Freelance for Beginners: All About Client/Writer Relationships

This is the next installation in a series of posts on freelancing by Mazie Bishop. You can find future posts on Freelancing and read the rest of the series here.

Clients are not only the most important factor of your freelance career but the main form of promotion for your services. So of course, by default, managing client relationships can also be the most difficult aspect of freelancing. Every client has different expectations, but they all have one thing in common: they are all looking for someone they can trust to convey their message in the best way possible.

In this post I am going to be talking about some simple ways to keep your clients coming back to you and how to make sure you become their go-to freelancer.

Communication:

Since we have already discussed how to get started started with your new freelance career, the next thing to talk about is communication. When a client reaches out to you, you want to make sure that you are approachable, down to earth and that you communicate in a way that they will understand best. Make sure that you are friendly, polite and overall professional. Feel free to make connections and tell your clients a bit about your writing background and anything else that applies to the job. Sometimes you may find that you just won’t be compatible with their project, but it’s important to keep that communication positive in case they have a project in the future that is more up your alley.

Professional Priorities:

In this career, it’s obviously important to make sure that we are smart about our rates and to make sure we maintain maximum financial security. This is one of the hurdles that comes with being self-employed, as we don’t have a company with legal support to back us. This being said, you want to make sure that you focus on getting all of the information about your client’s project before you even think of throwing around budgeting details. Doing this will show that you genuinely do care about your client’s business and that you are passionate in what you do. Once all the details are worked out and you have a great understanding of what your client wants, gracefully throw in a message asking about their budget. Give them an approximation of what you would feel comfortable working for, and make sure to say that you are will to further discuss your rates to better fit their budget. Most of the time they will work within your ballpark, but a lot of clients love to know that you are willing to work with them.

Regular Check- Ins:

Once you have started working for a client, you want to make sure that you check in with them on a regular basis with any questions, comments or just general progress, no matter the size of the project. Whether it is once a week or once every few days, just make sure you are letting them know how things are going. They will appreciate that you are thinking about them.

Classy Finish:

Once you have worked your freelancer magic and completed the project to the absolute best of your ability, you want to make sure you take the time to sincerely thank your client for choosing you. The freelance world is a big one, in the sense that there are a lot more freelancers than there are jobs, and the fact that they chose to work with you is a wonderful thing. Show that you appreciate it with a simple and professional thank-you, and make sure they know you are interested in working with them again in the future.

If you really clicked and think that you really made a connection with your client, make sure to mention that you are always looking for new clients and that if they know anyone looking for a freelancer, you’d love to help them out. This is going to get them thinking about who they can tell about your work, and it’s the best way to make sure your clients are promoting you.

These are just some of the simple ways I have made better, stronger relationships with my clients and have kept them coming back, but every experience is different. If you have a tip or trick you would like to add, please feel free to do so in the comments, and make sure to let us know how your new adventure in the world of freelance is going!

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Mazie Bishop is a fiery 23 year-old writer and journalism graduate from Canada. She is self-published and also has several poems and short fiction pieces published in various anthologies and magazines. Currently, she is in the process of writing her second novel, and is in the outlining stages of a quarter-life memoir. You can read about her little crafty adventures, read her work, and gander at her photos on www.theselittlepieces.com.

Driving Book Sales and Visibility by Mastering Key Terms

Note: this piece is geared toward writers interested in self-publishing. Find other pieces on self-publishing here.

So after you’ve uploaded your book, your cover, and product description, you’re met with a page asking you to pick your “key terms”.

“What are key terms?” you think to yourself, scratching your head and settling for a handful of vague words that describe your book. “That should be good enough, right?”

Wrong! Key terms, while short and sweet, are very important! They’re one of the driving factors in how people find your book and where it appears on the platform you’re selling on. Essentially, key terms help the site categorize your book and match it up with people who type in those same (or similar) key terms.

So let’s talk a little about what your key terms should do and how to select them.

Make Them Count

You only get so many key terms (usually 10 or less), so make sure yours:

• Are accurate and succinct (don’t misrepresent your book!).
• Help you find your target audience – or rather, help them find you.
• Place you in a niche category so competition is less fierce and it’s easier to get noticed.
• Don’t repeat words that appear in your title/subtitle. Those are already taken into account by the platform’s algorithms that you’re selling on. Don’t waste a precious keyword by repeating yourself.

Pick Only the Best

• Think about how people find books. What terms would someone search that would lead to your book?
• Browse through the platform you’re selling on by clicking through their categories. See which books come up under certain categories. Are these similar to your book? If so, that’s likely where your book belongs. Make sure to add keywords in that will land you in those categories.*
• Make a list of key terms for your book, then try to hone them down to about 10.
• Ask your beta readers or editor to create a list of key terms that they think would best suit your book. They know the book, but can likely give a more objective opinion of it.
• Test out each keyword on your list by typing it into the platform’s search engine and seeing what results come up. Are these books similar to your book? You’re on the right track! Are there too many results? Try another word that might land your book in a less competitive category.

*Note: some platforms require you to use specific keywords to land your book in niche categories. Research each platform’s rules, guidelines, etc. to get a better idea of what keywords you might need to select.

Remember that you can always change your key terms at a later date! Being a self-published author means you have the power to make changes to your book and its listing at any time. Take advantage of that!

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Any questions or comments about key terms? Let us know in the comments below!

Freelance for Beginners: Where to Start

This is the first in a series of posts on freelancing by Mazie Bishop. You can find future posts on Freelancing and read the rest of the series here.

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One of the most daunting aspects about a freelance writing career is figuring out where to start. Upon searching this topic at the beginning of my journey, many freelancing professionals claimed that the best way to start is just to jump into it. After taking their advice and not doing the research that I originally wanted to do, I found that this method was not realistic whatsoever.

I found myself hunched over my laptop, scrolling the seemingly infinite list of freelance jobs and trying to submit my bids. I spent endless hours tweeting about my services and my experience as a writer and editor, but after almost a week of no responses, I knew that just jumping in wasn’t the right decision, and that I had to take a different approach.

So, if you’re looking to start a career in freelancing, here is my step-by-step guide on how to get started!

Step One: Do your research

Find out what kind of freelance you want to get into. Do you want to write fiction, non-fiction or maybe even reviews or news? Do you want to edit or transcribe? There are so many options for us because as writers we have a wide skill set; not only do we have the ability to write, but we also have the ability to edit and type fast!

Step Two: Pull together a writing resume

Now this isn’t going to be as structured as a normal employment resume. Instead of selling your skills as an employee, you are going to be selling your service as a writer. This resume is to include all levels of education, all non-institutional education that has contributed to you as a writer, and any and all writing experience. Your goal is to show people why they want you to work for them. They want to buy your skills, and you want them to come back to your service with all future projects.

Step Three: Find a secure venue

For your first couple of freelance gigs and beyond, it’s important to find a venue where you will will be securely and regularly paid for your services. You need to make sure that there are contracts and that there is someone watching your transaction to ensure that everything goes smoothly. Hopping on Twitter and finding a client that wants to work with you over email and PayPal is not the ideal first gig, but there are tons of other websites that make for a safe freelancing environment.

One example is Fiverr, which is a simple marketplace style website with tons of traffic. You create an account, build your profile and offer your services. The catch is that the base price for each gig is $5, so you want to consider this for how much you want to get paid in the end. On my profile, I have a very popular service that says I will proofread 2000 words for $5, but other people on the website sell their editing of 700 words for $5. There are so many options for gigs, from press releases to copywriting; all for $5 and the clients come to you! The best part is that you can create custom offers for customers that want larger projects done.

Step Four: Build client relationships

In my experience on Fiverr, most of my bigger projects have come from the same clients I had when I started. They liked my work and they came back. So I started thinking about ways to get more business from them. I started messaging them occasionally, asking them if they needed any work done for their books, websites, or projects and 9 times out of 10, they would say yes. Then I took the step to letting them know that they could refer their partners and friends to my service as well. This is all based on the workload you are interested in taking on. Sometimes it gets a little bit stressful, but it’s worth it in the end.

Step Five: Don’t get discouraged

If freelance is what you want to do, than you need to know that it’s not going to be easy from the get go. Even after these steps, I had a hard time with a few set backs. You just have to keep telling yourself that it will get better, business will pick up, and in a year from now, maybe even a month from now, you will have a successful freelance career as a writer. As long as you keep working for it.

In my next post, I’ll be clearing up any confusion you might have about what to charge for your services, how much is too much, and how to get your client to keep coming back! I hope this helps inspire you to try professional freelancing and I look forward to hearing any stories or experiences you have along the way! Feel free to leave any questions below and I will try my best to answer them for you!
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Mazie Bishop is a fiery 22 year-old writer and journalism student from Canada. She is self-published and also has several poems and short fiction pieces published in various anthologies and magazines. She is a big dreamer who hopes to be writing with the big guys some day and cannot wait for her career to start! Currently, she is in the process of writing her second novel, and is in the outlining stages of a quarter-life memoir. You can read about her little crafty adventures, read her work, and gander at her photos on www.theselittlepieces.com.

2 More Features that Make Scrivener Ideal for First Drafts

Are you working on your first draft and/or are a messy/non-linear/easily distracted writer? Me too. That’s why I use the programme Scrivener to write all my novels in, why I think it’s ideal for writers like me, and why I’ve created this tutorial series highlighting the best features it has to offer. In short, I love this writing programme and would love you to benefit from it too.

In my last post, I sang the praises of three organisational features available in Scrivener. Today, I’m all about the screen options and how they can aid a writer in the midst of her first draft. Here are two features I use to make my writing life that little bit easier and myself that little bit less crazy (though only a little).

1. The split screen option.

Why I love it: I can divide the screen and view two files at once, side-by-side.

What’s more annoying than constantly flicking between two documents as I’m trying to write (aside from a bout of writer’s block accompanied by a clingy plot bunny)? Nothing. Scrivener has a feature that removes that annoyance: the split screen.

Now I can view those two documents side-by-side, making it easy to check one doc while typing into another. The screen can be split between text files, images, corkboards and more, very helpful if I want to write in one half of the screen and view a setting image or a scene outline or my research notes in the other.

I can also choose which way I split the screen. I can split it horizontally, like so…

Or vertically. Whichever works best with what I’m splitting the screen between.

To split the screen, simply go to the menu, click ‘View’, then ‘Layout’, and choose whether to split the screen horizontally or vertically.

2. A simple, no-distractions full screen mode.

Why I love it: I can cut out the distractions and focus in on the scene I’m writing using full screen mode.

I’m easily distracted so, while having a splittable screen is great for the aforementioned reasons, I sometimes need to whittle things down to just the one screen, the one text file. But even then, there’s the menu options and the taskbar to distract me… but not necessarily so. And I have full screen mode to thank for that.

In full screen mode, I can make a text file fill the entire screen (and I mean all of it, as you can see in the image below). The taskbar is gone, the menu options are gone. There’s just me and the words and far less temptation to keep clicking back to YouTube to watch funny cat videos.

To use this option, go to the menu, click ‘View’ and select ‘Enter Full Screen’.

Full screen mode is perfect for word sprints. It shuts out distractions, hides potentially eye-catching features and folders, and lets you concentrate on churning out those words. I’d definitely recommend it if you’re ever sprinting with us over at @TheSprintShack on Twitter!

Though the two parts of this series have focused on using Scrivener for writing the first draft of a novel, you don’t even have to use it just for this purpose. I wrote this blog post in Scrivener, using both of today’s features, the split screen to view Parts 1 and 2 of the Best Scrivener Features series side-by-side and full screen mode to focus in on this post once I got into the groove of writing.

I’ve also used Scrivener to compile my short stories, to create each individual Writember Workshop lesson, and to write academic papers during my time at university. And there’s still more you could use Scrivener for. You’re limited only by your imagination (which shouldn’t be a problem for us writers, eh?)

Explore Scrivener’s features, find what works best for you and, most importantly, make progress on the projects that have a special place in your heart. Have fun!

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That’s all for the Best Scrivener Features series (for now). What’s your favourite feature and why?

Your Coffee House Checklist

Sometimes, the demands of family, friends, personal fitness, and the general day-to-day can be huge hinders to our writing. Add in a 40+ hour workweek, as so many of us have, and coming home to your couch and a marathon of Netflix becomes incredibly enticing. Sure, you only have those last few chapters to round out… but you’re just so tired, and the purring kitten on your lap is just so warm, and it really wouldn’t kill your WIP to wait another day, would it? Heck, you may even come up with an even better version of that scene you were stuck on if you just let it marinate for another 24 hours.

Am I just relaying my life at this point, or do I have any fellow writers nodding in sympathetic agreement?

Regardless, the above scenario is too easy to fall into—it’s one of the reasons why, just a little over a year ago, I wrote about creating a designated and dedicated writing space that helps you treat your writing like work (because, as enjoyable as it might be at times, any serious writer will tell you our craft is exactly that: work). However, for many of us, that writing space isn’t in our own homes. Maybe it’s because of the aforementioned habits that are so easy to fall into, or maybe there just isn’t a quiet space in the house to retreat to regularly. In those cases, many turn to the writer’s safe haven and home-away-from-chaos: the coffee house!

To make your trip to the cafe productive, make sure you have everything you need. Here’s a checklist of items every writer should have on their person while setting out to create—scroll down for a printable version!

1. Your materials. Excuse me for getting meta, but you might have to make a checklist to precede this checklist (or just print out the one provided at the bottom of this post). It may seem obvious that you have to have your notes, your work-in-progress, and your preferred medium with you to write, but it’s all too easy to forget that laptop charger or extra pad of paper behind when rushing out the door.
2. Some tunes (and headphones!). Most coffee shops provide some smooth jazz or other kind of easy listening for their patrons, but maybe that just isn’t your thing (I’m writing to fantasy and video game scores right now). Bring a writing playlist and your headphones with you so you can block out your surroundings, like that one person speaking a bit too loudly on their phone or the constant hissing of the milk steamer.
3. A plan. To avoid getting sidetracked, it’s best to have a clear idea of what you want to accomplish. Do you simply want to get through that next scene? Edit the next two chapters in your completed manuscript? Work through a short list of writing prompts? Give yourself a goal and treat yourself when you’re done, such as with that flaky pastry you’ve been eying or a solid 15 minutes of internet browsing time.
4. Blinders. This one is figurative—unless you own a horse and want to get whimsical. Just because you aren’t surrounded by the distractions at home doesn’t mean there won’t be other distractions present, so come prepared to hone in and focus solely on your work. Scrivener’s full screen mode is great for this, and if you’re prone to looking up and getting sidetracked by the other coffee lovers, Write or Die provides a great variety of “punishments” for pausing too long, from deleting your words to blaring annoying sounds (just make sure your headphones are plugged in to prevent irritating other customers). There are also a number of great apps and services out there that limit your internet time and shut it down for whatever time period you set if you’re prone to getting lost in hours of research or Twitter browsing.
5. A timepiece. This may seem silly since you’ll likely have a computer, a cell phone, AND a clock that’s sure to be located in the coffee shop somewhere, but checking these things provides too many risks for distraction. Tabbing out of full-screen on Scrivener to check the time on your task bar can throw you off your writing flow, checking your phone could draw your attention to a recent text, and looking up to locate a clock can pull you out of your “zone” entirely. Having a watch on your wrist—or, if you want to be a fancy writer, a pocket watch open beside your laptop or notebook—can help you monitor your time there without taking you too far out of your character’s latest plight.

And that’s it—you’re all set! If you’d like a more expansive list, I’ve provided you with a printable checklist you can keep with your writing materials at all times, here:

 <Click Here to Download and Print the Checklist!>

3 Features that Make Scrivener Ideal for First Drafts

Whenever I write—be it a novel, a blog post or a research page—there’s one programme in particular that I use for my first drafts: my trusty friend, Scrivener.

My first experience of Scrivener came just after NaNoWriMo, back in 2012, when I used my winner’s goodies to check out this strange writing programme I hadn’t come across before. Though it took several YouTube tutorials to get my head around all the options, icons and menus, I quickly realised that this multitude of features was perfect for me and my writing style.

As you’ll probably come to understand as you read on, I’m a very messy writer, with an attention span comparable to a squirrel. If you’re anything like me and struggle with basic writing programmes, then Scrivener may be just right for you too. That said, here are the three features that, in my opinion, make this programme so ideal for me and my incredibly chaotic first drafts.

1. The hierarchy of folders in the binder.

Why I love it: I don’t have to write my story in order.

I’m a very non-linear writer. At the start of a new story, I’ll write whatever scenes come to me first before even thinking about the opening chapter. If an exciting scene pops into my head as I’m writing, I’ll pause where I am at in the story and write it. Should a scene be giving me lots of trouble, I’ll skip ahead and fill in the gaps later. In short, I write scenes all over the place in my first draft.

In a programme like Microsoft Word, in which the whole novel is kept in a single document, I would be constantly scrolling back and forth, trying to find the right part of the story, always at risk of leaving gaps because I’ve overlooked something. Not so in Scrivener.

Using the ‘binder’ feature, I can access each individual chapter and scene of my novel with ease. I want to re-read the first scene from Chapter 16? No problem. I just find the ‘Chapter 16’ folder, click the ‘Scene 1’ text file and it’s there. If I had been using Microsoft Word, I would have had to scroll through over 40,000 words to reach the correct scene—if I ever found it in the first place. Not how I want to be spending my writing time.

The binder feature: See how the story is arranged into folders, subfolders and files?

2. Assignable statuses for folders and files.

Why I love it: It’s easy to see what needs to be done to each chapter and scene.

Because I don’t write in order, I’ll sometimes leave scenes incomplete or skip over them entirely. That’s not too hard to keep track of when I’ve only written a few chapters, but when I’ve passed 60,000 words and I can’t remember where that chapter I dropped partway through because it just wasn’t working out is, I start to get headaches.

Scrivener has a good solution. I can assign each chapter a status— ‘To Do’, ‘First Draft’, ‘Revised Draft’, etc.—and it even lets me create labels of my own. The most commonly used ones in my first drafts are ‘Finish This Please’ and ‘Yuck—Needs Editing’.

See.

Assignable statuses: Now I know the locations of all the unfinished and yucky chapters in Part Two.

With statuses, I know exactly what needs to be done to each chapter and scene within my messy manuscript and can locate them easily. Lovely.

3. Multiple documents, one programme.

Why I love it: I can keep my novel, my notes and my research all in one programme.

Gone are the days when I would click between endless documents as I paused my writing to check out character profiles, look at setting photos, read some of my research notes, see what’s coming next in my chapter synopses, and so on. My taskbar only needs one programme open now, which houses all the documents I need.

Multiple documents: Dirigible knowledge at my fingertips.

See how easy it is to organise, access and move between the story and notes? It saves me so much time and doesn’t disrupt my focus as much as filling my taskbar with new documents does.

In Part 2 of the Best Scrivener Features series (because there were so many of them that I couldn’t fit them all into one post), I’ll share another feature that makes it even easier to view all your documents without switching programmes. You won’t even have to click on to a new file. How’s that for a tantalising hook?

More on that in 2 More Features that Make Scrivener Ideal for First Drafts, where there are an additional two features that make Scrivener perfect for my messy writing style. (Hint: they involve every type of screen a writer with a squirrel’s attention span could possibly wish for.)

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Which Scrivener features do you use more than any other? Share your favourites in a comment below!

To Edit, or Not To Edit…During Camp NaNoWriMo

Hey all you WriMo’s! How’s the first week of Camp NaNoWriMo been treating you? How are your word counts looking? Steadily inching toward your goals?

Well, I have a small confession to make…my word count is at a heartbreaking ZERO.  Yeah, it’s pretty bad. We’re what? 5 days in now? This time in November I think I was already nearly 10k words deep.

But it’s not all horrible. I promise I’ve been productive. Even if I haven’t been writing my intended Camp NaNo project, I have been working on another project. But just not writing…more along the lines of editing.

Yeah, it might be fudging the rules of Camp NaNo a bit much, but since I’ve been working on releasing my ebook next week, I had a flurry of last minute editing sessions. In total, I think I edited through nearly 30,000 words (what with all the re-reads) in the last three or four days.

Now, I’m definitely going to get to work on actually writing later this month during NaNo, but the real question is: can I count some of my editing toward my word goal this April?

I know I’m not the only one doing something like this. Many people enjoy using the energy and excitement of NaNoWriMo to get more non-traditional projects completed. So while many people are scribbling away, there are quite a few of us who are frantically deleting and slashing words from our manuscripts.

But that brings up another question: HOW do I count my editing toward my NaNo goal?

There are various ways of doing this, so lets take a look at some options we have here:

– Keep track of how many words you cut from your piece (but beware, setting a goal of 25k and then deleting more and more words just for the sake of winning Camp NaNo can be detrimental to your story)
– For every hour you spend editing, give yourself 1k words toward your word count goal on Camp NaNo’s site.
– Set a word count goal – something like 5k – then divvy up the piece you’re editing into 5 parts (or one part per thousand) and only give yourself those words on your word count when you’ve finished editing each section.

There are a lot of other ways you can approach accounting for your editing while doing Camp NaNo – just find one that works for you and keeps you accountable to your editing throughout the month.

And keep in mind that you will have to validate your word count at the end of the month in order to “win” Camp NaNo. If you’ve reached your editing goal (and be honest with yourself, because you’re the only one you’re hurting if you don’t do any editing and then say you did), then just copy and paste enough of your newly edited story into the validator.

I do hope to get a significant amount of actual writing done this month, but I’ve been riding the wave of Camp NaNo energy during these power-editing sessions this last week and think my word count should reflect all that hard work.

And for all my fellow NaNo editing rebels out there, make sure you’re stocked up on red pens. It’s going to be one hell of a month.

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What are you working on for this round of Camp NaNoWriMo? Are you editing, writing, or doing something else entirely? Let us know in the comments below! And make sure to join us on Twitter for sprints to help you reach your word count (hint: you can edit during word sprints too)!

Saturday Surprise! A Collection of Writer Goodies

As anyone who follows me on Twitter may have noticed, I’ve been in a kind of writing slump as of late. It happens to the best of us, especially those of us with a lot going on at the moment, but one thing’s for certain: the reason a writer must write, despite being busy or tired or plain fresh out of ideas, is that long hiatuses are the quickest way to dry up your creative well.

That’s something I’ve been experiencing: the longer I’ve been going without writing, the less I have to write about and the less I want to write. It’s a dreadful cycle I’ve found myself in time and time again.

As a result, when faced with today’s Sprint Shack post, I was stumped. I had no clue what to write about, and I still don’t have a topic. So instead, I’m going to let my bad habits be a lesson to all of you, and point toward some resources that can help keep you on the right track.

Over the years, I’ve collected magazines, links, and books on the writing craft, and they’ve all inspired me to keep going (or, depending on their subject, guided me during a specific stage of my writing), and most of them have been less about writing that first draft and more geared toward what to do with that raw copy. Dashing out those words during a furious word sprint is only part of the process; revising and submitting your work for consideration, whether it be a short story to an e-magazine or a novel to a literary agent, are the parts that take guts. That’s when you get your hands dirty.

Here are some of my top resources on revising and submitting your work. They’re the ones that I’ve been referencing or plan on turning to, depending on what part of the process they cover. Just remember not to get too wrapped up in researching this (it can get addictive!) and get back to your writing eventually!

Revisions
The First 250 Words of Your Manuscript by Janice Hardy – It goes without saying that you have to start strong to catch a reader’s attention, but I never realized how many mistakes I was making in my attempt at a captivating beginning until I read this article. Author Janice Hardy does a great job detailing why that first page of your manuscript (around 250 words) is so important, as well as what to do and not to do in order to draw a reader in. She even gives an extremely helpful breakdown of the first page of one of her novels, sentence by sentence, that demonstrates exactly what she preaches.

NaNoWriMo’s Now What? Initiative – As you may have seen on the Sprint Shack previously, the NaNoWriMo team is dedicating the beginning of 2014 to the revision of November’s novels. They’re offering fantastic pep talks, advice articles, and webinars/live chats dedicated to it, and as always, there’s a fantastic support network on the forums. Don’t have a NaNoWriMo novel? Here’s a dirty little secret: you don’t technically have to be a prior participant to benefit. Just sign up, pledge to revise a novel, and take part!

#amEditing: Need some live support? This Twitter hashtag is constantly live, streaming tweets from fellow writers who are editing their work that very moment. Whether you intend to seek some advice, vent some frustrations, or even announce your accomplishments, this is the place to do it (and the Sprint Shack, of course!)

Querying/Submitting
Let The Words Flow’s Query Week – I used to write over at Let The Words Flow, which is a now-retired blog dedicated to all stages of the writing process. Its current contributors have now moved over to Pub(lishing) Crawl, but LTWF has been left up, leaving behind a wonderful archive chock full of advice from authors at various stages of writing/revising/publishing. In 2011, LTWF hosted a “Query Week” in which its contributors offered advice, critiques, and Q&As on the process of querying literary agents. Though I’m personally not quite at that stage yet, I’ve had this bookmarked for a while, knowing it’ll prove to be an invaluable asset in the future.

Lessons from the Submission Desk by The Dreadful Cafe – Getting a link to this combination talk/PowerPoint presentation will cost you a $10 donation, but if you’re looking to submit a short story for publication, I consider it a must-see (hear?). This talk gives you unabashed, uncensored insight into what editors see regularly at the submissions desk—and most of it isn’t good. For those who want to avoid major, fatal mistakes in their submissions and writing, I highly recommend giving this a try.

#AskAgent and #PubTip – Two great hashtags that allow you round-the-clock access to agents and publishing professionals. Follow them for regular tips and Q&As or take to them with questions of your own. You’ll almost always get an answer—and if not, you’ll still walk away with plenty of tips, articles, and contacts for future reference.

And that’s it for now! What about you? Do you have any great links/resources/tips to dish out to fellow writers in need? Let us know in the comments or on Twitter—we’ll be sure to pass your advice along!

From the Trenches: NaNo’s “Now What?” Revisions

Greetings! Cristina here, coming to you from the land of “why the heck did I do this to myself?” I’ve been incredibly absent from twitter and The Sprint Shack as of late, and while there are many, many reasons, this is a big one:

NaNoWriMo.

Yes, I’m aware that November is long gone. I’m not sitting in my room, stabbing at the “update word count” button and wondering why it feels like the equivalent of chasing a carrot on a treadmill. But I am, in fact, working on  my NaNoWriMo novel.

As you may recall, we mentioned back in December that NaNoWriMo is extending its frenzied writing initiatives to January and February. This month and next are now deemed the “Now What?” months, in which various NaNoWriMo participants are promising to revise their novels and making use of numerous resources provided by the NaNoWriMo crew in order to do so. Some of the goodies provided include webinars, pep talks, and blogs, all geared toward reinvigorating the NaNo community and providing revising writers the support they need to tame their unruly 50k word-beasts.

I’m one of those participants, and with only two loosely revised chapters completed 1/3 of the way through the Now What? period, I have a few tips for those who plan on being more productive than myself during their revisions–for NaNoWriMo or otherwise:

1) Structure your revisions. I can’t stress this enough. After having to push out 50k in one month, fixing up that draft in sixty days may seem like no big feat. But remember: most novels are more than 50k, so not only will you be polishing what you have, you’ll likely be adding to it, too. If your novel is already a satisfactory length or even too long, that means there’s still endless tightening, cutting, and rearranging to do. I never realized until embarking on this project just how much work (and, I’ll admit it, raw despair) goes into revising. Leave both months totally open with no weekly or even daily goals, and you’ll probably wind up where I am now.

2) Make yourself accountable. Blog about your revisions, tweet about them, take the pledge on NaNo’s website. Do all you can to let the world know, “hey, I’m revising! Make fun of me if I don’t succeed!”

NaNoWriMo’s brand spankin’ new revision badge. Get it by pledging to revise your novel, here!

As Taylor’s said before, one of the best ways to keep yourself from slipping up is by letting the world know what you’re up to or even starting a bet with someone in the same boat. (I blame my lackluster Twitter presence as of late for my even worse resolve).

3) Reward yourself. If weeks two and three in NaNoWriMo are tough–and they are–it’s because the rush of the beginning has worn off and the end is still a long ways off. And that’s just in one month. How do you think you’ll feel over a period twice as long? Make sure you recognize your accomplishments, reward yourself for your work, and, finally, be easy on yourself. A final manuscript takes much more than just one revision, so if you need to cut a few corners to get through the whole work in the allotted time frame, do so. It’s more important that you address the larger issues throughout the story as a whole  than it is to fix every spelling error and comma splice the first time around. That way, you know where you have to go in future revisions, rather than having to pick up where you left off.

Are you revising your NaNo novels? Another work of your own? Let us know–I know I’d love to know I’m not alone!

Life After NaNoWriMo

NaNoWriMo is about writing a novel. Throughout November, we bleed, sweat and cry out words, until 50,000 of them sit on our computers. Those words are still there now, squirrelled away in our document files, waiting to receive some love and attention, waiting to be groomed and made presentable, waiting for a bit of polish… and for many NaNo novels, they’ll still be waiting years from now. Why is that? Because so many people abandon their writing after NaNoWriMo.

That’s understandable at first. You’ve just gone through a 30 day writing marathon. You’re mentally and physically exhausted, you have a backlog of work to tend to, and on top of that, you should probably inform friends and family that you’re actually still alive. A break from writing is just what you need—and a short break is perfectly okay. It’s when that ‘short break’ spins out into weeks and months of writing inactivity that it becomes a problem.

NaNoWriMo throws us into gear and propels us forward. Don’t let that momentum die away just because November is over. The challenge of writing 50,000 words is only the first step towards a much larger goal: a finished novel. The only way to do that is to keep writing in your life after NaNoWriMo.

What if I haven’t finished my first draft?

The folks who run NaNoWriMo encourage you to write a complete novel in 50,000 words, but if you didn’t quite get that far or only got partway through your story by the time you hit 50k, then finishing your first draft is at the top of the To Do list.

Fortunately for you, NaNo might be over, but the word sprinting mania that went with it certainly isn’t. @TheSprintShack runs daily sprints and there are a whole host of other fantastic Twitter accounts that hold their own weekly sprinting events. You can find a list of the sprinters here and their events here. Take advantage of the productivity boost they give you and finish that first draft.

I’ve completed my first draft. What now?

NaNoWriMo has dedicated January and February to revision and publishing tips, dubbing them the “What Now?” Months. Here’s a taste of the things they’ll be doing to help novelists who want to turn their stories from fluffy first drafts to sleek finished products:

• Advice articles posted on the official NaNoWriMo blog
• Pep talks from professional authors to motivate, inspire and guide the revision process
• Webinars with publishing experts and NaNo-novelists
• Discussions across the Twittersphere about where to go with your story now

But if you can’t wait until the New Year to start editing your NaNo novel, you can check out the Now What? resources from last year right here.

I have no motivation without NaNoWriMo. What can I do?

If the challenge element of NaNoWriMo motivated you the most, there are plenty of other writing challenges for you to join.

There’s the #WIPMarathon, which is great for keeping yourself accountable. With the challenge of tweeting your goals and posting weekly WIP updates to your blog, there’s motivation aplenty to make progress and have something to talk about. Not only that, there’s a growing network of supportive writing buddies that can be found through the #WIPMarathon hashtag. Find yourself some writing friends and drink in the motivation—and spread some yourself in turn!

Another long-term challenge to get you writing is #Nerdlution. Set yourself a resolution-like goal (or several) and work towards it for 50 days. The latest round of #Nerdlution began on December 2nd and ends on January 20th, but it’s not too late to join!

Then there’s the Write Chain Challenge, which emphasises daily writing in the hopes of making it a habit. Set yourself a daily writing goal and, every day you achieve it, you get a link. Pretty soon you’ll be wielding a fully-fledged Write Chain.

Okay, I’m feeling more optimistic now. Anymore advice?

Keep writing. Just because the caffeine-fuelled rush of NaNoWriMo is over doesn’t mean that work on your story has to end with it. You achieved something incredible during November. Don’t let that momentum die away. Take advantage of it, join another writing challenge to keep yourself accountable, carry on the word sprinting if that first draft isn’t finished or use the editing resources to whip that messy WIP into shape if it is.

Go out there and finish that novel.

~

What’s your plan for writing now that NaNoWriMo is over? Do you know of any other writing challenges that are good motivators? Tell us in the comments below or email us at thesprintshack@gmail.com! We’d love to hear your thoughts on life after NaNoWriMo.

Also, if you’d like us to keep you accountable, email us and let us know your goals, on a weekly or monthly basis. We’ll send a check-in email each week to see how you’re doing!