How Do You Bribe Yourself Into Getting Busy?
25
Apr
Those of you who follow me on Twitter may have noticed that I’ve been having a little bit of trouble with motivation these days. Monday, April 22, 2:27 p.m.: “I just picked up a book, slammed it down, and shouted at myself, ‘You can read that if you get shit done!’ Obviously losing it.” Tuesday, April 23, [...]
The Guru I Don’t Want To Be
3
Apr
A little over three years ago (holy crap), I launched Career Coaching for Word Nerds, a career coaching service for beginning freelance writers. I did it because, for several years, I had been receiving emails from writers pleading for advice, and I realized there was a real need for the help I could provide. Besides, the [...]
Why Freelancing Is Like Juggling a Bunch of Flaming Chainsaws
29
Mar
I went full-time freelance almost six years ago, and I feel as if the entire expanse of it has been one big experiment in finding (and maintaining) the right balance. And I’m not talking work/life balance. Please. Let someone else write 2,000 words about work/life balance, and whether or not I, as a woman, can [...]
What Got Me Here: Self-Education, Goal-Setting, Hard Work, and a Helluva Lot of Privilege
14
Mar
When the Nate Thayer / Atlantic kerfuffle occurred, I cycled quickly through a series of reactions. First, I felt a knee-jerk “Damn the man! Save the empire!” swell of joyful rebellion. Then, after reading senior Atlantic editor Alexis Madrigal’s response — an explanation of the limits of digital publishing — I felt recognition. That’s when I wrote this on [...]
Where the Magic Doesn’t Happen
29
Jan
My husband and I have been in our new house now for just over three months. And though the boxes have been unpacked, and the items inside (mostly) put away, things are not… quite… there yet. Almost every room needs to be repainted (and, at the moment, the walls sport splotchy blobs of spackle). We [...]
A Continuing Education in Drawing Up Contracts
24
Jan
Things I Am Good At: Writing about sex. Banging out listicles. Line editing. Connecting with other writers and editors. Making lemon pound cake. Singing in the shower. Mimicking the sounds my cats make. Things I Am Not Good At: Covering my ass when I draw up and/or sign a contract. I’ve been a full-time freelancer [...]
What Kind of Writer Are You?
18
Jan
My writing partner once told me I was the most business-y writer she knew. To be honest, it hadn’t occurred to me that there was any other way to be. That was why, when I sent out an LOI last month in response to a call for book reviewers and learned that the position was [...]
Why Your Goals Aren’t Good Enough
31
Dec
Earlier this month, I met up with Susan Johnston of the Urban Muse at the Holiday Shops at Bryant Park. We don’t get to see each other often — she lives in Boston, I live in NJ, and the last time we saw each other was at the ASJA conference back in April — but [...]
I’m Not Really Much of an Entrepreneur, Am I?
10
Dec
About two years ago, Ryan Paugh approached me about becoming one of the founding members of the Young Entrepreneur Council. At the time, I had just left behind a permalance gig to focus on building my career coaching practice. Still, I was also juggling a number of writing and copyediting assignments, and singing at funerals [...]
Taking Stock of the Books That Brought Me Here
3
Dec
My husband and I recently moved out of the one-bedroom condo we’d been trying to sell for the past two and a half years and into a four-bedroom house 10 minutes away. On moving day, I was giddy at the sight of the boxes upon boxes (upon boxes) of books that made their way to [...]