Work Vs Personal Life

Here are three simple ways to ensure you separate your work from your pleasure, which is really tricky when you're writing full time at home because your writing could be considered as both, and your "office" definitely is both!

1) Manage your contact's expectations so in the age of fast and demanding comms, people know when to leave you alone.

2) Don't mix your working area with your living area. Create a home office that has a door you can close when you want peace to write and conversely you can shut and walk away from when you're finished for the day.

3) Keep a notebook handy. I'm at my most creative when I don't want or mean to be creative. Jot the idea down and then get back to your fun.

Overcoming Blogger's drought

Let's face it; Blogger's Drought is our worse nightmare. When the creative muse is dead, blogging without purpose is difficult, mentally exhausting work.

I suffer with it every now and then, so I think it's a good opportunity to share my top five tips to help you pull through:

1) Don't fight it, switch off and relax your brain for a while, even just watching some easy viewing tele or socializing.

2) Use Twitter. Follow industry related people / magazines / organisations / fellow writers and bloggers. I guarantee that something someone writes in your timeline will spark an idea.

3) Watch / do / read / listen to something that inspires you. It puts you in a better place to think about the things you enjoy. Music lyrics help me a lot.

4) Make lists - five things to do when... / three tips to help with...

5) Write a word on a piece of paper. Imagine a situation around that word.

and a cheeky 6) Go to your nearest coffee bar, hide behind a paper or magazine and listen and observe the going ons around you...

Notice I didn't mention exercise. This is a great way to energise not just your physical being, but your mental state too... However, who exercises when they're depressed, fed up and tired because the words aren't flowing? Certainly not me!

Dreaded Writer’s Block

Writer's Block - that dreaded crippling mindset we all fall into at some point - where the end of our career is looming because we're never going to be able to write again... I've been there. No ideas. Too many ideas. Veering away from the outline and hitting a dead end. The story / article is going in the wrong direction and I can't bring it back. I can't link A to C because B doesn't make sense. The characters have lost their impact. I hear critics in my head. The right words have deserted me. The one great idea I had has fizzled into nothingness. A large part of text I've written needs re-writing. Nothing is flowing - the plot, characters, words...

Basically, anything like the above that hinders you from being creative, I'm classing as Writer's Block. And it sucks. Oh yes, it sucks.

But what can you do to get through it?

Writing exercises are magic. They force you to keep writing and thinking in a creative capacity.

Here are some of my favourites:

1) Write 10 potential titles of books you’d like to write.

2) Create a character.

3) Write a description of an exhilarating event you've personally encountered. How did it make you feel?

4) Write a poem about a memorable moment in your life.

5) Select a book on your shelf and pick two chapters at random. Take the first line of one chapter and the last line of the other chapter and write a short story (no more than 1000 words) using those lines as bookends to your story.

6) Rewrite a fairy tale from the baddie’s point of view.

7) Turn on your TV or radio or iTunes. Write down the first line that you hear and write something based on it.

8) Go for a coffee and listen in on a conversation. Turn what you hear into a short love story (no matter how much you have to twist what they say!)

9) Write the acknowledgments page that will be placed in your published book, thanking all the people who have helped you on the journey.

Take a detour - either by heading in a direction with another scene, or going for a long walk.

Write an up-to-date synopsis of your story scene by scene. This will help you keep track of your timeline and point out the places where you can deviate and then bring the story back in line again.

Keep the first draft as a free flow. It doesn't help me, but try writing without letting spell check, grammar check and punctuation hinder you. Those checks can come later in the revisions.

Some advice suggests to keep writing and battle through the block, but if you're literally banging your head on the desk out of sheer frustration, I'd say it's probably time for a serious break.

Fill your Inbox with answers

If you're waiting to know whether you can guest post on a website, or waiting to hear back from a magazine editor, make sure the email you sent was clear and concise to begin with.

Here's what you should be checking for, before you hit Send:

1) Don't be generic in the subject line. Guest post and Question are likely to be ignored, so try to be as descriptive as possible. Not as simple as it sounds, I know…

2) Keep the main body of the email short and concise. Avoid asking too many questions.

3) Be clear about your request. This could feature in the subject line, but at the very least it should be in the first paragraph of your email.

4) Proof read your email before sending.

5) Be sure to respond promptly once you get a reply. It sounds obvious enough, but I've been guilty of not!

Invoicing & payment

Writing great articles is only half the story - because if you're successful in getting published, you'll want to be paid promptly as well. Asking for payment is always difficult, but there are ways to be professional about it.

Spend the time negotiating a clear contract right from the outset

I've worked in contracting in the Adventure travel business for the last 10 years and trust me, any loop holes will come back to bite you in the bum at a later stage if they aren't ironed out from the beginning.

Organise your invoice and billing system

Build an invoice template to include the following:

·      Your name

·      Your company name (if different to your name)

·      Your company mailing address

·      Your email address and phone / fax numbers

·      VAT number if VAT registered

·      A unique number for identification - which will be useful to reconcile your accounts at a later stage

·      Company name and address of the company you're invoicing

·      Space for itemising services and expenses with a final total

·      Invoice date (the date you create or send the invoice)

·      Supply date (the date the goods or service were provided)

·      Payment date (the date you expect to be paid - usually 30 days from receipt of invoice)

·      Acceptable payment methods

Find out who pays the bills, and when

Be sure to ask where to send your invoice and who needs to receive a copy of it, then make a note of your contact in case there is a delay with payment.

Keep a ledger to track your outgoing invoices and incoming payments

It's really important to know where you are at any given time.

Think worldwide markets

Don't just think about writing for your own country's magazines - think bigger than that.

Think worldwide markets!

With more and more submission guidelines allowing for emails, you don't even have to worry about postage costs.

I've recently signed up to Worldwide Freelance, a mega useful resource on the thousands of markets available.

This link will give you a taster:

http://www.worldwidefreelance.com/freelance-writing/nonfiction-articles/73-10-writing-markets-for-new-writers

How to avoid content failure

Sometimes there will be disappointments when great content you've worked so hard on will fail to impress. This blog post will pinpoint the areas to watch out for and help you overcome the obstacles.

The subject matter hasn't been targeted
I cannot stress enough the importance of researching your market and audience. You may have the best idea in the world but it will fall flat if you send it to the wrong magazine, or don't pitch it correctly to potentially the right magazine. The best advice I can give you is to read that magazine from cover to cover first and make a note of style, content, word length and article topics as you go through. Then while it's still fresh in your mind, build a readership profile.

Rubbish title / headline
Creating eye catching titles and headlines is an art and for most of us it doesn't come naturally. A great title is one that is actionable, brief, clear, definitive, and intriguing. Spend some time working on this. It's like anything, you'll get better the more you practice.

No attention to detail
Don't let a great piece of work go to waste because you didn't spell check it! Proof and edit your work preferably with the help of a friend.

These next three are more related to blogging / website content, but still worth a mention.

Lack of promotion
There's a whole world of people out there and it's right on your doorstep courtesy of the internet. You took the time to write the piece, so now make the time to share your content with your friends, family and colleagues through social media sites Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Blogger - to name a tiny minority.

Not socially enabled
What the heck does that mean? Basically add social media buttons to each post you write so people can click on them and share your content. This will give you more exposure.

No SEO
Ok, now we're getting really techy and I've probably lost you...! I've talked about Search Engine Optimisation before. People will find your website by searching for you in Google, as an example. On a simple level, your website needs to be sprinkled with key words to help search engines pick up those words and therefore pick up your website.