Every good copywriter will tell you that you should write concisely. Eliminate every unnecessary word. Be bold with your choice of nouns and adjectives. Choose precise words, not common ones. Cut all the fluff, the clutter and the jargon.

And if you’re a copywriter, you probably follow this advice – or think you do.

Unfortunately, several words are so common that you often don’t even realize you’re using them. These words sneak into your writing all the time, and they contribute nothing to the content.

They damage your credibility. They bring down your writing. They make your work look amateur.

If I pointed those words out to you, you’d probably shuffle your feed and shamefacedly admit they don’t need to be there. You hadn’t even noticed you’d put them in.

Those words are like condiments in your fridge. You open the door a dozen times a day and never see them. It isn’t until a friend comes over and asks why you have two-year-old mango chutney that you realize you should probably clear some of that out.

You should. Here are three words you can clear out of your writing.

Word #1: Really

No, really. Take a look where this word might show up and clunk up a sentence:

• It’s really important that you sign up for this.
• This is a really valuable product.
• You have to check this out – it’s really interesting.

I’m specifically talking about instances where really is an intensifier. In grammar, an intensifier is like a modifier, only better, and its job is… well, to intensify the emotional context of words like “important” or “valuable” or “interesting.”

But an intensifier actually adds no particular contribution or value. Take it out, and the whole sentence still works just fine, thank you very much.

The problem with really is that it’s supposed to enhance the word it’s modifying and amplify its meaning. But really has become so common that it doesn’t actually make us think more of the item in question. It makes us think less of it.

Watch what happens here:

• Sign up. It’s important.
• This is valuable.
• Interesting.

All those words have weight and heft when they stand on their own. But add really to them, and it sounds like you’re trying hard to convince someone that you mean it.

“This is interesting.”

“Yeah, right.”

“No, it’s really interesting.”

Unless your reader has some reason to doubt your statement of the facts, really is unnecessary – AND it gives your reader the impression that you don’t believe your own words.  Not really.

Word #2: Very

Really and very suffer from similar maladies; they’ve become so common that their original purpose has been flipped in the opposite direction.

It’s uncommon for us to say a house was big. We say it was very big.

We do this automatically, without thinking, and so much so that the word very doesn’t even register in our brains. It’s not as if we think big and by adding very we think even bigger.

We hear very big and we think big. We stay at the same level of perception, without anything being added to our mental image.

Very sweet. Very tall. Very nice. Very interesting.

It carries far more power to drop the word very and allow the word it intensified to stand alone.

The man entered the room. He was very large.

When we read this sentence, we get the impression that the man is fat. That’s usually what we mean when we say someone is very large. But when we simply say:

The man entered the room. He was large.

Now we have the impression of the man’s actual size. Maybe he’s fat, or maybe he’s broad and tall. Either way, there’s a lot of him. He is large. (And probably intimidating too!)

Word #3: Totally

Totally means ‘in total.’ As in, the sum of all. The whole. The entire shebang, completely. Like this:

Are all the boxes here? Totally.

That’s an old-fashioned version, but it still works for emotions:

Can I confide in you? Totally.

You can tell me the sum of all your confidences. Hold nothing back. I’m prepared to listen to the entire shebang of what you have to say.

The problem is that in common language (probably thanks to the explosion of Valley Girl talk in the ‘80s) totally became a placeholder word, modifying that which does not need modification.

Example: I was totally shocked.

Being shocked implies totality. You’re either shocked or you aren’t. Your ears can’t go into shock while your leg stays casual about it all. Your entire body and mind go into shock. That’s what shock means.

Totally, here, is redundant.

Here’s another example: This is a totally great price.

It’s great or it isn’t. A price is about as totaled as you can get – so the extra word serves no purpose.

Take it away. Take all three of these words – really, very, totally – away. And your copy will suddenly stand a bit taller, ring a touch prouder and come off like it was written by a pro.

Have any more unnecessary words to add to the pile? Bring them on in the comments!

About the author:

James Chartrand is a finalist in the 10 Top Blogs for Writers Contest 2011/12. Discover more great writing tips, tricks and techniques with her innovative writing course for business owners, Damn Fine Words. This game-changing course is open right now to new members. Register today and start writing words that get results for your business.[aff link]

________________________________________________________________________________________________

Do you want to be an outstanding blogger? We’ll show you how. Join our spectacular training for bloggers, the A-List Blogger Club. Click below to find out more:

Use "What?" for article marketing

A guest post by Sean DSouza of Psychotactics

The world was flat.
Now it’s round.
Who knows? Maybe it’s square.

Research helps. But there’s a problem with research.

And it’s called counter-research. Tea is good for you. Tea is bad for you. Drink 8 glasses of water a day. Drink 16 glasses of water a day. The list goes on forever. And forever isn’t a bad thing, but the information is grossly conflicting. There’s almost nothing you can nail down with absolutely certainty.

And when you’re writing an article, it’s easy to want to absolutely nail the article down with irrefutable research. So you spend seventeen hours (or seventeen thousand hours, as the case may be) and you come up with data from books, white papers. Or just stuff you find online.

And part of the problem with research is:

1) Research is often funded by lobby groups.
2) Information passed down can miss out relevant bits.
3) Facts that we know about aren’t valid any more.

Let’s take the first: Research funded by lobby groups.

You know the groups. They are like you and me. They have an agenda. They want to sell something. So they make you want to like milk, or spinach or whatever. They fund research; they pour squillions of dollars into it. And all it proves is one thing: That whatever they’re selling is good for you.

Of course you don’t see the research that way.

The way the research is presented is in a nice, interesting fact-driven way that makes you believe in the product/service. Suddenly your perception changes, because as human beings we only have to be given facts and a truckload of statistics, and whoops we change our perception. Lobby groups aren’t some insane bunch of people. They’re just like you and me. We turn to our kids and tell them to eat spinach so that they can grow tall and strong. And the kids buy it.

Doesn’t matter if the spinach doesn’t have the nutrients to get those kids big and strong. Doesn’t matter if we’ve cooked the goodness out of the darned spinach. The kids eat into the idea—and hopefully the spinach. We are a lobby group. The lobby groups are lobby groups. We present information in the best light. Then we add figures and facts. And it becomes something written in stone.

And sometimes it’s not written in stone. Which takes us to our second problem.

Problem 2: The data is hand-me down

Take your tea bags and use the tea in them to polish hardwood floors. Put turmeric and honey in hot water and drink it. And your cough will go away. These are hand-me down facts. They work. But do they work for everyone? And are some of the details being missed out? Who knows? It’s impossible to tell and at best the details remain more or less accurate. Or inaccurate, depending on the situation. The problem is that you can go online today, find these facts (after seventeen hours of searching) and then believe them to be true.

And the fact is the facts often have holes in them.

You can’t necessarily trust that what you’re reading is correct and will work for you. So the only way to find out is to make it work for you. You take those tea bags and polish a part of your hardwood floor. Does it work? Do the floors shine? Ah, now you’ve got a personal story of your own. You’ve got your own hand-me-down tale to tell.

Let’s just hope it doesn’t get distorted along the way, shall we?

So that’s the problem with hand-me down data. It looks very valid indeed. But unless you try and prove it to yourself, it’s something you need to take with a pinch of salt—or turmeric

And that takes us to the final problem: The data keeps changing.

Problem 3: Facts that we know aren’t valid any more.

As recently as the year 1980, most neuroscientists believed that the brain was non-plastic. Plasticity means that the brain is adaptable. That damage, strokes and other horrible things that could ruin a brain, are not permanent after all.

There’s now research (yeah I know the irony of using the word there) that there was tissue damage of 97% in one brain area which should have rendered the patient incapable of doing anything.. And yet the patient re-learned everything: to crawl, walk, and then live a pretty normal life.

I want you to understand one thing. These were neuroscientists. They live, breathe, and map their entire careers around research. And they were wrong. The brain is plastic. We know that now. But hey, that data changes as well. And who’s to know what’s going to come around the corner?

So does this mean you should not use research in your articles?

No it doesn’t mean that at all. All you need to understand is that you can’t be spending those all those hours tracking down facts. Because often these so-called facts are wrong. And then there’s the issue of fluid facts. Facts change as we get to know more. And really what applies to one person is not going to necessarily apply to you.

If someone says they got a 33% increase in turnover, it’s not going to apply to you. That turnover increase was based on a certain strategy, in a certain market, at a certain time. It sounds like a fact, and it is. But it doesn’t always hold good for everyone. Researching information for your article makes it look great, but be aware that data is a moving target.

This may look like a research-bashing article when in fact it’s not.

It’s just a bit of advice to avoid spending endless hours trying to find research that may be flawed in the first place. Go ahead, do your research, but put an egg timer. If you don’t get what you’re looking for in about 22 minutes, it’s time to get your own facts together. No, don’t make it up, but tell us your own experience. In reality it may be better to simply write what you know because it makes for a good story and as you know, stories have facts.

Research makes things interesting. So if you find it, use it.

But your own case-studies are just as interesting. So don’t be bashful. Use it more often.
It saves you time. And yes, you may be wrong.

Well, so were the neuroscientists. So you’re in good company.

To read more articles by Sean DSouza—and get a very useful report on “Why Headlines Fail”, go to PsychoTactics.com

Join Leo Babauta and Mary Jaksch in their spectacular training environment for bloggers: the A-List Blogger Club.

Get multi-media savvy

By Drew Tewksbury of Ebyline’s Blog

It’s not hard to get discouraged about writing and journalism with all the negative news in the media world.

Newspapers are ceasing production, magazines are going online-only, and new outlets are few and far between. But there is a way for writers to survive.

The key to surviving the clear cutting of print publications: Re-define and re-imagine.

Try to adjust your self-image, you’re no longer just a writer, you’re a multimedia producer. You produce, you create, not just words on the page, but images, sounds, stories. You don’t have to go back to journalism school to learn to use multimedia tools or spend a lot of money on equipment; many new journalism tools are already in your pocket today. With some clever smart phone hacking and a multimedia mindset, you can make every story you report into three (or four, or five…) more stories.

Here’s how:

1. Get the Tools.
These days, being a multimedia journalist is easier than ever before. Many of us already carry the tools of the trade with us everyday. Your iPhone, Droid, or other mobile device can make a good makeshift solution in a pinch. Check out Poynter Institute’s “10 Best iPhones Apps for Journalists” for apps that shoot and publish good video, or programs that help you edit images quickly. If you want to go more pro, keep in mind that you will be able to pay off your gear with increased number of gigs you land. It’s worth it.

2. Audio.
Probably one of the easiest ways to flip a story is to repurpose your audio. Next time you go to do an interview, bring a professional quality recorder with you. The Marantz PMD620 is a professional grade digital recorder that you can slip in your pocket. It has external mics but if your own mic isn’t a bad idea either. Zoom makes some good recorders, which are even cheaper than the Marantz, but both of these recorders are less than $400. So once you’ve recorded your audio, you can use that audio for many different things. You can pitch your the sound of your interview to a radio station or NPR, who will often buy sound files, or “tape synchs.” Also you could pitch a scripted piece that you will write out and voice, with the sounds from your interview woven throughout.

3. Slideshows.
Online publications are in desperate need of photos for their sites. Photo galleries are some of the most financially lucrative parts of websites, so many publications have been hard pressed by their business departments to add one or many photos to their sites. Even if you’re not David LaChappelle, consumer grade digital cameras basically take a photo for you. Bring one along for your next story and you can add a couple extra dollars onto your story.

4. Audio Slideshows.
If you combine steps two and three together, then you have the newish phenomenon: The audio slideshow. These galleries are always a delight to see on a website, and they are relatively easy to create. Soundslides is a great program that lets you take your audio and lay it under a slideshow. If you take your audio from an interview, and juxtapose it with the images that you took, you have successfully become a multimedia journalist. It’s a simple process that adds a whole new dimension to storytelling.

5. Video Clips:
Online publications are dying to be patient zero of a viral video. If you shoot some footage on your phone, or on a Flip cam, perhaps you can help them to realize their dream. If you’re shooting with your phone or another hand held device, the best thing to do is put it down. Maybe you can set it on a book, or a table to eliminate that “Blair Witch Project” shaky-cam look. If you’re in a situation where you can’t do this, use the hand not holding the camera to hold your wrist. This will steady your camera arm enough for some passable video. Once you have the video, you should pitch it to the online or web editor at a publication.

Drew Tewksbury is a radio producer and the editor of Ebyline’s Blog, which explores the business of freelancing life.

By Drew Tewksbury of Ebyline’s Blog

It’s not hard to get discouraged about writing and journalism with all the negative news in the media world. Newspapers are ceasing production, magazines are going online-only, and new outlets are few and far between.

It’s a lot of gloom and doom, written by journalists who themselves are fearing for their own job security. But it’s not just hype.
So as a writer, how are you going to get your work out there when it seems like there are fewer publications than ever before?

The key to surviving the clear cutting of print publications: Redefine and reimagine.

Try to adjust your self-image, you’re no longer just a writer, you’re a multimedia producer. You produce, you create, not just words on the page, but images, sounds, stories. You don’t have to go back to journalism school to learn to use multimedia tools or spend a lot of money on equipment; many new journalism tools are already in your pocket today. With some clever smart phone hacking and a multimedia mindset, you can make every story you report into three (or four, or five…) more stories.

Here’s how:

1. Get the Tools.
These days, being a multimedia journalist is easier than ever before. Many of us already carry the tools of the trade with us everyday. Your iPhone, Droid, or other mobile device can make a good makeshift solution in a pinch. Check out Poynter Institute’s “10 Best iPhones Apps for Journalists” for apps that shoot and publish good video, or programs that help you edit images quickly. If you want to go more pro, keep in mind that you will be able to pay off your gear with increased number of gigs you land. It’s worth it.

2. Audio.
Probably one of the easiest ways to flip a story is to repurpose your audio. Next time you go to do an interview, bring a professional quality recorder with you. The Marantz PMD620 is a professional grade digital recorder that you can slip in your pocket. It has external mics but if your own mic isn’t a bad idea either. Zoom makes some good recorders, which are even cheaper than the Marantz, but both of these recorders are less than $400. So once you’ve recorded your audio, you can use that audio for many different things. You can pitch your the sound of your interview to a radio station or NPR, who will often buy sound files, or “tape synchs.” Also you could pitch a scripted piece that you will write out and voice, with the sounds from your interview woven throughout.

3. Slideshows.
Online publications are in desperate need of photos for their sites. Photo galleries are some of the most financially lucrative parts of websites, so many publications have been hard pressed by their business departments to add one or many photos to their sites. Even if you’re not David LaChappelle, consumer grade digital cameras basically take a photo for you. Bring one along for your next story and you can add a couple extra dollars onto your story.

4. Audio Slideshows.
If you combine steps two and three together, then you have the newish phenomenon: The audio slideshow. These galleries are always a delight to see on a website, and they are relatively easy to create. Soundslides is a great program that lets you take your audio and lay it under a slideshow. If you take your audio from an interview, and juxtapose it with the images that you took, you have successfully become a multimedia journalist. It’s a simple process that adds a whole new dimension to storytelling.

5. Video Clips:
Online publications are dying to be patient zero of a viral video. If you shoot some footage on your phone, or on a Flip cam, perhaps you can help them to realize their dream. If you’re shooting with your phone or another hand held device, the best thing to do is put it down. Maybe you can set it on a book, or a table to eliminate that “Blair Witch Project” shaky-cam look. If you’re in a situation where you can’t do this, use the hand not holding the camera to hold your wrist. This will steady your camera arm enough for some passable video. Once you have the video, you should pitch it to the online or web editor at a publication.

Drew Tewksbury is a radio producer and the editor of Ebyline’s Blog, which explores the business of freelancing life.

Image by Loca Luna / Anna Gay

“I’m going to quit my job and be a freelance writer.”

They probably weren’t words my then-boyfriend, now-husband wanted to hear. We lived in London at the time – not exactly cheap. I had a “good” day job – one which paid pretty well, considering that it was my first job out of college.

Oh, and it was spring 2008, and we were at the start of a recession.

But … I’d been dipping my toes into the freelancing waters, and I’d realized that it was a great time to be a freelance writer. That was three years ago – and today’s new freelancers are in an even stronger position.

Why do freelance writers have it so good right now? In short, the internet.

The internet has created an unprecedented demand for new content – and new specialisms, like SEO copywriting. For three years, I’ve been working as a paid blogger, something which didn’t exist when I was in high school.

It’s much easier to get a foot on the ladder now. A couple of decades ago, if you wanted to be a freelancer, you had to gradually build up a portfolio of clips – starting with writing for tiny local publications for free. Now, you can email guest posts to blogs with a circulation of hundreds of thousands – and you can be published the next day.

However, getting started isn’t quite as easy as some people would have you believe. I’m sure you’ve seen ads online saying “writers wanted” – and promising that you can succeed without any previous experience at all. You’ve probably also come across ads on Craigslist or similar, offering a miniscule rate of pay (like $2 per blog post). Sadly, there are some unscrupulous and misguided folks out there who want to take advantage of writers. And there are some desperate writers who fall prey to them.

Over the past three years, I’ve learnt a lot – sometimes the hard way! Like:

#1: Have a Strong Online Presence

I started out with a … well, in retrospect, pretty awful website. I’d designed it myself and hand-coded all the pages in html. (And I’m neither a designer nor a coder by training.) Plus, the only visitors I had were a few intrigued ex-colleagues and my mom.

I pretty quickly realized I needed a much more enticing website if I was going to attract clients. I highly recommend using WordPress – it’s free, robust, has tons of features, and is a lot more user-friendly than when I first started out. It’s definitely not just for bloggers, either – you can create almost any sort of site using it.

#2: Learn to Write for the Web

Although there are still plenty of paying print markets around, the web has been a game-changer for freelance writers. It’s easy to pick up jobs online, and web editors want a constant stream of fresh content.

The problem is, writing for the web isn’t like writing for print – especially if you’re used to academic writing or factual journalism. We read differently online, skimming through pieces, and I had to learn how to write in a more engaging conversational style, and how to use formatting tricks to keep readers (and editors) engaged.

#3: Find the Great Jobs

If you’ve ever looked for writing jobs online, you’ve probably ended up trawling through a whole bunch of scammy-looking “opportunities”.

Avoid anything which offers a revenue-share based on advertising income. Sure, they might make impressive-sounding claims – but you’re likely to end up with pennies. Look for positions which offer at least $40 for a blog post.

#4: Get Business-like

When I started out, with a couple of gigs on the side, I could keep track of all my work pretty easily. Once freelance writing became my full-time income, I had to get a lot more organized – for my own peace of mind, and to make sure that I kept my clients happy

One simple trick which really helped was to give myself more time than I needed for every deadline. If I thought I could have it done by Tuesday, I’d say Friday. That way, I had some slack if anything went wrong – and I could turn work in early if not.

#5: Use Social Media Effectively

I only got started on Twitter because a bunch of my day-job colleagues joined and I didn’t want to miss out. But once I started freelancing seriously, I realized that Twitter was a great way to build up a network of fellow writers (some of whom have sent work my way), editors, and even readers who’ve enjoyed my work.

If you’re not on Twitter, or if you’re not using Twitter effectively, take some time to learn about it. There are loads of writers on there – including famous authors like Neil Gaiman and Alexander McCall Smith – and it’s a great place to make new friends.

#6: Become More Productive

When I was a student, I thought it was a good day if I managed to write a thousand words or so. Now, I can knock out three thousand words before lunch. The online world is full of distractions – but if you’re going to make it as a freelancer, you have to be able to focus.

For me, that means avoiding my inbox, tweeting only sparingly, and ignoring the washing up until after my writing’s done for the day…

If you’re keen to start freelancing online, but you’re not sure where to begin, then I’d urge you to check out the Freelance Writing Course that I’m running with Daily Writing Tips. Registration is only open for 72 hours. This could be the course which changes your life – just like freelancing has changed mine.

And even if it’s not quite the right time for you, do give freelancing some serious thought. A lot of the people I talk to worry that they’re not good enough – but the truth is, with a little work, you’re probably more than capable of writing professionally.

So, what’s stopping you from giving it a try?

Ali Hale is a freelance writer, blogger and writing coach. You can read more from her and get all the details about her course on DailyWritingTips.com

By Mary Jaksch

Do you want to earn money as a writer? If you love writing, then I’m sure the answer is ‘yes!’ Because if we can earn a crust whilst doing what we love – that’s pretty optimal. Agreed?

But how to do it?

If you’re a novelist, a poet, or a story writer – you may have to wait for the big break-through. But if you’re  ‘faction’ writer – I mean, if you write non-fiction – you have a lot more options.

Freelancing

There are many different kinds of freelancing jobs. You can write for magazines or other print media, for business, or for the Internet. As Carol Tice wrote in her post How to Start Earning From Your Blog Right Away , a blog is a great platform from which to launch a career as a freelancer.

Blogging also teaches you how to write well for magazines. Because the optimal structure of blog posts, as well as the crafting of headlines,  is similar to what you need to do in order to write well for magazines.

Writing and selling eBooks

Traditional print media are heading for a collapse. This is a great opportunity for web-savvy writers! A good way to create an online income is to write and self-publish books and reports. Or to create products, such as podcasts, videos, webinars, or courses. Those kinds of products may seem a far cry from an eBook, but in reality they are based upon written material. The content is just presented in a different medium.

The new wave of ‘pay for content’

There is a lot of discussion in the Blogosphere about how bloggers could offer premium content for modest subscriptions. For example, professional blogger David Risley asked in a recent post Is the Future of Blogging Paid Access? This is all very new, but I think it’s worth watching this movement closely.

In view of this, it’s a great time to build an attractive blog with a strong readership in order to make the most of this new direction when it gains traction.

Freelancing opportunities

Here at WTD, we’re keen to see you succeed. I’m mindful of the fact that many of us need to find a way to make our passion for writing pay the bills. That’s why I’ve jumped at a new opportunity that could benefit all of you. I’ve joined a network that collects and publishes freelance opportunities for writers.

For now, I’ve placed a widget with the job board in the sidebar. But I could also display a larger amount of jobs on a separate page. Leo Babauta and I would earn a small amount from the job provider when a WTD reader gets a job (but not enough to buy a pony …) More importantly – this may turn out to be a good source of potential jobs for you, our readers. Please tell us in the comments what you think of the Write to Done Job Board. Should we have a page of freelance jobs for writers on this blog?

Talking of opportunities, here’s a quick heads-up: Leo and I are closing access to the A-list Blogger Club this Thursday at midnight (Eastern). We’ll re-open the doors after our upcoming 4-week  Bootcamp The Art of Blog Seduction – How to Draw Subscribers to Your Awesome Blog. If you are keen to jump aboard the A-List Blogger Club, click here. (A Club member wrote recently: ‘You couldn’t pay me to unsubscribe!’)

Oh, and if you’d like to watch a video where I talk about how to blog Like an A-lister, please complete a 2-minute survey in order to get the video link. Click here for the survey.

As to our topic of how to earn money as a writer: if you have some good tip, please share them in the comments.

Mary Jaksch is the Chief Editor of Write to Done. You can enjoy more of her posts on Goodlife ZEN . Together with Leo Babauta, Mary runs A-list Blogging Bootcamps and the A-List Blogger Club.

Joining the A-List Blogger Club is like pouring accelerant on your blogging career. I know I’ve cut YEARS off my journey to monetizing my blog by belonging here.
~ Carol Tice of Make a Living Writing

A guest post by Linda Formichelli of The Renegade Writer

If you’ve been a freelance writer for more than a couple of months, you’re probably familiar with the feast-or-famine lifestyle. For two months you have nothing, and then suddenly you’re so slammed that you don’t have time to eat, sleep, or shower. Your bank account goes up and down like a yo-yo. And with every feast, you wonder if it will be your last.

I’ve been going through the cycle for almost 14 years, and have learned how to smooth out the bumps.

1. Market when you’re busiest. It seems counterintuitive — why try to carve time for marketing out of a week that’s crammed with assignments? You have work. Duh.

The smart freelancer knows that the marketing she does now is what’s going to supply her income three or more months down the line. It takes time for marketing to turn into sales, so waiting for the assignments to dry up before pounding the pavement isn’t the best tactic. Even when I’m on deadline, I’ll be sending out article queries, direct mail to copywriting prospects, and letters of introduction — not to mention touching base with all my clients and following up on queries and letters of intro that are more than two or three weeks old.

2. Be the ant. Remember the fable of the ant and the grasshopper? The ant spends the warm months gathering food while the grasshopper has fun singing and hanging out with lady grasshoppers. Come winter, the grasshopper has no food and the ant, who’s rolling in goodies, tells the grasshopper to get lost.

The moral of the story for freelancers? No, it’s not that ants are jerks. It’s that you need to save money from the feast times to get you through the famines. It’s tempting, when you’ve just deposited thousands of dollars worth of writing checks, to splurge on a vacation or a new wardrobe. You feel like the good times will last forever. But take my word for it: There will be a famine period and you’ll wish you’d saved some of your cash. Try to build a cushion so you don’t have to beg an ant for money when you have no work.

3. Space out (your deadlines, that is). This is something that affects your schedule — and your sanity — more than your income. Until recently I had a problem where I’d have five articles due in one week, and then the next week (which of course had zero deadlines) I’d spend recuperating from exhaustion. Now I know to negotiate deadlines so that they’re more spread out. Just yesterday, in fact, an editor asked me to turn in an article on March 14. I already have an article due on that day, so I asked my editor for more time. She immediately agreed.

Don’t be afraid to ask for more time on a deadline when you’re offered an assignment. Editors and clients often build in extra time on projects so they’re not stuck in a crunch if the writer flakes out. And I promise, they won’t yank away an assignment just because you asked (well in advance) for a few extra days.

4. Trust. When you’re going through a famine, it seems like you’ll never have work again. This is it, you think. The end of the line. You start scouring the want ads for minimum-wage temp jobs.

I’ve felt that way myself — many times since I began freelancing full-time in 1997. But the more years that went by without my having to search for a 9-to-5, the more I began to trust that even the scariest famine would end. For example, when my husband and I adopted our son two years ago, I planned to take a month’s maternity leave and get back to work in February. But February passed with hardly any work. And March. And April. Things looked dire at the time (though we did have money thanks to tip #2 above), but when I did my taxes at the end of the year I realized that I earned the same amount as I had the year before, even with the four-month famine. The assignments did come back.

Even the best writer goes through the feast-or-famine cycle. It can be a scary ride, but if you plan right — and trust that there’s always work out there for a good freelancer — you’ll be just fine.

Linda Formichelli runs the Renegade Writer Blog, one of the Top 10 Blogs for Writers, where she dishes out advice and offers an e-course on breaking into magazines, phone mentoring for freelance writers, and a free packet of 10 sample query letters.

Many years ago, when I was a starving writer wrestling day and night with the phenomenal angel of the fiction craft, I got thrown on my back a lot. I’d lie there wheezing until I could breathe again, then I’d gamely hop back up and go at it again.

Wrestle! Wham. Breathe. Up. Wrestle! Wham. Breathe. This went on for a really long time.

So now that I’m a professional indie editor, I know what’s going on at your house. And there are things I’ve learned about this craft that could make this wrestling match a whole lot easier on you. These are my secrets, the things you should know:

1. 1. You need far more discipline and profound human compassion than you think.

You guys. You bring me your precious manuscripts, written in ink from the opening of your own veins, these symbolic versions of the very real and tragic heartbreaks you yourself have survived, and you tell me, “Don’t be gentle. Lay it on me. I can take it.”

Fortunately for you, I’m the wimpiest writer ever in history, so I just ignore you. I know that every mild criticism is a slam to the writer’s solar plexus and every compliment is a faint voice mumbling unintelligibly in the distance.

Only when you’ve gotten a hefty dose of compassion for you, the writer, can you hoist up your suspenders and set about the Herculean task of applying the discipline and ruthlessness your manuscript needs. There are always piles, mountains, avalanches of it. If I simply laid the discipline on you first, you’d be humiliated—silenced.

This is why I’m not just an editor. I’m a writing therapist. Half my job is being really good at handling manuscripts, and the other half is being really good at handling writers.

2. Writing fiction isn’t expressing yourself, it’s creating an experience for your reader.

And yet we all write because we love it. Right? I’m not sitting here at my desk thinking about you. I’m actually sitting here thinking about me, about the fact that I know something important and I want you to get a kick out of learning it from me.

Which leads me inevitably to admit that the reader is the only one in this relationship who counts. I might very well have something you need, but if you don’t want it I’ve done all this work for nothing. Not only that, but you’re not here just for what I know, you’re here for the experience of learning it, and even more than that you’re here for the indescribable magic that happens when you find yourself sandwiched between what you’re learning and how you feel about learning it.

That’s the magic that changes a reader’s life. And the writer’s job is working that magic.

3. No one can properly line edit their own writing.

This point sucks, but it’s a simple fact, so we might as well all get used to it, the same way we’re used to dentists, freeways, and working for a living. I would far rather be independently wealthy on a chateau patio overlooking the 1920s Mediterranean coast, words like pearls falling in perfect order from my quill, bouncing over my feet and across the worn flagstones.

But that’s simply not going to happen.

Instead, I’m going to write as clearly and succinctly and vividly as I know how, and then I’m going to hand it off to someone else—my writer husband, my writer friend, or the editor of whatever publication or blog I’m writing for—to be line edited. They’ll catch the awkward phrasing and constructs that make a reader stumble over my words. They’ll smooth the rhythm I’ve worked so hard to achieve (and, hopefully, catch most of my typos.)

They’ll see my words the way a reader sees them. And that’s professional polish.

4. The publishing industry is not Cinderella, and neither are you.

Or, to paraphrase Dylan: they ain’t a-going nowhere.

I know everyone’s breathing down your neck, exhorting you with the authority of wild-eyed fanatics to hustle your fanny out there and get your novel published. I know this is why you ask for blunt criticism and hope to skimp on the line editing, why it’s so daunting to be told this work is, more than anything, about magic.

But honestly. . .what’s going to happen if you don’t get published PDQ? Are the publishers all going to turn into pumpkins at midnight?

No. And neither are you. Novels have been written and published for over four hundred years. They will continue being published a good four hundred years from now. I spent thirty years delving into this craft in the privacy of one cozy little workspace after another, across three states and half a dozen countries, one desk in a closet and another on a minuscule Hawaiian lanai overlooking the endless ocean. You have time to immerse yourself in this craft for a very, very long time indeed before you need to start looking over your shoulder to see if the end is gaining on you.

Seriously.

5. Your manuscript is in much worse shape than you believe it is, but you have vastly more potential as a brilliant writer than you can imagine.

Now, you may have seen my recent moment of online glory in which I was immortalized in the Huffington Post for being dissed by my agent. That story was absolutely true. Every single manuscript that comes to me is the best, brightest, most word-perfect work of which its author feels capable, and every single one of them has aspects for which an agent with a caustic tongue could get them into the Post.

But that’s okay. I learned how to fix all that stuff.

Even more importantly, every single manuscript that comes to me has its moments of ineffable glory: a facility with words, specific telling details that snap scenes into three dimensions, plot twists and developments that carry me right out of myself, laser-like snippets of dialog and amazing character insights, things that make me sit up, make me laugh, torque my heart exactly the way a reader’s heart needs to be torqued.

These moments are the stuff of which brilliant fiction is made.

6. Your job is to go beyond the limits of possibility.

Of course, the biggest thing I know that you don’t is that writing fiction is an impossible labor. Great art is never as transcendental as its creator has in mind.

Readers might be happy enough with less than transcendental (but not much). Publishers and agents might be as happy as they’re ever going to get. (It’s hard to tell.) But once you’ve seen your vision and known what it’s like to capture even a fragment of that iridescent substance for your own in words, you will never again be satisfied.

So you keep at it—the impossible. Even though you know it’s impossible. That’s what you, great writers, and immortal protagonists all have in common.

7. Fiction isn’t really about reading or writing, it’s about living.

Finally, not the biggest thing I know that you don’t, but the most important: there’s no such thing as either “escapist” or “literary” fiction. There is only storytelling to which all of us, readers and writers alike, go over and over again, to find out what life is, learn the basic skills we need to survive it, and discover the unspeakable beauty and subtlety and significance that makes it worth living.

You don’t have to be a writer. You simply do this work because we human beings need it done.

Victoria Mixon spends her time blogging for the vast tribe of aspiring great writers in the blogosphere and editing their work with her suspenders hoisted up. She is the co-author of Children and the Internet: A Zen Guide for Parents and Educators and author of the recently-released The Art & Craft of Fiction: A Practitioner’s Manual.

Twice a year, in December and June, I work on my “life plan”: It’s like a business plan, but it encompasses career/finances, health, relationships, and volunteering. Each section includes a brief mission statement, a bullet-point list of goals, a bullet-point list of obstacles to those goals, and a paragraph or two where I brainstorm ways around or through those obstacles.

I don’t check on the life plan regularly during the year — just when I feel inspired. And when I go to it again after six months, I often find that I had internalized and met many of my goals without even trying.

Except the income goals. For years, every six months I’d write out an income goal, brainstorm ways to meet that goal — and do absolutely nothing different in my career to try to earn that extra income.

Eventually I smartened up, and realized two key things about setting goals:

1. Your goals need to be something you can control.

As a freelancer, it’s difficult to control how many clients you gain, how many assignments you get, or much money you make (though you can always shoot for a range; after all, we need to eat). However, you can control how many queries and letters of intro you send out, how much marketing you do, and how many hours you work. Increase these, and you’re likely to increase your income as a side benefit.

Why not try it yourself for 2011? Instead of saying you want to make X amount of money or garner five assignments from national magazines, set goals that you can control — like how much marketing you do. For example, my plan for 2011 is to conduct a direct mail campaign to 900 local businesses for my copywriting (100 down, 800 to go!).

2. Your goals need to inspire you.

Guess what? It turns out I’m just not inspired by income goals. As long as I can support my family and we can do (within reason) what we want, I’m okay. However, I am inspired by the appreciation I get from the writers I help through my e-courses and mentoring. This morning I had a client who told me she had a big grin on her face as I outlined a new idea for her. Now, that I like — I just eat it up!

So my goal is to do more teaching and mentoring. (And of course, the more teaching and mentoring I do, the more money I make.) I also enjoy writing for magazine editors who treat me well, so another goal is to seek them out, hang onto them when I find them, and weed out PITA editors. As a byproduct, I make a good income because it takes me less time to do assignments from magazines with a low PITA factor.

These goals keep me a lot happier than working my butt off to reach some magic number I don’t really care about.

So — what do you really care about? Try to set goals that make sense for you, instead of caving under the pressure to set goals that you feel you should want to reach.

Linda Formichelli has written for over 130 magazines since 1997, from Pizza Today to USA Weekend. She  runs the Renegade Writer, one of the Top 10 Blogs for Writers 2010/11. She is the co-author of “The Renegade Writer: A Totally Unconventional Guide to Freelance Writing Success”

_____________________________________________________________________________

I’m amazed at the wealth of information in the A-List Blogger Club. I’ve been blogging for several years but was not very savvy about it, and I immediately made easy but high-impact changes to my blog based on the advice there. I’m already seeing an uptick in readers, students, and clients!
Linda Formichelli, The Renegade Writer Blog

A guest post by Jean Sarauer of Virgin Blogger Notes.

It’s 7 a.m., and I’m in trouble.

I’ve got a guest post due for a popular blog in a few hours . . .  A new writing client expects an outline of a marketing piece first thing tomorrow . . . The pitch I submitted to a local magazine was a hit, and now the editor wants the article for the next issue.

You’d think such a sizzling stack of opportunities would have me salivating all over myself.

Instead, I’m scared spitless. My heart pounds, my stomach lurches, and fear has me pinned to the mat.

If you’ve been writing for more than 7.5 seconds, chances are you’ve spent some face-time with fear too.

Maybe you’ve experienced:

• Fear of failure.
• Fear of writer’s block.
• Fear of rejection.
• Fear of success.
• Fear of criticism.
• Fear of financial ruin.

Whew!

With a list like that cheering us on, it’s a wonder we ever string more than two sentences together.

Still, the show must go on, and just as actors learn to work with stage fright, we writers must carry on with page fright.

For me, carrying on means experimenting with self-coaching techniques to find the ones that let my creativity flow despite an ever-present fear-factor. Through testing, tweaking, and combining these methods, I’ve created a simple process to help myself and other writers move from paralyzed to productive.

Here’s how it works:

1. Recognize fear. Fear is a shape shifter. Although it’s easy to spot when it’s smacking us around in a full-frontal assault, sometimes it’s masked in behaviors like mindless eating or dawdling in the face of deadlines. These forms of fear may seem harmless, but they undermine our work and health and need to be seen for what they are.
2. Return to reality. When I’m in the midst of a major fear-fest, my body is present, but my mind drifts to faraway lands where rejection lurks under every lamp post. To shrink fear and get back to reality where I can get some work done, I breathe deeply and slowly, touch objects in my physical environment, and stretch to release tension from my body.
3. Stop struggling. Just like a snare tightens around a frightened, struggling rabbit, fear’s claws sink in deeper when we resist it. Fear is an instinctive, as well as a conditioned, response to the risk that’s part of living a creative life. When I remember that, I save my energy for writing instead of squandering it in an eternal wrestling match.
4. Listen. Even though I don’t applaud its arrival, fear often delivers important messages. I’ve learned to sit quietly for a moment and ask myself what I’m really afraid of. This helps bring insecurities, triggers, and potential dangers to the surface where they can be addressed as needed.
5. Recommit. Writing is a choice. We have the option to let our blogs sit dormant, turn down writing jobs, and break contracts. When we’re scared, we forget there’s a whole world of ways to be creative and make a living, and that we chose this one. Consciously recommitting to our work, if that’s truly what we wish to do, restores our sense of power.
6. Get in the flow. Practicing the previous steps puts fear into perspective; moving into the creative process helps keep it there. The key is to work quickly, staying immersed in the writing process, without judging the work. For me, this means writing ‘fat and fast’ rough drafts without thought to sentence structure or punctuation. As my fingers move across the keys, words appear on the screen, and momentum builds. If my project is in later stages, I’ll work in quick sweeps, making easy changes without getting bogged down in the pursuit of perfection. My work will need fine tuning soon, but right now, it’s all about building up that momentum.
7. Take a breather. I’ve learned the hard way that fear sneaks up on me when I let my batteries run low. Even though taking breaks is the last thing my creative spirit wants to do when it’s on a roll, I step away for a few minutes here and there to refresh and recharge.
8. Sculpt and polish. Words like ‘revise’ and ‘edit’ make me twitchy, so I use softer language like ‘sculpt’ or ‘whittle’ to describe the home stretch activities. At this stage doubts can pop up fast, and doubts are to fear what gasoline is to a flame . . . . Whooosh! If you feel that big fiery rush of fear come over you as you polish your work, acknowledge it, take some deep breaths, and keep working if you’re able. If not, repeat the above steps as needed to complete your project.

I’d love to tell you that practicing this process will eliminate your writing fears forever, but that’s not true. Odds are, fear will be waiting at your desk in some form the next time you start a new project, work with a new editor, or shift writing gears. Perhaps, it’s already there.

That’s okay though. We’re all fraidy-cat writers sometimes, and there’s no shame in that. No, the only real shame would be if we let our fears hold us back from experiencing the wild adventure of this writing life.

Your turn: How do you deal with your writing fears?

Jean Berg-Sarauer is a writer and blogger living in beautiful northwestern Wisconsin. She provides information and inspiration to beginning bloggers at Virgin Blogger Notes.