I haven’t really kept up appearances on the site in recent months - luckily, I actually have a good reason, so I don’t feel overwhelmingly bad about it. I have been quite busy as business had been through the rough, pretty much across the board. Lots of new clients, lots of repeat business, and about a 60% off-Elance rate.

Ideally, all projects come in off of Elance and there are a few good reasons for this. First of all, they are not subject to the hefty 7.75% fee that Elance charges. With the taxes I already pay on my income (including the hefty 15% self-employment tax),  that makes almost 30% of my income almost immediately disappear - not a pretty number, especially when self employed.

Second, it gives me a great deal of freedom in how I develop projects, how I communicate, and what rates I establish. Stand alone projects also seem to have much higher referral rates as people are usually working with you on a more personal basis. Elance is great for meeting people if you need work, but if you can develop a stream of new projects and clients elsewhere, the results are almost infinitely better.

That said, things have been chaotic as I have more than tripled my workload (thanks in part to a second writer being added to the team) and bogged myself down with hours of work each week. It’s a good thing, especially as things start to accelerate much faster. It’s like a exponential function, ramping up slowly at first, and then suddenly taking off. I swear, I had no idea when I first started writing online in November of 2006 that there was such a large market for it. Ironically, when someone says to me, “Really? There’s a market for that?” I look at them like they’re stupid. Honestly though, it’s hard to envision such a massive business opportunity in writing solely for the Internet.

But, there is and a major reason is that in the last three years or so, the Internet has developed into something completely different. For the entirety of the 1990s and the first half of this decade, it was a novelty, a tool that everyone was interested in the technology behind. People would dream big, elaborate dreams of what might be done with the framework it provided. Other people would look at the Internet and see only potential.

Today, only scientists and engineers look at the Internet in those terms. Everyone else looks at it as a part of everyday life. No one sees a website and wonders what amazing things it might offer next - they look at it and wait for the next story to break or for the next band or friend to come along. And that’s where we come in - writing chunks of the billion-word industry that is Internet marketing.

Once I realized that this was the case, I started thinking beyond the simple $5 coffee maker reviews I was so excited to be writing. I started thinking of larger projects, of opportunities outside of the same old spamming techniques and article marketing projects. There’s a lot more going on here than you can see when you login to the Internet.

Even the way I talk to my friends and family about my job reflects my realization. I was embarrassed at first. I went to college thinking I would be writing novels or newspaper articles. But, novels and newspaper articles only make up less than 1% of the text written every day. Everything is about content these days. Images are important online, but they don’t index in search engines, they don’t speak to what people are looking for, they only compliment it. Where print media may be dying (and I was nearly apoplectic thinking I would never find a job because of it), online media is larger than ever and billions of words of text are uploaded every month to sell products, promote people, engage communities, and much more.

When those realizations developed, I knew I could move on to the next level, expanding my work to include much more than those $5 puff pieces on the newest dog collars. It was time to become a cog in the workings of the world’s largest information producing machinery. I understood how it worked; now it was time to start helping it grow and making a living in the process.

And while I can claim I registered my domain name in July and I started contacting writers in November, I didn’t actually build my business until now. I needed the time to see what I could actually achieve. Risks are all fine and good, but I still need to pay my bills. Fast forward to April, 2008, and that’s not an issue anymore - now it’s a matter of stepping up and building a successful business with a wider reach, and doing it in a way no one has done before. I don’t want to be just another copywriting firm that sells cheap words for crappy products. I want to be a piece of the machinery that works to promote the essence of online commerce and socializing.

Enough preaching though - it seems like every time I return to my blog after a long hiatus, I just preach on some deep insight I have discovered that hundreds already uncovered. But, it’s always a good practice to step back and look at what you’ve done as a writer, to see the development and growth in yourself and what you do for a living. Only then can you realistically take stock of your capabilities and look toward your long term goals and how you can get there. I’m at that point and it’s a good place to be.

It has been a long couple of months - for a variety of reasons. First, I was offered a job that would have taken me to San Diego for a fairly good opportunity - a steady paycheck, sunny weather, and a nice area to call my home. But, things started to change almost immediately after I accepted the job offer. The work was pouring in, the emails were piling up, and I got well behind.

Fast forward a few weeks and I’m having the most lucrative year of my life and the freelance work is taking off - of course I had no choice but to retroactively turn down the job offer. This means a few different things. First, I’m not buried up to my eyeballs in work. Second, I can actually relax a bit and enjoy what I’ve been able to accomplish in the last few weeks. Finally, I can start throwing my energy into wholeheartedly expanding Seattle Freelance and making it into something special.

With a second writer on hand now who can both keep up with me and complete all of the projects I bring in with relative ease, this is an even more realistic goal - the one I was striving for months ago when I first launched Seattle Freelance. It will be an interesting few weeks as I start building upon my current successes and start looking for opportunities and methods to expand. The growth potential is huge, my ideas are literally overflowing from the files in which I keep them, and I now have the freedom - both financially and temporally - to see them all out. It is an interesting experience, and a fitting homage to the one year anniversary of quitting my last hourly job … hopefully for good.

One of the greatest things you can do as a full time freelance writer is to supplement all of your fulltime work for hire projects with work that only gets done in your free time. I’ve mentioned this form of quasi-relaxing a few times in the past, with blog writing and projects like NaNo, but I’ll reiterate it here – you have to make sure you don’t burn out too quickly with all of the random topics flooding your inbox every week – it gets overwhelming.

So, before I even started taking on freelance writing jobs, I started this blog and made sure to take as much time as I could every week to post a few random thoughts, some updates on my work life, and ideas that may or may not amount to anything (usually not).

Fast forward a few months and the blog is still up and running – albeit with some massive gaps in productivity – and I’m trying to make sure I don’t write for work 11 hours a day. It’s some kind of twisted form of balance, but it’s necessary if you want to succeed as a freelance writer.

So, yes – you should start a blog. Start it as soon as possible and don’t feel as though it absolutely needs to be related to your new freelancing career. It can be about anything – in fact it should be about something else, preferably something that allows you to relax a bit and forget about the rounds of work that have been flooding your desk.

Start the blog early – a Blogger account is perfect for getting started – and spend a little bit of time getting acclimated to the atmosphere of blogging. I’ll try to go into more detail later about the various aspects of blogging you can use, such as ways to make money with the blog or how to promote your blog, but when you first start, here are some good tips to build some readership and feel as though you are connecting with people:

Technorati – Sign up for a Technorati account early and start following how well your blog performs in search rankings and how many people favorite it. If you can, sign up for a few other services such as Ice Rocket or a pinging service that will automatically ping your blog across the Internet whenever you post. Blogger actually does this on a basic level now, but you can always supplement your exposure.

Google Tools – Google has a ton of great tools such as Analytics, AdSense, and Webmaster Tools that allow you to keep track of how well your blog is performing. Track your visits, the keywords used to reach your site, and which positions you show up in the search engines at. Even if you decide early that you do not want to do a lot of SEO work to raise your search ranking, these tools can help you get more involved in the writing and promoting process, which pays great dividends later on.

Comments – Comment on other people’s blogs. This is the same as being active in writing your own blog, except now you can get to know your fellow bloggers, write a bit about them, and receive the same treatment in response. It grows your readership and helps you become a better write – plus it’s social.

Generally, try to remember that even as you are writing on your blog, you are helping your freelance writing career. This is a two way street though. If you attach your name to your blog, keep your writing occupationally friendly. That means you should not write anything a potential client will be offended by. If you do attach your name, use your blog as a chance to show off your writing talent. I’ve had dozens of clients choose me over the competition because they found my blog posts interesting after searching for my name.

If you use the blog correctly, you can not only grow your exposure, experience and skills in writing, you can have a bit of fun. Blog early and blog often.

The first portfolio you ever build will look a little sparse. Don’t worry about it though. Think of your first portfolio the same as your first resume. It may be bare, but if you can sell it properly no one will notice. Unfortunately, the word itself – portfolio – has become loaded to the point of drumming a certain degree of fear into potential freelance writers when they first start.

I remember the first time I bid on a project and was asked to supply a sample. It took me an hour to dig out the perfect piece and infuse it with just the right amount of editing, tweaking, and care to make it feel presentable. It worked, and a superstition was born that forced me to spend long afternoons tweaking potential samples for potential clients before I ever bid on a project.

That obsessive compulsive urge to find perfection in a cheap, 500 word article about used RVs was what gave birth to my first portfolio and now I have thousands of samples on any number of topics that I can use at any time without second thought. And luckily, with at least two or three dozen of them polished to the point of quasi-perfection, I don’t need to spend those long afternoons prepping them.

You see, a portfolio is not a thing you create to get jobs. It is a culmination of experience. The word itself has taken on a mystique that makes potential freelancers think of it as an item of first impression, similar to the clothes they wear or how well they comb their hair. If a suit doesn’t look right in a job interview or a stray strand of hair pops up, an interviewee will feel as though they could always have looked better.

A portfolio is not the same thing though. Rather, it is an outline, formed of your work experience, of what you can do as a writer. Your first portfolio doesn’t need to show that you are as good as a freelance writer who is 15 years into the business with a few hundred clients in tow. It only needs to show that you have a talent to write, one that you have yet to fully explore but that has blossomed all the same and will impress anyone willing to give you a chance.

I remember how incredibly nervous I was about sending out samples and creating my first portfolio to upload to article websites and take with me to job interviews. It was hectic and chaotic at best. I realize only now how ridiculous that all was – hopefully you can too. Just show what you can do and your talent will do the talking.

I did not have the good fortune of having created this blog just yet last year when NaNoWriMo took place. Ironically, I discovered my eager desire to read all about the trials and tribulations of my fellow writers through NaNoWriMo and thus started writing the now famous (you know they are) blog posts about three weeks after I finished my novel.

For those that haven’t signed up yet, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month, and that particular month is November. Basically, a few thousand people from around the world get together online in November every year to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. It’s a personal challenge of sorts as “winning” does nothing more than give you the right to tell your friends and family that you wrote a novel in a month.

This year is my third time participating and as is the annual custom, October is the month in which we all start brainstorming our characters, plots, and devices - all the better to see what comes of our endeavors at least. I have yet to even begin, but I’m skewing towards something mostly mindless and wholly entertaining this year so I can actually finish a full story within 50,000-70,000 words (last year’s hit the magically 50K mark, but needs another 50K before it’s actually done…ironic, no?).

I’m trying to find a good plugin to post on the blog to keep track of my progress, so hopefully that will be up and running shortly. However, plugin or no, I’m going to drop posts on a regular basis about how things are going. What I’m basically saying is that you should start getting invested in NaNo now because 85% of my posts will be updates on my novel (and the process of writing it)

My first excursion into the world of fiction began when I was 9 years old. I wrote a story about Goop Stars, little green and blue blobs that competed with each other in nearly every aspect of life. I believe I was regurgitating some degree of the Olympic Games which I had just witnessed for the first time only a few months prior. Whatever the reason, I ended up writing numerous stories throughout my Elementary School tenure, increasingly longer and better received by my teachers and peers.

Things changed though and as soon as Middle and High School started up, writing stories seemed all too childish. That tends to be how those childhood obsessions fade away – a revelation of maturity that is a decade or so too early to be taken seriously. However, for a 13 year old, ignoring the “childish” things you once did is almost as important as partaking of the “adult” things your friends are doing.

Eventually I came back to the writing though, finding a niche in a University program I didn’t think I wanted to be in only to find that that was exactly where I wanted to be. It was a strange, twisted path that led me back to writing stories.

Very few people ever publish works of fiction. Most don’t even finish their stories and many more don’t even bother starting on them. The stereotype of the “writer” is often vaunted to the point that most individuals feel they are not good enough to put pen to paper. It’s a hair better than the perception of writers a few decades ago – that of slackers and never-do-wells that can’t get jobs.

However, it’s a stereotype nonetheless and it keeps a lot of talented or creative young talent from trying their hand in the field. The main problem is that most people feel, as with almost any time devouring endeavor in this day and age, that they should be paid for their writing. Stephen King and J.K. Rowling are worth billions of dollars, so why shouldn’t everyone else get a 12-country, movie, television and merchandising rights contract to their first novel?

But, writing is more than just a money-making endeavor or a showcase of innate talent. If J.K. Rowling has taught us anything, it’s that a little bit of imagination goes a long way. The world has reveled in her work for more than a decade now and two generations of young people have been drawn into the realm of literature and away from their televisions because of it. However, mere consumption is not the only means by which an individual can enjoy their imagination.

Writing is an extension of the innate ability human beings carry to create an imaginative work from memory and experience. Everyone should write a novel; not because they need the money or because they have a unique talent the world is waiting to see. Everyone should write a novel because everyone has the ability to do so.

It’s not about the work involved or the time required completing such a massive project. It’s about the complicated collection of ideas and thoughts that we all carry around with us from the first day that our brains start to form cohesive memories. We experience billions of little moments in our lifetime and each one is unique. Putting those experiences to paper or screen is a privilege that few in the history of the world have had.

My call for universal novel writing is not the first nor the most expressive to arrive. Nor is there any shortage of writers actually doing so in the world right now. National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo for short) is a November call to arms for writers around the globe to write a 50,000 word novel in one month. Last year was the eighth year for the event, boasting nearly 80,000 participants and 13,000 individuals with completed novels. Almost one billion words were written for the event.

No one expects to write a publishable novel during November every year, though a few have had their works published. The point of the endeavor is to challenge oneself to write for 30 days instead of watching TV or playing video games. The commitment is for a little less than 1700 words a day for a month, for most people no more than 1-2 hours, the same amount of time most people spend watching sitcoms and crime dramas.

That’s not to say that everyone on the planet should spend their free time writing a novel. However, writing is a cathartic, relaxing experience – the kind that helps to clear the mind of troublesome thoughts and release stress. Even for those individuals not entrenched in the writing of fiction, there are somewhere between 100 and 200 million blogs online right now, each of them run by an individual with something to say. The internet, though another entertainment medium unto itself, has offered countless opportunities for individuals to write at length on anything they desire and find an audience. With that audience, individuals have been able to explore their creative underbellies.

Anyone can write. It doesn’t matter if you are 9 years old and intrigued by something you saw on television or if you’re 75 and simply want to write about the things you’ve seen in your life. Talent, training and marketability are all unimportant. The important thing is that when one writes, the audience does not exist. Everyone should write a novel, or a blog or a poem. It’s a privilege few have been given and an experience no one would forget.

In the beginning there was NaNoWriMo, and then there were a bunch of half finished novels that I didn’t get around to writing. Now, there is a semi-similar production known as Script Frenzy, which starts on Friday and carries through the month of June. Like any good aspiring writer, I’m going to step to the plate and give it a shot. There are a few things to mention though:

First off: I have never written a script, either for the stage or the screen. I have no idea how and every time I’ve come up with an idea or two, I’ve spent more time thinking of how something would look than actually expounding on that idea.

Second off: My current idea basis is a bit fuzzy. I have a good starting point, using a small sample I wrote for a class last year, but I don’t know if it will look good in the long run. And once again, that’s the important thing - looking good.

Finally: I hate doing these things on my own. For NaNo I had people doing it with me. This time around, there are very few people willing to write a script (shoot, I’m barely willing to give it a shot). So, stepping up is a lonely job.

I’ll probably drop a few updates over the next five weeks, but I don’t know that I’d expect anything more fancy than an outline and a few half-way interesting lines of dialog. It’s a project, and it’s an experiment, and it’s a way to fill a few posts every week.

For those looking to get into the action, here’s a sample plotline from the Script Frenzy Plot Machine:

A hairstylist with a missing finger unknowingly arrives at a nudist colony in a remote jungle in Brazil…

Go.

I didn’t get any posts for the April prompt, nor did I really get around to writing my own post, so honestly I don’t hold it against anyone. It was a relatively lame cue anyways, so who can blame the prompt. No, I didn’t take it seriously enough, so now I feel like I should come up with something good that doesn’t rely on lame holidays in the here and now. Anyways, here’s the prompt for May which I don’t necessarily expect anyone else to pick up, but I will definitely give a shot before next week is out:

Pick any member of your family or life and slap them into one of the following genres; Detective Noir, Deep Space Science Fiction, or Victorian Romance. Now pick two other characters (real life or not) from the other two genres and mix it up. Do whatever you want from there. Make a poem, a story, a long essay; do whatever you want, just make it a mash-up of genre fiction (or non).

Enjoy.

It’s a good Sunday evening to sit in front of the computer and say howdy or doody to the couch. I suppose I’ve been falling ever deeper into the crevices here, staring at the TV and watching the dog try and eat everything in sight. For that very reason, I suppose I’m feeling the burn for having spent the last two days exercising (if incredibly small in scope) by throwing a baseball around and hitting some fly balls. The running is new too.

It’s definitely spring time though and my body is going to be getting a nice little wake up call in the next few days as I start trying to squeeze out the most from six months of sitting on my arse, watching that lovely television.  Long story short - I’m sore. All sorts of muscles are in oh so many stages of disarray. Which brings me to some story action tonight. This an exercise from John Gardner’s The Art of Fiction. Asks for a three page monologue that tells a story; I got carried away.

Jeremy licked his lips and smoothed his overabundant eyebrows carefully. “You know it was a mistake. I’ve been protecting you for years. Why would I give it up now?”

He wondered that very same thing himself. The day had begun like any other Tuesday – stark, rainy, and much too early. His morning rituals were completed in much the same manner, all speed and efficiency, no pomp. Wake up, in the shower, sit up, push up, food down, shoes on, out the door. None of the pristine walls in his studio apartment, nor the carefully brushed furniture, were a hair out of place when he left. Everything was normal.

“You don’t understand. It was a complete mistake. I’ve never intentionally hurt you before. Just hear me out.” And yet here he was, surrounded physically and emotionally by a single small woman. Ann was no ordinary woman, of course. Their relationship took on so many dimensions he wished he would have stayed with physics in college, if only for the nerdy metaphors. In the ten by ten locked office space in the back of the Ikea where she worked though, there was only one dimension he need concern himself with. The flat, unhinged snarl looking him directly in the face.

“Okay. Here’s how it went. You know I’m very careful about these things. I woke up and everything was normal. I showered and ate, the usual deal. Then I left. It was a little early. I don’t know how I managed it. I’m never early, but today I was. When I got outside to the bus stop, I had fifteen minutes to wait. I didn’t even realize until I was there for three minutes and was still waiting.”

At this point, Jeremy was quivering. His suit, freshly pressed every morning, began to wrinkle and expand as he fidgeted about. Sweat from his brow greased both palms as he wiped repeatedly, subsequently finding its way to his pants. His hair, normally slick and hard, a corporate helmet, unruffled by the wind born exhaust, humid alleyways, or inconsiderate fellow sidewalkers rejected any attempt to remain under control. Already the brilliantine he used oozed down his neck and onto his ears. Only the constant swiping at his forehead kept it from his eyes.

He sighed shakily and continued, “So I decided to use the extra time and get my coffee earlier than normal. I didn’t want to stand in the cold. Walking is good for me. The doctor told me if I walk three miles a day, I could lose twenty five pounds. So I walked to Starbucks. The walk was actually rather nice. I got to Starbucks and ordered the mocha I always get, as many shots, that is – three, as I always get. I’d never been to this one though. You would think, because it’s only ten minutes from my place, I would. Usually I go to the one across from the office before I head in. It’s quicker and easier, and the girls all know me….yes, yes of course. I’ll go on.”

 

The rigid backed Granas chair he sat in, probably assembled by some lazy college student on a break looking for a place to sit, creaked under his weight as he shifted about. The walls, all blue and yellow, covered with service plaques and permits blazed around him, pushing in and squeezing more and more sweat from the various pores of his body. Ann’s lithe frame, perfectly shaped and constantly attended to, now dressed in the tropical wool suit of a floor manager, remained standing still, a hungry lioness ready to pounce.

 

“So, the girl at this Starbucks, where I’ve never been. She messed up my coffee. I can’t change my order like that. It just isn’t right. It messes up the whole day. So, I told her I’d wait for another. That’s when I missed the bus. She was just giving it to me when the bus pulled away and I wasn’t by any means going to run after it. I will tell you, though. I was quite upset. I have never been late for work, and I was not going to start today. Of course I called a cab. I did not however foresee the pileup on the freeway. Yes, you saw it. We were stuck in it for at least an hour. The driver was incredibly nice though. He even stopped the meter. Saved me some money.” What Jeremy neglected to share was that he had railed at the poor man for at least half of their time in the car to find a way around, and that the only reason the man had stopped the meter was to attempt and calm Jeremy down. In fact, Jeremy had failed to pay any of the fare at all on his way out of the car opting quite angrily to walk the rest of the way, directly off the freeway.

“When he finally let me off downtown I was more than a little upset. You know how I cannot stand to be thrown from my schedule. It’s a shame, really. If none of this had happened, I wouldn’t have needed to make a complaint to the transit authority. I really had no choice. Regardless of my doctor’s orders, I wasn’t about to walk any further, so I stopped to wait for the bus. It came alright. Drove right on past me. It was then I realized I left my phone at home too.

“The transit authority didn’t help one bit. I couldn’t very well go to work. I was unprepared, and couldn’t count on just any bus to stop. I marched in there and asked them as best I could what I should do. I was absolutely calm with the clerk. Those accusations are ridiculous.” Anything but calm, Jeremy’s visit had left the poor clerk in all but a body cast. The bruises on his knuckles still showed after three days.

The tinge of blood in his eye, and the slight incline of his lip signaled Jeremy’s absolute conviction that he hadn’t wronged Ann. “And so the bloody ridiculous police locked me away for three days. I can tell you now. It was such sweet relief to see your gorgeous face with the bail money. And before you even say it, I had no choice. They were already on to me. Question after question. I had no choice. They knew about Jack. I can tell. It’s amazing, but they knew. It was in his eyes. Absolutely accidental. And on top of that, they already knew. So, if you think about it really, it wasn’t my fault at all.”

Smugly and much more calmly than anything he had done in her presence, Jeremy looked Ann in the eye and shrugged. She shot once, quickly and directly between the eyes, through the puddle of brilliantine and sweat.

Having just returned from vacation, I’m still stumbling along, trying to get any kind of inspiration or motivation worked up to do my work, let alone write on here on a regular basis again. So, I’m going to spend the next few days throwing out some stories and pictures I’ve accumulated of late. Honestly, I’m just hoping to kick myself in the rear and whip up some energy for getting work done. Inspiration is hard to find; let’s see if I can manufacture some.

That said, I have a pile of old stuff that I want to rework and look at and I don’t know where to start. I also have some projects I am interested in starting and have some outlines for. Oh, and some cool children’s stories that I’ve been poking around with for a little while.