Welcome to bwritenow.com

What if you don’t have enough raw information to finish your article, article package or report?  What if you’ve got all the information but you don’t know what to do with it, or have been on the project so long and don’t know what to do with it?
Write a little bit, even if it’s not long enough or good enough.

I don’t know how many times it’s happened that I just had to write down a paragraph-long idea for a story, that ended up turning into pages of background and further story ideas or an out-and-out story (or chunk of one).  Gene Wolfe’s 800+ page Book of the New Sun started out as a novella.

Articles and reports can start out the same way.  Sometimes all you need is that little push to get going.  Or a little chunk of info that can inspire you later when you’re refreshed.  Or something that you can look at and say, “Okay, at least I did something,” so that you can quit worrying.

Many’s been the time that I’ve written down the basic idea of an article and a few of my ideas or opinions about it, even though those ideas and opinions didn’t seem worth much.  But when I came back to it, the ideas either gave me more ideas on what to write or how to write it.  I.e. they sparked further research or else gave me a better angle and viewpoint to write from.

And speaking of fiction, it’s been a long day.  I think I’ll go relax with some Clark Ashton Smith.

And I don’t mean just with reaching your goal of writing online for a living (yes, folks, this is a n00b’s blog).  Some projects you take on can seem damn-near impossible at first, and it’s easy to tell yourself, “Damn, I should send this one back to the client, tell her I’m not up to the task, tuck my tail and run back to Associated Content.”  It ain’t necessary.

At the very least, try slogging through for a couple of hours.  If there’s a definite format to the articles, then stick to that format religiously.  Structure in writing is a great tool that helps you shift brainpower to other areas–like the meat of the content.

And stick-to-it-iveness is at least as important as skill and definitely more important than talent when it comes to getting the damn thing done.  Oftentimes, it can take just a half-hour of consistent concentration to get “in the zone,” so that your confidence soars.

I know it’s not the most informative post, my faithful readers, but hopefully it can help somebody out of
a rut.

Talk to ya’ll later–I’ve got to go get back in the zone!

Okay, kids, do you go for Door No. 1 or Door No. 2?

If they both suck, then tell me that too…just tell me which one sucks the least!

Brad

Don’t forget to write the fiction. In fact, do it first thing.

Those of you who write fiction already know why this is important. You know that it’ll make your day feel better. You also may have, like me, been stressing out so hard about getting actual work that you just skip straight over the fiction because, “I can do that later.”

Well guess what? If you are a fiction writer–published, never-published, small-circulation published, whatever–then your whole day will go better if you spend even just thirty minutes a morning (or whenever your day starts) loosing yourself in that fiction. Or, for that matter, pounding your head on the desk over it.

Those of you who already write fiction know exactly what I’m talking about. Those who don’t–I promise there’s no need to subject yourself to the process if you’re not already obsessed with it.

If you are obsessed with it, go ahead and work on your obsession first thing. Your whole day will be less stressful, and the world will seem a little less adversarial.

Just a reminder from your friendly neighborhood crazed (fiction and article) writer.

Probably the #1 problem most writers have is overly-harsh self criticism of what we write. (Although not enough self-criticism plays into the game for some…). It can be crippling, really. It has been for me, until recently. There is a solution, though.

Just get some feedback from a professional, some how, some where. Worried that they might have too much criticism for you? Well a) if they do, then they’re just giving you tools to improve your writing and b) if they’re a pro, they’ll know how to say it without being an asshat.

And they’ll likely tell you where your strong points are, too. That kind of info can be worth a lot in the self-confidence, now-I-can-get-my-but-to-movin’ category. If I’d know how much it’d boost me up, I’d have gladly paid a pro a few bucks to do an analysis for me.

Luckily, I didn’t have to. I bought an ebook–don’t sneeze–on special at Warrior Forums (The Content Chef, if you’re wondering). The author–one Courtney Ramirez–puts out a thirty-day plan, the first step of which is “make a sample site”, with a side note saying “send your samples to me and I’ll give you some feedback.” (That’s my paraphrase, people.) So I figured what the hey.

She wrote me back with a couple of pieces of advice and some genuine, positive feedback. It was more of a boost than I’d thought, and just that little bit of self-confidence has boosted me into readiness for better markets. (I.e. I don’t feel like I have to stick around at eLance for a while before I advertise on Warrior Forums or Site Point). It was really just the little nudge I needed.

I don’t know if she’s still doing the feedback or not. (She says the current product isn’t much different than the original, so I imagine so. And she gets points for being honest and not trying to sell me the “new, improved” version–this after I told her I was planning on buying it soon. Mega points for her.) But if you check out a couple of writer forums, you’re sure to find a somebody or three that can give you some honest, constructive feedback.

And you can probably get the feedback for free. But if I knew two months ago how much just a wee bit more confidence can help, I’d have gladly slapped down a couple bills.

I’ll let you know how it goes with Warrior Forums.

It can be intimidating to sign up to a freelancer site (ala ELance) when you don’t have much writing experience. You do have some kind of experience, though–unless you’ve been living in a box. It’s a sure bet you can angle that experience in a positive direction. Even if you really have been living in a box. (Although in the latter case, I suggest you skip right over eLance and go straight on to Hollywood.)

How do you angle your non-writing past? Pretty much everybody has some kind of experience they can turn into a specialty. Just quit your ten-year job at Auto Hut? Looks like you’ve got a specialty, pal. Cast yourself as the auto-parts (or auto-anything) writer, and you’ve got an edge over more experienced generalists who apply for the same job.

“But wait,” you’re saying. “I quit Auto Hut so I’d never have to think about autos or huts ever again!” Well that’s okay. You don’t have to write about huts forever. But if you can use it to wedge your newbie-self into three or four projects, well, that’s three or four projects you didn’t have before. That’s a list of recent projects you can put on your profile/resume. And, hopefully, a good testimonial or three as well.

Content-specialty isn’t the only way to angle your past experience. Ever work in sales? Customer service? Waited tables or worked behind a bar? Let your potential clients know this, let them know it taught you how to connect with people and make them happy and sell to them. Let them know it how it helped you develop that warm, winning personality everybody loves you for. Then, show your client that warm, connecting, “I can sell pies to a pie-factory,” personality of yours by writing a an actual profile–and not just a job-list or “please pick me, I speakie good English,” paragraph or three.

(My first profile on eLance bascially said just that–”Hi I’m a native English speaker and I cost more than those guys from India but not too much more.” So don’t feel bad if yours is the same…just be sure to change it!)

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to go check some provider profiles and check a few things NOT to do. Thank you both very much for reading this–I’ll try to provide a little bit more in the future.

Brad

Here I was all geared up and ready to write a post on how to make a great Guru.com resume. I started looking around the site and something seemed a little strange, so I did a little research. I found this review of Guru.com over at Rateitall.com

“They have 800,000 currently registered “professionals” and 300,000 or so “employers”.

However, the HISTORICAL TOTAL of jobs awarded is about 22,000. Over about 6 years. So let’s say maybe 5,000 this year or so.

Now, do the math. One “employer” in 60 actually awards a project. One “professional” in 160 actually gets a project. ”

Also an interesting article on Guru.com at Associated Content

Guess it’s a good idea to concentrate on other freelancer sites…

Anyone who’s read this blog before (all three of you…at least I hope I’ve got three…) knows I’m a little enthusiastic about SharedReviews.com . It’s a user-driven site that pays $2 per review. Not a huge amount of money, but the reviews only have to be 125 words, which works out to a little less than $0.02/word. Again, not the best rate in the world, but better than, say, Associated Content.

The best thing about Shared Reviews is that you can get paid to clown around a little. I just got my “Yoga Is Better Than Crack Cocaine” review approved. The whole point of the site is to make money through pageviews, so anything a little offbeat, controversial, or otherwise entertaining seems likely to be approved (within reasonable good taste, I assume).

The most potential I see for clowning here is with their video feature. You can upload video for each review you do, so…asking a Yoga teacher why Yoga really is better than crack cocaine might be fun. Calling up an ex-girlfriend you haven’t spoken to in five years and asking for the $500 she owes you could be a great supplement to my review on Yahoo Voice (internet-”phone” service), for example. Really, the possibilities seem endless.

I’m not sure what kind of money we reviewers are gonna draw in once the site goes full-blast. It’s going to be a shared-revenue site, so anything viral you can do is gonna help. And videos are about the most viral thing going on right now, and they don’t require medication. And I think they’re gonna be a lot of fun.

My point? Get over to SharedReviews and have a little fun!

Things were looking a little murky for a while with SharedReviews.com–they were way behind on approving articles, and their “beta cash” looked like it would run out before it got to several of us newer contributors.

A lot of us who’d signed up were excited about the prospect of making $150 for 75 reviews+ ad revenue, especially since each review only needed to be 125 words. Then the “beta cash” started to run out, and word went around that they were 2-3 weeks behind in approving reviews. I lost a lot of excitement (and hope for money…) and cut out at five reviews, then waited to see what would happen.

Today I got paid.

Not a lot–ten bucks–but there’s another hundred and forty where that came from. And I can do it in a couple of afternoons. I’m not entirely sure when I’ll get paid, but right now it seems like money in the bank.

Now if you’ll excuse me–I’ve gotta go write…

My AC article that’s gotten the most page views so far is the one I’ve been payed the least for.

The upfront payment on this guy was $3.02. I submitted another article at the same time. They paid $4.26 for it.

We’ll see what the pageviews say next week.