What I Learned From Writing Reviews

When I relaunched myself as a freelance writer, I needed a way to get back into writing and have some recent work I could show to people. Someone recommended paid reviews sites, of which there are several, and I jumped at the chance. It turned out to be a good move, as it taught me some things about online writing.

Academic Writing Style

Before that, I had learned two styles of writing. The first was the academic style, honed in countless essays through school and university. That is not much use for online writing, because it can be cumbersome. (The best compliment I ever had was when one of my lecturers looked at my MA thesis and said it was a good read, as I’d managed to balance academic requirements with talking to real people.)

Journalistic Writing Style

The second style I learned was journalistic writing. In most cases, this meant that I had to stand back from anything I was writing about and be objective. Even with feature articles, which had a lot more opinion, you were meant to put the information there and let people reach their own conclusions about how you felt.

While both of those writing styles have helped me learn to write, I had to learn something new when it came to writing for an international online audience – and writing reviews was the first part of that learning.

Parenting Is Hard Work

Parenting is hard work – and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. There are challenges at every stage – and although I enjoy motherhood, I am not feeling the love (as my sister would say) today.

My four year old thinks she knows best about everything and everything is up for debate, but sometimes I just don’t have the time. Sometimes we just need to get out and get doing, so I can spend time with her and still make my writing deadlines.� Ah well, no doubt this will pass and I’ll be complaining about something else when she’s five.

Working Holiday

It’s a public holiday here and I am writing as usual. I spoke to another work at home colleague today – she’s a translator – and we agreed that we always seem to miss out on the holidays. You see, most of the people I write for are in the US and UK. Except for Easter and Christmas, there are no common holidays, so there’s always someone wanting a deadline met.

Don’t get me wrong – I would rather be busy, but sometimes it would be nice to have one of the holidays off, instead of sitting at my desk as I do every other day. Do you work through the holidays?

The One Minute Writing Lesson

What would you say to someone if you had one minute to teach them one thing about writing? What advice would you give them? I am thinking about this for two reasons.

The first is that I am developing a course on writing and journalism. I’ve been told to keep it simple. So what could be simpler than some brief advice.

The second is that I am writing a book on freelance writing – and some brief tips would make good chapter headers or ends.

But I don’t know it all and there are lots of other writers out there who have done it the hard way. So why not leave me a comment with your tip about any aspect of the writing process. I’ll collate any tips I get into another post by the end of January.

My tip: Read your work backwards to check it. It will stop you from reading what you EXPECT to see.

Solving A Writing Problem

I had a problem last week. Someone let me down and I was in danger of missing a deadline. Here’s how I solved it:

What do you do as a freelance writer when you are in danger of missing a deadline? I have to say that I don’t usually miss deadlines – it’s bad for business. But this week, I was let down on a job, which left me with too much work to do to meet one of my writing deadlines. I could have pouted and cried (and maybe I did inside) but that wasn’t going to help me meet the deadline.

Read the rest of Freelance Writing Friends – A Big Thank You�

Tagged By The Domestik Goddess

I’ve been tagged by my online mate, the domestika, who has lots to say on all things domestic and undomestic. My faves include her essay on vacuum cleaners, her exploration of How To Grow Your Own Furniture and anything on gadgets. Well worth a read.

Anyway, all this procrastinating isn’t helping me to list Five Things Only A Stalker Would Know About Me. Here I go:

Are You Dizzy Yet?

You might have noticed some changes on this blog. I have changed design about four times in the last couple of weeks and that’s only the ones you have seen. I might be changing a few more times till I get it right, too.

I am looking for a wordpress theme, that is SEO friendly, with the content first and which includes metatags. I can add the tagging and bookmarking functions myself through plugins, and I’d like to be able to put in some Adsense ads and other buttons easily. I know there are plugins for that, too, but they don’t seem to work that well. More on that another time.

Some people have suggested that I simply get a custom designed theme, and maybe I will, once I’ve settled on what I want once and for all. Any advice, tips, recommendations? Ideally, I want a three column theme which doesn’t look too much like a blog as I eventually plan to switch my whole site over.

The Unknown World Of Writing

As a freelance writer, you need to recognise when it’s time to move on and do something to change your career. I’ve realised that the time has come to do that in my freelance writing career. I have so much writing work that I need to spread it around a little. That’s why I’m trying to make contact with other writers who need to get some work. (I wrote about this in Help, I Need A Writer). There’s always a risk that I will spend all my time doing admin, but I am hoping the gamble will pay off – and if you’re interested, contact me through the contact page on this blog.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year, everyone. How did you spend the holidays. Mine were the usual mixture of frantic shopping, cooking, wrapping and opening – while trying to meet my remaining writing deadlines at the same time. I always enjoy Christmas – and I’m also glad when the flurry is over.

Now I’m gearing up for the next phase of my freelance writing career. Watch this space as I try to combine writing, ghostwriting and paid blogging with online teaching. What are your plans for the new year? I never make resolutions, as I figure any time of year is good for a change, but there’s no denying that a year is a convenient unit of time to plan for.