Coming up with ideas, researching them and then writing useful blogs takes time and energy. For the past few years, I have poured myself into this task without taking any breaks. But the time has come. Figments & Fables will be on break for the next two weeks. While we are away, check out some of our blog series (I will post the first link in each series):
When is good writing good writing? Is it a sentence or paragraph that hooks the reader? It is laud the ability to craft a gorgeous sentence no matter what? Or does noticing that great passage distract from the reading experience?
I think we can all agree there are books that amaze us with their prose and those that challenge us with their awkward phrasing and clunky pacing. It’s a question of quality. We know what works and what doesn’t on a visceral level. But how do we define it? And, more importantly, how do we make sure we’re on the right side of that line with our writing?
In the first two blogs of this three-part series, we talked about what to prepare to do a marketing push and how to find new clients. Now we’re going to look at what to do during the in-between bits—between your preparation and your initial pitches.
Not Landing Jobs
In the first part of this blog series on finding freelance work, we talked about things you should do before you begin your marketing and sales pitches. Now we’ll look at concrete actions you can take to find work.
Writers find work in a variety of ways, dictated mostly by experience level and type of writing. In the nonfiction world, this may mean publications, blogs, websites, corporations, nonprofits, agencies, production houses, and more. This makes it more difficult to answer the question: how do I find work, especially during a pandemic when so many are out of work or are operating at lower capacity? Even given these challenges, there are ways to boost your chances, no matter your skill set or level.
Like the rest of the pandemic-trapped world, I’m at home social distancing and watching way too much HGTV. It has inspired me to launch a few home improvement projects and write this blog, which is admittedly more of a rant. Sorry. Though I think I do make some good points about using the right word and why that’s important, so please read through the rant to the end. It gets better. And thanks for letting me get this off my chest.
A continuation of the first part. Five more bits of advice for aspiring writers.
1. Write, It’s As Easy As That
This will end your “aspirations” and make you an actual writer. The fact is you are either writing or you are not writing. There is no in-between.
In this world of quarantine and social distancing, the only escape we have left is story-based. Whether you choose to open a book, lose yourself in a movie, or tackle the latest video game story mode, it is the story that draws us in and lets us forget about our worries for a while.
Being a freelance writer is a tough gig. Not because of the writing, though that has its own difficulties, but because of the business side of things. Through the many years I’ve been doing this, I have learned some tough lessons. Here are my top 12:
There are so many blogs out there about writing and they all offer advice. Some of them contain sound advice and some are so vague they barely count as helpful. My intent at Figments & Fables is to share advice and tips that will help someone have a real career, whether in fiction or nonfiction. If I ever stray in this goal, feel free to nudge me back on course.
We all know that writing is easy, “All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed” according to Ernest Hemingway. And that is true to a point. But it isn’t the whole truth. Writing is easy and hard, but it’s also exciting, creative, playful, and relaxing. It feeds the soul and can be magical.