Dana Sitar's Blog, page 14

On Writing This Week: 8 Great Reasons to Start Blogging + more

Here’s what we loved on the internet this week:

What Self-Employment is Really Like

by Carrie at Careful Cents (@carefulcents)

As the saying goes, “you hope for the best and prepare for the worst”. That’s what I was conditioning myself to do.

However, that kind of mindset it primed for failure. What I should be doing is recognizing how far I’ve come, while being thankful and appreciative for everything I’ve accomplished.

I’ve consistently increased my income since I quit my job, and I’ve lived in...

Opportunity Surfing

by Ken Ford-Powell (@KenFordPowell)

You’ve got your writing plan sorted, right? Some version of a short, medium, and long-term plan. Short-term might be to get three chapters of your book written this month, or send off ten queries to editors this week. The medium plan might be to send your book proposal out to fifty publishers in the next six months. The long-term might be to double your writing earnings twelve months from now.

Sound right?

Good – but don’t forget to do some surfing on the way....

Uncovering Your Buried Truth

I’m a writer. But I was only halfa writer until recently. I became a full writer when I embraced my story fully and uncovered my buried truth.

When I was six, my mom died. She was an incredibly active participant in humanity because she was a writer, too. She was an observer of life, depicting her surroundings with such precision. I cannot tell my truth without telling hers; because our stories are intertwined.

My mom was my inspiration. She was the muse for which I started to let my writing fl...

On Writing This Week: The #1 Thing Standing Between You and Your Goals + more

Happy Friday! Here are a few pieces to help you ponder living a good life over the weekend:

9 Things Everyone Needs to Know About Success, Reality & Being Human

by Ash at The Middle Finger Project

Sure. Filters make us look good. (Instagram, anyone?) Filters make you sound good. (Nice Facebook post you re-wrote 14 times.) Filters make usseemgood. (You didn’t dare mention what youreallythought when you were kissing ass at that conference, did you?)

But filters are ruining us.

Because they’re filter...

The Fine Line between Persistence and Self-Inflicted Torture

by Megan Atkinson (@UndoubtedlyMegz)

I’m a writer. I dance and play and paint with words for a living. I boogie down with the English language on the regular. I read books about superlatives and rhetorical operations as they relate to figures of speech. I eat, sleep, and breathe words. Words are my best friends.

Writing a simple blog post promoting a fundraising project I’m coordinating shouldn’t be so hard, right? You’d think not, but when I was invited to contribute to WritersBucketList, I co...

Polish Your Online Presence to Turn Contacts into Clients

Your freelance writing business can’t truly grow without a steady stream of leads for potential clients. Today’s lead is tomorrow’s client is the next day’s referral to a new lead. The trick is to actually find these interested people out in the world.

The Most Common Mistake

Be forewarned: Contact info doesn’t count as a lead. When you get someone’s email address or other information, all you have is a contact not a potential client– it’s now your job to turn that contact into someone interest...

On Writing This Week: How to Actually Enjoy a Vacation + More

Here are a few things we loved on the internet this week:

The Silent Treatment

by Shanna Trenholm

A recent social mediasurveyconducted by mylife.com finds that we’re overwhelmed. To this, I reply, “duh” in a most scientific manner. Their findings show that 52% of people considered taking a social media vacation, but 56% are afflicted with the dreaded FOMO.

So, as of Friday, August 2, 2013 (at 10 a.m. Pacific), to squash my own FOMO, and to restore some of my time and life energy, I will be steppi...

Double Trouble

by C. Hope Clark (@hopeclark)

Freelancing is very enjoyable for me. I became quite good at keeping as many as twenty pitches outstanding in the earlier years of my career, before the novels took over my life. I knew my niches and expertise, and with my trusty Writer’s Market under my arm, I could sling queries with the best of them. I understood the basic rules of submitting articles, when to send simultaneous submissions and when to pitch which magazine and how.

But in my zeal in 2004, I pitch...

5 Must-Have FREE Publicity Resources for Writers

Photo by Mary Ann Clarke Scott (Creative Commons)

It’s easy to get overwhelmed by all the things you need to do as a writer, but as we’ve discussed before, building your author platform takes time and publicity is just another small step in ensuring the success of your work.

Luckily, there are lots of free resources online to promote your work. Here are my top five must-have tools:

1. Google Alerts

Want to monitor who is talking about you and your work online? Sign up for Google Alerts, an emaile...

On Writing this Week: Are You Doing a Favor or Being Taken Advantage of? + More

Here are a few things we loved on the internet this week:

Being Super Busy Isn’t a Virtue

by Kelly Gurnett at Grad Meets World

Somewhere along the evolution of our culture, it was decided that being uber busy means you’re doing things right.I don’t mean busy with all the right things (a thriving career, a family you love, an active social life); I mean busy with so many random, frantic to-dos your eyes are set to pop out and if one thing goes wrong, so help you, you’ll implode.

That kind of busy....