New Year Goals vs Focus – All Freelance Writing in 2024

In the more than 17 years All Freelance Writing has been around, I’ve often shared my New Year’s resolutions, goals, and plans with you. Some years are successes. Some years go far off-track. And most are a mixed bag. But this year, I’m doing something a little bit different: exploring goals vs focus areas. This is something I’ll talk more about over on my broader

New Year Tips & Reminders for Freelance Writers

I hope your new year is off to a great start. Have you run through all your basic new year business tasks yet? If not, no worries. I’m still hashing out some of mine too. Not sure what kinds of tasks I mean? Let’s look at ten new year tips and reminders appropriate for most freelance writers — things you might want to review or

2023 Freelance Writing Resolutions

Happy new year fellow writers. It’s been quite some time since we’ve talked about new year’s resolutions and goal-planning here at All Freelance Writing. Now feels like a great time. I’m a big fan of resolutions, both on the personal and professional fronts. So today I’m going to share some of my 2023 freelance writing resolutions and goals related to freelance-adjacent areas of my business.

Bullet Journals for Writers

NOTE: This post on bullet journals for writers is a significantly updated version of my 2018 post on how I use various types of journaling to manage nearly everything in my business and my life. In this 2021 update, the focus is much more centered on bullet journals in particular. Here you’ll find my updated list of bullet journal spreads and even more bullet journal

First Quarter Freelance Writing Check-in: 2018

Every year I try to share my business and writing goals with you here on the blog. And every quarter I post updates about what’s going well (and what’s not). My hope is that it will inspire some of you to focus more on planning and reflection in your own freelance writing businesses. It’s that time again. If nothing else, know this: Sometimes things go

Your Freelance Writing Bucket List

With this month’s focus being on getting started as a freelance writer or revamping your freelance writing business, let’s talk about long-term goals and aspirations. Namely, let’s talk about your freelance writing bucket list. If you’re a planner (and I highly recommend always having a plan to guide you), you probably set yearly goals. They give you direction when tweaking your quarterly, monthly, weekly, and

Freelance Writing Goals – Why You Need Them & How to Reach Them

It happened. Again. I opened my feed reader this morning and saw yet another blog post telling readers to stop making goals and resolutions for the New Year. This one happened to be about health-related goals, though I’ve seen plenty specific to freelance writing goals too. But guess what… This is terrible advice for freelance writers. I get where it comes from. When you don’t

Lies, Letting Go, & Building the Writing Life You Want

The end of any year can be a bittersweet time. You take stock of what you’ve done and how far you’ve come. Maybe you exceeded your expectations and you’re inspired to do even more in the New Year. Or maybe you fell short and you’re feeling discouraged. Whichever is the case for you, the New Year brings the same thing to everyone – an opportunity

Setting 2018 Writing Goals (& Getting Your Priorities Straight)

When 2017 started, I was feeling ambitious – rebellious even. You see, 2016 was an awful year in pretty much every way for me, and I was determined for 2017 to be different. But it wasn’t. If anything, 2017 was much worse. The politics have had me even more stressed – something I didn’t think was possible at the time. I don’t feel any less

Freelance Writing When You Just Don’t Give a Damn

I’ve made it no secret that 2017 has been a crappy year for me. Some of that’s work-related, though work has been more affected by problems I’m dealing with rather than causing them. Focus has been hard to come by, and motivation even more so. But that doesn’t mean I get to sit on my hands and do nothing, waiting for things to pass. If

Modeling Your Freelance Writing Career for Ongoing Motivation

Sitting in front of you is a large block of clay. You’re taking a sculpting course at a local studio. You’ve already learned the basics. You have the skills you need to create something all your own. And that’s what your instructor wants you to do. What do you do? Do you wait for someone to tell you what to create? No. Do you look

Writing Goals & Progress Check-In: April 2017

Can you believe we’re already in the second quarter of the year? A colleague mentioned it yesterday, and I hadn’t realized how much time had gotten away from me. What that means is it’s time for a check-in on writing and business goals for the year. See what’s working. Figure out what’s not. And see where tweaking your original plans might help you get ahead.

Body Shaming, Confidence, and Writing Careers

This will be a long one, and we’re going to get personal today. Consider yourself warned. Recently, fellow writer Sudesna Ghosh shared an article on Twitter. That article centered around body shaming of young women, a pet topic of hers and something she’s written extensively about. I could relate to the story Sue shared. And knowing how important this topic has been to both of our

Paralyzing Fear and Creative Professions

Creative work is unlike any other job you could take on. When you create, you leave a piece of yourself behind for the world to see. There’s a certain amount of vulnerability involved. That vulnerability can make it difficult to separate you, the artist, from your art. And that can lead to paralyzing fear of sharing your work. If you’ve ever dreaded sharing a creative project for

Writing Goals & Resolutions: Take Two

If you set yearly writing goals or new year’s resolutions last month, how’s that working out for you? Whether you’ve made a lot of progress or you’ve already forgotten about them, now is a great time to give your plans a second look. So go dig up your list. I’ll wait… Got it? Good. Why Evaluate Writing Goals in February? Normally I’d tell you to focus

What do You Want in 2017? (An Alternative to New Year’s Resolutions)

Goals. Resolutions. Planning. Organization. To-do lists. Every time a new year rolls in, the focus is on change — often drastic. And these are some of the tools we use in seeking that change. Some (like me) love that. It can be fun. It can be exciting. We thrive on the challenge. But for other writers, New Year’s resolutions do little more than add stress and

Writing Challenges as a Motivational Strategy

In our last Monday Motivation post I wrote about self-motivation and what a struggle it can sometimes be. In that post, I also mentioned we’d be talking more about gamification in the future as a way to keep yourself motivated to write. Today we’re going to start by looking at one example of gamification for writers: setting writing challenges for yourself. I don’t know about

When Self-Motivation is a Struggle

Not even a month in, and I find myself wondering why I chose to start a motivational series of blog posts on Mondays. Perhaps I just liked the alliteration of a “Monday Motivation” series (probably). Today I find myself struggling to find the motivation to write, or do much of anything other than curl up with a good book. If the series’ posts came later

Year-end Planning & Goal-Setting: The “Screw 2016” Edition

I’m just going to come right out and say it: 2016 sucked. Yes. Past tense. I refuse to let it take, destroy, or corrupt anything else I hold dear. I declare 2016 officially over. I’ve decided to spend the next several weeks living in some limbo-like state free from the confines of time and space. You are welcome to join me. Because I’ve decided to leave

Fears & Doubts Writers Face: New Monday Motivation Series

This post is the first in a new “Monday Motivation” series designed to encourage you to take risks with your writing and keep pushing forward despite the fear, doubts, and confidence issues that often creep into a writer’s mind. You’ll find a mix of personal stories, tips, exercises, reality checks, and motivational quotes and resources every Monday moving forward.  Fear. Doubt. A lack of confidence

Falling Behind During NaNoWriMo? 3 Tips to Get You Back on Track

NaNoWriMo has barely started, and I’m already behind this year. I changed my novel idea at the last minute (I believe around 10:00 p.m. the night before). I still haven’t finished the scene-by-scene outline, though I hope to by tomorrow morning. And it’s now November 3rd and I haven’t even begun drafting my novel yet. That seems like a cause for concern, right? But I’m

An Early 2016 Mid-Year Writing Check-In (And Why You Should Do One Too)

We’re coming up on the midpoint of 2016. That means it’s a great time to reflect on our progress thus far. Most years I share my writing goals and resolutions with readers around January and then post a mid-year check-in around early July. This year I conducted my mid-year check-in early. And I highly recommend you do the same. Why Conduct an Early Mid-Year Review? The

Dreams, Ambitions, and Finding Balance in Your Business

Do you ever feel like you aren’t living the life you really want to live? That your dreams and ambitions are going unfulfilled? That you’ve lost sight of things you’re passionate about, and you’re not quite sure when you got off-track? I do sometimes. Actually, these days, make that a lot. Maybe your dreams involve publishing your first novel. Maybe you dream of running a successful

How I Prevented a Chronic Health Condition From Ruining My Writing Career

Frequent migraines. Feeling weak and ice cold most of the time. Severe insomnia. Significant, and sudden, weight gain. Constant pain. Multiple miscarriages, and the emotional baggage that comes with each one. Ongoing exhaustion so bad I could barely drag myself out of bed for months. That was just a small sampling of my own personal hell for a few years. These health issues had the

How You Can be a More Prolific Writer – No Superpowers Needed

A friend and member of the All Freelance Writing community contacted me recently with a question about being a more prolific writer and balancing multiple writing ambitions. She asked to remain anonymous but agreed to let me share her question here in the hopes my answer might help someone else in a similar predicament. Here’s the gist: This is a writer in a similar position

Why You’ll Fail at Freelancing if You Suck at Math

This post was originally published on Yolander Prinzel’s blog in 2014. It was relocated to All Freelance Writing when that blog was shut down.  When you decided to become a freelance writer, you probably didn’t think those old math classes would come in handy. It turns out they will. I hope you paid attention. Not understanding basic math can cost you dearly, whether it happens

Building Author Visibility Before a Book Launch: A 10-Point Plan

When it comes to book marketing, I frequently mention that promotion is something authors need to think about early — even before your books are published. A part of that is building your author platform and gaining visibility (and an audience of readers anxious to buy your book when it’s released). This year one of my biggest projects involves building visibility under my horror author

Make the Most of 2016: Writing Goals, Resolutions, and Alternatives

At the start of each year we talk a lot about goals and planning here at All Freelance Writing. And that’s for good reason. It’s much easier to get from where you are now to where you ultimately want to be when you have a plan in place, and every good plan starts with a goal. That said, we sometimes get stuck on the concept of

3 Things Writers Should Rethink in the New Year

Happy New Year! I hope 2016 is off to a great start for all of you. I’m excited to be back to work. There’s something about the fresh slate of a new year that ignites a fire under me to tackle big things. Even if you don’t have big projects planned, now is a great time to make other tweaks to your business. If you’re

3 Tools for More Productive and Organized Writing

Today marks the start of my usual year-end vacation, meaning I won’t be around much until the New Year (January 4th in this case). Before taking these yearly breaks I spend a lot of time evaluating my previous year. It’s how I set goals for the next year, but it’s also when I look at the tools and processes I’ve been using to decide what