Archives: March 2006

How Do You Cope With the Fear of Networking? (watch this space for more on this topic.)
I am freelance editing an autobiographical book. The author wants to put sections of a personal e-mail she received in the book, and has asked me to look into copyright issues. Does anyone have a clue on this?
Freelancers…What are you deducting for taxes?
Conde Nast — do they tell you if you DON’T get the job?
What are some good beginner markets for food writing? Any good books, advice, places to start for a wannabe food writer?
For those of you in-between jobs or looking for full-time employment, how do you effectively manage your time?

Create a social media strategy, launch your campaign, and track the results in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. The online event and workshop will feature speakers including The Onion's Baratunde Thurston (left), Facebook's Morin Oluwole, and bitly's Tim Devane. Register now.

Does it feel like your method of writing just doesn’t work? You know you want to, you can write but you’re just not hitting your groove? Maybe you need to try thinking more like a bricklayer, or a painter, or an architect.

Nobody’s going to deny that a good story needs well-fleshed-out characters. This Inspiration for Writers site features an extensive character trait chart. While I think that it can be useful and probably even a good warming-up exercise, I’m curious to know if many of you out there have used these for writing, and if it has helped you to go so far as to detail your character’s eye color, brand of car, and smell. And, after you’ve taken the time to detail that, do you feel obligated to mention that Blued-Eyed Mary drives a Kia and smells like vanilla?

It’s never a bad time to revamp your resume. In fact, it’s probably best to do so when you don’t NEED to, because when you realize you only have three days to apply for the perfect job, your brain tends to freeze when you’re trying to revise it in a hurry. Career consultant Patricia Soldati has a few tips for you on how to make yours shine.

From Absolute Write:

As a college student, I came to appreciate the simplicity of writing term papers of a scientific nature due to the fact that there seemed to be a journal for every type of scientific discipline. Coupled with the ease of Internet search engines, and voilá– it was possible to have a whole library at one’s fingertips. After surviving graduate school and the dreaded thesis defense, I became interested in writing for science journals and publications for fun. I learned all too quickly that a rejection letter is nothing personal and could actually be quite helpful if viewed in the proper manner. I also can attest to the observation that editors can be our friends and teachers if you let them. The following are some tips and advice on how to write with success in the field of science.

Today I chat with Sheelah Kolhatkar, freelancer and staff writer at the New York Observer, where she covers publishing, media and culture. Prior to that, she worked on Wall Street.
What was the career path that took you to your current position at the Observer?

It was one of the least straightforward paths imaginable. I worked on Wall Street for five years, as an analyst at two hedge funds. It was a fascinating world to learn about and I had a wonderful mentor there, but I was miserable. I desperately wanted to do something else and I thought it might be writing and I didn’t know how to go about doing it. I spent a year traveling around Asia and working on a few little freelance assignments that I’d obtained through persistence and blind luck-some book reviews and a chapter of a travel guidebook about Mexico. During that time I also took a writing class, which helped me tremendously. After I came back I started working at the New York Observer as a part-time intern/factchecker, which eventually turned into an actual job.
You cover a lot of interesting topics for the Observer. How many of your stories are assigned and how many do you pitch?
This is a rough estimate, but I’d say that about a third of them are ideas that I come up with, a third are dictated by news and things that happen and therefore are obvious stories for me to work on and another third are the result of brainstorming sessions with my fabulous editor.
You follow a lot of what roles women in the arts take on. In terms of literature, you’ve covered chick-lit, sex columns and women’s anthologies. Do you see any new trends for women writers on the horizon?
I wish I could say that women writing lots of important foreign policy stories in the major current affairs magazines was looming on the horizon, but in fact the opposite appears to be happening. Mostly it seems as if women writers are encouraged to write in the first person or about whatever a particular editor’s perception of “women’s issues” is. So I guess if you asked me what new trends I’d like to see for women writers in the near future, it would be the reversal of this one.
What are you working on lately? I hear a story about filthy-rich New Yorkers?
What I’m working on can change from week to week. I would like to do more pieces about money and class, and on the way that politics is affecting culture and the media.
You do a good job of bringing the people you write about to life in your stories. Do you have any advice for breathing life into the ‘characters’ in a nonfiction piece?
I think that it’s important to convey the voice and personality of whoever you’re writing about as best you can, and in a lot of cases that just means getting out of the way and letting the person talk. I tend to put less of myself in a piece and much more of them, whoever they are. It helps to spend as much time with the people you’re writing about as possible and to pay attention to little details. Their body language can say a lot. And watching subjects interacting with other people or just moving through the world can be revealing.

“It’s 2005, and it’s a whole new world in the job market. What 21st-century job search techniques and skills are successful job hunters using to track down their dream assignments?” Find out at the Job Jungle.
Via Lifehacker, how to literally add more hours to your day.
Feeling the flab of working from home? How to expand your in-home workout routine, at Ask MetaFilter.
How to write a masterpiece of a resume.
Have you always harbored a secret (or not so secret) yearning to write? This course is designed to help you learn many of the skills you need to write successful science fiction and fantasy stories.

Would-be contributors should keep in mind what distinguishes WH from the competition. “We focus on what women are capable of in the here-and-now,” says senior editor Leah Flickinger. “Because this approach is so positive, women can start out feeling good about themselves.” Plus, what to pitch, pay rates, and more.

Today is the 37th in a series of posts by San-Diego-based writer Thomas Shess, who has decided to keep a journal on his journey to find a publisher for his novel.
The Big Picture-When I began this journey to chronicle my search to find (in no particular order) a publisher for my recently completed first novel or for a literary agent to represent said work, I heard many say being good magazine writer doesn’t mean you’ll be a good novelist. For a while, I agreed. Not any more. I’ve decided my main crusade is to network with other writers as much as possible. I’ve learned to open my eyes and ears and to accept I know very little compared with what I don’t know. So far, this introspection has run 37 weeks in Mediabistro.com. Along the way, I’ve become a better magazine writer and I have new appreciation for my chosen career in periodicals. I’m damn lucky to have made my living for “a long time” by writing. The exciting part is class isn’t over.
Two Mistresses–My love for fiction is also stronger. I’ve gained new respect for both. There are no guarantees, but the one quick exit to oblivion is to stop creating compelling stories to readers. Fiction or non-fiction good writers need to keep stories simple. Have a beginning middle and an end. Invest in complete research. Create interesting leads. Be truthful and don’t whine.
Men Don’t Read Books-As part of my promise to beef up my networking with other writers, I joined a literary club. A recent speaker, Pat Williams, author, VP with the NBA Orlando Magic and a motivational speaker spoke at San Diego’s City Club. Williams, an author of several best sellers, told a packed house that 85% of books sold in America are purchased by women. What does that tell us? What’s that say about the future of publishing, especially if young men follow male leaders?
Men Read Magazines-I found some comfort in statistics. Men do read, but not as many books as magazines. A check of data provided by a regional publishing group, a confederacy of magazine publishers, reveals that male/female ratio is about 50-50 when it comes to buying magazines. That still puts male readership in a sad state of affairs. Yes, I want to be a novelist, but I’m sure as heck not going to give up my day job.

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June Casagrande, author of Grammar Snobs are Great Big Meanies, writes the humorous A Word, Please language column and has worked as a reporter, editor, copy editor and proofreader. On Thursday, May 4, she’ll be teaching our course, “Practical Grammar and Style Tips,” at our home offices in New York. All this, despite her dearth of education.
Here‘s an excerpt from her book:
How to drop out of high school in the ninth grade and still make big bucks telling others how to use good grammar:
Step 1: Drop out of high school.
Step 2: Party for four or five years.
Step 3: Enroll in college. (Note: This only works at Florida public universities and possibly Yale if your dad went there.)