I have often said to people that my favorite feeling in the world is inspiration. It’s better than falling in love (although much akin to it). It’s better than being content. It’s better than being proud. And of course, it can include all of these other emotions and sensations at different times. Inspiration is a feeling that starts new again and again.
Because I feel this way, it is no surprise that I’ve considered inspiration to always be the underlying theme of this blog. It’s about turning my ideas on inspiration into tangible advice for other writers. It’s about hoping to inspire other writers with the stories of my own successes at freelance work. And it’s about providing links to things that have inspired me in order to spark that excitment about inspiration in others.
Although that has always been what I’ve done here on Real Words, it’s going to turn into something of a more conscious effort. I believe that it’s important to regularly share with others what inspires us individually. So, you’re going to start seeing a daily column here on Real Words called Inspired. Each post will reveal something that has inspired me … a book, a piece of art, a blog post, a theory, an idea, an image, an author, a piece of food … and it will tell you something about why it has inspired me and what, if anything, I plan to do with that inspiration.
There are several things that I hope to get out of doing this column and there are several things that I hope my readers get from it. I hope to challenge myself to open my eyes in a different way in order to be able to always see what new things are inspiring me. I hope to open the eyes of others to these sources of inspiration so that they may look at each of them a little bit more closely. I hope to provide artists of all kinds with more attention to their work by pointing people in the direction of it. Most importantly, I hope that this column encourages others to pay attention to the sources of inspiration in their own lives
Being inspired is the best feeling of all! The new column starts tomorrow and I look forward to your feedback.
Question of the Day: What is your biggest ongoing source of inspiration?
[Tags] inspiration, creativity, writing, resources, links [/Tags]
Check out today’s freelance job links in the post below this one.
As some of you have already discovered, one of the things that this site offers is links to freelance writing and blogging jobs. Those links are primarily provided on Saturdays and Sundays. There are several reasons why I provide weekend job links. First of all, I think this is a niche that goes unfilled by most freelance job link sites. Secondly, I am committed to being online on the weekends for another job so I have the opportunity to provide this information at that time. And most importantly, I believe that there are people out there who really want a job links resource on the weekend.
Here are some of the reasons that you might want to apply for freelance writing jobs on the weekend:
- Less competition. Many freelancers work Monday through Friday and don’t bother to apply for jobs on the weekends. While they might apply to these same jobs when they start work on Monday, there’s a possibility that people who have applied when the jobs are first posted are the people who are going to get noticed by the employers.
- Immediate jobs. Some of the jobs that are posted on the weekend are emergency one-shot writing jobs which require immediate completion. If you have the opportunity to get these jobs, you can add some great income to your existing work.
- Different opportunities. The same companies and individuals frequently post for freelance writers during the week. Those who post on the weekends are often different. This means that you’ll see unique types of jobs during the weekend. Additionally, it means that you’ll expose yourself to writing for new clients that can become great long-term partners in your work.
- You work weekends. Maybe you have a full-time or part-time job during the week and are trying to get into freelance writing by working on the weekends. Those jobs that are posted on the weekends may have more flexibility in allowing weekend work than some of the other jobs that are available.
Weekend job links aren’t for everyone. For those people who want links during the week, there are great resources out there. (My favorite is Freelance Writing Jobs.) However, there are good reasons for wanting to apply to freelance work on the weekends. For those people, Saturday and Sunday job links can be found here before noon PST each weekend.
Question of the Day: What feedback do you have for me about the weekend job links?
[Tags] freelance, jobs, writing, gigs, freelance writing, blogging [/Tags]
As some of you already know, one of the things that I do on this site is to provide other writers with links to jobs that are currently available in the industry. There are many other sites out there that do this and I aim to be different in a few ways. One of those ways is by organizing the jobs into specific types of writing categories (blog jobs, one-shot jobs, ongoing jobs, editing jobs, submissions wanted, etc.). Another of those ways is that I provide links on weekends when not many other people are putting them up.
In fact, as an update to this site’s use as a job link resource, I’d like to say that you can be assured of finding job links here on Saturdays and Sundays. However, you might not find them here throughout the rest of the week. I’m discovering that the other job links sites out there are providing a great list of links on the weekdays and that what I add only moderately contributes to what’s out there, repeating a lot of the links that other sites find and publish. If I see something great during the week, I’ll let you know.
Otherwise, consider this to be your resource for weekend job links.
[Tags] writing, freelance jobs, gigs, employment, freelance, resources, links [/Tags]
Today is Monday which means that it’s my Friday. I’m still learning the ins and outs of working a 5 Day Week that doesn’t have normal days off. It’s what works best for me but there’s an adjustment period of figuring out the details with clients since they, of course, work a Monday through Friday week. It seems to be working out for the most part. I think the fact that I am almost always able to guarantee a quick turnaround for my work is a big contributing factor as to why those two days off in the middle of the week don’t affect my clients too much.
I’ve thought a lot about the turnaround thing and why that is. Many of the writers that I’ve worked with in the past, particularly when I was running MoKa House and needed writers to turn stuff into me, have required far longer turnaround times than what I usually need to get the job done. Part of the reason is because I do write quickly. But most of the reason is that I am organized with my work. It’s amazing what a high level of organization will do to make work go in and out quickly. I’m not sure how I got blessed with an organized brain but it’s definitely something which makes my work flow more smoothly.
As such, the week of work went well. Here are some of the highlights from what I’ve written since the work week began on Thursday:
- VoIP Philosophy: Wirearchy
- Blogging and Blog Commenting Etiquette
- Two Gay Men Donate Sperm to Surrogate Mom
- Gain Weight Safely
- Emotional and Physical Tips for Making your Bed
- Gracefully Back Down from an Argument
- Check your Finger Size for Osteoarthritis Risk
- ASPS Refutes Three Common Concerns about Silicone Breast Implants
- Reverse Mortgage Seniors Should Celebrate Organize Your Home Day
- Improved Technology Reduces Risk of CT Scans
Now I’m going to go enjoy my “weekend”!
Perhaps you’ve wondered why I didn’t bother to post anything in December. It’s because I took the month of December off. Okay, that’s not entirely true. I did my normal jobs and kept on working at the projects that I had already started. But I also took a big chunk of December to myself, to sort out what my writing goals are and to figure out what was and wasn’t working for me in my work. I think it’s important to take the time to do this every now and then so that you can move forward with the work that’s good for you and let go of the work that’s not quite working. December seemed like a perfect month for this because there’s very little new work coming through during the holiday season.
This blog was one of the things that I opted to let slide while sorting through my work because I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to do with it. I thought that taking the time to figure out what it meant to me and what I wanted to share here was a better use of my time than throwing up some random posts. So it was quiet here - not because there was no news but because the news was still in the making. And now it’s January, and I’m ready to ramp it up again.
So why wasn’t I around for the past couple of days? Well, one of the things that I learned in December is that I really do need days off. I’ve been going full force for a long time, rarely taking any days at all off of work. That’s not healthy for anyone, even when you love what you do. In early December, I took the first laptop-free vacation that I’d taken in years. And it was wonderful. It rejuvenated me. It made me feel creative again. And I realized that I need some no-technology days in my life if I’m going to be able to really give my work my best. So Tuesdays and Wednesdays are my offical days off for 2008.
As you can see now, it’s Thursday and I’m back to work. You can even see some of my stuff online today at the usual sites including a post that I’m quite proud of over at PureBlogging on the topic of blog etiquette and the basic rules of respect that commenters should follow on blogs. A few of the other posts that are live today are about CT scan advances, a tattoo removal book, an infertility movie and the use of viral videos for getting dates online.
This blog will be updated regularly now (at least weekly) with links to other posts, updates about big projects, and random thoughts about writing. I hope you’ll come back and share your thoughts with me!
* The drawing is Escher’s … he’s one of my favorite famous artists because of the unique perspective that he brought to his work. I firmly believe that all artists should look at life from their own eyes out and share that vision the best that they can, irrelevant of how the rest of the world might see things. I hope that as a writer that’s something that I do. Welcome to my blog!*
There were a dozen different ways that I thought of starting off this blog. Having worked on numerous professional blogs over the last few years, I’m knowledgeable about all of the different things that I “should” use this blog for and all of the ways to do those things. I know the ins and outs of writing for my audience, selecting keywords to make the posts searchable, planning to tag the posts for promotion on social bookmarking sites … but I don’t want to use this blog just as a tool for self-promotion. Yes, that’s a nice added benefit, but it’s not the reason that I’m bothering to write my own blog. Instead, I want this blog to be a place where I can really connect with the people who read my work and who like what I do, to collaborate with others on creative projects and to really just share what my life is like as a writer.
Hence, the title of my web page and the name for this blog. You see, I always kind of wanted to be a writer. I also wanted to be a million other things (I’m certified in massage therapy, I’m interested in photography, I have degrees in social service and public agency work and I had a brief stint in law school). But through it all, I wrote. I wrote letters, newsletters, poems, stories, articles, vignettes, books and a whole lot of nothing much sometimes. And for many years, even though I did all of this writing, I didn’t consider myself a “real” writer. Sure, I wrote stuff all the time. Sure I started to get paid for it. But it seemed like there was some sort of level of “success” that I needed to achieve as a writer that I hadn’t yet reached.
I wasn’t even sure what this level of success was defined as. I just knew that I wasn’t yet a “real” writer. And I hoped someday that I would be. And then, subtly, it happened. I began to just associate myself with being a writer. It wasn’t related to getting published or having my own writer’s website or being listed as a contributing author on a nationally-selling magazine. It was simply because I write. That’s what I do … on most days anyway. I write. And that’s what makes me a writer.
And the truth about being a writer is that some days I write stuff that’s terrible. I write things that don’t make sense. I write things that make sense but about which I’m not passionate. I re-write things that I’ve already written before hoping to make them better this time. And that’s what this blog is all about … writing bad stuff sometimes and not being afraid to share it with the people that read my work. Writing is a process. It’s an ongoing thing. And being a writer is a way of living. It’s a choice - one that’s messy and confusing and satisfying and wonderful - and one that I make again and again every time that I choose to keep writing.
So, yes, this blog is going to be messy sometimes. It’s going to detail the ups and downs of what writing is and what it means to me and how it changes as I change. It’s going to share my work and share stories about the days that I just don’t feel like working at all. It’s going to be real words (probably with typos sometimes although I’ll do my best to act like I edit!) from a real writer who is working in the world of writing right now.
With words and kisses,
Kathryn
This blog is going to be launching on September 1st. Come back then to learn more!
