Content Magician, Freelance web content writers

Archive for the ‘A Writer’s Life’ Category

I tried to write like Enid Blyton once because I love Enid Blyton books….I love them when I was five and I still love them today. There’s something very endearing about gnomes, pixies, brownies (I thought they were the edible kind at first) and also those naughty little boys having their faces frozen mid-scowl when the wind blew – mind-blowing. You remember that one? Yeah, it’s fantastic and out of this world. The world could end and Enid Blyton books would still be selling like mad cakes out of the oven.

I also tried to write like John Grisham because he’s really up there and I am a law graduate. I understood (sort of) all the procedures and lingos that he was using in all his books. I got all of those stuff covered. And then when I do that, I sound like a half-baked college student trying to impress her teachers and school mates and the next door neighbor’s dog.

Avid readers of love stories would definitely, positively try to write a romance novel. Those Mills and Boons stuff? Yeah, you’ve got to try writing them….but after a while, you’re afraid that you don’t know enough about all those ‘stuff’ to write them and when you try to get it published, people will laugh their faces off.

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Author: Marsha Maung, a freelance writer, ghost blogger and online social networking consusltant

Every now and again, I get emails or have people adding me on my Facebook account asking me if it was possible for them to become a freelance writer because:-

1. They’re a mother who is looking for extra income
2.  They’re a fresh graduate and is looking for a job
3. They think they’re bored with their current work and think they can string a couple of words together to make a living
4. They’ve just got laid off and is in the middle of a financial crisis

I would love to say that it’s possible for ANYONE to make it as a freelance writer, no, seriously, SERIOUSLY, I would. But honestly, it’s not true. I would be lying to you and at the end of the day, you’re going to hunt me down and spew curses down my throat for misleading you.

Freelance writing, much like anything else in life, needs skills and talents. Stringing a couple of words together does not a writer make. Hang on. I need to rephrase that. Stringing a couple of words together not a SUCCESSFUL freelance writer make. Freelance writers need, not only talents and skills, but he or she needs to WANT to be a writer.

Allena Tapia of about.com explained it at length about what makes a freelance writer a successful one and she has been spot on. During the early days, writers like me offer encouraging words to aspiring writers to spur them on so that they don’t despair. But it’s wrong.

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Author: Marsha Maung

For the longest time, I toiled day in and day out, pursuing the interest of others. As a business woman and as a freelance writer, there’s literally no other option. It’s either that or eat sand. I chose the former. I don’t like sand very much.

I tweeted this yesterday, I think (follow me on twitter if you want – www.twitter.com/marshamaung), and then it slammed into me. I tweeted: I need to write more for myself. In my organizer, the list of things to do for MYSELF is backlogged as far back as two weeks ago!

There are stuff that I should have done for myself that I should have done two whole weeks ago! Compare the list to the one I have for my clients – to the dot! Well, ALMOST to the dot. I had a bad Wednesday, ok?

I think it will do me good if I could just imagine myself as a client for once. If my clients were important to me, I should be just as important if not more important. Without me as a writer, there would be no….money. In this equation, the most important thing to my business right now is….yes, my computer, but more importantly, it’s me.
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Can you think of one instance whereby you’re just staring at the keyboard and willing yourself to type something….ANYTHING out?! You’re just staring at it and wishing that there was something you could do about that empty page on the computer.

I know. It’s horrible, that feeling.

But here’s the secret to writing even when you’re stuck…just write anyway. Anything that comes to mind. Just think about a recent movie you’ve seen, the cup of coffee in front of you, your favorite actress, a man standing at the altar being abandoned by his bride-not-to-be….etc. The obstacle is you. You can’t get started because you’re facing something writers are most afraid of….writer’s block! Oh, how I hate that word too!

Over the years of being able to write despite facing devastating and career-destroying mind blocks, I’ll share something with you and that is to get yourself chugging anyway.

You know, November is my favorite month of the year because that’s the month whereby I have to force myself to write despite not knowing what to write. I participate in something called the National Novel Writing Month….in short, it’s affectionately called Nanowrimo. It’s an incredible process, I’m telling ya!!

The purpose is to force yourself to write a novel (or a really long short story – haha) of at least 50,000 words within that month. The reward….nothing. Yeah, you don’t anything from completing the process but you know what? That’s not true. At the end of the month, when you’ve finally succeeded in writing those 50,000 words, you’ve got half a novel finished and a story.

Sometimes the story is good, sometimes they suck – but you’ve got material to work on now, don’t you?

So, the essence of what I am trying to say today is this. Even if you’re stuck there staring at your keyboard, write anyway. Write about how you hate your hand lotion, how much laundry you have to do, write about world war II….just keep at it until the engine chugs to life.

Good luck!

p.s. If you’re still stuck, head on over here for some REALLY NEAT writing prompts! Have fun. No, seriously, HAVE FUN!!!

Most people concur that writing is not always easy – especially when you’re not wired that way. Most people would imagine TALKING a much better, more convenient form of communication. It takes effort to write. But for strange, weird people like me, writing is easier. That is….before this whole online social networking thing took it a few steps deeper.

Writing, for most writers today, is a form of promotion for ourselves. The more we write, the more we get out there, the more people we reach, the more people get to know about it. If you do a credible job, you invariably will attract a few fans and followers as time goes on.

With the online social networking phenomenon, it’s no longer the case.

Writing is the easy part….the physical part of typing the article out, editing and proofing them. And THEN comes the hard part. I know some people are thinking, ‘That’s it, right? You’re done! You get it published or send it out or something, right?’ WRONG.

I said ‘promotion’ up there and an article does not promote itself. You need to push it out there, hence, the work AFTER the writing is done. First, you’ll post it up, of course, then you put it up on your Facebook account to let all your friends and family members know that you’ve just written some masterpiece. And you get on Twitter and tweet about it to your followers so that they can get a read of it too. It’s not a prerequisite but some people repeat their tweets (RT – ReTweet) the same link with different write-up….just in case someone missed it. Some people do it up to 8, 9, 10 times a day. Sometimes they do it the next day, next week…well, it’s up to you how much you want to annoy your followers, really.

Done? No. Don’t forget to plug the story into article directories too and that’ll take a bit of time but you’ll chill while waiting. And of course, you’re going to have to place some links in your Facebook group walls and also in your blog to let readers know the article is there.

Done? No. Don’t forget the online bookmarking sites because lots of people go through them and an extra link can’t be a bad thing. So, you go into your digg.com, stumbleupon, Yahoo! buzz, propeller.com, delicious.com, furl.net…and stick the link up there with a short write-up to….yes, to let people know the article is there.

See? One article and tons of work after that. You see why writing is the easy part now? I might just start thinking that talking is way faster some day.

It’s a matter of habit, really. However, the fact remains that where I sit down, yield the pen (or rather, the keyboard) to write the stuff that I churn out for my freelance writing clients is extremely important to me. This has, partly, to do with discipline. I’ve disciplined myself to tune into my work and come in sync with the topics that I have to write about only when I am sitting in my little ‘office’, a little room that I guard with my life.

Hence, whether I own an iPhone or a laptop is completely irrelevant to me. Of course, there ARE other freelance writers who can sit down and write whatever it is that is required of them whenever or wherever. But that’s just not me. I would rather associate a place that I feel comfortable with doning the ‘thinking cap’ instead of writing on my bed or in the living hall. The feelings just don’t flow.

And besides, I’ve two kids. Which means that I need to train them so that they don’t interupt me whenever I am working on something. Ever since they were young, I’ve taught them that mommy works from home, she writes and whenever she writes, she’s in THAT room over there. And when she’s in THAT room over there, unless it’s really urgent and requires immediate attention, they would have to wait.

But it’s a two way street, of course. For every article that I finish, I would stop, give myself a break and go out and hangout with them for a while. This is the only way I can balance my freelance writing career and my family life.

I envy those who can do their freelance work everywhere because this simply means that they can literally travel without any problems at all and STILL continue to deliver top-notch stuff to their clients. In time, I would have to learnt how to do the same thing. But for now, I think for a lot of people, in order to write well, you need to be in the right frame of mind. And the atmosphere and environment is crucial to how efficient the freelance writer is whenever she/he is behind the keyboard.

Patience and Persistence.

Some people get easily frustrated and give up halfway when trying to learn a new trait. I think that’s such a waste, especially when there’s potential for growth in that person. Just because a person signs up for violin lessons doesn’t make that person a Vanessa Mae within a couple of months or a year. Taking up golf does not make a person Tiger Woods within months. These examples I just gave are people who are born to excel because they have the attitude and the right upbringing.

Most importantly, they know what it takes to make it in their own respective industry. It takes persistence, practice, lots of patients and most probably a lot of tears as well. Learning how to write well for the internet, author a book or become a freelance writer takes a lot of practice and patience as well. And this is the encouraging word that I would love to leave aspiring writers with today.

There WILL be criticisms and some people will hate whatever you’ve written. Some other professional writers will scoff at your effort. You could have spent countless hours just toiling over a seemingly well-written piece, thinking that it’s the best piece you have written thus far, only to have people say that it’s stuff kindergarten kids come up with.

Trust me, people, especially critics, are exceptionally cruel when evaluating works of others. As it turns out, it’s far easier to say negative things about what someone have written than to say nice things about it. The negative points, after all, is far more apparent in the beginning. To find the good things in what you have written, it takes effort and not a lot of people are willing to put effort into finding GOOD THINGS to say about what you have written.

In order to make it in this online world and to be a well-paid freelance writer or freelance web content writer, you’ll need to learn how to take criticisms seriously without letting it dampen your will to succeed.

With every backlash, you are one step closer to perfection.

Recently, I’ve just taken on a writing job that requires me to write a lot of nonsensical stuff and basically to fill out a web page with enough keywords without losing out on the point of the whole article….by the bunch. For those who have worked with me, you know where I stand about these things. It’s not always about the quantity but the quality.

Which is something I try to maintain as best as I can – I don’t always succeed, mind you, but I DO try my best to be as meticulous as I can.

While writing these articles, there’s an urge for me to remind everyone out there that when you’re trying to promote yourself or your products or services to people who are surfing the internet, please, please, PLEASE do not forget to focus on two things and forget about one thing.

THINGS TO REMEMBER

1. To focus on the sale and reel them in, impress them and make a long story short. Use words that they can easily understand.
2. Remember the message that you’re trying to bring across to them

THINGS TO FORGET

1. Word-counting

Which is what I am doing right now and it’s not fun.

I don’t rule my kids with the rod. I prefer the clothes hanger, works just the same and it’s everywhere! But that’s not the point of this post…the point is this.

My friend wrote this in an email a couple of weeks back…well, sort of.

“I find working from home so hard because I tend to listen to voices of doubt and the internal need to watch a little television, lay on the bed or read a couple of pages from my favorite book. I don’t think it’s possible for me to write from home because I just don’t have the discipline to do it”

Trust me, you’re talking to someone who is literally dried-up on the discipline front and let’s her impulsive nature rule her head. And if this person can practice discipline when it comes to her writing career, I don’t see why anyone else can’t.

I used to dance on table tops. There, beat that for impulsiveness.

If you can….here’s another one…I used to sleep under cars.

OK, I’m not going further than that.

Anyway, the point of this whole blog post is this…if you’re determined enough to be a freelance writer and have been looking for ways to earn money without leaving your home, you’ve GOT TO learn how to be more disciplined about your working hours. There are no two ways about it and there are definitely no shortcuts that I know of.

Being a freelance writer means that you have to be your own boss…a very tough but gentle and understanding boss, that is. Be nice to yourself and try to be the kind of freelance writer who knows his or her own boundaries in terms of work and personal life.

I know it’s hard but it’s very, very possible.

This is what happens when I feel like switching on the TV.

Self-talk: “OK, this is the deal. You finish this article off and then you write another page of that book and you’re free to go. But by 10.45am, I want your ass back in here, finishing up another page of that book before going off to fetch Son 2 back from school. Understand? Otherwise, there’ll be no TV for you for 2 whole days!”

I am mentally squirming and twisting my hands together, nodding at the same time.

This, my friends, is how to rule yourself with a rod when it comes to your freelance writing business.

The more natural you are at making friends without asking for something back in return, the better your business will be. I’ve figured this out all on my own…imagine that! HA HA HA HA HA!

Anyway, this advice is for all those aspiring web content writers out there who have been sending me emails and asking me for advice on how to become a web content writer on the internet and free themselves from the need to look for employment so that they can lead a more fulfilling life, etc.

Well, let me clear something up here. Even when you’re a freelance web content writer, there’s no GUARANTEE that you’ll live a more fulfilling life.

But the chances are higher compared to when you’re employed, of course.

Today’s advice about being a freelance web content writer is this…make friends freely, often and be genuine. Everywhere you go, online and offline, be nice. When you’re nice to people, they like you and when they do, they ask what you do (cue: tell them that you’re a freelance web content writer), and they’ll remember.

Out of the one-hundred people you tell about your freelance web content writer business, ten will probably remember you. Two of them might have immediate business for you, three are thinking about it. There you have five people thinking about hiring you as their freelance web content writer.

The other five have your name written at the back of their minds…they probably remember you more for your nice behavior and friendliness than your catchy phrases about being a writer…but it’s there.

Somewhere down the road, two of the remaining five might have something for you, and BING! Your name crops up.

This is one of the best ways to break it into the freelance web content writing business.

Ben, this is for you since you’re the last to ask this question.

Cheers!

Love,

Marsha M

The widardrette of words @ freelance writer by choice