Several college majors are constantly under fire for their lack of practicality or success in the labor market: Art, Philosophy, Women and Gender Studies — and English, which means, at one point or another, you’ve been asked, “What can you do with an English degree?”...
If you were going to list the most commonly confused and misused words in English, lie and lay would definitely rank near the top. It probably shouldn’t be a big deal. After all, lie and lay are two very different words with two very different meanings. Lie...
When a freelance writer needs a source, Help a Reporter Out (HARO) is often the first place we turn. HARO can be super useful for building your brand. You simply create an account, fill out a query describing what you’re looking for from a source, and sit back and...
When you’re rewriting your manuscript and figuring out how to make your second draft even better than your first, sometimes it’s not enough to work on your own. As a writer, it’s hard to read your own story with an impartial, critical eye. This is where a...
In your first year or two as a freelance writer, you focused on getting more clients to build your fledgling business. Landing a new client was a big deal, and you had time to respond to all of their (many!) emails. Now that your business has grown, you’re drowning in...
In the freelance writing industry, it’s easy to undervalue yourself and your skill. Just take a quick look at some of the Upwork job postings. Ten cents for 100 words? Write it yourself, bro. Plenty of articles review how to set your rates as a freelance writer. But...
We always appreciate TED talks for inspiration, and we love this one from Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Quick summary: it’s about the danger of a single story. Adichie explains that if we only hear about a people, place or situation from one point of...
Every great article needs a great headline. In fact, even an average article can rise to the top if it has a headline that makes people want to click and read. Headline writing is a skill, and like any other skill, the more you know about writing headlines, the better...
Readers read to respond. That’s a simple but often overlooked fact. And if that’s the case, then a writer’s primary objective, when plotting a story and every single scene, is to consider how she wants her reader to respond. To be a masterful fiction writer, it all...
Many years ago, before I’d even opened a blank document on my laptop, I imagined the sort of novel I might write someday. It would be an Important Book, one that would unveil a deeper aspect of the human experience. Maybe, if I were lucky, the book would be reviewed...
