Here’s what I’ve been reading this week:

• The Editor Unleashed The Editor Unleashed Guide to Good Blogging - Good advice from the former editor of Writer’s Digest.
• The Huffington Post 13 tips for actually getting some writing done
• The Urban Muse I Said, He Said, We Said – Picking a point of view for your website.
• Penelope Trunk’s Brazen Careerist Conflict of interest doesn’t apply to blogs (another reason newspapers are dead)
• Erik Sherman’s WriterBiz 6 lessons from using Twitter
• Blog Salad How to throw a Twitter party – Exceedingly detailed (and simple) instructions for using Twitter hashtags for “a conference, or a live guest lecture series, or just an exclusive conversation with a certain group or certain topic in mind.”
• Seth’s Blog Saying ‘no’ – To remind ourselves that sometimes turning down an assignment is the right thing to do.
• Bike with Jackie Embrace your supporters – Using social networks to give as much as you get.

On Monday the House voted down the Bush Administration’s $700 billion Wall Street bail out and stocks took their biggest dive in 20 years. People are freaking out over lost retirement savings and whether they’ll be able to make their mortgage payments. There’s a presidential election in five weeks, and who knows what change that will have on the economy.

In light of all that, is this a good time for a self-employed writer to consider getting a full-time job?

It’s a question more of my freelance friends are starting to ask.

It’s not the ideal time to look for full-time work in the publishing industry. Newspapers are hanging on by a thread and magazines aren’t doing much better. New media outlets appear to be holding up OK but with untested business models, it’s too soon to tell how well they’ll make out in a strained economy.

Working for yourself has advantages, especially when times are good. But when clients start cutting back work, dropping their rates or canceling freelancer budgets all together, it’ a different story. One freelance friend I heard from yesterday is considering looking for a full-time job because her work load has dropped 50 percent this year. A writer in my favorite writer’s group has a job offer on the table that would let her continue to freelance on the side but child care would be an issue so she’s not sure if she should take it.

What should they do? Every writer’s work/life situation is different enough that chucking self-employment for a steady gig is a decision only they can make.

But there are common pros and cons they can consider while deciding what to do.

YES, TAKE THE JOB

• You’ll have a steady income without having to constantly market your services
• You’ll have some level of benefits
• You’ll learn new skills, which could come in handy if you decide to switch back to freelancing at some later date
• You’ll be able to leave the job at the office and have more time for other things
• You’ll have more job security, although that could depend on who you go to work for
• You can still freelance on the side if you want to

NO, DON’T TAKE THE JOB

• Your time will no longer be your own
• Chances are you’ll have to commute at least part of the time
• When it comes to what you’re working on, someone else will be calling the shots
• If you don’t opt to keep writing on the side, you’ll have to go through the process of winding down your freelance business
• You won’t have the same level of business expenses to write off

The beauty of the 21st century workplace is that employers don’t expect anyone to stay in a job forever. So even if you decide that current economic conditions dictate that you to take a full-time gig, you can always go back to freelancing at a later date.

If you’re thinking of trading in the freelance life for a steady job, what factors are you taking into account?

Sometimes even the most hard-core freelancer has to step away from the keyboard and recharge the old writing batteries. I did last over the past week on a trip to central Oregon. Not far from Bend, I hiked the Deschutes River Trail, which passes waterfalls like this one, Dillon Falls.

I also skied at Mt. Bachelor, the largest ski resort in the Pacific Northwest, pictured here. Lots of Oregonians go away to warm weather during spring break, so Bachelor is usually empty this time of year even though the snow is fantastic. This year was no exception. Just don’t tell anybody.

There are no short cuts to writing short.

It’s hard. It takes practice. Even Mark Twain thought so, as he famously said: “I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.”

There are, however, a few good reasons to try:

• FOB – A magazine’s “front of the book” departments are the first place freelance writers are advised to pitch at a publication they’ve never worked with before. FOB stories are generally short.
• Story packages – USA Today popularized this non-linear storytelling technique of breaking information into multiple parts consisting of a short main story, sidebars and graphics. The concept was adopted by papers everywhere and has risen to new heights online.
• The Web – Stories written for the Web are shorter to match online readers’ short attention spans. Writers need to write accordingly.
• Blogs – Some of the best blogs have pithy, short posts that pack a lot into a small space. A good example is viral marketing guru Seth Goldin’s blog post on how to drive traffic to your blog. It’s one giant, hilarious list, clocking in at 575 words. Bonus: master the short blog post and it’ll help your other writing (see above).

Writers take different approaches to writing short. When I posed the question “How do you write short?” on the Writing and Editing section of the LinkedIn Answer board last week, more than 50 writers weighed in. The advice was all over the map. It basically boiled down to a few approaches:

• The Haiku Method – Choose words carefully and use as few as possible.
• The Diarrhea Method – Pour it all out then trim judiciously.
• The Newshound Method – Follow the classic inverted pyramid structure, covering who, what, where, when, why and how, in descending order of importance until you run out of space.
• The Lists Method – Use lists, bullets and other devices to summarize material. This is a favorite of Web editors and writers because the result is dense, meaty stories that cover a lot of ground in a short time.

I write a lot of 500-word stories and I’ve come up with my own tricks for writing short.

Plan. Start thinking about a story’s length and structure when you craft a query letter or get an assignment. If you’ve got an idea of what material you need and how you’ll present it, you can structure interviews and research accordingly, and in the process, eliminate unnecessary work.

Structure. Tailor a story’s structure to its size. Save the three-paragraph anecdotal opening for another time. For a short story you need a snappy lead, a nut graph up high to tell readers what it’s about and why they should care, all the relevant details and a short conclusion.

Edit yourself. When you’re finished, go over a story once, twice, three times to cut excess baggage. Read it out loud to spot clumsy passages that could be more succinct. When in doubt, leave it out.

Use a word counter.

And that’s exactly 500 words on writing short.

It happened. Earlier this week, the editor of a magazine I’ve been writing for told me she can’t buy more freelance pieces until summer because of budget cuts. It’s the first time in years that economic cutbacks have directly affected my business. It’s also bad news because I’d just pitched a story I thought was perfect for the publication.

I was bummed. But I’d just finished writing here about smart things freelancers can do to weather bad times. So I had to take my own advice. Later the same day, I needed to send a separate pitch to a different editor I’ve written for a lot lately but at a rate that’s lower that what I usually make. I’d just turned in a bunch of stories that this editor really liked. So thinking about the client I’d just lost, I wrote the pitch letter and at the end asked for a raise. I heard back the next day – the publication agreed to up my rate by 20 percent. It gets better. I called the editor to say thanks, and in the course of conversation, she mentioned another publication that might be interested in using me and offered to pass along my name.

The moral of the story: Don’t get hung up on bad news. Don’t be afraid to ask. Remember to say thank you. And sometimes it pays to pick up the phone.

The publishing industry is in tumult. Publications are trying to do more with less – less advertising revenue, editorial staff and readers. Throw worries about a recession into the mix, and it means trouble for freelance writers who depend on magazines, newspapers and customer publishers for their livelihoods. Or does it?

Not necessarily. Hard times don’t have to be bad times, at least not for freelancers who have a plan for marketing themselves during a shaky economy. That’s the view of Keven Malkewitz, a marketing expert and assistant business professor at Oregon State University in Corvallis. Malkewitz earned his marketing chops as a brand manager and business unit manager at Adidas, before getting a doctorate and helping consumer and technology companies with their marketing programs.

I asked Malkewitz recently what independent contractors such as freelance writers can do to keep clients and paychecks rolling in during a bad economy. Here’s what he said:

If times are tough, should freelancers hang onto current clients or go after new work?

During bad times, companies hunker down, they put stuff on hold and they don’t do new projects. In that case, you’ve got to work with the hand you have, so work on building stronger relationships with existing clients.

What could freelancers do to make themselves more attractive?

The thing that makes people like writers and designers most attractive is having some type of core competency that most people who do what they do don’t have. New skills are always helpful. For instance, we have an active design community in Portland, so instead of doing general design, a designer could stand out by doing branding or another specialty.

Should freelancers increase their marketing efforts in bad times?

There are fewer marketing efforts in down times, so for the companies that do it, marketing can be more effective. Studies have shown that companies that advertise in down times rebound higher. So invest in yourself. Marketing efforts do make sense.

Any other suggestions?

It’s all about networking, people you talk to and the quality of your work over time. It’s a good time to re-evaluate what you’re doing, to think about new ways of doing things. Really, that’s good to do anytime. We’re creatures of habit. We do things the way we’ve always done then. But bad times provide a positive opportunity to change.

When writers aren’t writing, they’re reading about how to be a better writer, or be a better marketer of their writing, or about who else they could be writing for.

That’s what I found when I asked freelance, newspaper and magazine writers and editors to name some of their favorite blogs for writers. It’s an eclectic list and by no means comprehensive. Just don’t start reading on deadline.

The Mechanics of Writing, Editing and Copyediting
You Don’t Say – Written by John McIntyre, the Baltimore Sun’s assistant managing editor for the copy desk. McIntyre is a human version of the AP Style Guide or one of those other grammar and usage mauals – but funnier. Thanks to Matthew Crowley, business copy editor at the Las Vegas Review-Journal for the tip.

WordWise – Forget for a minute that Dan Santow is a PR guy. His blog on grammar and usage is good – and not just because he’s got fellow flacks discussing things like commas and overused words (for which reporters everywhere thank you). Oh wait, Santow was a reporter before he became a senior v.p. at Edelman, the big PR firm. Now I get it.

WordHappy – Toddie Downs, a freelance copywriter and editor, uses her blog to celebrate good writing of all types – TV, movies, fiction, non-fiction and advertising.

Freelance Writing and Marketing Yourself as a Writer
Erik Sherman’s WriterBiz - Sherman, a long-time freelance writer and photographer, tackles the business end of writing in this very professional if plain-looking entry. Sherman’s written for some of the biggest names in the business including the New York Times Magazine, Newsweek, Fortune, Inc, US News & World Report and knows what he’s talking about.

The Renegade Writer by Linda Formichelli and Diana Burrell, co-authors of The Renegade Writer: A Totally Unconventional Guide to Freelance Writing and The Renegade Writer’s Query Letters That Rock. Lots of practical wisdom on this blog, which fellow freelancer Peggy Noonan recommends for its useful resources and “common sense tips that work.” UPDATE: Thanks Diana, for pointing out that this is a team effort.

Freelance Switch – This group-written blog about freelancers of all stripes – Web designers and illustrators as well as writers – includes classifieds, podcasts, resources and a job board.

FreelanceWritingGigs.com - Started in 2005 by Deborah Ng, this blog posts info on new jobs almost daily. But proceed with caution: the listings include a lot of “work from home” situations, Web content writing assignments and other low-pay gigs.

Men With Pens – Wait, you did want to be a Web content writer? This is the place to learn. This site was formerly known as Web Content Writer Tips.

TheUrbanMuse – Lots of practical advice on writing and the mechanics of freelancing make this well-suited to beginners. Author Susan Johnston Home is away this month and has guest bloggers filling in.

Screw You – Kathy Kehrli calls herself the Irreverent Freelancer and uses her blog for rants against low-paying clients and other mistreatments that go with the freelance territory. Read it as a cautionary tale, or visit when an editor’s got you steamed and you need an acceptable place to vent.

InkThinker - A personal take on the freelance life, written by Virginia copywriter and consultant Kristen King.

About Freelance Writing and The Golden Pencil – Two more personal takes on freelancing written by Anne Wayan, an independent writer, blogger, ghostwriter, editor and writing coach.

Publicity Hound – Although this is written by a public relations specialist for other PR types, freelancers can glean tips on marketing and generating publicity for their own work – and take a peek at how the other half lives.

Jugglezine – Herman Miller’s elegantly designed e-zine is all about balancing work and life, a freelancer’s constant challenge. And if reading it makes you want to spruce up your home office with some new furniture, well hey, you’re in the right place.

The News Business
Romenesko – This daily recap of major happenings inside U.S. newspapers lets ex-staff reporters like me and other news junkies get their fix.

Publishing 2.0 – A blog about how technology is transforming media. Is the Web going to be writers’ salvation, or is it the Dark Side? The publishing industry insiders who write this blog argue for the former.

Copywriting and Corporate Writing
Copyblogger - The well-organized site has multiple authors who cover everything from getting more done to writing better headlines to personal branding. Joel Kelly, interactive media specialist at Cossette Atlantic, calls it “fantastic.”

Bob Bly’s Blog – Bly lifts the veil on the copywriting business and is as good a start as any for magazine writers considering a leap into corporate work. If Bly’s blog – and related Web site – are any indication, there’s a world of difference.

Dianna Huff’s B2B MarCom Writer Blog - Advice from a marketing communications pro.

Copywriter Underground – More solid copy on copy from an industry veteran.

The Bad Pitch Blog – Apparently the P.R. firms whose work gets lambasted on this blog aren’t reading Copyblogger or Copywriter Underground. “Funny and well-written,” says Lewis Harrison, PR and communications manager at Codeworks.

Michael Stelzner’s Writing White Papers – Everything you need to know about writing a corporate white paper.

Computers were going to wipe out paper. That’s what we believed back at the dawn of the PC era. Twenty-six years later, people are still overwhelmed by the stuff.

Face it, getting rid of paper completely won’t happen. It’s too big a part of our lives. The thing is, it doesn’t have to be as big a part. It’s like going on a diet. You don’t cut out food entirely, just decrease the portions. That’s how energy researcher Bruce Nordman, with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, put it when I interviewed him recently for my story on reducing use of office paper for IncTechnology.com.

Since last fall, I’ve been on a mission to reduce my own paper consumption. I have a practical reason and a philosophical one. On the practical side, I have one two-drawer file cabinet in my office for tax records, important papers and work files. The less work-related paper I generate, the more room I have for receipts and tax forms. On the philosophical side, I’m trying to reduce, recycle and reuse all kinds of things, and cutting back on paper fits into that.

Here are my top 5 ways writers and home-based workers can go paperless:

1. Ditch the scratch pad – I’ve always been a major list maker. Now I put daily and other to-do lists in the Tasks section of Outlook. The program’s Notes section is good for keeping track of books I want to read, ideas for birthday presents and my resume. If you don’t like Outlook, there are plenty of Web-based applications like it, such as Google Notebook.

2. Mark up story notes on screen. I’m embarrassed to admit I just started using the highlighter feature on Word. It makes it easy to do the same kind of mark up on notes that I used to do with a paper print out and yellow highlighter pen. When I write, I use the split screen feature of Windows to open my notes file and my story file at the same time.

3. Use a bookmark service for research. Del.icio.us, the social bookmark service, is great for tracking information for stories or other research. It’s easy to use. Sign up, find sites you want to save, tag them with key words, then use the tags to sort through what you’ve saved.

4. Ask collaborators to use Track Changes. This feature of Word is standard operating procedure for most writers and editors, but it’s amazing how many other people don’t use it or even know that it’s there.

5. When you have to use a printer, do it judiciously. Some things you have to print. When you do, print to both sides of a piece of paper. Set printer controls to print out multiple pages per sheet of paper. Set printers so they won’t print out test pages when they’re turned on. If you use company letterhead, create a Word template you can be print out as needed.

You can find more tips for eliminating office paper at a Website energy researcher Bruce Nordman created 10 years ago called Cutting Paper. The information hasn’t been updated for a while, but Nordman promises it’s still valid. And he’s looking for some green-souled individual or group to take over running it. Interested? Drop him a line at the lab.

Not long ago, a writer in a freelance group I belong to posted a question on the group message boards. She had an interview scheduled with a subject who had a reputation for being grouchy and wanted to know how to prepare. It’s a great question. Reporters are thought of as thick-skinned hacks who can take just about anything, and dish it out too. While I’ve know some like that, most aren’t and they’d just as soon avoid confrontation as the next person.

So if you’re not Mike Wallace, how do you ask the hard questions? Here’s my top 10 tips for conducting tough interviews:

• Do your homework. The more information you have, the better prepared you’ll be to ask any kind of question, hard or easy. And it’s easier to steer the conversation back to tough topics when you’ve got your facts down cold.
• Write questions down. In an age when everyone seems pressed for time, it’s not uncommon for interview subjects or their PR handlers to ask for questions in advance. That’s fine, especially since it forces you to prepare. But once you’re talking, don’t feel obliged to stick to the script. When you’ve got a subject comfortable, go with the flow and toss out a couple juicy questions that aren’t on the list.
• Don’t ask “yes” or “no” questions. Don’t give an interview subject the opportunity for monosyllabic answers, otherwise you’ll be stuck with no good quotes. Ask open-ended questions that makes them think, such as “What led you to that decision?” or “How did you solve that problem?” or “What else can you tell me about that?”
• Don’t be afraid to look stupid. What if you have the opposite problem and your subject is a know-it-all who talks in circles all the better to intimidate you? If what they’re saying isn’t obvious to you, it won’t be obvious to your readers either. So swallow your pride and ask, “Can you run that by me again?” or “I’m not sure what you mean by that?” or “Can you explain why?”
• Don’t let a subject off the hook. You ask a question, they won’t answer. Ask a different way. Or ask why they won’t answer. I get this a lot because I interview executives at private companies who don’t want to talk about revenue or other money matters – and if they’re privately held, there’s nothing forcing them to divulge it. Coax it out of them by asking “Can you give me a range?” Or “What do companies in your industry generally charge?” or “How much did sales increase over last year?”
  
• Get specifics. Don’t be satisfied with pat answers or industry jargon. This is especially true if you’re writing about a field or subject with a language all its own, like business, medicine or technology. If you don’t understand the terminology an interview subject is using, don’t be afraid to ask “Can you explain that for me?” or “I’m not familiar with that term, what does it mean?”
• If you’re pressed for time, front load. If you’ve only got a celebrity or CEO for a couple minutes, cut to the chase. Ask your three or four most important questions right away so you’re sure to get the information that you absolutely positively have to have or your editor will kill you – or your story.
• Play good cop/bad cop. Interview subject not cooperating? Or do you have to ask someone about something they’ve been blamed for or accused of? Start out polite and only get more assertive or aggressive if you need to. In these cases, save hard ball questions for the very end, so you have time to soften them up and they let their guard down. What’s the worst thing that could happen? They refuse to answer or walk out of the interview – at least you got answers to your other questions.
• Circle back. The subject won’t answer a question the first time around. Let it go, move onto your other questions, then come back to it at the end. Approach it by saying, “Now that you’ve had more time to think about it, what did you really want to say about Topic XXX?” or “I’d like you to reconsider talking about XXX.” All they can say is no. Then again, your solid interview skills may lead them to reconsider.
• Psyche yourself up. Football players get pumped for the big game by listening to a pep talk or their favorite up-beat song, praying, jumping up and down or performing some other ritual. Figure out what psyches you up and use it. Then pick up the phone.

Want a quick way to an editor’s heart? Write your own headlines.

Make it a practice to send a headline – and a deck too if a publication uses them – with every story you submit. Whether an editor actually uses your headline is beside the point. Writing headlines is good practice. And it shows that:

• You know your story well enough to summarize it quite succinctly.
• You can write short as well as you can write long.
• You care enough about your story to apply all the finishes touches.
• You care enough about your editor to want to make their life easier by doing some of their work for them.

What’s the worst that can happen? The headline ends up on the virtual cutting room floor. What’s the best? Your editor remembers you as that thoughtful freelancer who always includes headlines with their copy – and gives you more work because of it. Or your headline ends up in print. Given the chance, wouldn’t you rather have your story called by the name you gave it than by someone else’s?

Headline writing is an art. The best are like the best kind of diet food: meaty yet lively – and sometimes downright spicy – but without a trace of fat. Cut out articles like “a” and “the.” Use active verbs. Use puns or other word play when suitable. Avoid cliches. Ditto phrases that could be read more than one way – like the headlines that end up on the back page of the Columbia Journalism Review.

Newspaper copy editors are masters of the art of headline writing. Here’s an article about how newspaper copy editors write headlines from Gannett Corp.’s weekly Newswatch column. The story’s really old but the lessons still apply. Magazine and other freelance non-fiction writers can also learn a thing or two from advertising copywriters, who specialize in snappy catchphrases. Here’s a good article called How to Write Headlines That Work in Copyblogger.

Another reason to focus on headlines: your blog. If you’re one of the legion of freelance writers with a blog, it behooves you to write good headlines so your blog posts get maximum exposure. There’s a special art to writing blog headlines. Learn more here and here.