For the longest time I avoided book clubs. I had a bad attitude about them. I mean, with hardly any time to read for fun, why would I let someone else pick the books for me? What about my ever-growing list of books I wanted to read? I saw book clubs as a deterrent to finishing my own reading list, but then I got a little lonely. Suddenly, book clubs became a way to spend an evening with a group of interesting and intelligent people, talking about so much more than books. I was hooked, but I...

This month marks two-and-a-half years for my freelancing career. Thankfully, it continues to provide enough work for me to feel relevant in the ever-changing world of content creation. The majority of my assignments, these days, are for blogs. This isn’t how it started out. The first months as a freelancer, I did some blog content, but most of the focus was on catalog copy, email copy and long-form online content. Today, I have about six regular clients — all asking for blogs.

Not everyone...

Ok, this headline is a bit deceiving, but I want to be clear that content writing isn’t only about sitting at your desk all day, stringing together words that will wow and impress clients. That’s a HUGE component, but to do the job well it’s not all you should be doing.

This is why project management skills are essential for any content writer. You do the work, but you also spend tons of time managing the details related to this work.

Working backward

The first thing you need to know how...

I’m taking it back old school today, so be prepared.

Those of us in marketing, communications, journalism, etc. will all talk ad nauseam about the content tools one needs to succeed. They vary by position and industry, but in today’s world, most content tool talk is of the digital variety.

Conversations can last a lot longer than you’d think when it comes to which project management software you use, and that’s before any writing takes place. Then, you might shift to tips on how to write a...

You’re looking at this headline and thinking, “why two pens?” right? Well I’ll get to that, but to start, let me talk about my work area. As a freelance writer, my work area is in my home. I have two desks. One is so full of clutter, all having nothing to do with work, that I never even swivel my chair over to it.

The other desk is my working desk. It has its fair share of piles as well, but it also contains the items I need, to get my work done every day. Not counting my computer, these...