Articles written by Mysti Guymon-Reutlinger

Financial stress can be a motivator; or detrimental to a freelance writer…

Recently, my husband and I refinanced our family car.  We were quite shocked at the difference in interest percents and the payments when all was said and done.  I realized that the stress of a three-hundred dollar payment was huge in how I approached my writing.

In the back of my mind, I thought about all of our bills every time I applied for a gig or wrote an article.  I quickly realized as I looked at our new loan terms that, finally, I had more freedom to truly follow my writing dreams and desires.  I no longer had to be held hostage by the end figure of a project.

If financial stress is bogging you down, consider these options:

• Refinance.

  Know the financial market and look at options that will reduce your overall cost without increasing the length of your term.  Consider non-profit banking options such as Federal Credit Unions.  Credit Unions are tax exempt and can offer you a much lower interest rate than the standard bank.

• Know your debt.

  Create a detailed list of your debts.  By knowing exactly where you stand financially, you will put yourself into a better position to make wise financial choices and eliminate stress.

• Budgeting.

  Look at your complete budget.  Find where you have steady income, moderately stable income and sporadic income.  Focus on replacing the sporadic income with writing jobs that provide much more reliable income opportunities.  (Hot Tip: Don’t forget to ask your editor if they have any additional work you could do!)

• Start small.

  As you examine your debts, find the smallest amounts and pay them off first.  Paying a $25 medical bill and wiping it off your list will reduce your stress.  The smallest bills are the easiest to eliminate and generally won’t put you into a financial bind.

• Build savings.

  If you have $500 – $1000 in savings, the stress of a family emergency, vehicle trouble or unexpected bill won’t increase your stress levels.  There’s a great sense of security when you have a bit of financial padding.

• Bartering.

  Should you find yourself in need of new brakes or an emergency dental procedure, consider bartering or exchanging your services.  Many companies will accept the offer for free advertising in lieu of the work they perform.

Take measures to reduce your debt and financial responsibility.  As you begin seeing debts fall off your list, you will feel a greater creative flow.  Following your writing dreams becomes a bit simpler and the writing process becomes much easier.  You will have freedom to weed through writing opportunities more thoroughly, selecting those that best fit your writing goals and personal desires.  Most of all, you can enjoy new-found reasons to express yourself through words!

Every person has a style of writing that is completely unique.  The education received and language heard while growing up plays an important roll in the structure of sentences and construction of paragraphs.  Knowing your personal style will offer an edge in marketing yourself to the right publications.

Humor

Are you able to turn a serious subject into an easy reading and roll on the floor laughing piece?  Do you find politics the root of all jokes?  If you can answer yes to either of those questions, anthologies or politically geared websites and magazines makes a great starting point!

Sales

Have you noticed a trend in your writing that leaves the reader wanting to know more about the subject?  Are you able to entice a person with a small number of words?  It’s high time to be looking into product descriptions and copy writing!  There are numerous companies in need of your skills.

Descriptions

Do you describe scenery so vivid the mind can see?  Are you quick with flowing analogies and find writing lengthy stories a piece of cake?  Fiction magazines and short story compilations are one way to go.  Shortening your word count considerably while providing an amazing story could be an option too!  Flash fiction is fun and pays decently, too!

Emotional

Are the words you share connected with powerful emotions?  Are you able to describe physical reactions to difficult situations by showing your readers?  (Tom faced the firing squad.  As the blindfold was placed over his eyes, he wiped his hands along side his ragged pants.  Showing nervousness by the sweating palms.)  Looking into life-story websites and columns for a steady income is wise.

Analytical

Do you understand pie charts, graphs, figures and instructions?  Are you up to date in medical or scientific terminology?  Are you able to work through a project step by step and accurately explain how to make it work?  Writing instruction manuals doesn’t typically offer a by line, but the pay as a technical writer is nice.

Conversational

When writing, do you feel as though you are carrying on a conversation with your intended audience?  Are your paragraphs short and concise?  The art of web logging or blogging is right up your alley.  The ability to carry forward with conversational pieces draws in a reader and keeps them hooked.  Some of the popular bloggers maintain this same style of writing.

Know Your Style!

Knowing your style and understanding the types of publications geared towards brand you will help eliminate the guess work of which direction to take.  Eliminating certain genres will help narrow the type of writing gigs to search.  You are left with a solid beginning for your writing career and brand.

Is your writing style a combination of these?  If so, you will probably be one of the many who is able to bridge the gap between different markets and truly persevere with your writing goals!  Now to ask, what is your favorite style of writing to read?

Can you think of other writing styles? In what other markets could each of these styles excel? Which writing style dominates your own writing?

From novice to experienced, writers all need certain items to market themselves more efficiently.  It is a digital age, but there is much more than email and websites to sell yourself and your abilities.  The following items cover some basics when you are out around town.

• Dedicated Phone Line
  • A continuous means to be reached by editors is important.  For new clients as well.  Emails are quick and impersonal.  A phone conversation to clarify one or two facts can mean the difference between an acceptance and a rejection.  When working with new clients, clarifying a bid or story idea makes the difference in continued work or sending out more query letters.
• Business Cards
  • I’ve heard (and read) about writers who feel there is no use in business cards.  I disagree.  The ability to professionally pass on your contact information leaves a better impression than someone who scribbles down a phone number on a piece of paper.  If you feel you won’t use many cards, simply having your name, phone number, website address and position will suffice.  They will also last many years!
• Portfolio
  • As I stated before, it is a digital world, but a physical portfolio can be carried in a small bag or in the car.  It’s quickly accessible and a great reference for anyone interested in your writing.  Going out to lunch with friends or family is a great opportunity to discuss your writing projects.  People in restaurants naturally eavesdrop and their interest is piqued.  Having a quality portfolio to show can lead to more writing gigs.
• References
  • Letters of recommendation are an amazing asset to include with a portfolio both online and off.  Placing them after an article sells you with very little effort.  All you need to do is ask.  Most editors will gladly pass on a letter for your portfolio.

If you are just starting out and question your ability to build a portfolio, take the opportunity to invest in non-paying gigs.  You can build a rapport in the writing market this way.  Pitch a blogger!  If you find that there is a blog that your idea will contribute, send off an email with word count, story idea and ask for a recommendation once the piece is published with credit given.  Include the article and letter in your portfolio.  Keep in mind that most blogs maintain a 300-700 word post count.  If your piece would be much longer, trim it down or break it into multiple posts for a series.

Working through the nervousness of asking is the first step.  You can do it and if you know you can write, you can accomplish anything!

Editor’s Note: If you’re looking for publishing credits consider contributing to Writer’s Round-About. While many of our writers are established professionals we welcome seeing writing through fresh eyes and would love to experience your perspective. Find out more.

Putting the focus back into writing has been fun to write thus far.  If you are just tuning in to this series, be sure to check out Finding Time, Obliterating Distractions, Creating Ideas, and Understanding your Responsibilities.

Today, let’s look at streamlining organization to round out this series.

As a writer and business owner, it is important to maintain accurate records that will assist you during your tax time and beyond.  Through the years, I’ve discovered a few items that are vital to my ability to maintain organization.

• Filing cabinet and folders
• Printer
• Check register
• Dry-erase boards
• 3″ notebook

Keeping information together and readily available will help in many ways outside of tax season.  There are many times throughout your life when financial information becomes necessary including purchasing a car or house.  Knowing that your records are up to date and accurate will speed the loan process along.

As you set up your filing cabinet, you will discover what works best for your business needs.  The standard sections I’ve found include:

• Accounting
  • Finances Incoming
  • Finances Outgoing
  • Invoices
  • Receipts
• Articles
  • Printed copies
  • Contracts
  • Source information
  • Copies of interviews

I’ve also incorporated a business check payment and deposit register with my filing system.  I maintain two registers, one for finances incoming and one for finances outgoing.  Keeping that information separate has not only allowed me to find where my greatest expenses are, but where I make the greatest income.  My tax preparer loves having all of the information already divided, too. The less time she spends preparing my taxes, the less I pay in the end.

A quality printer comes in handy when printing articles.  Every article I sell is printed in duplicate.  One copy goes into a file folder and the second goes into my portfolio.  In this digital age, I’ve still needed to carry a physical portfolio for on-site interviews.  I utilize a 3″ binder, decorated to match my personality, with sheet protectors for each article and include when and where the piece was published.  I maintain the rule to only keep current pieces, those written and published within the last two years, available.  Just as we grow as individuals with each passing year, our writing also improves.  Showcasing the best of the best only seems logical.

The most important item I utilize for my organization are dry-erase boards.  I maintain a calendar of the month as well as two larger boards.  On the calendar, I keep track of all appointments my family has scheduled and include interviews I have.  Combining the two ensures that I won’t 1. overbook my time and 2. don’t forget key events.  I reference my dry-erase calendar multiple times a day when scheduling.

On my larger dry-erase boards, I keep one for deadlines.  Listed by date is the projected title, word count, and editor’s information.  One the second board, I use it to maintain blog ideas for the various blogs I write.  While the two intersect at some points, forgetting a great idea becomes a null point when using the two boards in conjunction.

Looking outside the box for organization offers incredible ways to maximize space and save time.  Once you have an organization system streamlined, cutting the time you spend maintaining your records occurs naturally and offers more time to FOCUS on writing.

What systems have you found to streamline your organization?

To refresh, we’ve discussed Finding Time, Obliterating Distractions and Creating Ideas thus far in F-O-C-U-S on Writing.  In this segment, we discuss understanding your responsibilities as a writer.

While we would all love to just sit down and write what we love and be paid, there is more that goes into running a business as a writer.  All the muck boils down to responsibility. As with any business, there are key factors in determining one’s success.  For writers, verifying facts, marketing, continuing eduction and continued follow-up are not only necessary, they’re vital!

I sent off a 2000 word article to a regional parenting magazine, utilizing quotes from a therapist throughout.  Once I completed the article, I emailed it to the therapist I quoted for her to double check the information she provided, assuring that the statements were not only correct, but maintained proper context in the piece.  Through conversations with the editor, she needed necessary information to ensure that the information was factual.  Without hesitating, I was able to offer up the therapists name, email address and a copy of our conversation that was held via yahoo messenger.  That information and the editor’s ability to double check the information quoted made the difference between a paycheck and the article being cast aside.

For all writers who utilize quotes in pieces they create, maintaining accurate and updated information on facts and their sources is necessary.  If you resell a piece to a different magazine, the editor might take you at your word, but there will always be the ones who need to verify information prior to running the piece.  With every article that has sources cited, either through research or interview, keep a separate folder with email address, phone number, physical address as well as copies of electronic communication.  Down the road, there won’t be any problems offering that same information to another editor should you resell.

In the age of web 2.0, marketing is around everywhere you surf.  Marketing yourself as a guest or collaborative blogger, partaking in various social networking sites such as facebook, twitter, plurk and maintaining an interactive website of your own are all elements of web 2.0.  For every writer, establishing yourself and offering not only links to work you’ve done, but sharing information about who you are is a fabulous way to receive recognition.  The question many ask when considering personal information on the Internet is, “How much is too much?”  Every person has their own views and that is up to your digression.

Continuing your education as a writer doesn’t necessarily mean spending many hours at the local college taking courses.  If you have the time to take a refresher course on grammar, go for it.  Outside of collegiate courses, reading books, going to seminars and researching various aspects associated with writing all add to your ability to write more effectively.  Writing effectively and efficiently is one responsibility no writer should veer from.

Continued follow-up with agents, publishers, editors and fellow writers is another responsibility we mustn’t forget.  As we all know, life can become crazy.  It’s no different for people who hold high positions in the writing field.  If you’ve mailed off a manuscript to an agent per their request or an article to an editor and haven’t heard from them in a while, it’s a good idea to sent a card, letter or make a phone call to touch base.  Knowing where key people stand in correlation to your work will help you to receive a continued stream of income.

What other responsibilities do you find in your day to day work as a writer?

Coming up is the final installment of F-O-C-U-S on Writing, Streamline Organization.

To recap Focus on Writing thus far, we have discussed Finding Time and Obliterating Distractions.  In segment three, we will examine influences and inspirational tools to create ideas, to write.

For every writer, creating ideas can often lead to brainstorming blockages.  When creativity stops flowing, writing becomes one of the most challenging aspects of a freelancer’s job.  By adjusting how we look at the world and utilizing tools available, generating ideas becomes a natural part of the daily process.  Simulating the senses is key.

As a writer, I reach for very specific tools to increase creativity: books, movies, music, nature and people.

Books offer an entirely new world from cover to cover.  When I read fictional books, I’m carried away into a different land – forced to experience new emotions and visuals – all in my mind.  I have picked up many books in my life that were less than desirable reads, but quickly learned to continue reading the story instead of closing the cover and reaching for another.  By looking at the book as a learning tool, I’m able to see the author’s means of constructing sentences, images and emotions.  Often times I will come across a word that I don’t know and stop long enough to discover the meaning.

Movies are similar to books in whisking you away to another time and place.  Watching actors and actresses convey emotion in their faces offers a new description for the characters in a story you write.  Taking time to delve completely into any character of your choosing will ignite emotions in yourself that may not have been felt for many years.  Utilizing those emotions to rekindle memories brings a new dimension for ideas.

Music can speak to the soul.  Riffs and melodies carefully construed will send a surge through your body from head to toe.  Carried in that surge are ideas pertaining to the overall feeling a song has offered.  Blasting the radio to 50’s and 60’s music elicits memories of road trips from my childhood.  Descriptive scenes and ideas come flooding with the memories.  Each word that pops into my mind is written down for reference later.

Nature is an amazing source of inspirational ideas.  Walking along a stream, ocean or in the mountains provides a completely new dimension and experience for your mind.  Breaking away from the monotony of life is a means to break any blockages or lack of inspiration you might feel.  With any trip outside your home, carrying a pen and paper or digital recorder is necessary to jot ideas as they come.

People watching is an incredible art.  Sitting in a crowded coffee shop with conversations all around can’t be beat.  As people interact and their conversations pass through your ears, certain words or phrases can catch you off guard and offer one more opportunity to create.  The young couple in the back discuss their pending trip to Europe, a truck driver a few chairs away talks about the loneliness of the road and the waitress behind the counter shares with coworkers that she’s moving across country to marry her Internet romance…

By observing the world with your senses, you will find that creating ideas comes with ease.  Recognizing and writing everything down becomes the challenge.  Fiction and non-fiction both stem from the world around us.  How are you going to see the world around you?

Where do you find or create ideas for your writing?

In part one of Focus on Writing, we discussed finding time and the importance of scheduling.  In part two of Focus on Writing, we gander at ways to obliterate distractions.

Just as some people are able to sleep through a tornado; others have no qualms with working through noise.  For the rest of us, peace and quiet can mean the difference between completing an assignment or not.

As you take a week to note various issues in your time management, make note of distractions that stop you from finishing the masterpiece you’ve devoted time towards. As obliterating distractions carries on, we will look at some of the common distractions easily found inside the home.

• Phone
• Internet
• Family and Friends
• External Noise
• and Children

Alexander Graham Bell was a wise man when the telephone became a reality.  As a means of communication across the world – and with editors – the telephone is a necessity for your freelance writing business.  The phone becomes an issue, however, when it is used as a procrastination tool.  A short conversation can turn into hours, especially if you have family like mine!

The rules I have for the phone during my “working” hours are:

1. Answer every call that I don’t recognize.
2. Unless the call is from an editor, potential client or an emergency I explain that I am working and ask if there is a good time I can call back.
3. When the call coming through is from family or friends, they have the understanding to call back a second time if it is an emergency, otherwise leave a message and I’ll call back once I’m finished with my tasks at hand.

When the Internet becomes your enemy (you’ve found every application game on Facebook and must respond to every Plurk or Tweet and can’t seem to break the addiction) using those networks as a reward changes the dynamic into a positive reinforcement. It takes time to adjust the Internet from a negative influence in your life into a positive one. Stick with it and if necessary, take the opportunity to disconnect, literally, from the modem. Once you’ve completed one part or one article, connecting yourself back to the ‘net to play becomes exciting and acceptable.

I love my family and friends.  They are important in my life as a support network.  In the early days of working from home, my doorbell would ring and I jumped to see who it was.  Many hours of my day were lost with coffee and conversation.  Don’t get me wrong, there were definitely times when I needed those days, but generally, I would end up working until the wee hours of the morning to play catch-up.  I learned that this was one of the most difficult distractions to overcome. I broke down and talked to my friends and family. I asked that they call before visiting and as I explained why, they most often obliged.

Should you not be fortunate enough to sound proof your home from external noise, combat the distracting noises with a purposeful noise. Playing a radio or CD can help keep you focus on the writing task at hand. If you can’t tolerate rock or country music, a music selection in those genres will prove counter productive, however, if you find classical music invigorating and inspirational, increasing your selection of Bach, Tchaikovsky or Mozart is wise.

Children are blessing like no other, however quite the distraction on a good day, let alone one filled with more challenges.  I learned during the time I spent as a single Mom that I had to rely on my network for help.  Arranging for a friend or family member to take my son out to lunch saved my sanity.  While I didn’t expect to receive such a warm welcome, working from home and all, I was quite pleased with the end result.  Sometimes people who cause the greatest distractions in our world can become the biggest asset, especially where parenting is concerned.

Now that we’ve found the time we need and have removed those pesky distractions, it’s time to Create Ideas – and write.  Stay tuned for part three of Focus on Writing.

Working from home carries unique challenges.  Having worked outside my home for many years, I looked at my time spent in my space as enjoyable, carefree and relaxed.  As I transitioned into working at home, I struggled with focus.  As I progressed through various ups and downs in life, I discovered just how important focus was for my family, my writing career and me.

Knowing the challenges faced in a freelance market, I welcome you to the first of a five-part series to help you put the F.O.C.U.S back into your writing.

1. Finding Time
2. Obliterate Distractions
3. Create Ideas
4. Understanding Your Responsibilities
5. Streamline Organization

Finding Time

I remember the first time I ran my own business at home.  I thought to myself, “I’ve got the good life.  I can sleep in, work until I’m tired, maintain my home and even schedule all the lunch dates I could imagine with my friends.”  I felt that way until I realized I didn’t even have time to shower, let alone have the pleasurable company of my friends.  The problem wasn’t the number of hours in the day, but the time I spent wasting.

Scheduling:

Take a week out of your month and track all the time you spend doing each activity your life requires.  At the end of the week, look for patterns of idle time, impromptu excursions that steal hours of the day and activities that can be combined, allowing for multitasking.

For me, I noted that my freshest time of the day was often spent playing games, checking forums, emails, and socializing.  I also found that I would attempt to write late at night after everyone had gone to bed, but was too exhausted to think clearly or write effectively.  I discovered many more issues in my ineffective time management that I was able to change.

When I finished evaluating the time I wasted, I found that I needed to flip certain activities to maximize my skills.  I determined that by waking an hour earlier and having coffee, showering and dressing; my senses came alive and my mind was stimulated.  It was easier to sit down at the end of that first hour of the day and write until I was completely submerged in my second hat of Mom.

I became quite obsessed with to-do lists.  By sitting down at night and writing a comprehensive list of all the activities, appointments and deadlines ahead, I was able to sleep better and found myself even more ready to get to business the moment I sat at my desk.  My to-do lists cover everything for our home and work:

Household Chores

• Laundry
• Vacuuming
• Which room received it’s weekly scrub
• Appointments/Functions
• Clients
• Doctors
• School related
• Parties/Family functions
• Celebrations such as birthdays and anniversaries

Meals for the Day

• Meats that need to be thawed
• Any missing groceries for meals
• Special instructions

Business/Writing

• Blog posts
• Marketing
• Articles/Ghost-writing
• Queries/Job searching

By spending twenty minutes each night working out a comprehensive list, I knew exactly what the day ahead held and how to budget my time accordingly.  I also found by using calendars and dry erase boards that I could take a glance at the month(s) ahead and plan for correlating photography as needed.

I spent one week of my life recording all of the usual habits I took in my not-so-business-minded ways and found around three hours a day of wasted time that, when channeled correctly, allowed me to continue to write and keep from finding a job outside of my home.

As we progress through this series, stay tuned for the next segment in Focus on Writing with Obliterating Distractions.

There are moments in our lives when what was calm and structured becomes haphazard and crazy. It’s necessary to remember to write. Writing encourages your mind to continue developing metaphors, elaborate and descriptive experiences and keeps grammar fresh. For the typical college student, many hours are spent writing and reading. It’s during that time in our lives we are at our peak of writing know-how.

When twenty minutes is all you can spare, consider these ideas:

• Journal
  • Recording the events of your days is not only healthy for releasing tensions and sorting through problems, it can also give ideas for future articles and events transpiring in larger works, including novels.
• Writing Burst
  • Buddy up with a friend who writes.  Plan to do one writing burst a week and exchange them.  You might be pleasantly surprised at what comes through your mailbox and the inspiration it provides.
• Summarize the days events in 100 words or less
  • Keep it short and simple!  By limiting yourself to a small number of words, you will encourage your mind to pinpoint precise events and encourage learning new words to describe more than one action or event.
• Describe your best experience of the week
  • When life becomes chaotic, often times people will focus on the negative instead of look at the positive.  By focusing on the best experience of your week, you will boost your own mood and help change your perspective and disposition into one that is more positive.
• Carry a notebook and pen
  • By having a thought journal or idea journal that you carry, keeping track of ideas or jotting a few lines of a story will help bring those thoughts back to life when you have time to write.

Even though you may find you have no time to write an actual article or full piece of work, by continuing to write you are encouraging yourself to get right back into full-fledged writing once life settles back into routine.  Where can you find twenty minutes throughout your day?

I feel quite honored being able to pop in and share a bit about myself and writing with each of you here.  As the new bird on the block, an introduction seems necessary.

I am Mysti Guymon.  I am a mother to two boys, both high needs.  My time is limited throughout the day and most often I can be found writing the old-school way, early in the morning or far too late at night.  I tend to capitalize “my time” when I should be sleeping.  Maintaining early mornings and late nights can make for some pretty exhausting days, but in the end I’m still able to maintain my passion for writing.

Writing takes many different forms in our lives.  Most recently, I’ve had the grand experience of creating invitations.  Grammar, word selection and placement are important faucets when creating invitations.  Most events in our lives are quite casual.  This event, my wedding, took a much more formal stance.

The basic etiquette of wedding invitations:

• Utilize the full name of bride and groom.  If space is an issue, omitting the middle name is acceptable.
• British spelling of favor (favour) and honor (honour) is recommended.
• Spell out all words including the hour, date and year.  Saint (St.) and Mount (Mt.) are the only two abbreviations accepted.
• In names containing numerals (third) utilize roman numerals (III).
• For ceremonies taking place in a house of worship, you will “request the honour of your presence” whereas a garden wedding you will “request the pleasure of your company.”

If you are looking at creating your own invitations for a wedding down the road, a few key points to keep in mind:

• Are you issuing the invitations as a couple?
• Are you the parent of the bride issuing invitations?
• Are you the parent of the groom issuing invitations?
• Is the wedding of the garden variety?
• Would the couple be wed in a church?

Each question brings with it a different choice of invitation styles.  The first and increasingly popular scenario, is couples issuing wedding invitations themselves.  In this situation, the Bride and Groom’s full names will print at the top.  All pertinent information will follow in sequence of date, time, place.  The address of the location will always print at the bottom of the invitation.

Should the bride’s parents issue the invitation, it would read:

Mr. and Mrs. (Brides Father’s Name)

Request the honour of your presence

at the marriage of their daughter (Bride’s full name)

and (Groom’s full name)

on (Month, Date, Year)

at (full time)

Location Name

Location Address

Should the groom’s parents issue the invitation, it would read:

(Bride’s full name)

and (Groom’s full name)

request the honour of your presence

at their marriage

on (Month, Date, Year)

at (full time)

Location Name

Location Address

There are many more issues that could arise when creating invitations.  Some circumstances to consider are a widowed parent, divorced and remarried parents, divorced and one remarried parent issuing the invitations.  As we didn’t have to contend with those situations, you might want to check Emily Post’s Wedding Etiquette for suggestions.

As always, writing can be fun, invigorating and inspiring.  Somewhere midst the grandeur comes grammar.  Invitations are no different, even for a writer!