There is a subset of fantasy literature called Big Fat Fantasy (BFF). Or door-stoppers … because they look like this. My first foray into BFF territory was Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series. I really enjoyed that series until Jordan created way too many plot, sub-plot, sub-sub-plot, and sub-sub-sub plot threads. I gave up on that series in 2000. I …
My blog updates were pretty scatter-shot last year. To remedy that, I plan to alternate between personal topics and more business/writing-related topics like my upcoming blog post on Local and Non-local Writing Clients. I’ll most likely preface these posts or bracket them with a label. Also, I know that my current comment system is not the most convenient (comments are …
I meant to write about my vacation a couple of months ago, but since the year is winding down, I thought I’d put this up now. We all could use a dose (or a memory) of sunshine, after all, 😉 As an adult, vacations have always been strange for me. (Every kid loves vacations!) As a Portland freelance writer, vacations …
My brain must be working through something. Or I’ve been hit by late-90s nostalgia. Or I’ve just missed good storytelling on television. Whatever the reason, I’ve recently become addicted to Buffy The Vampire Slayer. If you’re unfamiliar, the show is about a teenage girl (Sarah Michelle Gellar) who becomes The Slayer, a chosen one destined to fight demons in all …
Many of us never meet the living authors who influence us. I met William Gibson, twice, before reading one word he had written. I’d known about William Gibson since the late 80s. Cyberpunk, which WG helped pioneer, is a gritty, snarly, neon-in-rain, dystopian genre. I was more of a Star Wars kind of kid. Any time I’d mention that I …
Lauren Edwards is an experienced writing coach with 10 years of public relations expertise – first with A&R Partners, and then with Edelman. Lauren gives some of the best writing advice I have ever read. I’ve trained people how to write for specific audiences – primarily the lending, investing, and venture capital community. This ain’t easy. I write intuitively and …
I like to think of writing and editing the way a boxer might think of his fists. One’s steel, the other is iron. If one don’t get ya, the other one will. For me, the writing process is chaotic, disorderly, and powered entirely by imagination. Whether I’m writing website content, brochure copy, book reviews, business plans, or fiction, I channel …
Two days after I parted ways with my job, I had my first client as a solopreneur. How? Because of networking. Networking has been one of the biggest power boosts to my career as a Portland freelance writer. In fact, my current active client list is composed largely of referrals from my networking group, the Portland-based Northwest Networking Professionals. So, …
Business plans are strange documents. Because they involve dream businesses, people tend to pour their emotions into them and lose all objectivity. Depending on your requirements, a business plan is an internal roadmap with milestones that you define. Or it’s a document you present to a bank officer for a loan. Or it’s a proposal you submit to angel …
I love working with words. They are, after all, my main currency of exchange, 😉 One word that has always fascinated me is, “freelance.” It has a nice, “Old World” ring, doesn’t it? It conjures visions of horsemen raising their lances for a charge, sworn to no king. The term “freelance” was first coined by Sir Walter Scott in his …
On the first day of this year on my old blog, I wrote: “Here’s hoping it’s a great year for everyone. So long, 2008 … … Don’t let the door hit your ass on the way out.” And then I included a picture of heavy door that one might find in prisons or middle schools. There were definitely bright moments …
