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If you are, then join the new Kansas City Writers Meetup group here. Our first meeting will be on Sunday, August 20th. Get all the details here.

Until then,

Happy Writing!

Suzanne Lieurance

So many times I see freelance writers trying to add specialized services like resume writing to their offerings before they find out enough about this particular type of writing to know whether or not they will enjoy it OR realize just what all is involved in becoming successful at it.

If you listened to my freelance writing workshop this past week at the University Of Masters, then you know Maurene J. Hinds, a certified professional resume writer, and author of The Ferguson Guide to Resumes and Job Hunting Skills, knows just exactly what it takes to become a successful resume writer.

She knows resume writing can be the perfect freelance job for a college student or a stay-at-home mom, and she knows exactly what it takes to get started.

Look at this new special 4-week workshop she is offering. You won’t want to miss it if you have even the slightlest inkling of becoming a professional resume writer yourself. But you’d better hurry! The class starts next week and enrollment is limited.

Testing the Waters: Find out if Resume Writing is Right for You before Taking the Plunge!

If you’ve often thought of adding resume writing to your list of freelance writing services, this four week workshop is just what you need! Find out more about this highly specialized form of writing BEFORE you make the final plunge and plunk down hundreds of dollars for training and/or membership in professional resume writing associations.

Week One: What’s it all about?

“Thank you so much–I just landed my dream job!” “Wow, I look good on paper! I had no idea I’ve done as much as I have in my work. Thank you for helping me!” These types of comments are commonly heard among resume writers. Perhaps the most rewarding part of working as a resume writer is helping people realize their dreams, or to take major steps towards reaching their goals. If you are interested in becoming part of a highly dedicated professional community, resume writing may be right for you! Resume writing is an art, however; if it were easy, people wouldn’t hire professionals! Learn what is involved in a day in the life of a resume writer.

Week Two: Setting up Shop

There are many things to consider when it comes to starting a resume writing business. This week, we will cover some of the bigger issues you’ll want to consider before taking the plunge.

Week Three: The Art of Resume Writing

To succeed in resume writing, you need to learn some tricks of the trade and build your credibility. This week we’ll focus on how you can begin building your business.

Week Four: The Next Steps

If you’re ready to take the plunge, this week will focus on some next steps to take to help build a successful business.

Your instructor, Maurene J. Hinds, is a Certified Professional Resume Writer (CPRW) and author of The Ferguson Guide to Resumes and Job Hunting Skills. She has been writing resumes professionally for over three years, and is a fulltime freelance writer, much of which is supported by resume writing.

For more information and to register, please click here.

If you look around at the top performers today in any field - sports, sales, or even coaching - you’ll find that almost all of these top performers have at least one thing in common. They all had a coach at one time or another in their professional careers.

Whether your field is golf, tennis, running, sales, business management, or writing, a coach can help you perform at a much higher level. Here’s how :

1. A good coach will keep you motivated. Since you’ll have to report regularly to your coach, you’ll get constant feedback and encouragement, which will keep you motivated to achieve your best.

2. A good coach will offer a system. With a system in place, you’ll be more likely to stick with it. Plus, you won’t be taking just a hit-or-miss approach to success.

3. A good coach will help you learn to plan. Your coach will help you set goals that are realistic and design training that will help you achieve those goals. In other words, a good coach will keep you focused.

4. A good coach will offer you professional advice. After a while, you won’t rely on your coach for every decision you make about your career or performance. But you’ll still want the coach around when you need a little professional advice.

5. A good coach will help you get beyond certain plateaus when you no longer seem to be moving ahead and improving. Working alone, you might feel stuck at a certain point in your career. But a good coach will help you overcome those plateaus and move ahead to the next level of performance and accomplishment.

6. A good coach will help you accurately evaluate your progress. Sometimes it’s difficult to evaluate our own progress. We tend to focus on the negative, and only see our faults and failures. A good coach will help you see things more realistically.

7. A good coach will make the process fun. Let’s face it. What’s the sense in striving for your highest level of performance if you aren’t going to enjoy the process. Your coach will help you design a working schedule that won’t overwhelm you, so you’ll enjoy the entire process of achieving your best.

Top performers in all fields would probably tell you they wouldn’t be where they are today without a good coach.

So find a coach who is right for you. Then get ready to enjoy your climb to the top.

Suzanne

Tags: Writing coach– Writing– freelance writing– writing seminar— Writing Workshop

Last night’s session of my course, Freelance Writing: How to Jumpstart Your Career, at the University Of Masters went GREAT! My special guest for the evening was professional resume writer, Maurene J. Hinds. She offered some very helpful tips for those people who are trying to develop their own professional resume or wanting to learn how to add resume writing to their own freelance writing services.

All the classes at the University Of Masters are recorded, so even if you aren’t able to attend the live teleclasses you can listen to the recordings at any time.

Maurene has given me a .pdf file of Ten Tips for Developing Your Professional Resume. Email me and I’ll be glad to send you the file.

Have a great writing day!

If you aren’t on my mailing list, sign up at right and start receiving The Morning Nudge every weekday morning.

Suzanne

If you’re a member of the University Of Masters, you probably already know that every two weeks I teach a teleclass for freelance writers. My next class will be this Tuesday, July 25th, from 5:00 - 6:00 (Pacific Time). The topic will be Creating a Professional Resume.

My special guest for this event will be Maurene Hinds. Maurene is a certified professional resume writer and author of The Ferguson Guide to Resumes & Job Hunting Skills. She is also a member of the Lieurance Group.

Maurene Hinds

If you’d like to find out how you can develop resumes as part of your freelance writing services, or you just need to put together your own resume, don’t miss this live teleclass.

Whether you’re an experienced freelance writer or just starting to make money from your writing, this article from Pamela White is sure to give you some ideas you can turn into a little extra cash.

Fill ‘er Up - Earn More by Writing Food Fillers
by Pamela White

Grab your latest issue of Woman’s Day off the coffee table. Flip through Saveur. Sneak a peak through the pages of Cosmo Girl at the newsstand.

Wonder what they have in common? Fillers.

Fillers are those small boxes that accompany certain articles. They are the jokes peppered throughout your child’s favorite magazine. Fillers can be quizzes, humorous tidbits, sweet remembrances, or announcements of new products, recipes or restaurants.

The pay is small, from $5 to $50. The time it takes to put a filler together is also small. You can write a 100-word piece while watching television. You can list 5 ways to do something better in between putting your water on to boil and adding the pasta. Write fillers while traveling to work on the bus, waiting in the school parking lot for your children, sitting at a coffee shop enjoying a moment alone.

Fillers take less time to send off to editors, too. Selling fillers to magazines and websites doesn’t require researching and writing a query letter. Do write a cover letter including your contact information and writing background. Include a self-addressed stamped envelope. Call the publication and ask for the name of the editor to whom you should send it. Type up the envelope, slip in your filler, cover letter and SASE, and pop it in the mail.

Where do ideas for fillers come from? Be very attentive to conversations you are having. Did you just toss off a comment about a new kitchen toy you have? Maybe you rattled off one of your dozens of fruity salad dressings. If anyone says to you, “That’s wonderful. I never knew that,” take it as a hint that your little tidbit would make a great filler for a magazine.

Why do editors love filler pieces? 25- to 500-word pieces are great for filling gaps in the pages. Editorial policy at some publications includes a certain amount of easy games, funny stories or quickly scanned lists of information.

Readers love fillers. Fillers pack a lot of information in a small space. Think of sitting at the dentist’s office, nervously passing the time with a magazine. You may not be able to read 12-page articles on political matters, but you will probably retain the zippy list of how to tell produce is fresh.

Successful writers of fillers say that paying close attention to the calendar brings in more sales. Assume a magazine is running at least 6 months ahead of the actual publishing date. Send your Christmas and New Year’s fillers in by May.

Here are seven ways to brainstorm filler ideas:

1 - Write cooking tips: Aim for the magazine’s readership when writing cooking tips, and don’t limit yourself to women’s or food magazines. Send YM (for teen girls) a filler on the Five Easiest-To-Make, Can’t-Go-Wrong Dinners to Make for Boyfriends. Cosmo, on the other hand, might take a short piece on Six Aphrodisiac Foods that REALLY Work. Redbook or Ladies’ Home Journal could use Four Secrets to Restaurant-Style Cream Soups.

2 - Design Food Quizzes: You know food, right? Share your knowledge in a fun, interactive way by writing food quizzes. Take a produce item and make-up five questions and answers about it. Alternatively, write questions about the nutritive value of foods, or dishes, and have the readers select which answer is the lowest in fat, highest in calcium or best health bang for the buck.

3 - Birthdays are always special: Get online and do searches for the birthday (or anniversary) of potato chips, for instance. Oops, we all missed that one — it was last month. You get the idea — take a favorite, quirky or curious dish and track down when its fifth, fiftieth, two-hundredth anniversary is. Write up five sentences about it and send it to newspapers, magazines, or food websites. Writing anniversaries of products also translates well to full-length articles (for future reference).

4 - How to Use Tools: Write up to 500 words on new (or classic) kitchen tools and how to get the best use out of them. Food writers may be up to date on slicing and dicing equipment, clay crockery and milk steamers, but your readers may not. Sitting on your couch with your feet up and a cat on your lap doesn’t stop you from explaining how to season and keep your clay roaster in perfect condition.

5 - Best Ways to…: Your readers need to know the best ways to get calcium in their diets, to quiet menopausal symptoms with nutrition, to fry chicken perfectly, and to eat for optimum energy in the morning.

6 - Recipes: One-recipe fillers are a natural for food writers. Go further and share one recipe plus additions to change it. A basic muffin batter can be improved in many ways: add blueberries, grated lemon and orange zest, or cinnamon and pecans. Suddenly you have a filler article.

7 - Profiles of chefs: This idea seems to fit food magazines best, but can also be great for alternative newspapers, or newspapers’ food sections. Choose a local chef who has received rave reviews for a particular dish - corn chowder, roasted game birds, vegetarian feasts - and interview her or him for background information, favorite dining spots, and a recipe to share.

Fillers can ‘fill out’ your writing resume, and add cash to your coffer, by using what you already know and can dash off in spare moments of your busy day.

© 2006 Pamela White

About the Author: Pamela White is the author of over 600 published articles, short stories and essays, and publishes “Food Writing” at www.food-writing.com and The Writing Parent, two ezines that focus on unique writing niches. She teaches online writing classes at both sites, and invites readers to subscribe to the ezines by visiting each site.

Article Source: ezinearticles.com

If you’re struggling to become a “working” freelance writer, how do you start your day?

Do those doubting voices in your head start whispering to you the moment you sit down at the computer to write something?

You know the voices I mean.

The ones that whine, “You’re wasting your time.

You’ll never make a living from freelance writing.”

I truly believe in the power of positive thought.

After all, I never knew anyone who accomplished something by thinking they couldn’t do it.

But I’ve often been awed by the amazing feats positive people have accomplished simply because they had confidence and a strong belief in themselves.

Tomorrow morning, start your day a little differently.

Start a new morning ritual.

Sit down and summons the positive voices in your mind that very rarely get a chance to be heard.

The ones that remind you that anything worthwhile usually takes time, patience, and hard work.

Silence those negative voices and refuse to give them a chance to undermine your confidence and belief in yourself.

Then spend some time writing.

Be patient with yourself.

Work hard.

Develop this morning ritual and eventually you’ll no longer doubt that you can be successful.

*************************************

Do you need a postive nudge to get your writing started every morning? Then joing my mailing list (at right) and every weekday morning you’ll receive The Morning Nudge, just a few positive thoughts to help you start writing.

Don’t just dream about becoming a “working” freelance writer.

Do something about it.

Lately, I’ve had more than a few writers email me, asking when I’ll be offering another free sample session of my 8-week coaching program.

Well, the next sample coaching session is finally set.

Please join me Thursday night, July 20th at 7:00 p.m. (CT) for a sample session of The Working Writer’s Coaching Program, and find out if my personal coaching is right for you.

During this special sample telesession we’ll discuss things you can do right now to get your own freelance writing career started.

For an invitation to this special event, simply send me an email. In the subject line put “invitation, please.” In the body of the message include your NAME and TIME ZONE.

You won’t want to miss this call. You could be living your dream much sooner than you might think!

Suzanne

Hey, fellow writers. I’m getting ready to send out the next issue of my newsletter, so sign up for my mailing list today and you’ll receive a copy when it goes out tomorrow.

On Monday through Friday of each week, you’ll also receive The Morning Nudge, just a few words to motivate and inspire you to get a little writing done every day.

So, don’t delay…sign up, today!

Suzanne

So many of my writing students have trouble using commas. They either don’t use them at all or they use them too much.

Here’s a great article from Diane Samson, one of the members of my writing co-op, that will help you figure out when and where to use a comma.

HELP WITH COMMAS: BACK TO BASICS

by Diane E. Samson

As writers, we all want to create clean, professional work. We can spend hours writing and rewriting a piece to get just the right words on the page. Don’t let a simple punctuation error spoil an otherwise excellent job.

An occasional review of proper punctuation and especially the comma can be helpful to all writers, no matter what their skill level. One reason commas can be extra confusing for writers is that there are different rules for literature writing and journalism writing. The Associated Press (AP) established different rules from the basic English rules to save space in newspapers and help with legibility. Good writers are aware of the rules and know when to use what rule. If you are freelance writing an article for a client and are unsure of what set of rules to use, ask.

Here are a few tips on the use and misuse of commas.

Use a Comma:

1. In a series: Use a comma to separate words, phrases or clauses in a series or list. She bought apples, oranges, and bananas at the store. The final comma before “and” is used in English style, but not according to AP style, unless there is a conjunction at the end of the sentence, or the sentence would be confusing without it. He bought cherry popsicles, chocolate ice cream bars, and peaches and cream ice cream at the store.

2. To separate adjectives: When several adjectives are used to describe a noun in a sentence, sometimes the conjunction “and” is used. If you could sensibly use “and” in the sentence, you can use commas to separate the adjectives instead. Example: A long and dangerous road becomes A long, dangerous road. If “and” doesn’t work between the adjectives, no comma is needed. She received a new fur coat for Christmas. Here we have no commas because “and” isn’t needed between new and fur.

3. With nonessential phrases: This rule can be very confusing. We use a comma in a sentence where the addition of certain information in not essential to the reader’s understanding of the sentence. If the information is essential, we don’t use a comma. Example: The company president, John Jones, spoke. Commas are used because there is only one company president and the writer is adding information not essential to the sentence. We saw the award-winning movie “Titanic.” No commas are used here because many movies have won awards. The name of the movie is essential to the meaning of the sentence.

4. With introductory phrases and clauses: Separate the introductory phrase or clause from the main clause with a comma. Examples: When she finished preparing the meal, the family ate. With his happy tail wagging, the dog raced to greet me at the door. At once, the man leapt out of bed. Two introductory phrases sometimes need only one comma. In the middle of the night, she heard a strange sound.

5. With conjunctions: Use a comma with a conjunction in a compound sentence when linking two clauses that each could stand alone as a sentence. Examples: She raised her hand to throw the stick, and the dog ran like the wind to catch it. We went to the dinner party, and the hostess treated us like royalty.

6. To separate contrasting elements: Example: He became a nurse, not a doctor.

7. Other uses: Commas are used in many other ways, including introducing direct quotes, before attribution, between city and state names, and between an individual and his or her age. Keep a good grammar handbook handy if you are in question.

Don’t Use a Comma:

1. To separate verbs and objects. Example: The plumber said, that the pipes were a problem.

2. To separate words or phrases joined by and or or. Example: She drove home, and started dinner.

3. To break up words unnecessarily. Example: The fact that the dog had bitten the man, was enough evidence for the court to issue a fine of $200, and request the dog be removed from the home. No commas are needed in the previous sentence. Don’t start throwing commas in to make it better. Instead, rewrite it. Perhaps break the sentence up into several shorter sentences.

Diane Samson is a writer with The Lieurance Group, a freelance writers’ cooperative in Kansas City, Missouri. Samson can provide writing, reporting and editing services for magazines, newspapers, corporate communications and especially animal publications. Find out more about her writing services at The Lieurance Group or email her directly.