Summary:
This article describes several different ways that freelance writers can work more actively. It includes some tongue in cheek parallels with physical exercise and activity.

Details or Sample:
So say all the health gurus in the media. Of course, their advice is all about taking more physical exercise. But what about being more active in your writing life? Could you bump up your activity in any of the tasks connected with getting published on-line, getting into print, or entering competitions?

Daily exercise

The most important thing is to generate new work all the time. How many new words do you write every day? Fitting it in with other work, your family and your social life, can be difficult. If you don’t have all these distractions, you may find it just as tricky unless you have the discipline to stick to a set routine.

You might set yourself a rule to write for at least two hours and to turn out a minimum of 1000 words before midnight on every work day. After a few weeks, review your targets and make sure you are comfortable with them. They should be realistic as well as challenging. Failing to meet high targets is depressing, while setting a lower target, and sometimes exceeding it, puts you on a high.

So much has already been written about this that I’ll just remind you that we all have times when we work better, perhaps a regular time of day or night, or maybe it’s whenever you finish all those other distracting chores. It’s sensible to recognize what works best for you and make sure you are active in that time.

Crunch those ideas

Of course, being a writer means being active in lots of other ways. First you have to know what you are going to write about. Writing courses and publications offer different ways to get inspired, as do various e-zines and websites, like, for example, ideasforwriters.co.uk. Wherever they come from, you must get your ideas out of your head and onto a page, or into your computer, before they get lost in the crowd.

Flex the research

Next you need to know your target audience. Then you have to make sure you know your subject matter and can get all the little details right. ... (more)

Keep up the editing

The writing part is over; you are happy that your message or storyline has been warmed up and you’ve given it some time to stretch: the next big activity is to walk the course of your words and edit them. You have to correct any errors that have crept in, remove superfluous adjectives and adverbs, tighten the text and really show the reader what you mean.

One of the aspects you should always look for is how much you have used the passive voice, and whether you could, and should, turn it around and make it active. At the time of writing you may have been so keen to get the words out of your head and into your computer, or onto the page, that such things haven’t occurred to you. ...(more)

Getting into the fresh air

The next area is one where most people could be more active, and it’s worth considering whether it also applies to you. You really need to set and meet targets for the number of submissions and queries you send out each week or month. ...(more)

The record keeping

When your precious words are out there, you still need to be active in keeping tabs on them. You need a system to check that you receive your payments – and your voucher copies – at the time they are due. If you have work showcased for sale on a content site, you need to keep track of the licenses offered to make sure you don’t fall foul of copyright law or ethics.

...(more)

Purchase this content for your website...

Pricing:
Usage:	$15	[Add to Cart]
Unique:	$30	[Add to Cart]
Full Rights:	$40	[Add to Cart]

Downloads: 0
Written by: jak
Available File Types:Text
Words: 880