Dana Sitar's Blog, page 15

The Secret Order of Chaos

Submitted to the DIY Writers Carnival

There hasn’t been a single year of my adult life that didn’t contain a heaping slice of turmoil pie. In a ten-year span, my parents died, and I weathered the aftermath of severe tornadoes, bad breakups, homelessness, depression, and single motherhood.

In the midst of my difficulties, I always carved out time to write; it was my therapy.Even as I drifted through various jobs, I daydreamed about seeing my name in magazines and on book covers. I wrote short st...

6 Blog Post Ideas to Keep Your Blog Fresh

Whether your blog’s gotten a little predictable lately or you’re facing the dreaded “What the $*%& am I gonna write about now?” dilemma, sometimes you need to step back from the same old, same old and mix things up a bit.

Variety is the spice of life, and it doesn’t hurt your blog, either. Your readers’ attention is seriously divided. As much as we’d all like to imagine, ours isn’t the only blog they’re reading. (If I burst any bubbles with that revelation, I apologize, but it needed to be don...

On Crawling Out of the Self-Sabotage Hole

Submitted to the DIY Writers Carnival.

Journalism is dying, they said. The freelancing market is over-crowded with quality reporters who lost their jobs to purges in the mainstream media, they said. It’s never been harder to make a living freelancing, they said.

“They” spouted nonstop negativity – and I ended up believing it.

Before I really branched out as a freelancer, I tried to shrug it off, tried not to take other people’s theories on board. I’d been a salaried journalist for eight years an...

Make Your Own Luck in Career and Life: An Interview with Alexis Grant

“I have created a career where I have autonomy over my work.”

I was so excited to have the opportunity to interview entrepreneurial writer Alexis Grant, whose work I’ve been following since before I started blogging. This quote from Alexis encompasses what is so inspiring about the work she does. In the interview, she opens up about her ongoing journey to publish her travel memoir, and shares her excitement and anxiety about launching a new website from scratch.

In this series, we’re talking to...

Can You Apply Your Day Job Structure to Rock Your Writing Routine?

Tout the freedom of self-employment all you want; it’s tough to keep yourself on track when no one is looking over your shoulder. And it’s even tougher when you’re working on your passion project in your off hours and don’t have incentives like payment or client expectations to guide you.

You may not enjoy your day job — or, you may even be excited to say you’ve left it behind — but you can’t deny that when push comes to shove, most writers and entrepreneurs will consider their day job a prior...

On Writing This Week: 21 Things You Need to Know About Self-Publishing + More

As I set of for a full day at my new day job, here are some great reads for those of you enjoying a work-from-home day :)

WDS image by Chris Guillebeau (Creative Commons)

21 Things You Need to Know About Self-Publishing 2.0

At Copyblogger, authorJames Altuchershares this list of what you need to successfully self-publish in the changing landscape. (via@jaltucher)

When Absolutely Freakin’ Amazing Becomes Normal

Alexis Grant returned from World Domination Summit this week and explains the awesome le...

I AM a Writer

I was a reader long before I was a writer. Reading allowed me to run with Misty on Chincoteague, fly on Orville the albatross with Bernard and Bianca, solve mysteries with Frank and Joe Hardy and their friend Chet. Reading opened up the world.

I don’t know when I began writing. I know I saw it as a way to stay in the wonderful world of fantasy – not because my childhood was bad, but because I was an awkward, shy introvert who did not fit into the world of extroverts in which I lived.

I can’t ev...

3 Questions to Ask Before You Take the Leap into Freelancing Full-time

You’ve been doing pretty well with your freelance writing side hustle. So well in fact that you think you’re ready to break away from your 9-to-5 job and do the independent thing full-time.

Are you sure you’re actually ready and not just overly excited?

There’s a lot to consider when thinking about taking the leap to full-time independence. Many business owners quickly get in over their heads because they haven’t considered all these factors.

Before you tell your boss where he can stick your job...

On Writing this Week: The Psychology of Language + more

Happy holiday weekend, U.S.! For everyone who made the trek to Portland for WDS this year, have fun, and report back — I want to hear about all the cool stuff I’m missing :) Here’s some interesting stuff from around the internet recently:

The psychology of language: Which words matter the most when we talk

Leo Widrich at Buffer blog explains how our brain interprets different words and phrases — and how we can apply that information as writers to use more persuasive words in our copy.

Content Ma...

How to Grow As a Writer After a Failure

by Willi Morris (@WillieshaMorris)

Submitted to the DIY Writers Carnival.

The worst thing to happen to my writing career wasn’t creating something that failed.

It was what I failed to create.

The biggest failure of my writing career was when I stopped writing.

We gloss over clichés like “use it or lose it” when it comes to our writing habits, until they are lost.

Perhaps I was too egotistical about my writing ability. This was a God-given talent. Something I was born with.

My writing gift could neve...