Jen's Writing Journey

• The Business of Writing
• Craft
• Fiction
• Freelancing

The Business of Writing

Firsts
What are your goals for your writing career? Aprilynne Pike discusses her goals, other possible goals as a writer, and the ways we can achieve these goals.

Choosing Your Genre
Agent Jessica Faust covers the issue of specializing in a genre. If you have ideas that span genres, how do you choose which to focus on? Faust suggests looking at your ideas and assessing which is strongest and which you can do your best work on.

This Rant Brought to You by the Letter Q for Query
Follow the submission guidelines for your chosen editor or agent. And use your query to discuss the work you are submitting and the important publishing credentials you bring to the table. Don’t criticize the guidelines or the processes. If you do these things, you’ll be one step ahead of the annoying people who don’t follow the rules.

Building a Writing Career
How badly do you want to be a writer? What will you do when you are hit with the notion that every word you’ve ever written stinks to high heaven? Rather than packing it in, Robyn decided to rededicated herself to her career.

Independents Plan Events for National Bookstore Day
Publishers Weekly pulled together a national celebration of bookstores as chains force independents out of business and Amazon forces all bricks and mortar stores into obsolesence.

Craft

Louisa Edwards: Guest Post
Novelist Louisa Edwards visits Victoria Janssen’s blog to discuss the importance of research and passion for your topic. If you don’t love your topic, how can you expect your readers to?

Writer Question: How Do I Cut Text from My Novel and Not Lose My Soul
Can you kill your darlings? No matter how hard it is, to be successful, you will probably have to cut some of your favorite lines, plots, and characters out of your work. Moonrat discusses the issues to keep in mind when you are confronted with the decision of what to cut and what to keep.

Fiction

Some Deep Point of View Tips
Novelist Camy Tang guests at The Seekers with specific examples of language and description that enliven your writing and put the reader there as a participant, not a viewer.

Creating a Plot
Taylor, over at Men with Pens, shares some great tips on creating a compelling plot.

Freelancing

The Great Debate: Flat Rates versus Hourly Rates
How do you structure your rates for freelance work? Buy the word? the hour? the project? Susan Johnson goes over the different things you need to keep in mind when you set your rates.

Watch for Signs of Trouble
Freelancer Sue Lick provides some warning signs that one of your regular clients might be in financial trouble. With the current economic situation, we will all have to protect ourselves in case our clients are unable to pay or on their way out of business.

• Good Resources for Writers I'm test-driving a concept for my Thursday posts: a listing of Websites/blog posts that have some useful info for fledgling and fully fledged writers. Let me know what you think in the comments. Also, point out any good sites or blogs I should be visiting to find content.This week, I'm......
• Writing Roundup, July 24 The Business of Writing Ain't That a Shame Author Justine Larbalestier shares her thoughts on the cover for her book Liar. The protagonist is African American, but the girl shown on the cover is White. Larbalastier campaigned strongly for a different cover, but she did not win that battle. What......
• Book Review: My So-Called Freelance Life Michelle Goodman learned the hard way how to build a freelance writing business. Then she captured her wisdom in an easy-to-follow guidebook so you don't have to make the same mistakes. My So-Called Freelance Life takes you from the beginning dreams of leaving the cube farm behind to planning......
• Do You Know When to Say When? It is easy for writers--especially new freelance writers--to agree to too many projects. The result is either missed deadlines, shoddy work, or a really crabby and tired writer whose family can't stand to be anywhere near him or her. But what is it that leads to over-committing and under-delivering? There......
• Writers and Holidays Holidays are a funny thing for we writers. Many of us have day jobs, and many of us have the day off from them today. Yay! But, I will be spending a large portion of my day writing, networking, researching--you know, working. Labor Day will be like any other weekend......

• Starting up a business The following is an interview with Nicole, who recently left her full-time job to put her effort into her business. She wrote about the process...
• What Does Your Home’s Curb Appeal Say? Whether you are selling your home, or you just want it to look its best, curb appeal is something that must be focused on. You...
• you are reading the work of the greatest writer in the world OK, that may be jumping the gun but humor me and read on. Writing is something almost everyone does, but seldom have I taken a...
• How to Start a Virtual Assistant Business Falling into a position such as a Virtual Assistant is not how it happens for everyone; I was very lucky. When I was starting out,...
• Find a problem, solve it, build a website Thinking of good website ideas for an online business is not an easy task but this article will help prepare you mind for ways of...