Author E.E. Knight of Vampjac Productions posted a great article on his blog about writing novels. Read E.E. Knight’s thoughts about writing novels.
Freelance Writing Tip #23: Find a Muse
Throughout history writers have searched high and low for sources of inspiration. Some authors have used their past experiences to fuel their writing, others a love interest, and still others their religious beliefs.
Having a muse can fuel your creativity. For example, say you really like Merlin and you decide to let your imagination run wild. You dream that Merlin stands over your shoulder, inspiring you to write. Maybe you chose him because he’s a popular iconic wizard, or maybe because you’re working on a story set in the world of King Arthur. Simply, Merlin becomes a source of inspiration to help you continue writing.
Non-writers may think that muses are quirky, and I’m sure there are quite a few writers who also think that as well. The point here, is that having a muse is not a declaration of your insanity. It’s simply a way to help motivate you to enjoy your work, to keep at it, and to add a natural touch of creativity so the words flow on the page rather than sounding clunky, over-edited, and unnatural.
Muses can take on many forms; some writers have a lucky pen or a hat that inspires them, others have a routine for writing. Just like any other profession that you might fall in love with (sports for example), even though having a muse may sound silly, if a burst of imagination helps you from turning off your computer or putting down your pen—then the muse did its job.
Freelance Writing Tip #22: Marketing and Writing go Hand-in-Hand
One of the inherent values of understanding marketing, is that you’ll know which audience you are targeting your article, press release or essay for.
By understanding what a client’s needs are, you will prevent miscommunication and rewrites. Entrepreneurial marketing (or small business marketing) can also help you with your self-promotional needs, as you create a marketing strategy to “target your market” and grow your business.
Many “writing” positions are sometimes found stuffed in the “Marketing/Advertising” section of your newspaper or online classifieds; often market research requires you to write results, surveys, promotional materials, etc. The nice thing about these positions is that marketing positions are easier to get into full-time, but don’t pay as well as a technical writing or research writing position.
If you’re a fiction, non-fiction writer or novelist, market research is as easy as taking a peek at the books on your bookshelf. Assess which category or genre your work falls in to, then take a glance at the authors you feel are similar to your own work. Research what company published those authors (and when), and very soon you’ll find that you can hone your product into something that can reach a particular audience.
Regardless of how you perform your marketing strategy, learning how to “sell” your work and come up with a way to add value to your writing is essential to being a freelancer.
Freelance Writing Tip #21: Take Criticism
As a writer, you are a unique creature. While you are producing a product that can only be interpreted so many ways, you are also crafting materials for (or with) someone else with the intent of selling it somewhere down the road.
If you intend to make money selling your work, you had better learn how to take criticism.
The thing to remember here is, the minute you “publish” your work–it is no longer about you. Once you breathe life into tired words, crafting into a story or an interesting article to be published online or in print, those words have to grab and engage the reader to sell copies, communicate a point, or seal a deal.
Since writing is a solitary activity, not having human contact while you’re working on a project can put blinders on you, causing you to be more possessive about your work than you need to be. Instead of looking at your work objectively, you end up looking at it subjectively and can no longer see clearly.
Another reason why writers take comments too personally is simply because they don’t perceive writing to be a business. Any business owner, regardless of how big their ego is, would be concerned with the bottom line. In other words, if you are a writer who wants to sell books or articles, then why wouldn’t you listen to your customers to deliver the best product?
If you can’t take legitimate, honest criticism about your work, then don’t plan on writing professionally. Period.
There are ways to improve your ability to take criticism. Try joining a writer’s workshop like Critters.Org. I’ve had several good experiences with this because any time you throw up a story on this group, the standardized bell curve rings true. You’ll get fans of your work; you’ll get people who hate your work. Those people you want to ignore. The gold is in the middle, where some writers will talk about both the good and bad points to your story. If online workshops aren’t your thing, try face-to-face groups or public speaking events.
If all else fails, when you hear someone criticizing your work, BREATHE. Write the comment down in your journal. (I highly recommend carrying one with you at all times.) Then, after you’ve had the chance to get on with your day, revisit the comment and make a decision whether or not the comment was valid, who said it, and if you should take it seriously.
Resumes & Portfolios for Writers: Part Two
Before you’ve taken the time to build your writing resume, you’ll need to think about how you’d like to pull together a portfolio of your writing. While there are many, many different ways to do this, with a little bit of foresight and goal planning, you can put together a collection of your written works that will show off your strengths.
First, you need to think about whether or not you want to focus on a particular writing style or method. For example, if your strength is really on technical writing, you might want to consider structuring your portfolio and adding experiences in that area. If you’re talented in script writing, then perhaps you want to specialize in writing commercials, radio advertising, screenplays, etc.
Second, make sure you ask, every time you are published, if you can use the work in a portfolio. If they say “No,” then ask them if you can use the first paragraph or have an author’s copy of your published work to use as part of your portfolio.
The only challenge with focusing on a style or genre of writing is that you will automatically limit yourself to being typecast as that “kind” of a writer.
How does this affect your job hunting?
When you go to look for a job, most employers may not value writing as a skill, but they do place a great deal of importance on a job’s description. You may know that you can write about anything from widgets to embroidery because you know how to research and then write for your assignment—your employer doesn’t. Being typecast means that you may not even make it through the selection process for a job because even though you have experience writing about chocolate, you haven’t had enough experiences writing about lipstick.
A degree of flexibility is no doubt necessary to find steady work, and you may want to strongly consider selecting works to build one, comprehensive portfolio that you can then adjust for who you are sending samples to when you need it.
For my portfolio, I started out grabbing work-related samples wherever I could find them. Once I established where my strengths were, and where I was getting the most work from, then I started focusing on genre-based writing and business writing. Why? Well, writing is competitive enough as it is—by being able to narrow my abilities into two, specific areas, I’m building a reputation. For me, that works. For you, it may not.
However you decide to put together your portfolio, once you do, I recommend putting together a version in a PDF format. PDFs work great for portfolios because they give you the flexibility to email them, burn them to CD, attach them to your blog or website, and give you instant exposure. If you can, try to keep your “samples” fairly short (500 words or less), unless your potential employer asks for something longer. Typically, employers require 3 to 5 samples of your work as well as 3 to 4 references.
Overall, remember that the key to have a great writing portfolio is to decide what your writing goal is before you put the pieces together. Once you know what you want, assembling a portfolio is a lot like putting together a puzzle. Regardless, remember that your portfolio is for you—even if you’re using it to get a job or an assignment. No matter whether or not an employer “likes” your samples or not, there will always be someone else who comes along who does.