Listening in 2009

Last night as I was driving home from work I was talking with my mother. She asked how the kids were and related to me a comment made to a friend of hers by his grandson. The little boy said, "Grandpa, I like to come to your house because you listen to me."

"I hope we listen to our kids," my mom said. "Do we listen to our kids?"

It's funny she should ask that. Last weekend my son was watching the football game with my husband in the family room (he's a Chargers fan), and I was watching TV in my bedroom. About every 15 minutes or so he'd come running in, so excited or anxious (depending upon the play) that he could barely contain himself, relating to me the play-by-play.

I couldn't care less about football--ever--but every time my son came in I'd pause the TV and just lay there in awe looking at him and watching him relate every detail of this sport that is so important to him. I honestly don't remember what he said, but I do remember what I was thinking.

I thought how awesome it was that he cared enough about me to come rushing in after each play and tell me exactly what happened, knowing how little I care about football. I thought how wonderful it was that something so ultimately simple could excite him so very much. And I wondered if the day would come when he would stop wanting to tell me about the things that are important to him, when it would no longer occur to him to share things with me. I hoped not.

I came very close to gathering him up in my arms that night, squeezing him, and whispering in his ear "Please don't ever stop telling me about football." But I knew he'd probably say "oh. . . kay" and give me the look he gives me when I act in that confusing way all moms act when they're thinking about something very far away from what's happening right now.

Here's to becoming better writers in 2009 by becoming better listeners.

I Could Have Said That

I read an article over at Freelance Parent about how freelancers have so much random information stored in their brains. This is so true. In fact I was just thinking the other day about how I know more than I ever really thought possible about some things. My list includes:

• How to start an Ebay business


• How to take care of aging relatives


• How to start a Face Painting business


• Working as a stewardess aboard a Megayacht


• Project Management

Although I love learning about new things, I do find that by the time I finish a 50 or 100 page project on one topic, I'm ready to move on to something different for awhile. What about you?

Do you think having a lot of knowledge about random things enhances your abilities as a writer? We certainly have a lot of information to draw upon.

Cutting the Clutter

I have a list of article submissions and queries I try to accomplish on a regular basis. These are jobs that get pushed to the back burner for when I have a moment of time to work on them. As a general rule of thumb, I try to work on one a week. Last week I had a submission I wanted to get in on an article I'd had sitting around for a long time; however, I'd need to cut over 200 words to get it to fit the submission requirements. I thought the topic would be a great fit for this particular publication, so I began cutting.

Every article has a little bit of cutting room, and the article is always better for it in the long run. All writers know this. In fact, Anne, over at The Golden Pencil, talks about this in her recent post "Just Eliminate Some of Your Deathless Prose." 200 words felt to me like an enormous amount of cutting, though. I wasn't sure I could actually do it and end up with anything substantial, but I wanted to try, so I began cutting. At first it was relatively painless. In fact, it felt good--in that way that getting rid of clutter always does. Then it began to hurt a little--then a lot! There were several sentences I contemplated cutting and then decided to leave for last. I had to come back to them, though, in order to make those final steps toward reaching my word-count goal.

I was certain when I did my final read-through this chopped-up article would be lacking something, wouldn't make sense, wouldn't resemble my original intent. Was it different for the cutting? Absolutely. It didn't follow the exact direction intended in the original article. I was amazed to discover, though, that what I was left with was still a good article. There are a couple of sentences I'd put back in today, if I could. I'm missing them that much. In spite of that, though, there sure was a lot of stuff in there I could do without. The problem is, we are attached to our words. They're like little pieces of us embedded into our work. We find it difficult to believe that an article can exist without them, but it really can.

Newsletters-The News in Marketing

In her article titled "Find a Job you Love, and You'll Never Work Another Day in Your Life" on the Writers in the Sky blog, Taryn Simpson writes about the growing popularity of Newsletters. I couldn't agree more. It seems everyone is into newsletters these days, including Susan Johnston over at The Urban Muse.

I'm on the Marketing Committee at my children's school with several people who happen to have areas of expertise in marketing and technology, and our efforts this new school year have been nearly entirely technology focused. We have several tech gurus on the committee who understand how to make things happen. Then there are people like me who know the value of the internet as a marketing tool for small businesses and big businesses alike. It is turning out to be an amazing combination.

Madison Campus Elementary is a small private school struggling to improve its enrollment and share with its community its standards for academic excellence. Our efforts this year are leading us places MCE has never been, such as blogging and newsletters. Once we build our subscriber base and have a database for contacting alumni and interested parties, we'll then be able to use that same core of contacts for areas like endowment. This is one committee I'm actually thrilled to be a part of!

Are you a Perfectionist or an Idealist?

I recently received an advertisement in my email inbox from a famous makeup company with a very French name. The header said:

Are you a Perfectionist or an Idealist?

This particluar company has a line of facial products that fall under each title. Now, I'm sure this was not the intent of the marketing gurus at French Cosmetic Company, but I immediately thought about how this applies to writing (that sort of thing happens to writers a lot--to the dismay of cosmetics marketing gurus).

Perfectionist

According to http://www.dictionary.com/, a perfectionist is a person who adheres to or believes in perfectionism, which is a propensity for being displeased with anything that is not perfect or does not meet extremely high standards.

That sounds good. Right? Only if its helpful. A perfectionist is someone who demands perfection, both of himself and of others. This can be one of those stumbling blocks that keeps us from actually accomplishing anything. As a teacher, I always tell my students that writing isn't finished until it's finished. It goes both ways, though. When writing is finished, it's finished. I'll chant the praises of revision as long as anyone, but at some point revision has to end, or it is simply procrastination.

Idealist

An idealist is one who cherishes or pursues high or noble principles, purposes, goals, etc.

Now that sounds really good--heroic even! Not necessarily. The other side of the idealist coin is impracticality. Being a visionary is great, especially for copywriters, and idealism deals with imagination, which can bring all types of writing to life. If we want to pay the bills, though, we have to be at least partly realistic. Being a visionary isn't always practical. Sometimes we have to save the idealism for the part of our writing that is still a hobby, or use it as a seasoning, to spice up the realism that clients actually need to sell their product.

My Top 3 Freelancing Mistakes

It's been two months since I started writing and marketing my writing in an intentional way. That may be a very short period of time; however, it has been plenty of time to make plenty of mistakes. So I decided it was time to create a Top 3 List.

1. Read Less and Write More
One of the first things I did as a new freelancer was subscribe to every blog on writing and freelancing I could find that seemed interesting and contained helpful information. Find the experts and see what they're saying. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Yes, and no.

Many other bloggers have mentioned it. There comes a time when there is simply not enough time to read every blog in your RSS inbox. More importantly, the time I spent reading what others had to say about writing was time I should really have been writing myself. When you're on a limited time budget, you have to make the best use of your time. I've learned to sort out a few really helpful blogs and let the rest go until I really have a moment of downtime.

2. Not All Work is Good Work
The second thing a budding freelancer always does is look for work. But taking every writing job that comes your way can be a trap. Not every job is worth it, as the Urban Muse has noted. Even though I've only been freelancing seriously for a few months, this was a lesson I quickly learned. Since I'm still a full-time wage slave, my time is of the essence. I already have to look into the nooks and crannies of my life to find the time to write. A job that takes two hours to research and pays the same as a job that only takes one hour may not be the best job for me.

3. Put the "B" List on the List
I love writing. Writing isn't really work to me; it's more of a passion. The problem is, there are other things I'm equally passionate about, like my family. One of my biggest frustrations in freelancing has been not having enough time to write. This is a topic I've researched extensively on all of those blogs I mentioned in number 1. Jennifer, over at Catalyst Blogger, even responded to the question personally, which I truly appreciate. There's a lot of great advice out there, but most of the bloggers I've read who made the switch from Corporate America to Freelancer weren't married or didn't have children. Like it or not, that does make a difference. On the other hand, we're all busy.

I'm a list maker and a planner. If an event or activity isn't on my calendar, it doesn't exist in my world. I have been this way for years. It's how I keep my busy life organized. I've been great at putting writing deadlines on my calendar. I realized, though, that there is a whole area of my writing that frankly tends to be overlooked. I have a "B" list of writing tasks. This includes things like updating my portfolio, putting together queries, researching articles I'd "like" to write, you know the stuff. This is the list that isn't due today. I've learned to assign it a due date and put it on my daily "to do" list. I may move its due date down because I have more pressing things due today, but at least it will get done one day soon, which is more than I can say for my "B" list.

The Project Management World

If you're interested in the project management world, you can find my new article discussing Goldratt's Theory of Constraints here.