Writing Through the Holidays

Even a frustrated freelancer faces the time management problem of working to pay the bills and struggling to put aside enough money to pay for the perfect gifts for loved ones.


We want our homes to be cozy and inviting. We want to enjoy the company of friends and families. On the other hand, every hour spent away from the computer means less output that satisfies our clients as well as our bank accounts.


I'm taking advantage of this juggling of priorities to share previously written articles of Holiday Tips. Hope you find something helpful that will make the upcoming holiday season less stressful and more enjoyable.

Homemade Herbal Holiday Decorations

Inexpensive Handmade Ornaments and Gifts

Nov 13, 2009 Patrice Campbell

Add Dried Herbs and Nuts for Holiday Decorations - Elke Rohn

Herbal holiday decorations can be fashioned to fit any decor, and they make welcomed economical and personalized homemade gifts.

Dried herbs preserved from the kitchen garden can be mixed or bundled into hand crafted gifts for no additional cost. For those without an herb garden, fresh and dried herbs can be found at herb shops, health food stores and in the produce and spice aisle of the local supermarket.

Read more at Suite101: Homemade Herbal Holiday Decorations: Inexpensive Handmade Ornaments and Gifts http://www.suite101.com/content/homemade-herbal-holiday-decorations-a169478#ixzz15yAFCOd6


Want to give someone an early spring for Christmas?

Forcing Bulbs for Late Winter Cheer

Grow a Spring Bulb Garden Indoors

Nov 10, 2009 Patrice Campbell

Forcing Bulbs - Katie Tardiff

Blooms from forced bulbs, for gifts or to keep, can fill the home with the feeling of springtime months before the soil starts to thaw.

While some people like to hang on to winter for as long as possible, many are tired of the season and yearn for signs that spring will finally come long before the first blooms of the crocus peep up through the melting snow. Bulbs planted in inside containers in the fall can brighten the home by the time the New Year's confetti is vacuumed from the rug.

Read more at Suite101: Forcing Bulbs for Late Winter Cheer: Grow a Spring Bulb Garden Indoors http://www.suite101.com/content/forcing-bulbs-for-late-winter-cheer-a168109#ixzz15yCUNH6k





All written content ©2010 Patrice Campbell unless otherwise noted.

If it's November it Must be NaNoWriMo

A Novel in 30 Days. Don't Make Me Laugh

A first for this frustrated freelancer. I committed myself to write a rough draft of a fiction novel in November. That's right. A whole novel in 30 days.


I started writing pieces of fiction as a child and continued until I started working as a freelance writer full time. The, fiction fell to the wayside as I struggled to pay my bills with non fiction articles for print and online. 


For several years I wanted to participate in National Novel Writing Month, the always found excuses. The bills had to be paid, how can a person write a novel in 30 days, I didn't know what I would write about.

Getting everything ready for NaNoWriMo

Whoops.....Read more Here




All written content ©2010 Patrice Campbell unless otherwise noted.

Alert - Outlook for the Older Freelancer

Pat yourselves on the back, Freelance Writer. You're employed. If you're over 50, give yourself an extra pat on the back as you may have lucked out. 

"I wasn't pleased with the news, either"

It's good news and bad news for the full time freelancer. The Great Recession is over, according to reports I've read today. In fact, it's been over since June 2009.

The National Bureau of Economic Research Website states:

"CAMBRIDGE September 20, 2010 - The Business Cycle Dating Committee of the National Bureau of Economic Research met yesterday by conference call. At its meeting, the committee determined that a trough in business activity occurred in the U.S. economy in June 2009. The trough marks the end of the recession that began in December 2007 and the beginning of an expansion. The recession lasted 18 months, which makes it the longest of any recession since World War II. Previously the longest postwar recessions were those of 1973-75 and 1981-82, both of which lasted 16 months."     Read the full report.

The bad news for all those freelancers over 50 is that you may never find another job, and if you do, it probably won't pay as much as the job you were downsized from. According to the New York Times:

"After other recent downturns, older people who lost jobs fretted about how long it would take to return to the work force and worried that they might never recover their former incomes. But today, because it will take years to absorb the giant pool of unemployed at the economy’s recent pace, many of these older people may simply age out of the labor force before their luck changes." Read the rest of this very interesting article.

If you're over 50, reach for the notebook and keep plugging away. You always wanted to retire early and write, and it looks like you're getting what you wished for. 






All written content ©2010 Patrice Campbell unless otherwise noted.

I’m Just a Content Mill Writer

I just found a group on Facebook called Content Mill Writers Unite, and it again reminded me again how the old fashioned print writers tend to look down on those of us who freelance online. Once again, I’m ticked off.

I went back to school 12 years ago and earned an AA in Multimedia and Interactive Technology, a fancy name for webmaster. That was before the wonderful template packages that set up beautiful websites with click and drag.

In addition to learning too many computer programming languages, the degree requirements included art, photography, digital photography, graphics, journalism, creative writing, web writing and presentation layout and marketing.

One of the best things I learned was the difference between writing for print and writing online content. It makes me wonder if labeling freelance online writers as content mill writers is just a lashing out of  former print writers facing dwindling print opportunities and having a hard time making the transition to the Internet.

When writing for print, you have to write a thorough yet concise article with word limitations of 1,000 to 1,500 words. The limit on words is a challenge for the writing for print writer. Our words are crafted to bring enlightenment to readers we imagine relaxing with a beverage, feet raised, enjoying the rhythm of our sentences and the creative way we present our information. Cutting any of the magic from our work to meet the 1,500, or yikes, 1,000 word limit of our piece of genius is like cutting the baby curls from the head of our first born child.

Writers of online content have to write a thorough yet concise article with word limitations of 350 to 600 words. We know our audience usually isn’t reading for pleasure, but searching for information and demanding it in a hurry.

Print publication are usually on a monthly basis with assignments listed at least three months in advance. This gives the writer for print plenty of time to form ideas and study them from different angles. I often pictured my assignments as a sphere I could hold in my hands, rotating it and letting the light and shadows play across the surface until a picture of the way I would write the article suddenly appeared. The deadline for the print article was weeks away, giving me the time my muse demanded.

Writers of online content publish seven to 20 times a day in order to be successful. If we’re lucky, we have a list of titles on the to do list for the next day before we go to bed, giving us time to think about how we will write each article as we toss and turn, wondering why we can’t go to sleep.

A print magazine has an art department who will lay out the article according to the needs of the pages it will occupy. If there is an empty spot on the page, a box with an important article point, a related piece of artwork or a sidebar with an overview will magically appear to surprise and delight the writer when the tear sheets arrive.

An online writer has to write the article with layout in mind, remembering to use white space to make it easier for the reader to follow on the computer screen. We also have to search out and credit appropriate art work to accompany the article, format the piece presentation style and write an overview of approximately 300 to 500 characters to convince our potential readers that our article has the information they are looking for.

A print magazine has marketing, advertising and circulation departments. Freelancers don’t have to be told that these jobs now belong to them. Self Promotion is a major part of the freelancers day.

I’ve gone over my word limit. I guess it’s not a good article. But then, I’m just a content mill writer.

Please share your thoughts.

All written content 2010 Patrice Campbell unless otherwise noted.

Make Time for Everything

Those who know me best will just shake their heads when they see I've another blog to my schedule. But this is just what a freelancer does. If you have something to say but no logical place to say it, you create your own place.

And I have something to say.

Eleanor Roosevelt said that we should learn from the mistakes of others as we won't live long enough to make all the mistakes on our own.  I've been freelancing full time for almost three years now, and finally feel confident that I have learned a lot from my own mistakes and the mistakes of others.

I have stories to share that can be of value to other writers just venturing into the unknown freelance world. I also have a few pet peeves and gripes that I'd like to share with my fellow veteran writers who may find them amusing.

Maybe most important of all, I can introduce new writers to mentors who I have met along the way by sharing links to their informative articles, their blogs and their websites.

As the neighborhood kids went back to the structured environment of the school day, I decided that it was time for me to a bit more structure into my work days. I had let the long afternoons of summer pull me off track, writing just as much as I had to and no more, eager to flee my office and enjoy the sun. I was my own boss, after all.

But there is more to freelance writing than just writing. Once the research and editing has been done and invoices sent, the beginner might think the work is finished. But only the fun part is finished. Somehow I’d pushed one of the most important things a freelance writer needs to know from my mind.

You will have days when you'll work and earn nothing doing important tasks that are all part of running a business. And they have to be done. Freelance writing is a business. The paperwork and networking will pile up until you don't know where to start to pull yourself out of the deep hole you have dug.

And that’s where I found myself last week, overwhelmed with loose ends that had to be tied up in order for me to be successful. The only money I earned was from residual income on revenue sharing sites for articles I had previously written, but I got myself out from under the neglected record keeping.

Determined to regain my self discipline, I organized my email and calendar and was surprised to find I could find the time to fit a new writing blog into my schedule. I love blogging. It gives a writer the opportunity to write freely, with their own voice. Blogging makes you feel like a writer.

So, here we are. Ideas of topics to share are forming in my head faster than my fingers can type, but that’s the idea of a blog. I’ll share one blog post at a time.