writing career and enjoy yourself more.

What do you think?  Leave your thoughts in the Comments section below.

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Don't forget: "Two Days to Write," my step-by-step, virtual writing intensive, begins with a kickoff call this coming Wednesday, December 7th.  Check it out & join us!  http://www.twodaystowrite.com

 

 

 

Freelance Journalists: Take Charge of Your Writing Career

It's early here, but already today I've coached two freelance writers on exactly the same issue:  how to revive their writing careers and take charge of their assignments and workload.

The answer to this challenge seems like a no-brainer ("Pitch!") but making time to develop your career can be tricky, especially when you've put the time into developing relationships with editors and your efforts are paying off with regular, decent-enough assignments.

It's easy to say "Yes."

It's even easier to postpone pitching for just another week...

But if you're like most of my coaching clients, eventually you'll have to do something different to stay happy in your career.  You'll have to stretch yourself a bit.  You'll have to find the time, courage and motivation to pitch:

•  ideas you care about more
•  better-paying or more prestigious markets
•  more meaty, career-building assignments

If this sounds like you, what's standing between you and a thriving freelance writing career?  Lack of time?  An abundance of fear? Indecision?

A writing career you love is within reach, but you do need to take decisive action and say "Yes" to the challenge.  

Send out a new pitch this week.  Create a new opportunity for your work. 

Your writing career will thank you!

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Two Days to Write - an invitation to join us.

If you're lacking structure, community or courage to get your pitches out there, consider joining me for a two-day writing intensive in October or December.  Our October group is already active on our forum, and if you're a freelancer who needs to pitch, you'll fit right in!

Spend the weekend with us and you'll get your work done, feel great and gain insight into how to write more productively and sustain your career-building momentum after your intensive.  You'll have fun, too!

Learn more and register here: www.twodaystowrite.com