letusdare

Peter Bowerman's new blog

Peter Bowerman, the freelance commercial writer whose book The Well-Fed Writer launched many people, including yours truly, into full-time freelancing six years ago, just started his own blog. You can read it and/or subscribe at http://wellfedwriter.com/blog

Peter's a fun-to-read scribe and an all-around nice guy. Anyone who writes or likes to read about the subject and commune with other writers will enjoy reading his blog. He also has a monthly ezine (The WELL-FED EPUB) in which he offers advice and tips, and invites other writers to share their thoughts. I always look forward to seeing it the first of every month.

Anyone seriously thinking about a full-time freelancing career would do well to read the Bowerman books (The Well-Fed Writer and TWFW: Back for Seconds) and other offerings at the Well-Fed Writer Web site.

One more note: Peter's April ezine issue notes that he's now published 72 issues and has been doing so for six full years. That's exactly the same amount of time I've been in business! Hmmm...karma?

Tips for writers series

IV. Action!

Authors sometimes struggle with what to read when they're asked to appear before an audience. Anyone who can choose from a body of work wants to offer just the right passage to keep the audience engaged.

Here's an idea: After you've thought about the length of the presentation and what's appropriate for those who will be listening, think about one more thing: What you are comfortable with presenting and how it will sound to the audience. You will likely have to practice reading out loud (preferably to an audience) to determine this.

Practicing recently for an upcoming reading, I asked my husband to listen to a 10-minute presentation. Since dialogue makes up a large and fun part of my fiction for young adults, I chose a chapter from Saviors of the Bugle that sounded appropriate. I edited it for my reading comfort and reviewed it silently, saying the dialogue in my head. But when the time came to read it aloud, I was concerned to hear that my voice sounded the same no matter which character was speaking. That wasn't the way I'd "heard" it in my head. 

Furthermore, the look on my husband's face was one of confusion as he tried to follow which character was saying what. And he has read the book! Fortunately, this happened in time for me to think about it and make a quick change. Since my books also feature action, I found a passage that offered just that and read it instead.

It worked. The reading ended at a point in the book that left the audience still listening and wanting more. I might have even sold a few more books because people wanted to find out what happened.

Other suggestions:

• A reading does not always mean literally that. If you'd rather just talk about your work, you likely won't get kicked out for doing so.
• Stay within your allotted presentation time.
• Practice aloud, even if only to your dog. Mine fell asleep, but at least he didn't wander off.
• Practice early enough so that if something does not feel right, you have time to fix it.
• Don't ignore your gut. 

Perhaps those with greater public speaking/reading experience already know about the difficulties of dialogue, but it was a discovery for me. I will probably read action scenes in future engagements, as doing so this time felt natural and almost removed my fear of public appearances.

This is one in a series of writing ideas. Upcoming articles will focus on finding a writing niche (I'm still trying to find mine), having fun with your work, etc. Please feel free to comment with your own ideas and questions. If I can't answer it, maybe another writer can.

Tips for writers series

III. Never fall in love with your words

Most freelance writers who have been working for several years already know the rule against believing there is something special about every word they write. Yes, writers hear lots of instruction and advice about making every word count. Yes, that's good advice. No, not everyone will like every word you write. Some of your clients may not appreciate your carefully turned phrase or the word you chose as the perfect one. They may not even understand what you wrote. Or it may not fit their style. 

Does this make them stupid? Does this make you a bad writer? No and no. But if you want to be a happy writer with lots of clients (i.e., successful) you will need to come to an agreement with yourself: Every word you write might be right for you. That doesn't mean the people who are paying you will see things the same way. Never fall in love with your words.

Here are some of the reasons people will hire you to do a writing job:

They have seen your writing and like it.
Someone has recommended you to them.
You have a good command of grammar.
You know how to spell.
You know what subject/verb agreement is.
You know the subject area.
You can conduct an interview by asking the right questions and crafting the answers into something interesting, accurate and compelling.

Any or all of these reasons could figure in, and there may be many more reasons you get hired.

Somewhere on someone's list might be "You are a good writer." Here's where writers get into trouble. "Good" writing is subjective. Your literature professor in college may have thought your writing was excellent and graded you accordingly. That may or may not seep over into an upcoming story in Dog Fancy magazine or a newsletter for a private company. To be a good writer, you have to give your clients and editors -- your bosses -- what they want. You do this is by getting to know your clients and by asking a lot of questions. Many questions you will want to ask before you ever write a word. Other things, such as writing style (young and snappy? formal? authoritative?) you will learn pretty quickly by writing for them, if you don't know the answer from the outset.

Here are some of the questions to ask a potential client before you take on a new project:

Who is the potential reader for this story, newsletter, annual report, etc.?
Do you follow a certain stylebook, such as Associated Press or Chicago Manual? Or do you have your own stylebook?
What points/issues are the most important to cover?
What length should the story or stories be?
Who will serve as editor of the story or stories? (Best if it's one person. No writer can serve two editors very well unless they are in total agreement.) 

Also, some suggestions for being a happy writer:

Tip # 1. Criticism about how to improve your writing is easier to take if you either paid for it (as in hiring a writing coach or editor or taking a writing class) or if you are being paid for it (as in someone has agreed to pay you XXXX amount of money for writing this project). Take "free" advice if you asked for it, but don't fret too much over it.

Tip # 2. Make sure you understand the criticism. Ask follow up questions if you need to, so you can understand how to fix the problem. If someone simply says, "I don't like it," you must engage him. Give options if you need to. Such as: "Is it too dull, too long, too straightforward?" Never assume that you know the answer. If you cannot elicit a response that you understand, it might be best to move on to another client or another project, unless you are able to read minds or like playing guessing games.

Tip # 3. If you disagree with the criticism and have good reasons for your disagreement, state them. This doesn't mean issuing a challenge with your epee drawn. It means saying, for example, "I wrote it that way to illustrate a previous point about blah blah blah." Your critic may already know why you wrote it that way, and this gives you a good point for discussion that may further help both of you understand each other. Discussions are good. Arguments are not. 

Tip # 4. Some writers use contracts that spell out things like the fee, the length, the number of revisions you will do before extra charges kick in, the deadline, when you will be paid, etc. If you decide not to use a contract, you should have an understanding of these things before you start to work. Otherwise, you could be working on one project indefinitely with no way out.

Tip # 5. Don't sweat the small stuff. If an important editor/client requests a different word or phrase, do it. Be happy he/she hired you. You can always write a blog or keep a diary.

This is one in a series of writing ideas. Upcoming articles will focus on finding a writing niche (I'm still trying to find mine), having fun with your work, etc. Please feel free to comment with your own ideas and questions. If I can't answer it, maybe another writer can.

   

Tips for writers series

II. Write every day

Even if it's a want ad or a letter to your mother or an email, writers should write every day. Not that I think it's important to keep your fingers nimble, although if you feel that way, go for it. It's usually not my fingers that rebel, thankfully. It's my brain, or rather, my insistence on having something to say.

And guess what? Once I start writing, it's kind of like riding the old bike...as soon as I start pedaling, things get rolling easily. Put another way, I find I have something to say. (Whether anyone wants to read what I have to say is a whole other issue.) All of these thoughts that have been rolling around in my head actually make a sentence. They may not initially ring with clarity, but the act of putting letters together and seeing black words against a white background makes me take them more seriously.

OK. I take the written word too seriously. I know I do, and have for as far back as I can remember, which encompasses the time spent in Mrs. Waller's English class, and the creative assignments she challenged us with. But if a writer does not show a little bit of reverance, envy even, for the written word, who is left to care for it? If you are a television watcher during this season of striking writers, you know exactly what I mean. Unless, that is, you are a fan of greed...er, excuse me...game shows where the rules are weird and viewers' attention is directed to girls in sparkly minidresses carrying suitcases. (In my reveries, Clara Peller interrupts that particular show with her famous "Where's the beef?" query from those old Wendy's commercials.)

But I digress, as writers do. I set out to list reasons why you should write every day. So here goes:

1. Writing keeps the brain doing jumping jacks, as opposed to sleeping, eating or watching TV. Reading is also excellent at tickling the brain, but writers also must write. Note: You can write when you are dusting, gardening, making the bed, cooking, walking, etc. Just keep the computer on or a notepad handy. I often do my best writing away from the article I am working on.

2. The act of writing gets easier the more often you do it. It's like exercising daily, eating, or brushing your teeth. You DO brush your teeth every day, right? Anyway...just make writing part of your daily routine, whether you are working on an assignment or not. (You CAN make your own assignments, you know, and sometimes you should write exactly what you want to.)

3. As you write more, the words often come more frequently when you call them, and your voice gets stronger. This does not mean that good writing is easy. But have you noticed those times when the perfect words just flow, seemingly from your fingers, and your brain does not even seem to be connected? And the book chapter or story or whatever just seems to write itself, sentence after sentence? I haven't made a study of it, but it stands to reason that if you write all the time, that serendipity happens more often. Fun times.

4. Writing helps you organize your thoughts. If it looks silly in black on white, you know you won't want to say it, right? I write down everything: speeches, what I want to say to the doctor, questions before an interview, serious memos. I don't go into the supermarket without a list, so why would I go into any of those scarier places unprepared?

5. It's what you do. If you don't take yourself seriously enough to practice what you do reguarly, neither will anyone else.

This is one in a series of writing ideas. Upcoming articles will focus on finding a writing niche (I'm still trying to find mine), having fun with your work, etc. Please feel free to comment with your own ideas and questions. If I can't answer it, maybe another writer can.

 

      

Tips for writers series

I. Don't miss deadlines

Erg. I have now missed two deadlines in one month, and I pride myself on not missing deadlines. Both assignments were for publications and editors I like and respect. OK, I like and respect all of my editors/clients, but these two are regular customers who rely on me and I rely on them. It's co-dependency in a good way. I do not like to let them down, and I believe they feel the same way.   

Now that confession time is out of the way, let's talk about why adhering to deadlines is so important and what you should do if you know you are going to miss one.

As a writer, you should love deadlines. They help discipline you -- something all writers need, especially freelancers -- and they give you a goal to work toward. Writing a story is an OK goal, but writing a story and turning it in on or before a certain date is a measurable goal. If you write without any particular time frame in mind, you could work on said story forever. Having worked with writers as a newspaper editor, I know of writers whose rather elusive goal was to work on stories until they were perfect, and as a fellow editor used to say to me, we wanted excellence, not perfection.

That's trite, but it gets across the idea that good writing should be finished at some point. Otherwise, as another writer I know puts it so well, get a diary.

So what should you do if you know you are going to miss a deadline? Here are some ideas:

1. Tell your editor as soon as you know the deadline is in trouble, and tell her why. Be sure your reason is legitimate.

Legitimate: Your sources, whom you tried to contact immediately after getting the assignment, have been unavailable.

Not legitimate: You have a cold. Your dog ate the assignment. Your significant other bollixed up the computer. You broke a finger.

Difference between the legitimate and the not: There are reasonable remedies for each of the "not legitimate" reasons. There is also a remedy for the first one, but your editor will have to participate in that one, which brings me to idea two.

2. Have suggestions ready that can solve the deadline dilemma.

If sources are unavailable by traditional means of communication, suggest other ways to get in contact. Or be prepared with names of other people you could interview to get the story. Or, if only those unreachable sources will do, ask if it's possible to extend the deadline. If you propose this option, be sure you suggest a reasonable new deadline, preferably one that's within a few days or perhaps a week from the old one. Be prepared to negotiate this new deadline with the editor. The point is to have ideas, not dictate the final solution.

3. Don't make missing deadlines a habit.

Editors assign deadlines because they have to get the publication out and you are not the only person they are working with. After you turn it in, your story must be edited and/or revised, designed, approved, and go into printing if the publication is a magazine or other hard-copy item. The process might be shortened a bit if you are writing for an online publication, but deadlines still apply.

Editors assign deadlines because the publication you are writing for is not the only task they are responsible for. Editors often wear many hats and answer to many people. Respect their time.

4. Don't accept an assignment if you know you cannot finish it by the deadline.

Freelance writers need to ask early in the discussion of a story what the deadline is. If it's January and your editor says she needs it in "mid-March," you can either figure out quickly whether you can do the story, or ask for time to check your calendar. You do have a calendar, right? which brings me to...

5. Write the assignment deadline on your calendar as soon as you accept the assignment. Then back up your interviews, etc., from there.

Note on the calendar when you want to start working on the story. Write reminders to yourself on certain dates -- when to call sources to schedule interviews, and so forth. This way you ensure that you won't forget the assignment...unless you don't check your calendar. So be sure to use a method that works for you. I prefer a desk calendar because that's what I used in a prior life. Some of you more tech-savvy people who dream of a paperless society might prefer electronic versions. Whatever. Just make sure you enter the deadline into your realm of reality.

This is the first in my series of writing ideas. Upcoming articles will focus on the importance of writing daily, finding a writing niche (I'm still trying to find mine), having fun with your work, etc. Please feel free to comment with your own ideas and questions. If I can't answer it, maybe another writer can.

 

Sam takes a walk

Editor's note: Today Sam writes Just Words.

She calls. Holds long red thing. Pretend snooze.

"Come!"

Wait. Open eyes a little.

"Come!" 

Wait. Jump off couch. Walk slow. Stretch. Stop. Stretch. Down. Stare. Give it up.

She clips on collar. Red fire hydrants! Yay! Chain over head. Go to door. Start. Sit. Wait for words.

"Who goes first?" (She forgets. I sit. Every day same. Yawn.)

I follow. Nice day. Wind. Yum! Good smells!

Go new way today.

Lady at corner putting thing in car. "Hello Baw-brah!"

Baw-brah nos her but doesn't say name. She likes lady. "What's her name?" she says.  Low voice. Shake head.

"Hel-LO!" she says to lady. "Happee Nu Yeer." (She says a lot.)

Pecan in street. Pick up. Crunch crunch.

"Drop it!" Stern voice. Drop pecan. "Good Sam." Nice voice.

Want over there! Want over here! Want in yard! Can't go far. Leash long but not my part.

Paper in street. Pick up. Eat.

"Drop it!" Stern voice. I chew. Paper down hatch. Ummm. "Sam!" Stern voice.

Dog ahead. Good hair day. Freeze. Look. See lady.

"U no dog?" Baw-brah says.

"Yes. He lives there." Points. "Romes but not allowed."

Baw-brah nods. Walks.

Fun thing in street. I jump. "No!" Stern voice. Tug. Back to dull side. Fun thing was leaf.

Dead tree rat in street. I can't go see. Leash too short. Walk by. Look. Look. Look.

Hear car. Watch! No get close after last time! Ouch!

See four pals in yard. Jump higher than fence. Show off.

Home. Food. Peanut-butter bone. Yum!

Sleep. 

    

The Creed of the Cult of the Walker

Two days ago on my early-morning walk, I ran into a neighbor I see often. He collects cans as he walks, cleaning up the neighborhood and donating the proceeds to a worthwhile cause. I said I hadn’t seen him in a while and told him now that I knew he was in town, I’d leave some soft drink cans for him at the end of my sidewalk.

I knew as soon as the words left my mouth that they smashed one of the cardinal rules of the Cult of the Walker: Never imply that he or she has broken his/her walking routine.

“I’ve been out here every day,” he replied defensively.

I tried to make amends by saying that I of course had been walking late, or a different route, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

I know the rules of the Cult of the Walker because I am a walker. I walk in the walker’s shoes, follow the walker’s path. I’ve defended my walking just as vigorously when facing a friendly, “Where’ve ya been? I haven’t seen ya!” To a regular walker, that sounds like an accusation and a challenge.

Walking, especially walking solo, is a personal ritual. Some of us use the walk as thinking time, problem-solving time and dog-training time. Walkers usually don’t mind waving or smiling, but don’t want to engage more than that. This is especially true for early-morning walkers, who might require a walk to make them more sociable, just like a dog that is more relaxed and calm after a walk.

To make things easier for those who don’t know the Creed of the Cult of the Walker, here it is. It also works for those of us in the cult who sometimes forget:

1.Don’t try to strike up a conversation, especially with someone walking early in the a.m. He or she is probably on a schedule and/or trying to beat the traffic.
2. If you walk with your dog, pick up his poop. If you have to ask why, you need a new routine.
3. Savvy walkers face traffic. It’s a safety thing. We want to see the car before it hits us. That way perhaps we can reveal the license plate number to someone before we succumb.
4. If you are a walker or runner who, for whatever reason, prefers to journey through life on the wrong side of the street and you come face-to-face with a walker who is on the correct side (facing traffic), consider crossing to your own side temporarily. You do have your own side, you know. It’s not polite to invade the other person’s space, and doing so could be hazardous to your health if that walker has a dog or a big stick.
5. If you encounter a walker who normally walks with a dog and then one day he walks alone, don’t ask. He will tell you where the dog is if he wants to.
6. If you are a motorist, please don’t honk. Even good-naturedly. Especially in the early morning.
7. If you have a gift to bestow upon the walker, be sure it’s small enough to fit in a pocket. Someone tried to give me a blanket once. I am not kidding.
8. Letting your dog run loose to do his business is not the same thing as walking him. You might think it doesn’t matter because no one else is out either. You would be wrong. We are out here, and it matters. You might have heard me yelling at your dog to keep him from following me.
9. Don’t dump your dog in the hope that a walker, or someone else, will take it home. If you do this and I find you I will haunt you.
10. Finally, never, ever imply that the walker is walking later, earlier, hasn’t walked in a while or has changed anything about her routine. In fact, don’t say anything. Stay on your side of the street and wave pleasantly.

My Secret Garden

With apologies to Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden, I have one too. Mine is quite public, though. It just holds some secrets. I have several small gardens in my urban landscape, and all of them are…well…public. I like them that way because they allow me to meet people in a natural way, instead of attending networking events or parties. Suffice it to say I have attended lots of both but for me neither is a great setting for meeting people, especially one’s neighbors. Gardening is perfect if you want to get to know who lives around you.

My most public garden faces a busy street and is really an easement. I got tired of both looking at boring grass and the upkeep of mowing and watering. So I decided about 10 years ago that this rather large rectangular strip would hold Texas natives. In all honesty, the biggest secret of this public garden, which is no secret to any Texas gardener, is that some of the plants growing there are not natives. They are naturalized, however, and thus are quite comfortable sharing the hot dry summers with the natives. So I still call it my native garden and so far no one has wanted to split hairs.

Now to get to the point: Even though this garden is quite public, it harbors many secrets. For example, the history of some of the plants. One is a large showing of purple coneflowers. They came from a neighbor who was quite eccentric and called them “pink daisies.” She apparently gave the seeds to several people in the neighborhood because I see her pink daisies everywhere. She died some years ago, but I think of her often thanks to her generous gifts. (She also left some onion dip at my door once, and at another time, some potato soup mix. I thought this very odd and imagined the dip to be spiked with something, but in fact it was quite delicious and none of the people who ate it felt ill effects from eating it.)

Another secret, or perhaps an “unsecret”: I was quaffing a cup of coffee on the patio early one morning when a woman I do not know swiped a piece of pink skullcap from the garden. The street the garden faces is a popular walking trail, and she barely broke a stride as she snipped. In fact I believe her actions were premeditated, because the stem of the skullcap is pretty woody and the woman would need very strong fingers and sharp fingernails to pinch the stem in two. I believe she was packing scissors. Her action startled me enough to choke a bit in mid-sip. And sort of laugh in surprised delight. As I told a friend later, I’ve given away many cuttings of plants in the public “secret” garden and would have given her one -– even one with roots, had she asked.

Many a tidbit of interest has been passed to me in the garden. I’ve learned political affiliations, how marriages are doing, where kids are going to college and who is ill. It’s apparent that people feel freer talking in the secret garden than in other places. After all, everyone needs someone to talk to, and plants don’t spread your secrets...nor have I.

I’ve thought more about the garden over the years, and I have decided that it’s truly for the public. So I don’t really mind if people snitch pieces of plant. Not that this is an invitation to plunder. But as I told someone recently, who wondered about dogs in it (and yes, I have found evidence of both canine and feline visits), I planted the garden with the public in mind, and that includes four-footed visitors too. Although I would consider it a personal kindness if two-footers would pick up after their four-footers. It’s just being polite, ya’ll.

The author writers fiction for young adults. See more of her work at www.mudpiepress.com

Surreality

The man with the cowboy hat rode not a horse but a wheelchair, and he was wheeling it into Mom’s room at the convalescent center where she recuperates from a broken hip. I walked into to her room right behind him, carrying the morning newspaper. As he spotted me I smiled and asked him “How are you?” It’s a stupid question but he answered with a nod and a smile.  

“Do you know him?” I asked my mother.

“He’s from _________ __________,” she replied, naming a rural community nearby. That meant she knew him. And she seemed not at all perturbed that the man had wheeled himself right into her private room – an act that in many places would get a person shot, or at the very least, yelled at.

“Would you rather he left?” I asked. Mom waved off the question and began reading the front page of the newspaper, untouched by the surrealism of the event.

Here, surrealism is the antidote to boredom. It’s a place where names are forgotten, speech is fleeting and hearing is often a faraway memory, but where people form bonds all the same. A place where cowboy hats and tennis shoes go together, and you occasionally see a bob of flirty red curls in a sea of mostly white or gray heads. Where few people “walk,” but still take strolls in their wheeled transportation. Where nobody complains about really loud rock music in exercise class, and where people still look you right in the eyes.

A worker wheeled our cowboy out with a smile and an apology, but he was to come back two more times to sit in our midst as we read the morning paper. “Here he is again,” Mom said each time he returned.

Anyone longing for a world that makes sense should visit a place like this, where the residents have forgotten more rules than the rest of us will ever know. If tolerance isn’t rule number one, it’s pretty high on the list, right behind patience.  

The Alien Commander solution

     One of the burning, unanswered questions of our time (April 2007) is, can we blame allergy-causing pollens on something, please? Like global warming? Maybe then we could figure out how to get rid of them.

     OK. That’s a political statement, but I would take any sound reason, political or not, that someone could give me for this abundance of pollen floating around. Because I have not been able to work in my gardens much this year, I have to blame the pollen on something. The air debris has increased over the years, right? I think so. I am celebrating another spring in which I can neither taste nor smell, and my ears feel plugged up.

     My allergy doctor, who has an out-of-left-field sense of humor and a great accent to match, actually had a suggestion for me. After a recent breathing test in his office, he asked me how I was doing overall.

     “Fine,” said I, “except for the stuff in the air. I wear a pollen mask when I work outside, but I can’t tell that it’s helping.”

     “You should use a painter’s mask,” he replied. “Pollen masks block some of the pollen, but painters’ masks are much more effective. They have a carbon filter.”

     My protest was immediate: “I already look like a space alien! I wear eye goggles to protect my eyes, ear protectors when I use my Leaf Hog, and this gigantic white pollen mask over my mouth and nose.”

     No stranger to shallow objections, Dr. Allergy didn’t miss a beat. “They come in colours,” he said, with a delightful emphasis on the “u” in colours (I vote for spelling it that way when he says it). “You would look more like Alien Commander. Wear it in the back yard first.” He didn’t even crack a smile, then only a slight one when I started chortling at the image.

     Ever since, I have delighted in replaying the word “colours” in my head. My friend Karen helpfully advised that she has such a mask -- green -- that she uses when she works on her carvings, and I am welcome to borrow it.

     Thanks, Frog, but I am thinking of asking for several for my birthday, in different colours. I have an Alien Commander image to maintain and lots of yard-wear to coordinate.