Hello, pretties. Here’s another guest contribution by writer Cass Brookes. I know, I know, this blog has been sadly neglected these days. I realize I won’t be able to post as often as usual because I have a lot on my mind, what with the wedding preps and all. If you want to contribute or guest post, feel free to email me, although bear in mind that I won’t be accepting every post. I’ve been getting a lot of those spammy guest post requests from dubious senders who don’t seem to have a clue what my blog is about. I’m sure you know what I mean. Anyway, enjoy this post! Have a great day! :)
Blogging and Writing
Mid-year review: I think I flunked.
We’re just a little over halfway through 2013 and all I can say is, “Bucket lists suck.” Hah. Okay, I’m feeling that way mostly because I haven’t accomplished anything on my bucket list. And I mean NOTHING. Same goes for my 2013 list. Zip. Nada. NOTHING. So much for to-do lists.
WELL. Clearly, I flunked the first half of the year since I crossed off nothing from any of my grand plans. Oh well. It’s not a total loss though. I did manage to get myself engaged. Hur hur. I also managed to create blog templates for my experimental blog Color It YOU and I’m actually quite happy with that. And I got a sorta regular writing gig with a cool website, so there’s that.
I don’t want to do another list because obviously I don’t get anywhere with them. I don’t know what I’m going to do with my lists. For now I think I’m just going to concentrate on getting more writing gigs, blogging more, getting through my review pile, and experimenting with blog design. I’ll be pretty busy with wedding preps, too, anyway. Hah. Excuses. ;)
Um, I’ve nothing else to say. How was your first half of the year? :)
Listen to me babble on The Freelance Pinoy
Eep, listen to me babble about quitting my 9-5 (um, it was more of a 8-ish to 7-ish job) and going freelance over at The Freelance Pinoy.
Stef of The Freelance Pinoy is having an interview series called Making the Jump from the 9-5: Interviews with Pinoy Freelancers Who Left the Corporate World to Go Freelance. The interview series ‘tackles the questions and concerns of many Pinoys who wish to freelance, but are tied to their full-time jobs.’
It’s funny (and horrifying) when you hear yourself on a recorded interview. I think it’s only the second time I’ve done a live audio interview since I became a freelancer. The first time was when I talked to my awesome author-boss-lady. Most of my work is done through email or text chat.
Anyway, I hope I was able to impart something useful to Stef’s readers. Head on over there now and let’s laugh at my funny voice! ;)
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Thinking about Going Freelance?
Read about my journey here. ;)
Sometimes I feel like a fraud
When people ask me where I work, my usual answer is “at home.” Then I say the word “freelance” because that’s the next thing that comes to my mind. Then they ask what kind of freelance work I do. “Writing,” I tell them. This is usually followed by, “Oh, you’re a writer! What kind of writing do you do?” This is where I start babbling about writing for websites and writing articles. Sometimes I mumble about my work with authors.
Telling people about my work can be awkward for me sometimes because I don’t know how to explain to them that it’s both what they think and not what they think. Am I making sense? Yes, I am a writer, but sometimes I feel like a fraud because I haven’t written anything great. I haven’t written anything that isn’t related to work. I haven’t written any short story worth sharing. I have all these writing plans and challenges, but I haven’t actually done anything. Oh man.
So these days I feel like a fraud. I’m hoping I’ll snap out of this, whatever this is, soon enough.
When I knew I was a writer
This started out as a post about how I feel like a fraud sometimes because I’m a writer who doesn’t do enough writing, if that makes sense. I started writing this post a few days ago and couldn’t get past three sentences. Then today I found out about Positive Writer’s First Writing Contest via @DanaSitar. It was just what I needed. I needed to remember that moment when I knew I wanted to be a writer. In this post I talk about how I started with writing. I’ll talk about how I feel like a fraud in another post. ;)
Guest Post: Personal Development by Kirrilee Johnston of Illumin8life
Today we have a post from Kirrilee Johnston of Illumin8life. Kirrilee was on last month’s Sponsor Spotlight and in today’s post she talks about what personal development means for her.
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Personal Development
For many, Personal Development is the new buzz word, the new kid on the block, heralding the arrival of self help Guru’s and their cliches and words of wisdom, but for me Personal Development is a means in which to develop myself in any way I choose…personally.
March has come and I got zip.
The part where I rant about achieving nada in February. Nada!
How now, browncow? It is MARCH and I have yet to do shit. I mean, really do shit. I seem to have forgotten my bucket list. Well, kind of. Not totally. I’m just not making any real progress.
Okay, let’s see here. I got zip short stories. Zero personal essays. No creative writing pieces for my creative writing challenge. No completed article over at Words.ph. HOLY CRAP. I suck. I suck big time.
Inspiring destinations for writers (a guest post)
Hey, guys! We all know that finding inspiration for writing isn’t always easy. As an article writer, I sometimes find it hard to write about random topics. I mean, when you have to write about random stuff like medical equipment suppliers, college applications, custom paint jobs or custom made church chairs, it can be hard to make it an inspired article. For articles like these, I just try to imagine what would make a reader enjoy these articles and find inspiration in being able to share interesting information to readers.
Today I have this guest post from the guys over at The Cruise Web. We know traveling to new places can be a great source of inspiration, so here they have some ideas for inspiring destinations for writers.
Finally found a good use for my oh-so-too-pretty-to-write-on Starbucks planner.
I have decided to start a freelance journal. What exactly is a freelance journal, you ask?
I’ve mentioned in previous posts that I want to start some sort of journal this year and that I promise to keep writing and get my freelance career going. Well, some of the action plans for those goals include finally starting (and completing) that 30 day creative writing challenge (I was supposed to do this last year!) and starting a freelance journal.
I got this idea from Mri Dukhullar’s blog, one of my favorite freelance writing blogs. Her blog is so useful and inspiring. Anyway, a freelance journal is sort of a way to keep track of what you do everyday. You write down everything you do and include notes like feedback from your boss or the number of revisions you had to do. The idea is that by looking at your daily activities, you’ll eventually see some kind of pattern with the way you work. Maybe you’ll see what makes up most of your time and then you can adjust as needed.
So I made my first entry on Feb 1st and I’m hoping to keep this up until the end of the year. Hopefully this will help me manage my time better. Or something. It’s actually nice to use pen and paper again.
You think this is a good idea? ;)