10 Elements of Effective (Client) Writing (Part 2 of 2)
In the last blog, I shared the first five steps to effective client writing. Below are the final five steps to providing your clients work that fills their needs:
10 Elements of Effective (Client) Writing (Part 1 of 2)
Effective writing can mean so many things, depending on the type of writing you are talking about. But when to comes to client work, effective writing means work that meets a goal and does its job. It’s that simple. And that hard.
Loving All Forms of Writing
There is a reason we all sit down and pick up a pen or tap at the keys. We all have something pushing us to begin. While we may have our various reasons, what it comes down to is a love of words and writing, feeling that imperative to capture the human experience in written form. The problem is that so many people feel the only way to pursue a life as a writer is to pen the great American novel. Now I’m not going to say writing fiction isn’t a noble pursuit, I’m pursuing it myself after years of nonfiction work. The lure is strong. But what drives me isn’t the form my work takes, but the compulsion to wrangle 26 tiny letters into sentences that convey emotion, story and facts.
Tracking Client Work
Tracking client work will save you time, money and frustration. Here is how I track my client work and clients.
Tracking Submissions—The Administrative Side of Writing
Like most writers, I love the research and writing parts of the job, but don’t care for the administrative tasks that come with the gig—doing the taxes, accounting, legal and tracking everything. It’s easy to let those things slide and I did when I first started out, until I learned better.
It is easier than you think to misplace vital information, lose track of invoices and payments, and forget to track what you send out into the publishing world. The only way to stay sane and solvent is to track everything. It will help your sanity too.
Write Stronger: Cutting Weasel Words
Strong writing requires strong verbs. That’s nothing new. It’s far better to say enraged than angry and exhausted rather than very tired. There are tons of articles about that on the net. What isn’t talked about as often is the ways we soften language.
How to Create a Working Editorial Calendar for Your Blog
Blogging is fun. I love writing my blog. But it is more than that. It’s a commitment to my readers and my industry. It’s a commitment I take seriously.
Writing a blog takes discipline. You owe your readers consistently good content that can be found on a regular basis. As a working writer, it’s not always easy to honor that commitment. Life gets in the way, which is why discipline matters. It helps to be organized too.
Blogging: A Writer’s Perspective
Writers write. It’s what we do. These days the easiest way to do that is to write a blog. Most writers have one. Some use it to post news and updates on their work. Others write about their families and lives. Then there are those, like me, who write about writing, which makes sense since writing is my passion. It’s also a great way to give back to the industry and share what I know while meeting other writers and writers in training.
Freelancing Is Business
Through the years, I’ve known a lot of people who were freelance writers. Some of them did it on the side and others wrote for a living. The big difference between the two groups was how they approached the work. The ones looking at it as extra money, typically didn’t approach it like a business. It was just a part-time gig that brought in a bit of extra cash. It was not how they paid the mortgage or put food on the table.
The Niche Myth: Or the Case for Writing Broadly
There are those in freelance writing who advocate (loudly, I might add) to choose a niche and stick to it if you want to make money. I get it. It’s easier to market yourself if you have a specialty. But being a freelance writer should be about more than the money. It should be about the writing. Choosing a niche is not always the best option.