Spring is sprung

To do good writing, read good writing. Here’s the good writing I’ve been readings this week.

Spring is sprung.

I walk out my front door early in the morning and it hits me. The trees and bushes are blooming. The air smells like perfume.

I have the urge to clean out closests, open windows and air winter out of my house.

I also have the urge to clean out my writing — shake things up a bit, look at the kinds of projects I’m working on and decide if it’s still how I want to run my business.

Luckily for me, I’m already scheduled to go to the American Society of Journalists and Authors’ 2013 writers conference later this month in New York. Going to a writers’ conference, taking a class or signing up for a weekend retreat is one of the best ways to reinvigorate your freelance business.

Is spring inspiring you to look at what you’re doing differently?

Another way to get motivated is by reading what other writers are writing, saying and doing.

Here are some things that have been inspiring me this week:

Nate Thayer disinvited from HuffPo TV appearance (New York Observer) — Writer Nate Thayer made waves last month when he outed TheAtlantic.com for asking if he could write something for free. The incident led to a raft of posts by writers, media pundits and others on the state of the industry and the pros and cons — mainly the cons — of writing for free. Apparently Huffington Post didn’t see the irony is asking Thayer if he would come on HuffPost TV to discuss the situation. When he pointed out to the producer who invited him that the organization was the No. 1 perpetrator of the business model, having built its site on a massive amount of unpaid work, he was promptly disinvited, the Observer explains.

Mad Style, “The Doorway,” Part 1 (Tom + Lorenzo) — The second best thing about a new season of “Mad Men” is reading the fashion blog’s recaps of how the styles the characters wear reflect the times, their relationships and their sense of self. Highly addictive. Do not read on deadline.

10 highlights from #BUNarrative (Urban Muse Writer) — Freelance writer Susan Johnston attended the recent Boston University Narrative conference on long-form journalism, and shared the tastiest writing advice from the pros who spoke. My hands-down favorite: “‘Bitch at the bar, not at the editor.”

Are guidebooks dead?  (Rick Steves Facebook page) — In wake of recent news that Arthur Frommer is buying back the print version of his namesake guidebook line from Google, Rick Steves weighs in on the issue and how it reflects what’s happening in the media biz.

Washington Post’s Outlook section avoids these words and phrases (Romenesko) — To keep your writing fresh, avoid cliches and over-used expressions. The entries on this list are a good starting point. Here are some more: Tech cliches we never want to hear or write again.

AP changes style on ‘underway,’ copy editors react (Poynter) – I’m pretty sure the only people who care about this are copyeditors, but from now on, AP style is to use “underway” instead of “under way.”

The adverb is not your friend: Stephen King on simplicity of style  (Brain Pickings) — Advice from King’s excellent autobiography/memoir/style guide, On Writing.

Tampa Bay Times admits reporter ‘not strong in the way of the force’ (Poynter) — Corrections don’t always have to be deadly serious, and this one is a perfect example.