I like music. Okay, I love music. Almost as much as I love TV. And I frequently use music to set a mood while I am writing. I have playlists set up for my characters so that I can set myself into their frame of mind when I am trying to dig deep into their motivations. And I have playlists of tunes that motivate me to keep writing when I am working on nonfiction (aka the stuff that pays the bills).

I decided to share a few options for you today to help you move beyond any mental blocks you have and achieve the writing success you desire.

Fear

Whether we like to admit it or not, we writers are a fearful bunch. Sometimes we are afraid that we will be abject failures, getting laughed out of the room when we submit our writing to editors. But other times, we are actually afraid of success. We have no idea what we will do if some editors actually buys our pitch and assigns us an article. This song by Liz Phair captures that set of conflicting fears that can paralyze us.

If you find the live lyrics hard to understand, here is another recording.

Lack of Self-Worth

Often, we writers don’t believe we deserve to be successful. When you are feeling down on yourself, listen to this song.

Lack of Time and Energy

What about when you just can’t get into it. Take a minute to listen to these songs. Dance around and get your blood flowing. (I dare you to keep even your toe from tapping when either song is playing.) Then come back to your writing and see what you can do.

What music do you use to keep your words flowing?

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Do you want to earn more money as a freelance writer?

One of the best ways I have found is to learn from the people who are earning a a good living from their writing. The Freelance Writer’s Den, started by business writer Carol Tice, is a great place to get the tools and motivation you need to make more money.

A few weeks ago, I told you why I joined the Freelance Writer’s Den and what information and fellowship I am getting from my membership.

• Forum to share expertise
• Free e-courses on topics that help you earn more as a freelance writer
• Free weekly phone calls from industry leaders with live Q&A
• And more

This week is your last chance to join me in the Freelance Writer’s Den, because membership will be closing this Friday, October 28.

As a special bonus, everyone who joins before membership closes will have access to a freelance writing boot camp with Carol Tice at no charge. Non-members will have to pay $97 for this boot camp, so join before October 28 to get this course free. The 4-week boot camp will include targeted lessons and a story lab workshop with Tice and Renegade Writer Linda Formichelli.

Join the Freelance Writer’s Den today. Edited: The Freelance Writer’s Den is currently closed to new memberships. Find out more about the den in this month’s free open house call, How to Get Started as a Freelance Writer.

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Last month, I listened in on a free call offered by the Freelance Writer’s Den. It was a story idea lab featuring Carol Tice, founder of the Freelance Writer’s Den, and Linda Formichelli. I got tons of inspiration from the call, and I sent off a batch of pitches afterward.

I was then offered a free week on the Freelance Writer’s Den. I looked through the course offerings available at no charge to members, the upcoming weekly conference listing, and the forum of like-minded freelancers, and I decided to keep up with the membership after the week was over.

With my membership, I get access to some great weekly conferences, including a couple this past month on using Linked In to get business and how to design a professional writer’s site. I’ve made some changes to mine, and I am working on more to make sure I’m putting my best Internet foot forward.

This week, I am inviting you to learn how to earn more from writing pros on a free call this Wednesday at noon Pacific. Laurie Lewis, author of What to Charge: Pricing Strategies for Freelancers and Consultants, joins Carol Tice to talk about what you should charge for your freelance writing projects. Edited: The Freelance Writer’s Den is currently closed to new memberships. Find out more about the den in this month’s free open house call, How to Get Started as a Freelance Writer.

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I’m apparently on a reading kick and a time management kick, because I’ve got another book review focused on helping you make the most of your limited writing time.

Now, if you are a full-time writer, don’t stop reading. Chances are you could use a little help focusing your writing time on the most effective tasks, too.

Gretchen Roberts is a full-time mom and a part-time writer, yet she brings in a full-time income. I’ve heard of other writers who manage this, including Linda Formichelli. In Full-Time Income in Part-Time Hours, Roberts gives you quick tips you can implement to increase your income without increasing your work hours.

I read this book in one night, and in a lot of cases, I consider that a problem. For this book, though, it is a testament to its concise nature and focus on helping time-strapped writers.

In her 22 tips, Roberts offers some that go against the typical advice for writers. One that made me do a Scooby-Do-style “Huh?” was not to go after reprints. Typically, writers love to sell reprints to increase the amount of income they generate from a single article. Roberts argues, however, that the time spent on marketing reprints could instead be spent on generating higher-income assignments. Total income for the year is the most important factor.

Many freelance writers figure that they need to earn at least $100 per hour to make a living. For a part-time writer, that per hour rate is even higher. If you put in 20 hours a week, you need to net $200 per hour. If you are in the 15-hour range, even more. This means that you not only need to be fast, but that you also need to spend your time chasing big bucks and fast assignments rather than the pittance you can make on reprints.

Roberts has written a fast-reading book with easily implementable business advice for writers who have limited time to devote to writing or who just want to amp up their income without amping up their hours. I recommend it wholeheartedly.

Buy your copy from Amazon: Full-Time Income in Part-Time Hours: 22 Secrets to Writing Success in Under 40 Hours a Week

Related Posts:

• Writing Roundup, December 11
• Writing Roundup, July 22
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• Writing Roundup, May 9

I write.

I live.

I love.

I eat.

I drink.

But always, I write.

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I have always been interested in staying productive, and since the birth of my son, it has become even more important to me. I want to keep my writing career progressing, but not at the expense of my quality mommy time.

I was excited when I saw Sage Cohen’s book The Productive Writer, and now that I have finished it, I want to share my reaction with you.

Cohen gets it. She is a successful poet, author, and freelance writer, and she is a mom. It is clear on every page that Cohen has felt the same pressures the rest of us have to juggle motherhood, career writing, and personal writing. She has also experienced the fears and creative ruts that sometimes get us writers into a funk that keeps us from writing our best.

Because of that firsthand knowledge, I felt as if I was reading exactly what I needed to hear. Sage Cohen includes a dose of optimism and spirit building inside her practical suggestions to help you control your chaos, schedule your time, and get your client and personal writing done.

I have noticed that productivity books tend to fall into two categories: books that outline some complicated scheme to force you into a productive lifestyle, and books that pretty much tell you that you need to create your own productive system using your goals as the drivers. Cohen’s book falls into the latter category. She doesn’t break ground, but she helps you coalesce your goals into action plans that work for you. One of the things she does well is make you believe that you can finally become the productive writer you want to be.

Set your goals

Cohen leads you through an exercise of writing down your goals and creating an action plan to achieve them. She provides free downloadable tools on her website to guide you through the process.

Create a writing environment

Cohen focuses several chapters on different elements of a writing environment. From creating a space to nurturing your ideas and compartmentalizing, the writing environment is as much mental as physical. Cohen shares her tricks to settle her mind in her different writing projects that would be useful for freelancers who juggle different types of assignments and moms who need to transition from day job to kiddo time to writing time.

Know yourself

One of the most important nuggets Cohen touches on is the importance of creating a productivity plan that works for you. Many writers, including Zen Habits founder Leo Babauta, suggest getting up early in the morning to get your writing done before the interruptions of the day interfere. And this is great advice, unless you are a nightowl who is in a fog until noon. Cohen suggests that you find your writing rhythms and work with them. I have found that nonfiction is my best product early in the day when I am logical and ordered, and fiction is best in the evenings when my mind can flow between reality and unreality a little easier.

Want to see how Sage Cohen’s book The Productive Writer can help you achieve the writing life you dream of? Buy the book and download the electronic tools.

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Over the past few weeks, I have been looking at my social media channels, how users interact with them, and how the different channels work best.

I am offering this info to you to help you best use the various channels you have access to.

Twitter

You can follow me at @jenroland, and there you will find all of my blog posts here and on Mom-amo, links to writing and ed tech stories I am sharing, and random conversations with my followers.

I like Twitter for synchronous and asynchronous conversations and sharing the topics that are most popular and interesting right now.

Facebook

Facebook is the place you will find Mom-amo. All Mom-amo blog posts will link from there, and I will use that space to post links to websites, blog posts, and other resources for green living, saving money, healthy weight loss, and other useful tips for moms and families.

I like Facebook for building engagement over a niche topic and allowing users to interact on their own time. If you are ready to work on your own Facebook community, read this article from Entrepreneur on building engagement on Facebook.

Blogs

I maintain this blog for writers and ed tech leaders, Pop Culture Curmudgeon for my random pop culture analysis, and Mom-amo for green parenting and weight loss.

The ISTE Ning

Look for my ed tech sharings on the ISTE Ning. This community is a great place to learn about the latest in ed tech, so I hope to see you join me there.

These are great ways to help readers know what to expect and to keep from boring readers who are interested in different topics. If you blog about more than one disparate niche, I strongly encourage you to set up different blogs.

How do you use social media to interact with fans or potential clients? Which type of use works best for you on each different channel? Are you finding that, like Chris Brogan, you are using Google+ more than your other social media tools?

Related Posts:

• Writing Roundup, July 22
• Writing Roundup, June 24
• Writing Roundup, June 10
• Writing Roundup, May 9
• Writing Roundup, May Day-ish Edition

Here are a few of the ed tech stories that caught my attention this week.

Google+ for Educators
Nice presentation to help you decide how to use Google+. Are you using yet? I’m there, but my usage is pretty minimal so far.

iThink Before You iPad
Are you using iPads for teaching, classroom management, or personal stuff? For my needs, a Netbook (an ancient pre-tablet one) works just fine. Most of the other things I would do with a tablet work just fine on my smartphone.

Back to School Boot camp: First Day Essentials
What are your kids doing on the first day back at school? If you aren’t quite sure yet, these activity ideas should get your creative juices flowing.

Not a Pretty Picture
The folks at Raising Arizona Kids magazine look at the Kids Count data and what it means for the kids in their area. What does the data look like for your state? How do you address the results of economic troubles with your kids?

Not a Pretty Picture
What do you think of the Missouri law? Do you think suit will affect things?

What hit your radar this week?

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The Business of Writing | Craft | Fiction | Freelancing | Platform | Money

The Business of Writing

• What It’s Like to Be a Writer: I don’t think I’m doing this writing thing right. I almost never stop to roll in big piles of cash. Seriously, though, this is a nice look at why it is hard for us to communicate about what we are doing with non-writers.
• Will Print and Ebook Publishers Ultimately Be Doing the Same Books? An interesting look at the current state of big publishing and what it means for the future.
• Publishing Insights from Ellora’s Cave: A video featuring the COO of Ellora’s Cave discussing how they have been successful in both the print and ebook realms.
• Female Writers Don’t Get Bylines. So What? A response to recent action trying to increase the numbers of women published in magazines and literary journals.
• Publishing Industry Doing Better, Fueled by Ebook Sales: How ebooks are helping publishers make profits.
• How Low Should It Go? How low is too low when it comes to pricing ebooks?
• Adjusting to a Changing Readership: How bookstores can remain important parts of their communities.
• The True Price of Publishing: Why books cost what they do.

Craft

• 3 Steps to Finding Your True Writing Voice: Another great post from Copy Blogger. Here Cori Padgett helps you discover your voice and brand it.
• On Breaking Writer’s Block: Become a Storyteller: Are you too lost in your story to be able to effectively tell it? Try pulling back to see if you can break through your block.
• Wait Don’t Kill That Darling: The REAL Skinny on Self-Editing: Good tips for self-editing.
• How to Write Faster: A great look at the skills you need for writing. I particularly like this line, but with the word “husband” in place of “editor”:
  

  And feel free to quote this line the next time an editor is nudging you for copy: “Although prewriting can be brief, experts approaching a serious writing assignment may spend hours, days, or weeks thinking about the task before initiating the draft.”

Fiction

• Developing Fictional Characters: How do you ensure that your characters are realistic? These tips can help.
• Sex in Sci-Fi: Christine D’Abo shares her process for ensuring that seemingly disparate plot components weave together.
• Ideas for Real-Life Characters: How can you use the people you encounter everyday to make your characters seem real.

Freelancing

• Five Things I LEarned about Freelancing from My Toddler: Business writer Prima Malik shares some great tips to help you be a more effective freelancer.
• Are You Pitching Your Medium or Your Message? A great reminder from Linda Formichelli that we can apply our fields of expertise to more than just one type of publication.

Platform

• 5 Ways to Find Your True Facebook Fans: Great tips for building engagement on Facebook.
• Tech Talk: Social Media Friendly Sites – How to Make it EASY for People to Share You in Social Media: How can you help your readers share your message?

Money

• Print Writing and Contracts: Definitions for some of the terms you will see on a contract and what they mean to your bottom line/
• How Do You Tell Someone to Stop Thinking about Money? Are you spending so much time thinking about he cash you can rake in that you aren’t actually writing?


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Here are a few of the ed tech stories that caught my attention this week.

New Web Search Formulas Have Implications for Students and Societies
New search algorithms incorporate data about sites you like and visit often, using them to tailor your search results. What does that mean for students, who may spend much of their online time visiting sites that aren’t appropriate for education research? Will the more authoritative sources be buried simply because of students’ entertainment preferences?

How Students Use Technology
A nice graphical look at how students use technology. How can these stats improve your teaching?

50 Really USeful iPad 2 Tips and Tricks/strong>
A great list of ways to use your iPad in education.

An Open Letter to Principals: 5 Leadership Strategies for the New Year
As a principal, are you modeling these leadership behaviors? As a teacher, do you think these are the most important things your principal/department head/instructional leaders can do this year?

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