Life of A Writer

Currently I have placed four writing projects on the back burner to put my paying clients first. Well, the other day I told myself I need to discover a way I can get back to work on those writing projects while still putting my paying clients first, and after a night of stewing about it, I found a solution… hooray!

Are you in the same boat as I? Do you have writing projects you've put on the back burner that you'd like to reheat? The solution is actually pretty simple. Would you like to know? Of course you would, and here it is: Treat those writing projects as you do your projects for paying clients by working them into your schedule. Yes, your paying clients are a priority because they pay, but stop and think about that for a minute. "Why?" you ask. Because if you take the time to stop and think about it, all those writing projects you've put on the back burner also have potential to bring you more income, but they can't bring you any extra income if they're still on the back burner, now can they? Of course not, so pull up that writing schedule and make time for the writing projects you have on the back burner. For example, if you blog for a client three days a week, then you pen that client into your writing schedule for three days out of the week. Do the same for the writing projects that have gone cold waiting on the back burner. Commit to a certain quota each week for a few of the writing projects and pen them into your schedule as well. Even if it's only for one day a week, you'll see progress and it won't be long until you'll have the project completed.

For those of you (like me) who learn easier through examples, you'll find a sample writing schedule below. You can create your schedule based on your current client list as well as writing projects you have on the back burner. In the following sample, paying clients are referred to as "paying client" and for the projects you have on the back burner, they're referred to as "writing project." Finally, if you have a blog of your own you post to, it's referred to as "my blog." You can replace "paying client" with the name of your client or the company name, and "writing project" can be replaced with that project (i.e. freelance writing e-book, send query letter, book, etc.).


If you have too many writing projects on the back burner, work a few into your writing schedule at a time. Then once you complete those projects, remove them from the back burner and reheat some more until all of your writing projects are gone.

By following my solution to add writing projects you've put on the back burner to your current writing schedule, you'll put on some added weight, but in the end you'll lose a lot and feel much better about yourself and the goals you've accomplished.

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I finally decided to subscribe to the RSS for all my favorite blogs instead of bookmarking them, and my favorite RSS feed reader thus far is Google Reader. This has made blog reading adventures much easier, but after adding all of them to Google Reader, I discovered a problem with some of my favorite blogs: their RSS feed isn't set to "full feed." The main reason I chose to read my favorite blogs through an RSS feed reader was so I could read the entire post without having to visit each blog's URL. Unfortunately, I've now skipped many posts because they don't offer their posts as a "full feed," and that means I have to click on links entitled "read more" or something similar. Once I do that, I'm sent to their website to read their entire post. I don't usually click on that link because it defeats the whole purpose of me choosing to read my favorite blogs with a feed reader.

In the beginning I clicked on the links to read the entire posts from my favorite bloggers that didn't offer a "full feed," but this soon ceased. Now, I will only click the link to read the entire post if the blogger does an excellent job of attracting my attention within the first paragraph of his or her blog post, and not too many bloggers have done that.

Now for some friendly advice to my fellow bloggers: Do you fear your readers may not be reading your entire blog posts in their feed readers? If so, take a few minutes to set your RSS feeds to "full feed," please, for all of us feed readers who subscribe to your blog for a quick and easy read.

Do you use a feed reader to read your favorite blogs? If so, please help me by voting in my poll below to let me know if you feel the same as I do. I say help because I'm currently working on an article and the results of the following poll will be a part of that article. All I ask is you answer the one question, I'm not asking for your name or any other personal information, just your honest opinion.

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Three weeks ago, I asked for a little help with some future posts I was planning for Pure Blogging. Novice Writer responded with a request for me to blog about viral linking, which I did last week. Read about the disadvantages of viral linking over at Pure Blogging.

My request for suggestions is still open. See my post from three weeks ago and feel free to send your requests.

Until next time, take care of yourself and continue to work toward your dreams!

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Monday night the National Weather Service in my area issued a Winter Storm Warning. They forecasted snow and sleet in my area. I figured since ice was involved the power might go out, and because my laptop's battery would only allow me to work for no more than two hours, I knew I needed to plan ahead.

I worked as usual Monday night by writing for all the clients I normally have scheduled for that night. Then once I finished the work for those three clients, I added Tuesday night's work to my to-do list, which included three more clients. I wanted to plan ahead for what Mother Nature had in store for my area, and since some of my clients for Tuesday involved writing blog posts, I knew I could prepare those posts ahead of time and schedule them to go live when they were supposed to. Thank God for the Wordpress feature that allows you to write and schedule blog posts in advance.

As predicted, Southern Illinois woke up Tuesday morning to approximately three inches of ice. Not only did we have ice, but that ice caused several trees to fall onto power lines. The result: over 11,000 homes (including mine) were without power. I felt lucky since I had planned ahead and even luckier when I discovered that hubby's boss called him off work. Since he wasn’t working that day, we only had my income to depend on. However, things only got worse as the day went on. Unfortunately, more sleet moved in and the power stayed off longer than I had expected it to. Furthermore, when I fired up my laptop to work for two hours off the battery, I learned that the Internet was down!

To make a long story short, hubby has been out of work all week because they couldn't run the plant due to the ice, and we just had our power and Internet access restored. Because I hadn't expected to be without electricity and Internet for three days, I'm now two days behind. Moreover, I had one client who e-mailed me an assignment before I lost power and Internet access, and he was supposed to reply with further details as well as a deadline. Well, when I was finally able to get back to work, that client did send me an e-mail during the time my power and Internet was out. He included the instructions as well as the deadline. Eeek... now I have to contact that client and explain the situation.

The one tip for planning ahead that I would recommend is to plan ahead wisely. In other words, common sense told me ice could knock out power, and I did know it could take a few days for the electric company to restore power to all homes, but for some reason, that didn't register in my mind when I was planning ahead for one day. It also didn’t cross my mind at the time that the ice might knock out my DSL service. The lesson I learned was I should have planned ahead for three or four days. At least I'll know to plan ahead farther next time.

Have you ever experienced a weather emergency that put a damper on your writing schedule for more than two days? Share it with me in the comments area.

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Good morning, friends. I hope your weekend was a great one!

To start of this Monday morning, I would like to share some of my wonderful blessings with you. As most of you know, I've landed some new clients over the past few months, and a couple of my clients hire other writers, too. I wanted to give you the chance to add to your clientele by sharing a couple of those writing jobs with you.

Since December, I've been writing articles for eHow, which you can check out here. If you go to the site you'll discover that they only pay for page views. However, Demand Studios will pay you to write articles for the site. So, if you go through Demand Studios and they hire you as a writer, you'll be paid $10 per article as well as for the page views the articles receive. I'm currently on my fourth assignment with Demand Studios, and after my second assignment, Demand Studios added to my blessings with a $5 raise. Now I'm paid $15 per article instead of $10. I don't know if this is something they offer all their writers, but it may be something to look forward to if you're hired and do a good job.

The articles are short step-by-step articles, so they don't take too long to write, and for your first assignment, you should be assigned 10 articles with a one-week deadline. Demand Studios pays by check once a month, and they've paid me for each assignment thus far.

My newest client is still seeking writers to write about their local area. This client pays $50 a month for a minimum of three blog posts per week. Right now the $50 compensation is referred to as"trial compensation," because they're testing the site, but from what I understand through their wonderful communication with us via e-mail, I believe things are going well for them. As for keeping their payment commitment, they just recently sent my first $50 payment through Paypal. The work is fun because it's about my local area and doesn't require a lot of research. All you really have to write is a paragraph or two. You can, of course, write more if you like, but they prefer you keep it as short as possible and include pictures when you can. The company is MyZip and you can find out more at MyZip's website. $50 a month for a couple paragraphs three times a week isn't too bad, and because you're writing about your local area, it shouldn't be too hard to come up with something to blog about. MyZip also has a blog where they share content suggestions with their contributors.

That will do it for me on this Monday morning. If you apply for one or both of the above-mentioned writing jobs, I hope you're blessed, too. And by all means, do come back and let me know if you landed one or both of the jobs in the comments area.

Photo credit: Flickr

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It was only two days ago when I had a clean kitchen; the dishes were done and put away and the laundry was folded. Today…. well… it's a different story. Now I have a hamper full of laundry to fold again (at least I managed to wash the clothes), a sink full of dishes to put in the dishwasher and the ferrets would probably like a clean home, too.

This my friends is what happens when writing takes over. I've been blessed with some new clients, and because I do everything in my power to please my clients, I've been so busy writing and meeting those deadlines that I've completely abandoned my housework. Hmm… maybe I need to re-read and apply my own advice: Multi-Tasking Wife, Mother and Writer. Honestly, though, I do follow my own advice and multi-task. This week, however, the creative juices were really flowing well, and as most of you writers know, you just can't stop when that happens.

I could have asked my stepson to load the dishwasher for me and fold the clothes in the hamper, but I just feel guilty when I do that. I don't want to appear to him as an evil stepmother, so I'd rather just do it myself when I find the time. If I do ask him to do something, I say please and thank you, but lately, I think I've made him mad by asking him to help me. Therefore, I chose to let it go. Oh well, that's my life as a writer and mother… or in this case, a stepmother.

Since I've met my deadlines and my to-do list is shorter now, I believe tomorrow will be my official cleaning day. I don't let my house get too bad because I can't stand it, so I just added "clean house" to tomorrow's to-do list. Wish me luck, or better yet, send me the magical powers to clean it in a jiffy…LOL…

Has your housework been neglected this week due to your writing schedule? If so, please share so that I'll know I'm not alone.

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Does being a wife and mother disrupt your writing time? Of course it does. As a wife, mother and writer myself I know how hard it is to keep the family happy and find the time to write too. So today I'm going to reveal ways that you can multi-task by still being a great wife, loving and caring mother, and write all at the same time. Yes, that's right, it can be done! And after you read my multi-tasking tips, you should be ready to multi-task your wife, mother and writer duties as well!

Before I continue, I would like to thank Stephanie Calahan for the inspiration for this post. Stephanie commented on Jim Smoot's post, Time Wasters for Bloggers, over at Pure Blogging. In her comment, she shared some of the ways she multi-tasks and I could relate. Not only could I relate, but her comment inspired me to share more multi-tasking tips with you. So, without further ado, here are those tips:

1. I cook supper for the family and write while supper is cooking. I set the timer on my stove for the food, and once the timer goes off, I get up to check on the food. If you have a real busy writing day ahead of you, fix something that cooks all day. For example, prepare a roast. Throw in the potatoes and veggies on top of the roast, and then place the roast, potatoes and veggies in the oven or a crockpot to cook all day. While the roast is cooking, you'll be writing. Some other meals that you can let cook all day without getting up and down to check on them are ham and beans or any other crockpot recipes.

2. As Stephanie mentioned in her comment to Jim's post, you can write and do your laundry at the same time. She also reminded that you'll eventually have to stop to fold the laundry, but while you're doing this, you could do as she does and listen to teleseminars. Unlike Stephanie, when I'm folding laundry, I sit in silence and brainstorm while folding the laundry.

3. If you're like me and your kids are now teenagers or old enough to do chores, then you can have them load the dishwasher while you write. As soon as one of my kids finish loading the dishwasher, I always check to make sure it was loaded correctly. If it was, I start it. The dishwasher then runs while I go back to writing. After the dishwasher has finished, I have one of the other kids unload it. Don't have a dishwasher? Have the kids do the dishes for you. (Don't forget to reward your kids for their chores.)

4. When my kids were little, I wrote during their nap time.

5. While breastfeeding your baby, grab a digital voice recorder and recite your story, article, article ideas or etc. outloud. Who knows, the baby just might enjoy it too.

6. When your kids sit down to do their homework, join them at the table. Grab your laptop or a notebook and pen and tell them you're going to do your homework too, which could be research, writing an article or whatever writing you need to do. Research is always better, because you need to prepare yourself to stop what you're doing in case you have to help one of the kids with a math problem or something they need assistance with. Nonetheless, homework time for the kids may become hassle free since they'll enjoy you sitting next time them doing your homework.

7. If one of my kids are sick or has a doctor's appointment, I take along a notebook and pen to write while waiting to see the doctor.

Do you have any other tips for multi-tasking your wife, mother and writer duties? Share them in the comments section or a blog post of your own. If you share your multi-tasking tips to your blog readers, please leave a link to the post in the comments area so I can surf over to read your tips.

Photo credit: Flickr

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