Do you hear it?

That quiet noise in the background?

It’s almost imperceptible, but it’s there. That little buzz.

It’s the sound of innovation.

Everywhere I turn these days, I’m running into writers quietly working on projects. In their home offices. At the coffee shop with their laptops. In the group that’s huddled at the back of the regional journalism conference.

If I had to pick an indicator of whether or not the media business is bouncing back, this would be it. I’m not talking about newspapers and magazines going back to their glory days. That’s not going to happen. But something is happening. My evidence:

• A former wire service colleague is researching a website project for a consumer-oriented organization.
• Another colleague just pitched a blogging-related start up to a tech venture group in her area.
• Here in Portland journalists and ex-journalists are involved in at least two efforts to form non-profit news organizations.
• A similar effort is in the works in Colorado.
• Another Portland journalist is working on a web-based news aggregator.
• A few other Portland journalists are involved in so many different projects I can’t keep track, including one who dropped out of college because he had too many things going on.
• Several writers on a message board I frequent are investigating opportunities to create mobile apps, either with established publishers or on their own.
• Another freelancer I’m familiar with recently tweeted that she had a great idea for a mobile app, if only she could find the money to build it.

Writers are taking fate into their own hands because face, it, those newsroom jobs aren’t coming back any time soon. There’s something about a rough economy that brings the entrepreneur out in people in every field, and writers are no exception.

Because they’ve already figured out how to work for themselves, freelancers may have a leg up on newly displaced journalists when it comes to doing their own thing. Either way, there’s only so much rejection you can take from editors whose freelance budgets have been cut back to nothing before you start figuring out other ways to make a living.

I’m about to embark on a project of my own. It’s a start up of sorts, though it’s not my start up. But it is something new for me. When the time’s right I’ll be able to share more. For now, all I can say is it’s exciting to be doing something new.

What about you – got a project up your sleeve? If you could embark on something new right now, what would it be?

But when it comes to how you conduct your freelance business, you do have lots of choices. Well, OK, maybe not as many choices as you used to, given that newspaper and magazine freelance budgets have dried up quicker than a mud puddle in August.

But there are choices, in the genre you pursue, the subjects you specialize in, the clients you work with, even how you get your work done.

So how to get started? I’ve compiled the following list of Freelance 101 helpful hints gleaned from 18 months of posts on this blog and 12+ years of  freelancing I’ve done for international wire services,  daily newspapers, geeky tech magazines and Web-based publishers. You’ll find information on writing basics, finding story ideas, working with editors, blogging and other resources.

Writing Basics

• 10 great places writers can find story ideas – Tune in to your surroundings and story ideas are everywhere.
• Prepping for the big one – A dozen ways to ace a VIP interview.
• Keeping sources on the subject – Get in, get the quote, get out.
• A few words about writing short – 500 words is the new 1,000.
• How to write fast. – Setting the timer is just the start.
• Why good writing is all about context – Putting in the why.
• When the words won’t come – Dealing with writer’s block.
• 7 steps to cutting a story that’s too long – Why let someone else hack away when you can easily trim that extra graph or two yourself.

Plugging In

• A writer’s guide to getting the most out of Twitter – After avoiding it forever, I finally caved – and boy, what a difference.
• Delicious and Google News Alerts – Web-based research tools even non-techies can understand.
• Top 10 Web tools for freelancers – Firefox, WordPress and more.
• HARO rescues writers stuck for sources – Crowdsourcing meets journalism.
• How to be a blog star – Take a class or teach yourself.
• The secret to my LinkedIn success – Hint: it’s not the number of connections, but who you’re connecting with.

The Business of the Freelance Business

• How to write queries that sell – Know who you’re pitching to, and other helpful hints.
• Just say no to assignments that aren’t a good fit – If they make you miserable, even well-paid jobs aren’t worth the money.
• Why freelance queries get rejected – It happens, even to the best of us.
• 10 ways to promote your freelance writing business – Writing’s just the beginning, you have to sell yourself.
• You may be desperate for work, just don’t act like it – Editors smell fear.
• Writing for free is not a business model – Giving it away ain’t gonna get you anything but poor.
• 13 warning signs a magazine may be in trouble – Checks slowing to a trickle? Uh oh.

In Their Own Words

• How to build the freelance writing career that you want – Words of wisdom for newcomers from long-time freelancer Gwen Moran.
• Sometimes all it takes is saying ‘I can do that.’ – Being in the right place at the right time is just the start – to get the good jobs, you have to ask for them.
• Going freelance in a down economy – Bad times didn’t stop former copywriter Susan Johnston from pursuing her dream to freelance full-time.
• One writer’s journey from print to online – Reporter Michelle Nicolosi got the online news bug back in the 1990s. Today she’s executive director of the now online-only SeattlePI.com.