Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash By Maya Spikes, http://mayaspikes.com/ So, this year has been ... different. There probably aren’t many people rushing to take a look back at this crazy year. I get that. But our group, Triangle Association of Freelancers (TAF), had some great moments in 2020 despite dealing with a global pandemic, a crazy election, and drastic changes to our daily routines. I wanted to share with you some of TAF’s highlights for 2020, as we approach the [...]
MAKE MONEY OFF SPECIAL EVENTS Photo by Ray Hennessy on Unsplash By Don Vaughan, http://www.donaldvaughan.com/ Over the years, I have received numerous assignments from magazines large and small pegged on special anniversaries. They’re fun to research and write, and can be quite lucrative. The key is to uncover events that other writers may not be privy to, and have something fresh to say about them. Here are additional tips to help you cash in on your calendar: Know what’s [...]
Photo by Egor Lyfar on Unsplash By Elaine Klonicki, www.TheAuthenticLane.com I don’t know a single writer who doesn’t have a lot of ideas. It’s one of the reasons I love hanging out with people in Triangle Association of Freelancers—there’s never any shortage of topics to discuss. Having such diverse interests, we learn all kinds of weird and kooky facts from each other. Although each of us has a particular focus or two for our own writing, we’re generally curious people, [...]
Photo by Wade Austin Ellis on Unsplash By Edward Wills, https://www.clippings.me/wordmonarch Rebooting myself as a writer has been an adventure. After a career in journalism in the 1970s and 1980s, I questioned whether I still had the skills? Was my voice still relevant? Would anyone buy what I wrote? It has been nearly 40 years—and several careers—since I earned my last regular paycheck as a reporter (The South Bend Tribune, The Toledo Blade and The Indianapolis Star) or [...]
By Don Vaughan, http://www.donaldvaughan.com/ I have written professionally for 43 years, almost all of it nonfiction. Though I love fiction and dreamed of trying my hand at it, I learned early in my career that nonfiction was easier to sell and more lucrative than fiction, so that became my path. And I loved every minute of it. Through it all, though, the desire to write fiction continued to nag at my soul. In 2012, I was inspired to write a horror novel. The title and general [...]
By Alison Hill, https://www.mshorror.com “We all have a novel in us,” so the saying goes. I've found the process of writing fiction both magical and laborious. Getting the first draft down is an intense process. The story seems to write itself. Once I start tapping out words, there comes a point when it takes off. Thoughts, scenes, and storyline are coming so fast that I write in a frenzied fog. Ten hours whizz by with techno music blaring in the background, [...]
The McKimmon Center at NC State University By Don Vaughan, donaldvaughan.com Online registration for Write Now! 2019 closes at 5 p.m. on Thursday, April 25. Have you registered yet? If not, why? Registering early saves you a lot of money compared to the at-the-door rate of $109. But even that is great bargain when you consider what you’re getting: Personal access to well-published industry professionals who can help advance your writing career, including New York [...]
By Lisa Tomey, https://prolificpulse.blog/ Getting started in the exciting and challenging field of freelancing can be difficult. What helps is to pay attention to the resources, of which there are many. An online search for books on freelance writing yields many choices. Many also find it helpful to enlist mentors to help hone their freelance skills. The field of freelance writing is full of possibilities. With this, it can be very difficult to define your niche within that field. [...]
By Mike Rumble, http://rumblesrumblings.wordpress.com/ Well, that’s it. Gone. Adiós. Au revoir! Three hundred and sixty-five days later at the stroke of midnight, 2018 is gone in a puff of smokeand gives way to 2019, a new year with a new beginning. The great thing about January 1st is that we get to ask ourselves the question, “How was the year for me?” It allows us to look back at the year now behind us and learn from its successes and failures so that the year ahead of[...]
By Margaret Toman The TAF forum posed this morning an existential question for those of us who move through time and space addicted to the printed word: “What, exactly, do you get out of reading? How does it enrich your life?” My initial response to the question is below, with the caveat that I continue to think about the answer. Fun, pleasure, information, adventure, and a sense of past and future were the preliminary answers of the questioner to his own question, and I concur. [...]