Notes from Minnesota   

Hey Freelancer!

Best laid plans of mice and men. I'm just getting ready to post the winners of the latest Writing Etc. contest and BOOM... I'm hit with a virus. Grrrrr.

But all is up and running again, thanks to my lovely computer guru who got me up and running in record time.

I'm making the full switch to Ubuntu Linux very soon. I'm sooo tired of dealing with viruses. :(

But I digress. On to fun stuff!

I LOVED reading your entries for my Travel Writing contest, in fact I had a bugger of a time selecting six winners. However, I'm very pleased to report I was able to select winners. Here they are:

The three winners of a hard copy of my newest novel, TGV, are:

1. Monica A. Anderman, Planes, “Rains, Buses and Cows

2. Carol Celeste, Riding the Orient Distress

3. Sheryl Letzgus McGinnis, The Embarrassment Tour

Winners of an e-copy of TGV are:

1. Dave Kessler, Troop 13 Rides the Rails

2. John Poindexter, Special Agent

3. Mrs. Patricia Longthorp, Take Your Pillow in a Bin Liner

CONGRATS!~! All the entries were fabulous and I look forward to the next contest! I'll be sending you all an e-mail letting you know where you can download your goodies within the next day or so.

You'll be able to read the winning entries on my blog later today.

Enjoy!

Beth

P.S. Be sure to check out our best sellers. Here's the link

P.P.S. Share Writing Etc. with your freelance friends by  clicking here.

Beth's Hot Pick of the Week    

Advice to Freelance Writers: Insider Secrets to Effective Shoestring Marketing, Managing a Winning Mindset, and Thriving in Any Economy, Volumes 1 - 3 is my final tribute to the freelancing community. Because I knew I wouldn't write any more books aimed at writers, I spilled all my secrets, every trick, held nothing back and created a comprehensive 3 volume set covering:

• Tricks to stay on “track” and achieve your goals faster

• How “Mindset Marketing” will render you immune to the “negatives” of this biz

• What's worse than not landing your “dream assignment?” Landing it unprepared. I'll show you how to avoid this

• Why you need to ditch “Life 1.0” and embrace “Life 2.0” as well as why this affects your writing career in such a profound way

• How to harness the power of one second to get more done

• “Power Words” can punch up your writing.” However...

• How a foray into the Corporate World can vitalize your writing career

• In Volume 3, I dig deep into marketing, revealing specific techniques, their pros and cons, and revealing which ones worked best for me, as well as which ones tanked.

Finally, because your a Writing Etc. subscriber, I'm tossing in five audio CDs including:

1. Dealing with Negativity

2. Dealing with Change

3. Awakening Your Muse

4. Marketing 101

5. Freelance Q&A: Equipment, success, mindset, finding freelance work, true negativity

Each book retails for $12.95 ($38.85 total for the three volumes). Each CD retails for $9.95 (49.75 total for 5 CDs).

You'll get the whole sh'bang for $29.95.

Just click here: Buy It From CCNow

Make Your Writing Sparkle  

Great writing is ultra-specific. It exquisitely captures a moment, a fraction of time. Song writers must master this skill in a big way.

I'm taking it easy on you this week. All you have to do is listen to music. Lots of it. Analyze lyrics and study how each sentence is distilled.

This exercise alone will transform your writing.

Prompts for the Week  

1. Today you're a person who creates viruses for computers. Write an essay why you do what you do.

2. Today you're a person who has received a computer virus. Write what you'd like to do to the person who created it.

3. Today you're the judge. Who do you convict of wrong doing and why?

4. Today you're the parents of a computer virus creator. What do you say to your offspring?

5. Today you're the child of a computer virus creator. What are your thoughts?

Talk about putting yourself in other's shoes! Enjoy and get writing.

Feature Article  

How to Keep Yourself on Track 

It's really not that hard.

First, you must keep your goal foremost in your mind.

What do you want? What is your ultimate goal? What do you want to accomplish?

Do you want to create a best seller? Make six figures? Go down in history as one of the greats?

Each of those goals would require very different actions on your part.

You can assume you'll face financial pinches along the way. You'll enjoy a fair amount of rejection as well. And... yeah... you just may hit a few instances of so-called “writer's block.”

(Just as an aside, it's my opinion that “writer's block” doesn't exist. When you face that blank page with an equally blank mind... well... let's just say that something quite interesting is going on. I'll spill the details on this little revelation in an upcoming issue of CMN.)

But back to our regularly scheduled programming...

It's imperative that you keep your ultimate goal set strong in your mental vision.

This little vision will become your Polaris. If you walk towards it with unwavering faith, you will eventually reach your destination with fewer detours than if you wander aimlessly, unaware of what you truly want out of your profession.

But the key is to keep that ultimate goal in plain sight… unwavering faith… continual advancement towards it.

Because if you become sidetracked, you’ll soon find yourself nowhere near where you hoped.

I recently returned from a trip to San Juan Island in Washington State.

My goal? Explore the island.

So, I (and my dear son) arrive and sure enough, we explore.

Renting a condo smack dab in the middle of Friday Harbor, we lived in the middle of the action.

Just a few steps from the bus route, we could go anywhere.

Anywhere, that is, that the bus route took us, assuming we wanted to go where they went, when they went there.

I felt rather satisfied until one day we missed the bus. I marched over to the car rental joint, plunked down fifty bucks and we took off.

Talk about freedom. Talk about unadulterated, unfettered exploration.

I felt like a huge leash had been unclipped from my collar.

We raced from one destination to the next, rag top down, wind whipping our hair into a frenzy, woo hooing, arms raised, living our vacation on our terms... not a stuffy, sterilized bus company.

I haven't had that much fun in a very long time.

It perfectly illustrates the difference between allowing others to define your ultimate goal and you taking your goal by the horns, enjoying every second of the journey, and proceeding forward on your own terms.

Believe me, that fifty bucks was the best spent money on that whole trip.

And the possibility opened because we opened our mind to the new experience and were “ready” to explore different opportunities.

Again, it was the perfect marriage between an opportunity that opened and our newly awakened mindset.

Don't get me wrong. I’ve personally spend far too many days spinning my wheels over one snafu, tragedy, bit of bad news. To make matters worse, I usually had absolutely no control over most of those situations.

I have a hunch that you'll probably (as I have) come to the point where you realize you have to start living your dream or you need to forget about it.

And for many creative types, “forgetting” your dream is pretty much impossible. That's the day it's time to grab life by the horns and started guiding it where you want it to go.

You have to get very comfortable with the fact that not everyone is going to like you. They may not even like your writing.

Too bad, so sad.

There are plenty of others who will like what you have to say. They may even pay you for your opinion.

That’s when it gets fun.

But this only happens once you get your big ego out of the way, realize that the only thing you truly control is yourself, and always keep your ultimate goal first and foremost in everything you do.

Next, you'll need to continually educate yourself

When did writers stop reading?

OK. Let me rephrase that: When did wanna-be writers stop reading?

OK. Revise again. Wanna-be writers who don’t read, who don’t continually educate themselves and expand their mind will remain wanna-be writers.

Forever.

I'm on a number of online writer groups and while they discuss writing techniques, there's always a hand full who claim to never read other people's work because they don't want to “pollute” their creative waters. Others claim if they read, they wouldn't have time to write.

To that I say “poppycock.”

Stephen King said it best when he said, “If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time or the tools to write.”

But... as usual, everything boils down to mindset.

If you think you'll “pollute” your creative pool, chances are you will. However, if you switch your mindset and simply enjoy whatever it is you're reading, your pool will fill with new information, ideas will combine, and you'll come up with new and unique combinations.

If you think you don't have time to read, you won't find it. However, if you flip your mindset and begin to sleuth opportunities to sneak away with a fantastic book, you'll inevitably find more than enough time to plow through a tome a week.

And if you think you don't have time to create, you won't have time to do so.

But here's the big secret to success:

Simply write. Create. And engage in activities that nurture your talent.

It takes tremendous courage to face that blank, white page every morning.

It takes courage to wear your opinions on your sleeve.

It takes courage to swim against popular current.

But creatives have done so since the beginning of time.

You simply need to acknowledge what you know to be true and go for it with every bit of gusto you possess.

If you think you can't do it, you can't.

In fact, if you think you can't do it, you may as well quit now.

Now, when I talk mindset, I'm not talking about running around reciting affirmations or anything like that.

Quoting random phrases like, “I am a great writer” may have some merit, but they've never worked for me.

On the other hand, if you transform that phrase from a group of recited words to an internal, intense belief... now you're talking power.

And it's in tapping this powerful belief that you can infuse your mindset with everything it needs to propel you towards your ultimate goal.

If you believe you can't achieve your dream, you won't.

More on this next time. :)

~~~

Beth Ann Erickson is the “Queen Bee” of Filbert Publishing. You've just read an excerpt from her newest title, “Advice to Freelance Writers: Insider Secrets to Effective Shoestring Marketing, Managing a Winning Mindset, and Thriving in Any Economy, Volume 2. You can order your own copy along with a ton of freebies by clicking here.

P.S. You can use this article free of charge on your own website or zine. Just don’t make any changes and be sure to include the entire byline. Enjoy!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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http://www.WritingForDollars.com

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