How to Write Faster (for Freelance Writers & Bloggers)

You’ve probably heard this line before: “Fast. Cheap. Good. You can only have two.” That’s true in freelance writing as in most things. Clients have to prioritize. As a freelance writer, you don’t want your clients prioritizing “cheap” work when they hire you. That means you’ll need to provide those other two benefits: being good and being fast. In this case, “being good” means being

How to Use Skeleton Outlines to Write Faster

A fellow writer mentioned client projects sometimes took longer than they hoped, so they wanted to learn to write faster in order to avoid this. While there are plenty of ways you can increase your writing speed, one tip I gave them was to use “skeleton outlines.” I worked through the beginning stages of of a skeleton outline while they watched to show how quick

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

What’s Your NaNoWriMo Plan?

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) began yesterday. NaNoWriMo is the annual month-long challenge to write a 50,000 word first draft of a novel. I’ve only taken part during two years so far, and I’ve managed to reach my goal both times. I’m hoping to make this year my third. I’m approaching this NaNoWriMo a bit differently than previous years. My goal is to actually hit

Quick Tip: Don’t Wait Until November to Prepare for NaNoWriMo

National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo, is a little over two weeks away. But if you plan to take part in it this year, you shouldn’t wait until November 1st to think about your new manuscript. Instead, use the rest of October for planning and outlining. Then, when NaNoWriMo begins, you’ll be ready to jump into your story. How I’m Spending My October Getting Ready

2 Years to a Book [InfoGraphic]

In this week’s “short share,” we have a two-year book writing plan from HuntersWritings.com. While two years might be an unnecessarily long time for many indie authors these days, I think it’s a great plan for new authors — especially those trying to write their first book alongside a traditional day job. If you find yourself with limited time to write, but you’d like to

How Do You Motivate Yourself to Write?

It doesn’t matter how experienced of a writer you are. You’re bound to feel unmotivated every now and then. Sometimes you can plow through these periods. But at other times you’ll need to find ways to get excited about your projects again. I’m like any other writer in this regard. I have good days and bad days. Sometimes a lack of motivation is a result

5 Useful Scrivener Keyboard Shortcuts for Writers

Scrivener is a wonderful tool for writers. You can use it to write a novel or nonfiction book. You can use it to format your writing as an e-book. You can even use Scrivener for blogging. That said, Scrivener can also be a complicated tool to use. I doubt I even know half of what it can do. It’s one of those tools that you

Free Scrivener Template: Murder Mystery Novel

My next Scrivener template is now available for download: a murder mystery novel template. This one is based on my own template that I’ve been using for my upcoming mystery series. It allows you to plan, outline, and draft your next murder mystery all in one project file. Plus, there’s a place to write up some of your promotional copy, like your book launch press

What Makes a Good Story?

For this weekend’s short share, I wanted to feature an infographic that applies to authors and copywriters alike: What Really Makes a Good Story? from Tom Albrighton at ABCCopywriting.com.   Check out the original discussion or leave a comment to tell me what you think. Are there other vital elements to a good story? Do you disagree with anything in the infographic?

Is AutoCrit a Good Fit for Indie Authors? (Review)

Some authors love the revision process. Some, not so much. I fall in the latter group. But if there’s one thing I dislike more than working on revisions, it’s the idea of automating the process with software. Revisions aren’t only about spelling and grammar. They’re also about improving the flow of a story and making better word choices, even if your original is technically correct.

How to Move Scrivener Documents to Word

This week’s quick tip comes from a question I received from Cathy Miller (my most recent guest co-host for the freelance writing podcast). Cathy’s thinking about making the move to Scrivener for freelance writing projects. But she’d heard from another writer that Scrivener projects don’t convert to Word well, especially when tables are involved. And most clients expect projects delivered in Word format, so that’s

5 Things Ethical Article Writers Don’t Do

Do you consider yourself an ethical article writer or blogger? Whether you write for print publications or the web, professional ethics are an important part of building trust with readers and clients, which is part of what keeps them coming back for more. My ethical standards won’t necessarily look like yours, and vice-versa. For example, I have ethical issues with writing about certain topics that

Reader Question: When English Isn’t Your First Language

Today I’d like to tackle a reader question from Evgeni Puzankov related to selling writing to English-language publications when English isn’t your first language. Can you do so successfully? “The question that plagues me throughout my adult life is whether one can actually make it in anglophone writing biz, while not being a native. I’m Russian and still live here. My mother sent me to

The Snowflake Method for Outlining a Novel

It’s no secret that when it comes to tackling large writing projects, I’m a planner. I work from outlines for nearly everything I write (even this blog post). I’ve tried several outlining strategies over the years. And ultimately I’ve taken bits and pieces of each strategy to customize my own process. Last year, I came across someone on the NaNoWriMo forums talking about The Snowflake

Novel Planning Tools and Worksheets

We recently talked about preparing for NaNoWriMo during October, and I shared some of my own plans such as using the Snowflake Method for this novel’s outline. Today I’d like to share some of the best resources for helping you plan your NaNoWriMo novel (or any novel for that matter). Here are links to character planning resources and some of my favorite more general tools

Prepare for NaNoWriMo: 5 Tips for October Planning

Last year was the first year I took part in NaNoWriMo. I participated mostly as a challenge that I could document here on the site. It went well. And I’m doing it again this year, although I’ll be following the traditional rules rather than last year’s “rebel” approach where I combined a few projects that I needed to work on anyway. This year I’m working

Quick Tip: The Pomodoro Technique for Authors

One of my favorite productivity tools in my freelance writing and blogging work is a timer. I use something called the Pomodoro Technique which breaks down my work into small, manageable periods of time. It’s a great way to stay focused and push yourself to see how much you can do in a short stretch. And it turns out, it works well for writing books

Kristen Weber on Developmental Editing for Your Fiction

One of the biggest benefits of indie publishing is the freedom it allows authors to assemble the perfect team to develop and represent their books. That includes bringing in the right editors. But what kind of editing help do you really need? You probably know that copyeditors and proofreaders can help you catch things like spelling and grammatical errors. But what about consistency and making

Writing Fiction: Series or One-off Titles?

Recently we’ve been talking a lot about writing books, including Karen Wiesner’s recent release on writing fiction series. Today I’d like to delve a bit further into the decision we make as authors between pursuing a one-off novel versus looking for series potential. Both have their place. So let’s look at the pros and cons of both. Here are some of the most obvious upsides

Cohesive Story Building by Karen Wiesner: Coming Soon

We’ve been talking a lot this past week about Karen Wiesner’s latest writer’s reference book, Writing the Fiction Series. Today I’d like to share some information about another book you should keep an eye out for. The rights to her book, From First Draft to Finished Novel, have reverted to her, and Karen is set to release a new version of the book through another publisher. The new release

Review of Writing the Fiction Series by Karen Wiesner

I’ve made it no secret that I’m a fan of the previous two writers’ reference books from Karen Wiesner — First Draft in 30 Days and From First Draft to Finished Novel. So I was thrilled when she sent me her most recent release for writers, Writing the Fiction Series.  This was a timely read for me. I’m gearing up to take part in my first NaNoWriMo, when I’ll finish

Preparing for NaNoWriMo: Organizing and Outlining Your Novel

While we’re talking to our featured guest, Karen Wiesner, this week about writing novels and planning fiction series, it seemed an appropriate time to talk about NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). With NaNo just over a week away, thousands of authors and aspiring authors are getting ready to write a novel during November. Before jumping into a first draft, many writers opt to outline their

Interview With Author Karen Wiesner on Writing a Series

Karen Wiesner isn’t just our first featured guest here at All Freelance Writing. She is also the author of some of my favorite writing reference books. I was a huge fan of her First Draft in 30 Days in particular — a book that helped me map out my own customized book planning, outlining, and organization process. So I was thrilled when she contacted me about

My First NaNoWriMo

I’ve never made it a secret that I’m not a big fan of NaNoWriMo. The idea of pushing myself to write on someone else’s schedule doesn’t sit well with me. And I find the whole community aspect to be possibly more distracting than helpful. Don’t get me wrong. I get why people take part every year, and if it works for them, I think that’s

4 Types of Editing & How To Choose Which Your Book Needs

Note: Melissa no longer offers these services. This post remains as archived content for your reference. One of the most common questions I get as an editor is about what different types of editing there are and what each one entails. New clients aren’t always sure what level of editing they need and don’t know how to make that decision. Before you can decide between the

The Rules of the Sneaky Serial Comma

If there was ever a piece of punctuation to give us all fits, it’s the comma. When do you use it? When are you using it too much? Do I need a comma there? Correct comma usage causes endless questions simply because there are so many rules. Let’s worry about one comma in particular – the serial, or Oxford, comma. It’s the most controversial of

From Struggling Writer to Solid Writer and Beyond

As an English teacher, I have a strategy that usually works for struggling and reluctant writers. If they claim to not be able to write something, I ask them to tell me the story or response to address the prompt. Then, after they tell me a sentence or two, I repeat it back to a student and tell him to write it down. Kid says,

A Proofreading Checklist: What to look for before calling it done

Before hitting “send” when sending out a new piece or before hitting “publish” on a new blog post, it pays to proofread your piece. Here are some quick things to check when proofreading your own copy. Homophones Perhaps one of the most common mistakes when when writing is misusing homophones–words that sound alike but are spelled differently. Spell check won’t catch a misused word; it

Show Don’t Tell — An Example Done Right

You may have had college professors preach to you to “show, don’t tell.” The ironic thing about that statement is that it contradicts itself. Take the video I’ve embedded below, for instance. In the video, a blind homeless man is begging for change. A young woman comes by and changes what he has written on his sign–and in response, many more people begin to give