To do good writing, read great writing. Here’s the great writing I’ve been reading this week:
The 2011 WordCount Blogathon starts in 2 days and the 2011 American Society of Journalists and Authors Writer’s annual conference starts today and I’ve been working hard getting ready for both.
I’m using this week’s recommended reading to showcase a couple guest posts I wrote this week on two other writing blogs in honor of both occasions.
I’m sharing the opening paragraphs of each – click through on the titles to reach the entire posts. And if you’re coming to ASJA please find me and say hi. Enjoy!
10 Reasons for Writers to Blog Daily, at Susan Johnston’s blog, The Urban Muse:
If you work full-time as a freelance writer, it can be brutal to juggle paid assignments along with maintaining a personal blog. If your blog isn’t a money maker, it’s easy to let a couple days – or weeks or months – slip by without adding new material. After all, why put the effort into something that’s not paying the bills when you could spend time working on something that does? But there are plenty of reasons to post regularly, especially if you have any desire to turn what started as a hobby into paid work.
An Editor Reveals 7 Secrets Every Writer Needs to Know, at Carol Tice’s blog, Make a Living Writing:
There’s something about editors that writers don’t get: They’re not the know-it-all, don’t-have-time-for-you, I’ll rewrite-this-because-I-can people you think they are. When it comes to editors, it’s easy to default to that kind of attitude if you’ve been on the receiving end of too many rejection letters or rewrites.
But if you can see past the “Thanks but no thanks” emails and the sometimes off-putting behavior, you’ll realize it’s not always about you. You’ll discover editors – most of them anyway – are just trying to get their jobs done and looking for people who can help them do that. You could be one of them.
Many editors work as writers before trading places, and a lot still do both. I fall into that category. Since late 2009, I’ve worked as the freelance editor of a finance website, where I set the editorial calendar and manage about 10 freelance writers, and also as a writer and blogger for a handful of business and consumer publications. Based on my experience on the other side of the desk, here are some secrets about editors you need to know: