I stumbled across this video of Mary Karr and wanted to share, especially for all my fellow creative nonfiction writers. This is an excerpt from her keynote at the 2010 Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference. (p.s. I promise to share authors other than Mary Karr. Or this that a trick? Happy Halloween.)
As a freelancer, how do you balance your time? Is it difficult to not always “be” at work since your home office is in the next room? – Shelley L.
You could ask 10 difference freelancers this same question and get just as many answers. Why? It’s about what works for you.
One of the reasons I picked answered this question is because I found myself assessing my priorities this spring. While claiming I wanted more time for a personal writing project, I proceeded to book copywriting gig after gig, racking up more than 280 hours in a single month.
I also kept comparing myself to other freelancer friends who were billing 60 hours a week or building businesses as weekend warriors (taking new projects on Friday afternoon and delivering them on Monday morning). They were thriving. I was burned out.
With the help of very supportive people in my life, including a fantastic mentor, I started to focus on what I needed to do to achieve my goals and take care of myself. Here’s what works for me (at least for now). (more…)
Given all of the attention paid to best-selling books that were rejected multiple times, I wonder if an author can have a best-seller without being rejected. Perhaps more accurately, can anyone be a writer without rejection? Probably not. If you’re looking for good company, check out 10 Best-Selling Books That Were Originally Rejected.
Big thanks to Jenny for sharing this from her inspiration board: Ann Patchett on writing as a job.
October is keeping me occupied with an interesting freelance project that’s about to take me on the road. I’ve been incredibly lucky: projects like this seem to come along once a year. Last fall, I traveled to San Francisco to tour and write about a series of performing arts venues. It was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had as a freelance copywriter.
Rather than pause this blog while I’m away, I’ll be posting links, videos and quotes I’ve been collecting, similar to the Ira Glass video from last week. If you find little snippets of inspiration you’d like to share, I encourage you to add them to the comments here or send them to me and I’ll post on your behalf.
If you need a writing break, I encourage you to go play in some leaves.
