So the great prolificist had run out of ideas, eh? Well actually no: I had the opposite problem. I’d had so many ideas and corresponding false starts that I was floundering in a sea of ideas.
Read MorePicture by Ideogram
Professional writer
Using codes when note-taking -- republished with discussion
You might think that recording an interview, and then transcribing it using an app like Otter, would be much faster than writing everything down at the time.
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writer, by Terry Freedman
How I earned $9000 from a free paper
Not many writers can make a living solely from their writing. (Figures released this month in the UK put the figure at only 19%.) Therefore, think creatively of other ways to make money.
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Image by Ronny Overhate from Pixabay
Yeah, I run a business. So what?
I pitched an article to a newspaper that, it turns out, pays less if the article has been written by someone who runs their own business. Why?
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Image by Augusto Ordóñez from Pixabay
Not reaping but sowing
What ultimately matters to the freelance writer, of course, is how many commissions you’re offered.
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Photo from lucasbieri. Licence: CCO
Foreword, Preface or Introduction? (Updated)
I was faced with a conundrum: should I write a Preface to the 3rd Edition, a Foreword to the 3rd Edition, or just stuff it all into the Introduction and be done with it?
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If you think it, write it. Photo = Reflections, by Elaine Freedman
Writing for the sake of writing
Dr Johnson said that nobody but a blockhead ever wrote for anything except money. I have a great deal of sympathy with this view, but I don’t altogether agree with it.
Read More7 characteristics of good writers (Updated)
What do good writers have that bad writers don't?
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Deadline! By Terry Freedman
How I cope with looming deadlines -- 5 strategies
How do I handle deadlines?
Read MoreCourse: Writing for Blogs: A Taster 2021
My upcoming course on blogging is not a technical course, meaning that if you want to know how to set up a blog on Wordpress or something, this course is not for you.
Read MoreBash it out
Maybe it’s just me, but if, after a whole morning’s work doing research and reading, all I have written down is a title (and probably a working title, at that), I feel that I haven’t done any work.
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Earnings spreadsheet, by Terry Freedman
The key criterion of a writer’s success (Updated)
How do you know if you are, objectively speaking, a success as a writer?
Read More8 Key Characteristics of Successful Writers
What do you need to be a successful writer? Here are my thoughts on the seven main attributes you need to have in order to make it as a writer – or at least, to give yourself a fighting chance! I believe these hold true for any genre, and any form (ie book or article).The very first article on this website...
… was a review of a book called The Well-Fed Writer. That was in 2010, and the book seems to be still available. Do I still agree with it’s suggestions?
Read MoreFreelancing vs authoring Part 2: Authoring (updated)
If, like me, you enjoy writing and you would like to earn money from it, should you go down the freelance writing route or write books, or both? In the first part of this two-part series I looked at the advantages and disadvantages of freelancing, ie writing articles for newspapers and magazines. In this part, I consider the advantages and disadvantages of authoring, ie writing books.
Read MoreFreelancing vs authoring Part 1 (updated)
If, like me, you enjoy writing and you would like to earn money from it, should you go down the freelance writing route or write books, or both?
From my experience, here are the pros and cons of freelancing.
Pencil, by Terry Freedman
How to write quickly
Just as with painting and decorating, it’s all in the preparation. This is my method of writing articles fairly quickly.
Read MoreAdvice for would-be book reviewers
Terry’s top tips for writing professional book reviews.
Read MoreHow to help an editor
Reading this book made me reflect on the “tiny noticeable things” that a writer might do to make a magazine editor’s life easier.
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The Raygor reading level graph
The Professional Writer: Make your text readable
What is readable by a particular age group today may not be readable by that same age group tomorrow.
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