Full-Time Freelancing

Author: Eric Penz

I began writing my first novel in 1997. Six years, five drafts (give or take), two sons, and one major surgery later it was finally complete. Then it took another two years to get Cryptid published and on bookstore shelves. And don’t even ask how much Cryptid has earned me. The gravy train is certainly gaining speed, but don’t ever fool yourself that writing novels is a get-rich-quick scheme. Even the big boys like Crichton, Koontz, and Cussler will tell you that. The best-case scenario is a get-rich-slow—eternally slow—scheme. Which is to say, don’t quit your day job.

Ah, but then where does one find the time, resources, energy, and muse to write after coming home from slaving for the Man (or Woman) all day?

Well, that’s the million-dollar question. Actually, it’s only half the question. The whole question is where does one find the time, resources, energy, and muse to write after working all day… and then cooking dinner, doing the dishes, helping the kids with their homework, paying bills, cutting the grass, washing the cars, checking your email, doing your nails, going for a run, seeing a movie, getting the flu, finishing your degree… need I go on?

We all have twenty-four hours in the day, even the big boys like Crichton, Koontz, and Cussler. Life happens to us all. Just ask Stephen King what a crimp his car accident put on his writing.

We all have a list of reasons to not write. They’re not excuses, really. Life doesn’t leave much room for excuses. So don’t add guilt to that list. But that doesn’t change the fact that you’ve only written a thousand words in the past six weeks, does it? Then what’s the answer? How did I do it?

Well, it took me six years. So one answer is simply that I didn’t quit. Little-by-little, day-by-day, year-by-year I worked at it until it was done. But be more specific. Exactly how did I find the time? OK, well another answer is that I woke my computer every night at 9 PM, Sunday through Thursday, and worked until midnight or 1 AM. I did this religiously for six years, sometimes working seven days straight.

I took a two-year commercial fiction course at the University of Washington. I was part of a weekly critique group for three years. I immersed myself in the craft. I did everything I could to make myself the best craftsman possible. Does that help?

No, I’m sure it doesn’t, because you’re not me. You will not be able to work at the craft in the same way I do. You may work a double shift for the Man and the Woman and not be able to write from 9 PM to 1 AM every night. So here’s the answer you’re really after, though you’re not going to like it because it means there’s no short cut, no magic recipe that you can simply follow and be assured success.

You see, the million-dollar answer is that I quit.

Or at least I tried to; many, many times I tried to. But I couldn’t. You know why? Because writing is not something I do, it is something I am. I’m a writer. So there is no quitting. I cannot quit being who I am. I can only accept who I am. And once I did, I never failed to find time to write. My cars may not sparkle, I hired someone to cut the grass, and I often sleep less than eight hours a night, but I write.

So my advise to you is to quit. And if you can, then you’re not a writer. It’s OK. Not everyone is. Then find out what you are and do that, but don’t go back to writing. The craft is too hard and the rewards too slow in coming to labor at it unless you have to. And writers have to.

However, if you can’t quit then you are a writer. And once you realize that you can only find joy in life if writing is a part of your life, then you will find the time. I promise you. And it won’t be my way; it’ll be your way. Just don’t quit your day job. It may not be who you are, but it will pay the bills until who you are is a writer whose name is listed in the same sentence with the big boys.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/writing-articles/working-and-writing-fulltime-if-i-can-you-can-32135.html

About the Author: Eric Penz is the author of Cryptid: The Lost Legacy of Lewis and Clark. Visit his Web site to learn more, http://www.ericpenz.com

By John Wood, AWAI Staff Writer

There are a lot of lonely blogs in this crazy online world.

Their owners had the best intentions when they started out … they prettied them up … they made them very user-friendly … and they gave them a lot of interesting things to say.

Yet hardly anyone was willing to commit to visiting their blog on a regular basis.

And because of the lack of attention their blog received, posting to it regularly was no longer a priority for their owners. Soon they stopped updating them altogether, and their blog lost any appeal it once had.

Don’t let this happen to your blog.

If you’re serious about making money from your blog, you can’t sit back and wait for people to find it … you have to pro-actively drive traffic to it.

The good news is there are plenty of sites you can “partner” with to help you drive a steady stream of visitors to your blog.

Now, how you “partner” with these sites may take various forms depending upon the nature, theme or features of the site. For instance, with a social networking site like MySpace, you can add friends and send out subtle marketing messages to them. Plus, MySpace has a blog feature that you can post articles to.

Some sites involve displaying a “widget” on your blog. Others (Squidoo) allow you to set up a webpage on a topic of your choosing … which you can add a link to your blog, website or the sales pages of affiliate products you’re promoting.

Others involve a one-time submission of your blog to their database, while some involve an ongoing, interactive commitment.

It’s important to choose the sites that are the best fit for you in terms of your personality and the commitment level each individual site requires.

No matter what you do though, the most important thing is to never make it obvious you’re trying to sell something. If people sense that what they’re reading is a sales pitch, they may react negatively toward it and you. Every time you post something, make it relevant, topical and interesting – then end off with a very mild call to action or just simply add a link to your blog under your name.

So without further ado, here are 24 sites you can use to promote your blog:

Note: To give you a rough idea of how popular these sites are, at the end of each description in brackets, I’ve listed the estimated monthly unique U.S. visitors as of October 24, 2008 (according to Quantcast.com).

MySpace.com – Still the number one social networking site. Create a profile, add some friends and gently promote your blog. (68.3 million)

Facebook.com – The second most popular social networking site on the Internet. (42.1 million)

Squidoo.com – Join Squidoo and set up a page related to your blogging topic with links to your blog. (5.4 million)

HubPages.com – HubPages is a site that has a similar business model to Squidoo. Users, or “hubbers,” create hub pages, where you can discuss any topic you’d like. (4.5 million)

Knol.com – Knol is a Google service that is also based on the same business concept as Squidoo. It hasn’t really caught on in a big way yet. (64,000)

Twitter.com is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows its users to send and read other users’ updates (otherwise known as tweets). (2.2 million)

Stumbleupon.com – StumbleUpon is a site that helps people discover new sites based on their interests. Users can rate websites, comment on them and share them with other users. It’s a free service, but you can also pay to have your site “stumbled upon.” It’s also a great way to get feedback from people who visit your blog. (1.1 million)

Digg.com is a social news site with a social networking aspect to it. It allows you to share your site’s content with other “diggers.” (11.2 million)

Mixx.com – Not as popular as Digg.com, but certainly one of its up-and-coming competitors. (1.8 million)

Craigslist.com – It’s free and it will only take a few minutes to register and post an ad for your blog. (569,000)

Technorati.com – Technorati is a search engine for blogs. Register with them, “claim” your blog and then use their tools to promote your blog. (3.6 million)

YouTube.com – Make a video about some aspect of your blog topic and include your blog link in the video description and the video itself. Post it on YouTube. Sign up for a YouTube account and create what YouTube calls a “channel.” You can customize your channel, add a link to your blog, and add as many videos as you’d like to it. (72.1 million)

EntreCard.com – They advertise their “Entre Card” as your online business card. The idea is that you place the EntreCard widget on your blog, and others can “drop” their card for you. Then you can drop a card by visiting them back. Each time you drop a card you acquire a credit that you can use to advertise on thousands of blogs. You can even sell the credits for money. (77,200)

Blogcatalog.com – They advertise themselves as a social network for bloggers. It’s a place for you to connect with other bloggers, participate in groups and discussions and so on. (577,700)

Delicio.us.com – De.licio.us is a social bookmarking site that was purchased by Yahoo in 2005. It’s a place where users can store, share and discover web bookmarks. (347,800)

Pownce.com – They advertise themselves as a great way to keep in touch with and share stuff (files, links, events, and messages) with your friends. They haven’t really gained a strong following yet. (16,000)

My.Yahoo.com – Set up a My.Yahoo page and add a link to your blog. (11.8 million)

Yahoo Answers – Answer questions related to your blog topic at Yahoo Answers, and at the end put a link to your blog. (22.5 million)

Blogsearch.Google.com – Submit your blog to Google’s blogging directory (542, 400) and other online blogging directories.

LinkedIn – LinkedIn is a social networking site geared toward business professionals. As of October 2008, it has 30 million registered users. (5.5 million)

Online Directories – Submit your blog to “regular” online directories such as DMOZ (1.9 million), Yahoo (2.9 million) and Google directories (Quantcast total not available).

User Groups – Join or start a User Group about your blog topic. Membership is free. User Groups are a great way to rub elbows with like-minded people. Some of the more popular “group” communities are Google Groups (3.8 million), Yahoo Groups (6.7 million) and MSN Groups (1.7 million).

Participate in Forums – Join one or two (or more) message boards related to your topic. Add your blog address to your profile and signature.

Blog Pinging Sites – When you “ping” your blog, what you are doing is letting a number of sites (search engines, for example) know that your blog has been updated. They will then crawl and index your site so your new post is updated in their records. Pingomatic.com (12,500) is one of the more popular “pinging” services. (Note: WordPress software automatically pings their blog.)

So if you feel “lonely blog syndrome” coming on, remember it’s a self-inflicted disease. Put together a marketing plan. Add as many of the above sites as you can to it, and you’ll never be short of blog traffic.

**************************** This article appears courtesy of The Golden Thread, an e-letter from AWAI that delivers original, no-nonsense advice on how to build your freelance copywriting business. For a free subscription, visit http://www.awaionline.com/thegoldenthread

Perhaps the greatest single problem people have today is “time poverty.” Working people have too much to do and too little time for their personal lives. Most people feel overwhelmed with responsibilities and activities … and the harder they work, the further behind they feel.

This sense of being on a never-ending treadmill can cause you to fall into the reactive/responsive mode of living. Instead of clearly deciding what you want to do, you continually react to what is happening around you. Pretty soon you lose all sense of control.

Here’s my solution to the problem:

On a regular basis, I stand back and take stock of what I’m doing. I evaluate my activities in light of what is really important to me.

I recommend you try this simple exercise. It doesn’t take long … and it will help you master your time rather than becoming a slave to the constant flow of events and demands we all face daily.

I used to think time management was only a business tool, like a calculator or a cellular telephone. It was something you used so you could get more done in a shorter period of time and eventually be paid more money. Then I learned that time management is not a peripheral activity or skill. It’s the core skill upon which everything else in life depends.

In your work or business life, there are so many demands on your time from other people that very little of your time is yours to use as you choose. However, at home and in your personal life you can exert a tremendous amount of control over how you use your time. And it is in this area that I want to focus.

Personal time management begins with you. It begins with your thinking through what is really important to you in life. And it only makes sense if you organize it around specific things you want to accomplish. It’s important to set goals in three major areas of your life …

These are the reasons why you get up in the morning, why you work hard and upgrade your skills, why you worry about money and sometimes feel frustrated by the demands on your time.

What are your personal and family goals, both tangible and intangible? A tangible family goal could be a bigger house, a better car, a larger television set, a vacation, or anything else that costs money. An intangible goal would be to build a higher quality relationship with your spouse and children, to spend more time with your family going for walks or reading books. Achieving these family and personal goals are the real essence of time management, and its major purpose.

These are the “how” goals … the means by which you achieve your personal, “why” goals. How can you achieve the level of income that will enable you to fulfill your family goals? How can you develop the skills and abilities to stay ahead of the curve in your career? Business and career goals are absolutely essential, especially when balanced with family and personal goals.

Remember, you can’t achieve much more on the outside than what you have achieved on the inside. Your outer life will be a reflection of your inner life. If you wish to achieve worthwhile things in your personal and your career life, you must become a worthwhile person in your own self-development. You must build yourself if you want to build your life.

Perhaps the greatest secret of success is that you can become anything you really want to become to achieve any goal you really want to achieve. But in order to do it, you must go to work on yourself and never stop.

Once you have a list of your personal and family goals, your business and career goals, and your self-development goals, you can then organize the list by priority. You must decide on the most important things you could possibly be doing to give yourself the same amount of happiness, satisfaction, and joy in life.

There are three key questions you can ask yourself continually to keep your personal life in balance …

“What is really important to me?” Whenever you find yourself with too much to do and too little time, stop and ask yourself, “What is it that is really important for me to do in this situation?” Then, make sure that what you’re doing is the answer to that question.

“What are my highest value activities?” In your personal life, this means, “What are the things I do that give me the greatest pleasure and satisfaction? Of all the things I could be doing at any one time, what are the things I could do to add the greatest value to my life?”

“What is the most valuable use of my time right now?” Since you can only do one thing at a time, you must constantly organize your life so that you’re doing one thing, the most important thing, at every moment.

Personal time management enables you to choose what to do first, what to do second, and what not to do at all. It enables you to organize every aspect of your life so you can get the greatest joy, happiness, and satisfaction out of everything you do. ********************************************** This article appears courtesy of The Golden Thread, an e-letter from AWAI that delivers original, no-nonsense advice on how to build your freelance copywriting business. For a free subscription, visit http://www.awaionline.com/thegoldenthread

Author: Linda A Lavid

I was educated by an order of St. Joseph nuns who demanded outlines – those bewildering subsets of bulleted letters and numbers – for term papers. The concept of outlining was similar in my mind to looking up a word in the dictionary I didn’t know how to spell. How could I outline when I didn’t know the topic? So after I completed the assignment, I did the outline. Of course, the outline was supposed to be done before the report. But what was the point? I still had to write the darn thing. Anyway, I didn’t come easily or willingly to the planning concept. No, that took me years of aimless writing.

My first manuscript was written after reading: See the scene as if it’s on stage, watch what happens, then write it down. Brilliant, I could do that. And I did. However, the end result was a meandering of the worst kind – backstory with no forward movement. So where did I go wrong? Metaphorically speaking, I built a house without a blueprint.

“A blueprint? For a story?” you say. “But that’s so contrived. What about the unpredictability of the characters? What about their freedom to express themselves untethered? Besides, if you know the whole story, you’ll give too much away. A story isn’t a term paper. It’s creative.”

Yes, precisely; fiction is creative. Even more, it’s boundless, it’s imaginative, it’s where pumpkins turn into carriages. And it’s exactly for these reasons that a general framework is needed. Stories do take on a life of their own. They can spiral out of control or drop like stones. Every innocent line of dialogue, narration, exposition, and description has the potential to draw the story off point. Sometimes you won’t even realize it until you’re pages ahead, pulling out your hair, wondering how events got so tangled, so lost.

I spent two years rewriting my first manuscript. Actually, I spent two years rewriting the first chapter of my first manuscript. Yes, I said first chapter, two years. That’s about as brainless as one can get. Naturally, during that time, I had some serious questions about my sanity and ability to write. For some reason, the thought of planning the story never entered my consciousness. No, that came later, much later.

Eventually, I took on another story. This second manuscript had forward movement, but ran out of steam at page sixty. I had the general sense of where I was headed, but for some reason stopped cold. Ditto for two subsequent manuscripts. It wasn’t until I was asked by a member in a writer’s group to give him an idea of where the plot was going that I decided to put a brief narrative down on paper. Suddenly, the clouds cracked apart and I understood what the nuns were asking.

Writers do a lot of thinking. In fact, we do more thinking than writing. Thoughts are lightning speed, transitory, winsome. And it is from these wild synaptic pulses that writers attempt to fashion a comprehensible story. Writing fiction is also a creative process of honing, shaving, twisting and turning ideas. It’s first brainstorming, then funneling down. It’s evaluating and deciding. Fiction breathes, grows, and mutates before becoming a finished story. In the process, some sorting out needs to happen.

And so goes my vote. Outline? Yes

Linda’s Website

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/fiction-articles/outline-yes-or-no-599600.html

About the Author:

Linda Lavid is an award-winning author of fiction and nonfiction. She has published two books on writing: Composition: A Fiction Writer’s Guide for the 21st Century and Publishing Tips: Weekly Strategies for the Independent Writer.

By Malcolm Smith, AWAI-trained copywriter

I field a lot of different questions from new and prospective copywriters. But one question that almost everyone asks is “How do I find clients?”

Finding clients is the #1 concern for most new copywriters. And who can blame them? Freelancing can seem daunting for someone used to a guaranteed paycheck – even if the check isn’t all that large.

And that fear can be crippling. It keeps many talented people from building a future as a six-figure copywriter. They get started, but then they get scared. And they go back to their nine-to-five jobs … just because the paychecks are a sure thing.

What these people don’t understand is that finding clients doesn’t have to be overwhelming. And it doesn’t have to be hard.

For example, copywriter Shel Horowitz recently told me about an online technique he uses to add $30,000 – $40,000 to his earnings every year. It’s amazingly simple, and here’s how he does it:

Shel participates in several online forums related to his copywriting specialty: publishing.

When he finds an appropriate question from another forum member, he posts an answer. And he does so in a way that demonstrates his skills and expertise. This opens a dialog with prospects who need Shel’s services.

Sometimes Shel lands the person who posted the question as a client. And sometimes it’s a different forum member who hires him.

Shel only posts about 100 to 150 times a year, and most of his posts take less than 15 minutes to write. It’s quick. It’s easy. And he doesn’t even have to ask for jobs. Instead, the clients come to him because of his posts.

To use Shel’s technique, first, locate an online forum related to your specialty (by using an online search engine).

Next, learn the forum and its habits – read their FAQs (frequently asked questions) and follow the posts for a couple of weeks.

Finally, begin responding to carefully selected questions and posts. Always be helpful, and don’t try to fake your way through anything. You don’t have to hide the fact that you’re a copywriter. Just don’t treat your posts as an opportunity to advertise.

You can join and drop forums as you find them useful. Some may bring you quite a bit of business, while others may bring none. Keep in mind that it will take a little time to establish your reputation on each forum.

But maybe going online isn’t your thing. That’s okay. No matter what your personality or preferences, there’s a way to win clients that will fit you to a “T.”

For instance, a technique Bob Bly recommends is the “bait piece.” A bait piece is a special report that entices prospects to inquire about your services. You can offer a bait piece in a mailing or on your website.

The report doesn’t have to be very long – many are less than a dozen pages – but it does have to be written on a topic that’s important to your prospects. And it should offer valuable information that the average prospect doesn’t already know.

Don’t just write something off the top of your head. Take the time to research the subject thoroughly. And don’t plagiarize someone else’s work and call it your own.

If you save your bait piece on your computer in PDF format, you can easily print it out or send it as an email attachment. PDFs print well, and your prospect can read it no matter what operating system his computer uses.

Create a simple “cover” for your report, and be sure to put a price on it. The report’s length and how technical the information is can help you determine the price. Also check the prices of similar bait pieces.

One of the best features of a bait piece is that it not only draws inquiries from prospective clients, it also proves your expertise.

Having as much work as you can handle is a lot easier than you’d think. These are just two of more than two dozen techniques I’ve identified to build your client list. No matter what your level of experience is, there are ways you can start building your business today.

Author: Rosey Dow

We all love tender stories. Some love to sigh and sink deeper into their soft armchairs, others love a good cry. Think of best-selling authors who have that ability: Nicholas Sparks, Francine Rivers, and Janette Oke. Their characters are so real and have such deep needs that we can’t help but lose ourselves within the pages of their books.

But where does that ability come from? Some writers have a natural gift for this kind of writing, but others must develop it. Either way, creating heartfelt prose is a skill that most fledgling writers can discover and strengthen over time.

Here is the key: Writers who stir our hearts are brave enough to reach into the hurting corners of their own souls. Instead of shying away from the pain, they explore it and embrace it and articulate it in great detail. Every aspiring writer would love to have such a soul connection to their readers, but they don’t have the courage to go where you have to go in order to have that happen.

Many times I’ve wept as my fingers swept across the keyboard, yet those pieces are the best I’ve ever written. It is from our own pain that we have a chance to reach other hurting souls who need so desperately to hear from us. (2 Corinthians 1:4) Every one of us has places in our hearts that only God can comfort. What amazing joy it brings when He allows us to share that comfort with others—people we will never meet and yet we can move so profoundly.

What hurting corner can you explore in your next story?

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/fiction-articles/writers-tips-writing-from-the-heart-631144.html

About the Author:

And now I’d like to invite you to visit my blog with more writing tips and marketing know how at http://RoseyDowToday.com.

Rosey Dow is CEO of ChristianFictionMentors.com–http://christianfictionmentors.com

Test post: faith

“Brain-writing” is not my term. But we’re going to make it our own by revising it a little to make it more productive…

You brainstorm to get ideas when you have none.

Ideally, you do so in a group. So you can feed off each other. So you can legitimize sitting around drinking coffee. So you can get others to do all the hard thinking for you.

In all those respects, group brainstorming is a good thing.

But what do you do when you’re writing in isolation?

Brain-writing is a way to kick ideas around … jumpstart your engines … and get into that “zone” of creativity that you normally hope to get in a group session.

In fiction circles, there’s something similar called “free-writing.”

USUALLY, it simply means setting a timer, putting pen to page, and letting the ideas pour.

Whatever it is, you write it down. You don’t stop until your pen runs out of ink or your elbow balloons like a grapefruit.

But there are two problems with free-writing when you apply it to writing promo copy:

First, pens come with a lot of ink these days. Even the dime-store ballpoints could keep you scribbling well past deadline. Second, sometimes it’s the very prospect of a blank page … the sight of a blinking cursor… and the notion of all that cerebral “freedom” … that’s got you stymied in the first place. There is a more efficient way to get started.

If you were about to make bricks, would you begin without clay? If you were getting ready to make glass, would you begin without sand? If you wanted to make punch, would you leave out the hooch?

Of course not.

So why is it writers of any kind so often try to start conjuring up ideas out of thin air?

For all the reasons to get “blocked,” this is the easiest of them to resolve.

Before you begin your solo brainstorming session (or a group one, for that matter), get yourself a hefty stack of “stuff” about the product.

Aim for height. An inch is too little. A foot is too high. Somewhere in the middle ought to do it.

Next to this, put a fresh stack of index cards … a legal pad … and/or a computer.

This is where the “brain-writing” comes in. Start reading. Start taking notes.

The process remains “free” in the sense that you shouldn’t try to organize the ideas at this point. Record them as they come. You’ll sort later.

However, contrary to popular creativity myths, discipline has a role. For instance:

You’ll need to keep yourself from focusing too long on any one aspect of your research.

You’ll need to force yourself to write in full-fledged ad copy, rather than just recording notes.

And you’ll need to make sure, always, that the central promise of your ad is the magnet pulling you through the muck of ideas you’ll produce.

You should have at least six kinds of things in your “brain-writing” stack before you begin:

Competitors’ ads.

If you write direct mail, you know there’s no excuse for not being seeded on competing lists. Keep a box of other people’s promos by your desk.

Samples of the competitors’ products.

You can probably get comped, as a professional courtesy. But, at least once in awhile, go through the subscription process anonymously. You might learn something from the way they do business.

Printouts of relevant web sites. Yes, printouts. If you’d rather, you can make handwritten notes while scrolling a screen. But avoid the temptation to bookmark links, save pages, or copy and paste text into word documents. No matter what you think … the only way to really absorb the ideas is to re-interpret them for your own notes.

Relevant magazines and newspapers. Big media has the budget to gather persuasive stats and anecdotes. Again, copy the information in your own hand. Don’t just clip and count on coming back to it later. HOWEVER, make sure you note your sources with every factoid – both for legal reasons and because you’ll get extra credibility when you cite a respected source.

History and non-fiction bestsellers. Sometimes, nothing can be more valuable than going down to your local bookstore to see what your prospects are reading. It’s an excellent way to put your thumb on the popular zeitgeist. Restrict yourself, however, to buying two books … tops. If you’re under any kind of deadline, you won’t have time for more than that.

Your product manager’s “best of.” Any good product manager will give you the following items when you start a copywriting project: product-related e-mails, raw testimonials, 3rd-party reviews and endorsements, product-related news clippings, free “giveaways” that come with the offer, notes from past brainstorming meetings, past control packages, tapes or transcripts of conversations with customers, customer service letters, interviews with core people connected with the product, and phone numbers of people you can call to talk to about the product.

This is, of course, just a partial list. You could add more. But even with only the above, you should be drowning in new ideas before day’s end.

(At which point, you’ll have a different problem – more ideas than you can spend in one piece! Every copywriter should be so lucky, right? Save the leftovers for the test mailing.)

The beauty of this simple approach is that you don’t need a soul around to help you make it pay off. In fact, isolation makes it easier.

Tip: At some point, you’ll make it to the bottom of the stack or you’ll feel in your gut that you’ve got all the key points somehow covered. AT that moment, stop and get up. Put on your coat. Go shoot some hoops, take a walk, knit an afghan (the sweater, not the citizen).

While you take a break, your subconscious mind is mulling over everything you’ve come across. Absorbing. Sorting. Editing.

The next morning, put the pile of stuff in a box and get it out of your sight. Everything happens now inside your pile of notes. Re-read all the material. Twice.

Take the points that stand out and re-write them on a fresh page. Some things will stand out. Others will strike you as complete garbage. Distill and polish. Narrow. If you need to accelerate the process, mail or e-mail the notes to a trusted (and patient) friend to read.

If you try this technique and you’re STILL stuck for ideas by the time you reach the bottom of the stack, you might consider buying yourself a push broom. Or running for public office.

[EDITOR’S NOTE: John Forde shares his copywriting insights regularly in his eletter, “The Copywriters Roundtable.” If you aren’t already a subscriber, I highly recommend you go to his website today and sign up: http://www.jackforde.com.]

This article appears courtesy of The Golden Thread, an e-letter from AWAI that delivers original, no-nonsense advice on how to build your freelance copywriting business. For a free subscription, visit http://www.awaionline.com/thegoldenthread