How to Silence Negativity and Edit Your Work with Confidence
When I started copywriting, I had a fear of editing. Reading back over what I‘d written made me think of those chain smoking, red faced editors portrayed in TV and films who bark orders from behind a huge desk. I’d imagine this editor grabbing hold of my writing and massacring it with a thick red pen or screwing up the pages and tossing them into the wastebasket shouting, ‘It’s just not good enough!’ As I read over my writing, this fictitious internal editor was cruel and unforgiving and I became so scared that I could no longer tell if what I was writing was good or not.
Read MoreSell Like a Pro or Fail Like a … Pro
Selling is fun. I could never actually understand why so many freelancers resent it so much. It allows you to see your business growing. It helps you to be busy. It brings cash to your bank (and who doesn’t like that?). Let’s face it, not matter what you might think, it is also the most important part of running a business. Without selling your freelance career will end with a bang louder than 4th of July fireworks.
Read MoreNo Unread Items: An Empty RSS Feed
Recently I read something on Brast Tack Thinking about editing your streams mercilessly that almost felt like Amber Naslund had been reading my mind. I’d been thinking about what gets my attention and why. I’m already pretty good at letting go of material objects that don’t serve a purpose yet take up space. I’m even pretty good at editing the people I allow in my life to those that make it better as opposed to bringing me down. But, lately I’d been wondering what was going on my Google Reader account.
Read MoreThe Death of a Blog
All good things must come to an end. Even blogs. I’ve been telling myself that for almost two months now. But somehow it doesn’t make closing down Jargonwriter.com any easier.
In The Beginning. . .
I started the site when I was in college. All the latest and greatest job-hunting advice recommended blogging. So I began writing about the publishing industry.
The site grew even as I did. When I decided to begin freelancing part time, I focused my writing on freelancing. When I left my editing job in August to become a full time freelancer, the blog yet again followed my progress.
However as my business got busier and I invested more time into actually freelancing, I found I had less time to write about it. “Write a post for JW” got pushed further and further down on my to-do list. A week would go by without time to write a post. Then another week. Before I knew it my last post was 2 months ago.
Read MoreWhy You Can’t Guest Post for Me
Remember back when I wanted to make Diary of a Mad Freelancer a big, big site? And then remember when I did that 180 and decided I wanted to keep it small so that it could stay focused? Ok, well neither of those decisions has affected my love of guest posts. Guest posts serve two purposes in my world. First, I don’t have to write anything for that day. That’s major because as ambitious and wired as I may seem, getting out of doing work yet still reaping the benefits is still a win.
Read MoreTake It to the Streets
Group Therapy–Coming to a Twitter or Google+ Stream Near You
Every single blog you read has a goal and if the blogger doesn’t have a goal, she’s wasting her time. Although I reserve the right to change my goals here at any time, my primary goal has always been to connect with other freelancers and to share my journey. It’s not a particularly sexy or profitable goal–which is why I blog here less than any other web property I have–but it’s valuable to me.
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