Jen's Writing Journey

Welcome to the new home of Jen's Writing Journey, the blog that chronicles Jennifer Roland's writing life and provides useful information for new and seasoned writers.

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Fiction
Dialogue: Creative Listening
Use these tips to make your dialogue shine.

Platform Development for Fiction Writers
Platform has typically been the least important consideration when agents and publishers choose which novels to pick up. But, with the competition increasing, it may become more important. Rachelle Gardner gives some tips for building your platform as a fiction writer.

Freelancing
Erik Sherman’s WriterBiz: Craigslist Scams and Other Cheap Ass Lowlifes
Many job postings ask writers to write and submit samples as part of the hiring process. And, many freelance writers caution against it. Erik Sherman provides a specific example of a poster who sells those carefully crafted, professionally written samples.

Media News
Bloggers Say They’re Open to Paying for Online Content
Forty percent of bloggers surveyed said they would (or already do) pay for online news content as a means of ensuring that the quality of the news reporting remains high. What do you think? Would you support a paid online subscription? Or do you think history has shown that web users want it for free?

General Writing Info
How Agents & Editors Decide
Literary agent Rachelle Gardner discusses the three main criteria agents and editors use when evaluating a submission: idea, execution, and platform. She covers both fiction and nonfiction, and she promises to cover platform more in future posts. I will be interested to compare her posts on platform to the info presented in Get Known Before the Book Deal.

Seriously Short Stories
People are beginning to use Twitter for more than just connecting with friends and business associates. Look for Twitter stories, either in self-contained tweets or a series of tweets.

Happy writing!

• Writing Roundup Ten Characteristics of a Good ClientUse these tips when evaluating whether you will continue to work with your current clients. Also, the comment from Kelly Parkinson has great tips to evaluate a potential client.Proving You're Worth More MoneyIn this post, Heather Boerner helps you negotiate for higher rates from current......
• Top 5 Posts With the end of the year approaching, it seemed like a good time to look back at the year and see which posts you found most useful. Here are the top 5, based on traffic and repeat visits. (Side note: The writing roundups are typically the most visited pieces, but......
• Writing Roundup, February 12 Whew. This has been a week of technology troubles for me, but my laptop is on the mend. So, I'm back with some of the great writing posts from around the blogosphere. (It pains me to use such a cliched word, but I don't know of any word to describe......
• Writing Roundup The past week was full of more bad news in the media. But I had one bright point: the Writer's Market website appears to be back up and running. My suggestion is to use Internet Explorer or Safari instead of Firefox.Anyway, here's your roundup to get the week started.Media Angst:......
• Writing Roundup, May 22 A short and sweet pre-Memorial Day roundup. The Business of Writing So-N-So Recommended Me Referrals can be a great way to get an agent to look at your work--but only if they are done right. Here you'll find some examples of good and bad referrals. Main lesson? Make sure the......

• Article Submission Secrets - A Great Formula for Prospect & Profit Pulling Titles for Your Articles Powerful article marketing requires that you write a great title for your articles.So here is just one of my formulas for a great title -...
• Bush to write book on important decisions of presidency - CNN.com Already this week has been full of fiction, technology fiction, financial fiction and now political fiction. Bush can write????  Surely they meant to report, Chaney...
• Tips for Blog Visitor Retention Today, having a blog on the internet is just about as common as having an e-mail address. E-mailing and blogging actually share a number of...
• Article Submission Secrets - A Great Formula for Prospect & Profit Pulling Titles for Your Articles Powerful article marketing requires that you write a great title for your articles.So here is just one of my formulas for a great title -...
• Book Review: 100 Tips For Acoustic Guitar by David Mead If you have been playing acoustic guitar for awhile but still feel like you are missing some key information, 100 Tips For Acoustic Guitar, by...