The Writing Life

Words on a page, waiting, not ready. But they could be with a little work. Self-editing will help you get there.

In the early days it was early, but as the pandemic has worn on, more and more writers are facing writer's block. Here's how I changed it for myself.

Sometimes the hardest part of writing is putting the first word on the page. But fall-inspired writing prompts like these can help.

If you want to be a writer, this advice will help. It comes from a 20 year veteran of the writing industry.

Hold it up to the light — the experience, I mean. Turn it around, mentally, and see it from all the angles. Take it in, process it, learn its nuances and curves. Then pour it all onto the blank page. That’s what creative nonfiction writers do in essays. They examine…

Have you ever found yourself in a writing rut? That can feel like the words just won’t come. Perhaps there’s no more to write? Here’s how to break out of it. Foggy. Uncertain. Indecisive. Ever feel like that? As a writer, these feelings can be detrimental to productivity and happiness…

Freelance writing is a rewarding career where you get to see your byline in many different publications. You also get to hand-pick your assignments and turn down those that don’t work for you. But being a freelance writer isn’t easy. Not by a longshot. The good times are a sea…

As 2019 dawned, my food blog was at its lowest point in a decade. Google updates hit me hard in 2018 — and my traffic wasn’t recovering. I had, however, managed to stop the sharp decline of traffic though. And I was working on improving SEO on old posts and…

Successful freelancing is part networking, part drive and part boundless effort — especially when it comes to pitching (or querying) for new assignments. Even when business is booming and assignments are coming to you, you need to keep pitching (or, at a minimum, generating and writing down ideas for pitches).…

Years ago, when I first ventured into freelance writing, I thought my experience as a newspaper reporter would mean that the assignments would just come to me. I put the word out that I was looking for freelance work, pitched a few ideas and … nothing. I struggled through the…