Angela Booth's Writing Blog

Writing resolutions - make them, keep them

Whatever your writing resolutions: to write something every day; to write more often; to write a book; or to turn writing into a full-time career - keeping your resolutions means that you need to make writing a priority in your life.

This is easier said than done.

I've just posted "Just Write: Find the Confidence to Write More" at Writing Hacker.

If you follow the easy tips, you'll find it easier to keep your writing resolutions because you'll have growing confidence in your writing.

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Get the confidence to write more

In this Wednesday's issue of Fab Freelance Writing Ezine we tackle the knotty challenge of finding the confidence to write more in our article "Just Write: Find the Confidence to Write More".

Here's an excerpt:

Want to write more? Writing more helps you to achieve your writing goals, whatever they may be.

Perhaps you want to:

* Write something every day;

* Write more often;

* Write a book; or

* Turn writing into a full-time career.

Find the confidence to write

My writing students cite many reasons for not writing more, most of which boil down to a lack of confidence, which comes from... yes, you guessed it... not writing enough.

This begs the question: how do you write more when you don't have the confidence to do it?

Read the complete article in Wednesday's issue of the freelance writing ezine which helps you to turn your writing into a profitable career.

Technorati Tags: Motivation

Set monetary goals for your writing - sell more of your writing today

Have you set your writing goals for 2008? Since we're now in the second month of this glorious new year, I hope you have, and that you're steadily writing toward achieving them.

If you set goals and then promptly forgot them in mid-January, please revisit your goals, and start working toward them today.

Your writing goals: process goals, and monetary goals

You need two kinds of writing goals: process goals, and monetary goals.

Your process goals (how many words you write each day) are completely under your control. Only you decide how much you'll write each day.

Your monetary goals are seemingly under others' control - who pays you for your writing and when, is subject to a lot of variables.

You'll notice I said "seemingly", because you have direct control of your monetary goals too.

You MUST set monetary goals, because when you set them, you WILL achieve them.

I've seen this over and over in my own writing, and that of my students. Please set monetary goals, and make them high monetary goals - goals you doubt that you can achieve.

If you've only ever earned $1000 a week from your writing for example, set a monetary goal of $2000 a week. You'll be amazed at how quickly you achieve that goal.

Your goals should always make you stretch - write down both your process goals, and your monetary goals for the rest of 2008 today. Write them onto a sticky note and paste them on the side of your monitor.

Subscribe to Angela Booth's fabulous free weekly ezine for freelance writers: get a free report just for subscribing. Even if you're a new writer, you can freelance your way to a fantastic writing career.

Join the thousands of freelance writers who are making great money freelance writing, using Fab Freelance Writing Ezine as their guide.

Get motivated to write: DDT

DDT - Do, Don't Think, is one of my favorite writing acronyms because many writers (including me, at one time) tend to analyze everything to death.

Invariably, this means that you miss out on opportunities.

For example, a student told me that in mid-2007 he'd been offered a steady gig writing for a site which is now generating a million page views a month.

Writing gigs are everywhere, so you'd think that this is hardly a tragedy. What's one gig, after all, even if it's a steady weekly writing gig?

The point for my unfortunate student is that he's developing his own site, where he offers editorial services. If he'd accepted the steady gig his byline  and Web site URL would have been in front of an endless stream of potential clients, saving him thousands of dollars in advertising.

He refused the writing gig because he over-analyzed it.

Writers write - you never know where your writing will lead

As a writer, the more you write the better. Your writing will show you where you need to go.

I started my first blog with Blogger in 2001. At the time, I was busy, and blogging was an esoteric activity. Why load myself with more writing, I felt, especially since blogging didn't offer any payment at all?

Finally I reminded myself of DDT, and got on with blogging. Then in 2003, Google bought Blogger - "Google Buys Blogging Company - But Why?" - and blogging rapidly become a highly lucrative writing activity.

I shudder to think of all the opportunities I would have missed out on if I'd continued analyzing, instead of writing.

So if you have a tendency to procrastinate, stop it. Write. Remember Do, Don't Think. Your writing will show you the way. Just write.

Recession-proof your freelance writing career

"Write More And Make More Money From Your Writing: Develop A Fast, Fun Productive Writing Process" gives you all the tools you need for a thriving writing career, no matter what the economic climate.

Three weeks after completing the class one student wrote:

"Thanks Angela, for all your help and advice in class. I'm quitting my job next week. I printed out my letter of resignation tonight after landing a contract writing job that will pay me more for three months part-time work than I earned in from my day job in the whole of 2007! You were right – the great gigs are out there, and now I've got the skills to land them. Your class opened my eyes. Bless you…"

"Write More And Make More Money From Your Writing: Develop A Fast, Fun Productive Writing Process" shows you how to thrive as a freelance writer. Would you like to write five times more than you're writing now, and sell to higher-paying markets? Take the class.

Technorati Tags: be more productive

This week on my writing sites

Here's some tidbits:

* Four Steps to Making Money online Writing Articles (Writing Hacker) - you can make great money writing articles for the Web;

* Affirmations for writers: fun with your inner child (Writing Hacker) - if you're not having fun with your writing chances are you're not writing as much or as well as you could;

* Opportunities galore: Write every day and grab them (Writing Hacker) - manage your inner editor, and write :-);

* Sell your Writing Checklist: Think like a Writer (Fab Freelance Writing) - a checklist to help you to write more, and to sell more.

Enjoy. :-)

Technorati Tags: be more productive