Calling all voters!

Last night I spent some time researching all the issues on this year's ballot. It takes time to wade through all the crap and get to the real issues, but it's important to do so, so I put aside my work for a couple of hours. I hope all of you are doing the same. These smaller elections so often lose voters, because there's not a big controversial presidential election involved, but they are equally as important. This election could either support the president you voted for...or hamstring the president you didn't vote for (but won anyway).

With the election coming up fast, I decided a political post on my writer's blog wasn't misplaced. I want to share with you an interesting article I found, which describes Bush & Co.'s new tactic of cutting and running, even while Bush's mantra of "Stay the course!" still rings in our ears.

It's no secret that the falling gas prices are a "bribe" from the Republicans to get us to vote for them, but it appears their methods of convincing the public have not been very successful. Polls are still showing a major lack of votes going to the Republicans. I, for one, am very proud of my fellow Americans for not being "bought" by their little gas prices scheme. We'll show the Republicans that we're not those "little people" they like to think of us as. We are intelligent, informed, and our voices count.

Please get out there and vote. It's not too late to request an absentee ballot if you don't want to deal with polling place lines (or risk your vote being "miscounted" by the voting machines - which, by the way, are controlled by the Republicans...and they are so unsecure that a few years back, a 12-year-old was able to hack into them). Make your voice heard this election, and help turn the tide of the current presidential term.

A year ago today

A year ago today, I was just starting my career as a full-time freelance writer. My last day at my technical writing job was October 21, 2005.

A lot has happened in one year of freelancing. I believe I've come a long way. A year ago, I had never:

* earned more than about $25 for an article
* published any fiction
* been published in a magazine or a newspaper
* interviewed anyone for an article
* written a press release
* written test questions
* ghostwritten anything
* kept a personal blog
* introduced myself as a freelance writer

Now, I can proudly say that I have done all those things! I've achieved more in the past year than I had dreamed I would - I thought it would take longer to find any degree of success, let alone a steady income. In fact, I may have already found my way back to my original writing dream - to be a novelist - depending on how NaNoWriMo pans out.

Thinking back on the past year, I'm very, very, pleased. To all those people who thought I couldn't do this - I've proved otherwise.

I'm officially signed up for NaNoWriMo!

I just signed up for NaNoWriMo! Please feel free to view my profile and check up on my progress periodically throughout November. I intend to not only keep my NaNoWriMo page updated, but blog abot my progress on both Swan's Blog and my MySpace Blog. (Is there such a thing as too many blogs?)

NaNoWriMo plans

I'm still thinking about participating in NaNoWriMo. I was thinking about writing a young adult novel from a short story I wrote back in high school, but I already wrote the prologue to it a couple of years ago, and I'd want to keep that. Since that's against the rules, I think I'll do a different novel.

The novel I'm thinking of writing is also young adult. Again, I came up with the story idea several years ago, and even wrote a few pages. However, if I don't reference them at all it's not breaking the rules. I think that's what I'll do. I didn't even get very far on the outline way-back-then, so I'm going to flesh that out while I decide if that's what I want to do.

I'm getting really excited about this NaNoWriMo thing. I'll have to register on the site once I make up my mind for sure.

The NaNoWriMo challenge

Honestly, who knew there was a National Novel Writing Month? But there is, as I found out from yesterday's post on Debbie Ridpath Ohi's Will Write For Chocolate. (Be sure to check out the comic, too!)

Basically, it's a challenge to write a novel in one month. It only has to be 50,000 words (which is pretty short, as novels go), and you can do research and outline the novel before November 1st, but all the writing has to be done between the 1st and the 30th.

I'm tempted to try it, although I'm not sure how I'll be able to juggle novel-writing with all my regular paying gigs. However, I think it just might be what I need to jump-start my writing again - although I've picked up some speed, I still feel I'm working slower than I did before my burn-out during the summer. Also, at the end of the month I'll have a novel to start sending around to the publishing houses, which isn't a bad thing.

In any case, if I decide to take the challenge, I'll be sure to blog about it regularly. In the meantime, I encourage everyone to check it out for themselves - November is almost here!

Why a badly written ad isn't a sign that they really need a writer!

We've all seen them: those ads that contained misspelled words, bad grammar, and no capital letters or punctuation. A writer's first instinct may be, "Wow, they really need me!" That thought couldn't be more off-base.

The problem with these employers is that they wouldn't know good writing if it did the Macarena across their computer screen. That might be a good thing if you are a really bad writer yourself - they won't have a clue. But if you're actually a good writer, you are wasting your time - as well as possibly putting yourself in danger of getting screwed. It's my guess that the "employers" that write these ads are more likely to be scammers.

So, watch out for those ads that make you want to get out your red pen!

Hiatus and updates

My last post was about a writer's warnings concerning Pre-Press Company, Inc. Since then, she has posted again on her blog to say that she was able to work out an agreement with Pre-Press Company. She's supposed to let us know whether they follow through and pay her as they've promised. I was hoping that she'd post an update by now, but I trust that no news is good news.

In any case, after a long hiatus, I am back and blogging again. I've been very busy, but it seems I've caught sight of the light at the end of the tunnel - the workload should return to normal levels again shortly. Also, I am happy to report that my extended writer's block seems to be improving - I'm writing at a faster pace again. Yesterday I was able to immerse myself in my work, not coming up for air until my goals for the day were accomplished...and I loved every minute of it.