Preparations for NaNo 2009

by Carrie Bailey

My first year for National Novel Writing Month starts in two days.  I have my checklist all prepared and I am ready the 30 day novel writing frenzy.

1. Signed Up 
2. Writing Buddies
3. Coffee 
4. Computer 
5. Back up supply of coffee 

Barriers to writing exist in less suspected areas as well.  A full schedule can conflict with writing projects.  In order to write, I have to make writing a priority and that is no easy feat for anyone supporting a family or getting established.  After I assessed my regular schedule, I decided to sacrifice time in two areas: social media and movies.  I can only hope that my friends and loved ones will forgive my hiatus from Facebook and IM. Writing unpaid should replace other recreational activities if it is a priority.

Exercise and face to face socializing shouldn’t compete with time spent on writing projects.  Breathing, eating, and sleeping are also important activities that add to a person’s ability to produce spectacular written work.  Should a writer stretch before they start pounding away at the keys?  Yes.

Other good advice I’ve gleaned from the veterans:

Have snacks ready and near your writing space. 

Keep your plot loose and don’t plan anything that requires research.

Best of Luck to everyone getting started! 

Antagonist

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by Ariel Ceylan


Every person who is familiar with stories whether they are movies, comics, or books know of the antagonist.  The antagonist is usually the "bad guy" in the story, and without the antagonist there is no story.

As a writer, it is important to never forget this important line about antagonists, "They are people too".  This is probably the most vital maxim that a writer must live by other than "show don't tell".

I put together a list of things to keep in mind while creating the most crucial character in your book.

1) Who is the antagonist?
Like building any other character, one must create a detailed history of the antagonist.  The financial background, family life, favorite food, etc…

2) Why is the antagonist antagonizing the protagonist?
What is the ulterior motive?  Did the "good guy" in the novel make fun of the "bad guy" in high school?  People don't just do things, there is a logic behind everything that is done, whether it is sound or not.

3) Give the antagonist a weakness.
No one wants to read a book that the antagonist completely overwhelms the protagonist, making no hope or point in the plot.

4)  Make sure that the antagonist has a soft-spot
Does the antagonist have a thing for fluffy bunnies?  Make sure to keep in mind that the antagonist is a person.

5) Is there a chance at redemption for the antagonist?
As a writer, it is imperative to be clear of the antagonist's strengths, failings, and heart.  Does the antagonist deserve redemption?  Remember that this will not be in the eyes of you as a writer, but in the eyes of the protagonist.  The protagonist has the power to offer the "bad guy" a second chance if the "good guy" is really good.  Of course, the ball will then be in the "bad guy's" court, whether he or she will accept the offer.

6) Don't be afraid to let the tables turn
Let the story run its course when writing without cramping the style of the characters.  They may shock you with what they have done in their past and will do with their new experiences.  Be open to having a role reversal or having the reader understand the antagonist.

I think the most important thing in creating an effective antagonist is remembering that they are not just objects that make life more difficult for the protagonist, the antagonist is a real person.

I wish you much luck!

Check me out on: ceylanthewriter.wordpress.com

Ariel Ceylan is a seventeen-year-old girl, a senior in high school, that has published her first book on September 24^th, 2009 through Xlibris, a self-publishing company. 

National Novel Writing Month 2009

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November is National Novel Writing Month or NaNoWriMo.  This will be my first year as a participant and I’m excited, because everyone else is excited and I don’t know why yet, but I can’t wait to find out.  Here’s the website for details: http://www.nanowrimo.org/

“Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved.”

The objective is to write a 175 page novel or 50,000 words between November 1rst and November 30^th.  They emphasize quantity over quality in the spirit of sheer fun.  In 2008, NaNoWriMo had 119,301 participants and 21,683 winners.  A little background:

Founded by: Freelance writer Chris Baty and 20 other overcaffeinated yahoos in 1999.
Now run by: The Office of Letters and Light, an august 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in Oakland.

In my opinion, over-caffeination is genius, so NaNoWriMo must be, too.  They have a Young Writer’s program and on November 22 a Write-a-thon Fundraiser in San Francisco.  It’s a “night of writing dangerously”…

Many reasons exist for a writer to participate, but I’m asking myself, “Do I need a reason?” 

Writing Out of Sequence

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by Morgan Barnhart

Many of us have been taught to write straight from the beginning all the way to the end, without any breaks or skipping ahead or moving back. However, some of our minds don't work that way.

Let's say you are imagining an event that is just awesome and you want to write it down so badly but it doesn't come till much later. What do you normally do? You make a note of it and keep on trucking down the time line.

But why not just write out the entire scene and save it for later? Get it out of your system so your mind can focus clearer on other parts of the story. Write the parts that you can imagine in detail and worry about filling in the gaps later.

There's nothing wrong with writing out of order. It can actually be healthier for your progression into the story since you're getting everything out before worrying about the boring details in between. Just make sure you keep track of which part of the story it belongs in.

Do you write out of order?

How to Rectify Your Limpid Dinguses or Words that Sound Dirty But Aren't

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by Carrie Bailey

I like to write about seamen:

"Capt. One Peg ordered the sailor to 'Finish masticating that kumquat then fashion a sextant out of those there faggots.'"

Hmm...

Kumquats photo by supercookie33

I can use these words because I know their meaning. Put another way Capt. One Peg said, “Finish chewing that fruit and make a navigational device from those bundles of sticks.” But, that’s not what you were thinking and it’s not what I was thinking either. I’m not even sure what I was thinking. I guess I was just glad the Captain give the instructions wasn’t a Rear Admiral shouting from the poop deck.

"The crochety old man with the broken coccyx from Bangkok was observing your Uranus."

This one is also entirely innocent! It means that, more or less, “The peevish old guy from a city in Thailand who broke his tailbone was gazing at the seventh planet from the sun.” An astronomer with an unfortunate injury shouldn’t be offensive. Certain words can raise an eyebrow and clear room if used thoughtlessly among people in the early stages of their vocabulary development regardless and we should try to be careful...

"The deaf handyman gesticulated that he was busy cleaning a ramrod, ballcock, and nipple when a titmouse startled him, and he pricked a digit."

Getting worse? If you think so, it’s probably best to stop reading, but if you knew that it meant, “The deaf handyman used his hands to sign that he was cleaning a rod used to clear the barrel of a shot gun, a device for regulating the water level of a tank, and a small projection from a machine that drips oil, when a bird startled him and he cut his finger,” well continue…

Maybe you won’t be offended by,

"Balzac and Handcock jaculated the dart over the blowhole."

Because what’s the big deal? I mean, who cares if two men from history threw a dart over a geizer? Don’t we all have more important things to do than consider juvenile word associations?

"It’s fallacious that the beaver are organisms especially prone to deep vein thrombosis."

Honestly, it probably isn’t true that the furry animals with flat tails suffer from the most common cause of strokes. Thankfully, with maturity and experience we don’t grow beyond finding humor in this sort of misuse of vocabulary. In fact, would any educated grown-up bat an eye if at a friend’s house, our host said,

"Oh, please pardon my dictum, but my cockeyed pussy is the titular Regina of this bungalow."

Seriously? To think about it differently than it is wastes time. Anyone can excuse a declaration that a squinty-eyed cat is figuratively queen of the home. People talk about their cats all the time.

But, if you're still concerned about the rectification of limpid dinguses and what to do,  just use the dictionary, because you can't circumscribe a comeuppance for a weak vocabulary.  

Competition Makes You Better

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by Michael DeVoe

Competition makes you better. Playing sports, creating a business, getting good grades, and especially in art. Competing for arbitrary points, money, customers, audience members, fans, youtube views, or pride; it doesn’t matter they will all make you better. Here are a few ways that competing in poetry slams will make you a better poet.

Poetry slams are like crack, addicting and deadly.

Concentration

Comic by Chuck Ingwersen

A good slam is loud, competitive, and fun. The crowd is yelling while you’re trying to remember words, amens are thrown from the back row and the little lady in the front wont stop screaming, “No he didn’t” Think of it like 8-mile with points and no drive-bys, but possibly with sirens driving by the open window of the bar. If you don’t know your poem good luck, but if you can continue to recite your poem through a hail of loud, praise or not, you’ll be able to handle that piece in a feature any time.

Writing
When you hear poets so much better than you for the first time, you either quit, or get better. I chose to get better, I’ve seen a lot kids scratch their name of the list and go home. The challenge of beating better writers should inspire you to pick up your pencil and see how much better you get every time. Searching your vocab for better rhymes, finding new ways to alliterate, painting the most obscure image just to see if you can make it relate. Take the challenge.

Performance
Winning slams is a little bit about your writing and a lot a bit about your acting. This was hard for me because I’m really shy, I just wanted to get up and say poem and go away, but to win a slam you have to get loud, emotional, and animated. It’s as much about rhyme schemes as it is about how much your hands move. Your look can emphasise a phrase, your tone can make a line, and crowd involvement makes a score. The louder you can get the crowd the better the piece was for a slam and the higher your score will be, whether they laugh, cry, yell, hate, or go to church their volume is as important as yours.

Company
Lastly when you’re around other poets, especially the good ones, ask for advice. The best resource you can find on poetry the scene, the business, the talent, or the skill, is other poets, and a slam is full of them take advantage. The first slam I ever won was a week after asking the best poet I know in real life how he won slams, he told me to animate my poems with hand gestures, eyebrows, and tone inflections. Taking his advice was the best move of my career, I won the next slam I was in, and am a better poet all around for it.

If you think you’re a good poet, prove it, your three minutes starts now

Write, Love, SLAM.

Don't Just Write What You Know

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by Kendra Redman

As a writer you will often be told to ‘write what you know.’  This is the wrong advice.  I know; I was told this myself too many times.  Writing only what you know can be limiting for a lot of writers.  How many of us have lived the kind of life people will pay to read?  There are exceptions of course.  Some people have lived lives of terrible trauma and dysfunction and are able to take those experiences and cathartically release them into the pages of a novel.  In many cases, these writers didn’t plan to become a writer, and then cast about for what to write about, they became a writer because they had to in order to liberate their demons.  Augusten Borroughs said in an interview,  "My mother was a writer. I just associated writing with mental illness and unhappiness and poverty. But I always wrote because it was efficient. It was a way to remove the steam and the pressure. I can't imagine my life if I hadn't written. I wouldn't be functional."

So what if you are luckier in your life?  You don’t have the rich soil of trauma from which to birth your short story, novel or autobiography.  How do you write ‘what you know’?  One way is to live a life.  What I mean by living your life is to really experience your life.   Most people hurtle through their life without noticing much.  Close your eyes.  Now describe out loud the day you had yesterday.  How did you do?  First, how much do you even remember about the day?  If you were able to remember, how did you describe the day?   Did you reel off a list, a series of tasks, encounters and actions?  Most people would.  A writer would be able to describe the details…. how the eggs smelled, what the sun looked like, how your neighbor laughs.  Think about the people you interacted with yesterday.  How did this person speak?  Rapidly?  With an accent? Explain what they meant or were thinking, not what they said.  Are you able to?  If this exercise was difficult, then you are not ready to write, not yet.  You need to start living words.  Have you lived salty, frigid, still, naked, bemused, regretful, sour or unbreakable.

The other problem with telling writers to ‘write what you know’ is that people think in literal terms.  There are some exceptions, Le Carre was a spy.  However, most writers don’t actually write what they know.  They take what they know, the tastes, emotions, smells, mannerisms, actions, expressions and people they observe and then add a spoonful of imagination to the stew.  J.K. Rowling did not attend wizard school.  She did have some neighbors, a brother and sister whose last name, Potter, she preferred over her own.

Next, think about James Michener.  He was a meticulous researcher and spun his detailed notes into epics spanning geographies and generations.  If you were asking yourself a minute ago who James Michener was, well that’s the other thing about writing.  To write you must read.  So put down the pen, close the laptop and start reading.  Read it all.  Read books, magazine articles, essays.   Read the cereal box.  Read Shakespeare, Oates, Alice Walker -  read people you have never heard of.

William Faulkner said, “A writer needs three things, experience, observation, and imagination, any two of which, at times any one of which, can supply the lack of the others.”  

Write, write, write.  Then write some more. 

Writer's Block - Not My Cup of Tea

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by Tim Baker

If you were to ask 100 writers how they dealt with "writer's block" you would get 200 different answers.

I haven't been calling myself a writer for very long, but I've already heard a plethora of solutions and each time the topic comes up all I can think about is old home-remedies.

One time, when I was about seven, I had a foreign object in my eye. A friend of my mother's who happened to be visiting at the time insisted that I lay on the sofa with a wet tea-bag over the injured eye.

Sure enough, twenty minutes later I was back in action, the life threatening injury to my eye nothing but a memory.

To me, the so-called "cures" for writer's block are not much more than a "tea-bag on the eye." There is surely no documented proof that a tea-bag will cure anything, but that's not the issue. The issue is that, like the tea-bag, most cures for writer's block work, or not, because we want them to. I know I wanted that tea-bag to work.

Whether it's listening to a certain type of music, taking a walk or hitting a heavy bag, every writer has some ritual they go through to get over the block. After they have completed their ritual they get back to writing, and in my opinion that is the answer.

They get back to writing.

I had a professor for Architectural detailing in college who would expect us (a bunch of know-nothing kids) to draw solutions to complex construction problems when we had absolutely no idea of even where to begin. Call it "drafting block."

When he got tired of the blank looks in our eyes he told us "Just draw something. Don't worry about getting it right, just draw it and then look at it and see what's wrong with it. Then fix it."

Believe it or not, I use that same approach to writer's block.

Whenever I find myself staring at a blank screen with an equally blank mind I just write something. After a while I look at what I've written, decide what's wrong with it and go about fixing it.

Whether it's a couple of lines of dialogue or five chapters at a critical plot point, I just write something.

This is my "tea-bag on the eye."

I won't say that it's fool proof, but it keeps me moving in a (mostly) forward direction. Sometimes what I write is good, other times it's nothing more than typing practice - either way I get something out of it.

The worst case scenario is that it will need some polish, but the first real lesson we all learn about writing is that you never get it right the first time anyway.

That's what tea-bags are for.

Quotes from Famous Authors

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The Nasty Side of Unpaid Writing

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by Morgan Barnhart

I've been watching a lot of Californication lately. Californication is a television program on showtime with David Duchovny where he plays a writer who is having trouble writing. I heart David Duchovny.

Anyway, there was this one scene where he was talking to his daughters class at career day about being a writer. He said (and I'm summarizing because I can't remember exactly what he said) "Do not become a writer. If you've ever wanted to be anything else, do that. Being a writer blows."

And you know, I kind of agree with him.

I should clarify, I don't hate the act of writing, I hate the business of writing. For one thing, nobody feels like paying a writer what they're worth. They feel like writing is just soooooo easy and anyone can do it so there's no point in paying what the writing is worth.

I was commissioned to do 5 articles everyday for $1 an article where I would write 350-400 words per article. So basically I was being paid dirt. I only took the job because I was told there'd be more high paying jobs in the future. I delivered the 5 articles every single day. But every single day the person would hassle me in the morning about where the articles were. I had the entire day to get them in, there was no set time to get them in.

So here I was, writing for dirt and being hassled about getting the articles in which put stress on me and soon I began to hate writing.

I said forget it. I love to write and this assignment was sucking the life out of me and my writing. I began to realize that no matter how long I wrote for this person that they would never pay me more than $1 for a 400 word article. My writing is worth far more than $1 per article, not to sound conceded or anything.

The moral of the story is, even if there's promise of higher paying gigs in the future, don't sell yourself short. It's just not worth it. I spoke in my previous article about selling your soul, this is the same concept; don't do it.

I know as writers we're all desperate to be rich and famous and be well known for our writing, but you can't do that when you're letting everyone walk all over you. Your writing is worth more than dirt. Don't be a victim. Stand up for your writing and maybe then we can all love to write again.

Logical Character Development

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by Carrie Bailey

In fiction, when a writer reveals the emotions and motives of a character, if they're believable, it can make them sympathetic to the reader. Once the readers care about them, they want to keep reading about them. That's crucial. Although most writers are aware of this vital aspect of their craft, they often overlook the devices that cause a reader to lose sympathy for the character.  It happens mainly when inductive reasoning is abandoned for the sake of plot development. 

By inductive logic, I mean that we draw conclusions based on previous actions and get upset when these defined patterns are broken. 

A thief must steal when faced with a portable object of value. If the thief stole a watch in the antique shop, money in the church, and food from the restaurant, we want to see him steal at every possible opportunity thereafter.  Readers recoil when the thief starts entering grocery stores, libraries, hotel lobbies, people’s homes and leaves with his empty pockets. It doesn't make sense. What changed?

So, logically, there are only two ways a thief can resist the five-fingered discount without alerting and offending a reader:

1) circumstance prevents him (a hole in his pocket) or

2) an event changes his nature.

All of this may seem obvious, but many of my favorite television series have been cancelled after the writers took a hiatus from induction.  In fact, I was inspired to write this article when the BBC terminated Robin Hood.  Granted, the writing was never good, but the characters oozed sympathetic material, as does any rendition of the classic. In this version, the Sheriff of Nottingham joined the merry men. Maid Marian died and once romantic Robin Hood had an casual attraction to someone who later turned out to be his sister. It was not good. They didn't just shoot arrows through our established expectations, they made nonsense soup out of their character's motivations. Logic was abandoned and BBC abandoned the show.

Readers apply inductive logic to inanimate objects, too. A watch described as temperamental cannot be used to tell the time without a humorous or problematic consequence.  The intial description of the broken watch built the expectation for it to cause disaster.  So, remember when you’re editing, if you can’t explain why something fails to fulfill a reader's expectations, be logical.

How to Write a Press Release

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by Cheryl Santa Maria

If you're a working writer, freelancing, chances are you'll have to write a press release at some point. If you're buckling under the fear of completing such a task, fear not. I've put together a press release template and included a sample below but first, a bit of background:

A press release is a short, news-style article, usually commissioned by a company or an organization. Its purpose is to attract positive attention towards a new product/event/company and the release, which sent out to various media outlets, is a simple and effective way to advertise. Promoting via press release is common practice among PR types who will often hire a writer (like you) to compose something succinct on their behalf.

Press releases are fairly easy to write because they're formulaic in structure. That being said, you must also possess basic writing skills. A successful press release contains captivating text that is grammatically correct.

Press Release Template

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Your name
Name of your organization
Phone and fax numbers
Email, address, website
Any other relevant contact information





Attention-Grabbing Headline

City, state/province, date - First paragraph - list the who, what, where when and why in a couple of short sentences.

Body – Give more detailed information about the product/company/event. This is where you will elaborate on the items mentioned in the opening paragraph. Bonus points if you include quotes of praise from relevant people and statistics in your favour.

Try to keep your press release under one page. If you need more space write

- more -

at the top of Page 1.

The beginning of Page 2 should have an Abbreviated Headline. Place the remainder of the text after the headline. In the last paragraph of your press release, include your contact information again.

(Optional) You can include a company history/bio after the press release. I don't normally add this section but when I do, I like to format it in italics - this helps separate the section from the rest of the text.

At the end of every press release, add three number signs at the bottom of the page, like this:





# # #

This signifies that the press release is finished.

If you're still scratching your head over what to do, read on for a (really bad) example, written by me.

Sample Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Little Bo Peep
LBP Detectives
123 Furry Sheep Lane
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
(555) 555-5555
LBP@LBPDetectives.com





Little Bo Peep Brings Home Lost Sheep, Increases Productivity Among Farmers

Toronto, Ontario, October 6, 2009 - Tired of constantly losing her sheep and not knowing where to find them, Little Bo Peep has launched LBP Detectives, a private investigation service aimed at locating lost sheep.

The service was established last month after Little Bo Peep could not locate her flock for five consecutive days and it is proving to be a huge success, having rescued over a thousand sheep since mid-September.

"When I lose my sheep, I can't concentrate on anything else," said Old MacDonald, a farmer and satisfied customer. "Thanks to LBP Detectives I no longer have to waste time searching for my flock. If my sheep go missing, I know that they will be returned to me within the hour."

According to statistics, lost sheep are usually located and returned by LBP Detectives within forty-five minutes. This is far more efficient than standard police services, which normally take up to three days to locate lost sheep. The service, which handles an average of 125 sheep/day, has increased productivity among farmers and sheppards by 25% across the board. In addition to providing sheep owners with more time during the day LBP Detectives has also freed up time at the police station, where missing sheep reports have declined by a whopping 72%.

Little Bo Peep is looking to expand her business so that it can help all lost animals. "We're in the midst of a merger with Little Dog Gone, a service that locates lost dogs," Little Bo Peep said. "Our aim is to bring home as many lost animals as possible in a safe and efficient manner - to the betterment of all pet-owners and farm industry workers."

For more information on LBP Detective services or to file a missing sheeps report, contact Little Bo Peep at LBP Detectives at (555) 555-5555.

Keep Your Character in the Setting

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by Linda Yezak

One of the common mistakes novice writers make is stopping the action to describe a scene, like this: 

 Margo entered the restaurant and searched for her sister and niece in the noon crowd. Plastic molded tables were filled with teenagers, mothers and blue-collar workers chatting over plastic food baskets. Above the cash register, a bright marquis presented the menu in vivid primary colors and tantalizing pictures of hamburgers, corn dogs and onion rings.  The young cash register attendants took orders from those waiting in long lines and called pick-up numbers over the intercom.

While that isn’t a bad description–it certainly evokes images–it stops the action and is overly descriptive of a place common to virtually everyone’s experience. If you keep the character in the setting instead of putting her on “hold” while you step in and describe it to your reader, you can keep the action going without missing a beat:

Margo opened the restaurant door and was blasted with chilled, grease-laden air. She paused only a moment before spotting her sister and niece waving from a yellow plastic booth under a sunny window in the corner. Weaving between tables of teenage girls giggling over strawberry sundaes and blue collar workers downing double meat hamburger supremes, she made her way back to her niece’s open arms and bent low for a French-fry kiss and a ketchup-coated hug.

In exactly the same amount of words, I described the scene through my character’s actions instead of stepping in as the author and describing it for her.

Sometimes, though, the setting is unfamiliar to your reader and it is necessary to describe it with more detail. When that’s the case, keep the description short, and keep the character out of it until you’re ready for action.

On the Circle Bar, the cattle chute between the working pens was similar to a rodeo chute. The tailgate allowed the animal in, and the headgate kept it there. Then there was the sidegate. From here, the animal–whether a bronc or a bull–could explode into the large working pen and put on a show. This gate, the least used on the chute, refused to open no matter how hard Talon tugged.

In this scene from Give the Lady a Ride, I had already described the ranch, and was describing just one small part of it. I didn’t need Talon until after I had given the reader a visual image.

When you’re writing your descriptions, put thought into what your character is doing while you’re scene-setting. Is she involved? Does she need to be? Or, have you set her aside and stepped into the scene?

Read more articles by Linda at AuthorCulture

Publisher's Numbers Game

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by Tim Baker

I heard that Dan Brown’s latest book was at the top of the best seller list within hours of its release. Surely an admirable accomplishment but the fact itself is somewhat misleading. Statistics must be looked at from all angles before they can be given any credence. Before I continue I would like to state that I mean no disrespect to Mr. Brown, whose work I greatly admire.

As I understand it, the Big-Box bookstores deal with the large publishers. The large publishers deal with the major league agents, who in turn push their big-name clients. The system is practically designed to feed itself. Store “A” has to buy x-copies of Novel “B” written by Joe Author if they want to do business with Publisher “C”. So when Mr. Self-Published comes along and tries to get his book on the shelf he is politely told to peddle his prose elsewhere. Without the proper clout behind him he has no chance of seeing his book anywhere but on-line and in the small “Mom and Pop” stores (and even that isn’t easy).

It’s a numbers game.

A thought occurred to me today about this numbers game…

The vast majority of book sales are created by public awareness.

You want proof? Have you purchased my book yet? Have you ever even heard of it? All right then. If more people knew about my book I’d probably have more sales and each sale could potentially lead to more sales as word spreads. Pick your cliché…wildfire, snowballs whatever – it’s all about publicity, promotion and public awareness.

What if we, the self-published, banded together and created our own numbers? Is it possible for us to decrease the odds a little?

I’m not saying that we could be the David who slays “Goliath’s Book Store” but we could certainly help ourselves by increasing our visibility.

What I think we need to do is band together and look at each other as allies rather than competition. I will gladly put a link to your website on mine if you do the same for me. I’ll become a fan on facebook, follow you on twitter and myspace contribute to your blog. All that stuff – if you’ll reciprocate. And I’m sure there’s other things I haven’t thought of – that’s why I’m looking to you.

The power of the internet is incredibly vast and if used properly could help us all. I would like to enlist all self-published writers, freelancers and hopefuls to help start a mass movement that can only help us all.

Let’s get some ideas going, share some thoughts and help each other out without charging a percentage. Let’s face it – if we could afford an agent we wouldn’t be reading this and thinking…”Hmmm, this guy might have something here.”

Unpaid Writing Jobs

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by Morgan Barnhart

As a freelance writer, sometimes we get a little desperate just to get our writing noticed. We want to get paid for every word that we write on the screen or on paper, but sometimes exposure is more important. Sometimes taking a writing internship or taking an unpaid assignment can lead to paying work in the future, sometimes it won't. If we're working for free, it can feel like we're selling our souls to whoever we're just giving our writing away to, so we have to be picky when choosing who to write for for free.

So when should you take on/not take on unpaid work?

1. If they have a website. Do they have a website that looks professional and already has a following? Maybe they're a start-up, but their website at least looks fantastic and they have a lot of ideas to bring in views.

2. If they're organized. Sometimes in the posting you can just tell if they're well organized or not. Organization can be a key indication that they're serious about whatever it is they want you to do for them.

3. If their topic sounds legit. If they want you to write about writing or the environment or health and fitness or something that you're familiar with, then chances are it's a legit deal. If they want you to write about how orange juice fell from the sky...then, well, I wouldn't trust them, at least.

4. If they want you to pay them first. This is obviously a no-go sign for anything in life (except school). If they want you to pay to get into their website just to set up a profile, run away! No legit employer will ever ask you to pay them. They pay you.

5. If they leave a name. More often than not, legit employers will leave a name within the posting or at least a visible email address. They're not afraid to let you know their name or their email address. This can be tricky sometimes since some employers like to keep their company private to respect their work or their clients, so sometimes this rule can be broken if the post looks legit.

Even when following these guidelines, it can be tough to distinguish who to write for when it comes to unpaid employment. If worse comes to worse, follow your gut instincts.