Eight tips from a long-time freelancer on how to diversify and build your practice, set rates and keep discovering new clients — It took more than a decade to build up a freelance practice that allowed me to freelance full-time. To be fair, I am, by nature, an overly cautious person, especially when it comes to money. …

Five action items and a dozen websites that will get you on the road to freelance writing right now — Start by getting paid to write what you know If you have a job right now, you know something about your job, industry, workplace, customers, or task that other people don’t know. That knowledge is power, and it might be able to translate to money if someone is willing to pay for it. For example, if you work in…

Cleaning up means moving on, but there are some things we can’t let go of until we truly understand them — It wasn’t a chore. It was a labor of love. Most people don’t get to grow up in the same house their whole lives and come back to it as a parent. I had never had to clear out any of my childhood things before, yet, there I was at…

Introduce your family to the power of words and discover the joys of poetry yourself in April — There are many ways to celebrate National Poetry Month: reading a poem a day with your kids, celebrating Poem in Your Pocket Day on April 27, writing poems in chalk on the sidewalk for all to see, and exploring different forms of poetry with your children. The National Poetry Month…

Podcasts worth a listen to help restore your mojo, boost your creativity, and fix your storytelling stress-points — I spend way too much time in the car. The only saving grace is that it gives me time to listen to podcasts. Back when I was teaching preschool, it never mattered what kind of mood I was in when I walked in the door. The moment those happy laughs…

Happiness is a product of balancing expectations with reality — My mother is a devout pessimist and my father is an unrelenting optimist. While there is no gene that dictates outlook on life, my siblings and I have each inherited a unique combination of their two opposing approaches to life’s challenges. My brother consistently hopes for the best while expecting…

Updates and news from the March 2023 Newsletter — Hi Friends! I have so much exciting news to share with you this month, I’ll just dive in and get started…

Sometimes a dream can offer the best story prompt of all — I was paging through an old journal from college recently. One entry began with an odd sentence: “I think I’m having someone else’s dreams…” As I read through the entry, the details flooded back in. I had awakened from a dream that was like a movie. There were characters and…

Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to write at least one short form piece a week in March — After surveying many writers across all genres and forms about their biggest challenge, we were not surprised by the answer… getting to “the end”. …