Freelance Writing

Review: 73 Ways to Fire Up (or Just Fire) the Muse

I write a lot. There are weeks when I feel like I do absolutely nothing beyond dream up new article ideas and then write them. That can be a bit wearing and I can’t afford writer’s block. To combat creative fatigue, I’m always on the look out for a little inspiration. Laurie Pawlik-Kienlen’s ebook, 73 [...]

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Ask Me Anything: Academic Samples

Clare K. R. Miller asks, What if you’re just starting out? Are academic samples appropriate, or should you write some things to use as samples even if they’re not published? In general, using academic samples can be a way to get around not having any published samples that you can use in terms of work [...]

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Why No Negative Reviews?

Not too long ago, I was asked why I didn’t seem to ever post a negative review here. As a matter of fact, very few of the reviews I write are negative, no matter where they appear. The reason why I don’t seem to write negative reviews is simple: it’s because I actually don’t write [...]

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The Glamorous Life of a Freelance Writer

My little sister thinks I’m just like a character out of Sex in the City, based on the fact that I’m a writer. Apparently she thinks I drink a lot of martinis, write when the mood strikes me and generally have quite the glamorous life. I may have snorted the water I was drinking out [...]

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My Writing Bucket List: The 5 Goals that Make Up My List

As a writer, I’ve set myself some goals over the course of my career. Some I’ve accomplished, some I’m still looking forward to. These aren’t always goals that I can just get out there and achieve, of course. Several of them are steps that I have to work my way up to in steps while [...]

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Ask Me Anything: Rates, Cold-Calling and Contracts

Ashley Festa asks, What are the must-haves in your writing contracts? While I’m pretty flexible about contracts with my clients (I generally use a letter of agreement), there are a couple of things that I find especially important to have in writing with my clients: The money: It may seem a little obvious that I [...]

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Ask Me Anything: Getting Started and Copyright

Mike Dougherty asks, How does one get started? Meredith Eaton asks, How do you get established as a freelancer? Do you start by contacting publications or writing articles? I’m answering Meredith and Mike’s questions together — I hope you two don’t mind! The first thing you should do if you’re considering becoming a freelance writer [...]

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Ask Me Anything: Networking for Clients and Setting Rates

Kristina Viera asks, How do you know what to charge? Deciding how to price your work is one of the hardest part of freelancing. There are so many different factors that can affect your price — your own experience, your location, what type of clients you’re interested in working with — that it’s impossible to [...]

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Ask Me Anything: First Steps and Contracts

We have two very important questions this week. Scott Cheatham asks, What would you say is the best first step for someone wanting to enter the world of freelance writing? There are a lot of first steps that I could suggest for getting started as a freelancer: picking a niche, setting up your bookkeeping… Plenty [...]

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Co-Working in Maryland

As a full-time freelancer, I spend most of my days in my house, at my computer, talking to my cats. It can get a bit lonely at times and it doesn’t make for a great environment when I need to work with clients in person — after all, I don’t have a conference room hidden [...]

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