“It’s great to spend time reading, traveling, interviewing, and soaking up atmosphere. But in reality, depending on the story, you can often achieve verisimilitude with a much smaller investment of resources. Online, you can find three-dimensional maps that put you in the street, reams of searchable data about every imaginable topic, and images that help you find just the right … Read More
Productivity Tip Tuesday: Know What Your Time is Worth
“Soon after I began my freelance career, I discovered the benefits of keeping a project log for each new article or client. That way, I know exactly how much time I am spending on each assignment, and what my hourly rate is. I soon learned that there are vast differences between, say, a 700-word artist profile and a 700-word round-up … Read More
Productivity Tip Tuesday: Redundancy Power
“I use a triple-tracking system to track the personal essays I submit to magazines. This includes a master list so I can glimpse what’s ‘out in the world.’ Each publication has its own page so I can see how many times I’ve submitted to The Sun for example. And each essay has its own page so I can track how … Read More
Productivity Tip Tuesday: Start where you are
“Every book and article by a famous writer will say that you need to have a daily writing practice in order to be successful. And I’m not discounting that, but only offering the caveat that it’s easy for them to say this—they are further along in their success with being productive writers than we are. And offering this advice to … Read More
Break into Business Writing: Boost Your Income and Creativity
A Workshop with Sage Cohen and PDX Writers Why think small (and earn small) when you can write for love AND for money–and when each type of writing can benefit the other? A day job that utilizes writing skills can be an ideal way to keep up your chops and fill your inspiration fuel tanks while making a respectable living.This … Read More
The Word is the Way
We all walk our own paths to discover heaven on earth. My portal has always been poetry. At the borrowed retreat house, I place the blue mug on the red counter, lay the dog bed down. How little it takes to make a house a home. As each turn in the travel reveals a new landscape rising up, I recognize … Read More
Living Below the Radar
Excerpted from “Living Below the Radar,” published on newssip. My father taught me how to drive, how to swing a tennis racquet, that when you are given extra change at the cash register, you always return it. Together, through his patience of repetitive testing, we letter-pressed an entire vocabulary of synonyms and antonyms into the pulpy paper of my teenage … Read More
Making room for it all in your heart and your writing
I remember wondering if I could possibly love anyone or anything as much as I loved my first dog, Henry. The synchronicity of our beings was such that he was (and still is) clearly my canine soulmate. When Henry’s little (but much bigger) sister Hamachi entered our lives, this wildly spontaneous beast and I had little in common, with the … Read More