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10 Best Articles for Writers – November 2010

Carol Tice

Top 10 Articles For WritersWhen I’m not writing for clients or for this blog, I read a lot of articles about how to improve your writing or your blog. Most of us writers began as avid readers, didn’t we? I still consider myself a learner, soaking up everything I can about our craft and how it’s best practiced in this fast-changing, new-media world.

When I find great articles, I tend to retweet them. And I recently realized that means I can easily create a fun post on the best articles for writers each month, by scanning back through my tweetstream.

Here’s the first edition — my 10 Best Articles for Writers for November. I will not be including any articles or blog posts I’ve written, either for this blog or elsewhere.

If folks enjoy this, I’ll do it as a regular feature, so please leave some feedback and let me know if you find this a useful post.

The Talmud teaches that it’s important to give full credit to sources, so I am mentioning both the author and the site where the post appeared, so you can see at a glance who was involved in creating these insightful articles.

Without further delay, here are my picks. They may not all have initially published this month, but I discovered them in November. They’re listed alphabetically by title, since I can’t possibly rank them. All great information.

  1. How to Fill a Hole in Your Schedule — the Query-Free Freelancer Way – by Jennifer Mattern, on All Freelance Writing.
  2. How to Plan a Successful Blog – A Step-by-Step Guide – by Annabel Candy on The Daily Brainstorm [NOTE: This post is no longer available.]
  3. How to Remove Emotions From Your Writing Business – by Anne Wayman on About Freelance Writing
  4. How to Sprint to Your Blog’s Tipping Point – by Stanford Smith on Pushing Social
  5. 13 Tips for Beginning Bloggers (which I learned the hard way) by Gretchen Rubin on ProBlogger
  6. 10 Typical Questions From Writers (that are really just fear in disguise) – by Emma Newman on Write for Your Life
  7. 7 Ways to Improve Your Writing — Right Now – by James Chartrand on Copyblogger
  8. Top 5 Query Mistakes Freelancers Make – by Linda Formichelli on Renegade Writer [NOTE: The Renegade Writer blog is gone now.]
  9. Why People Should Stop Updating Their Blogs – by Jered Slusher, on Virgin Blogger Notes
  10. Why You Shouldn’t Write for Revenue Sharing Sites – by Carson Brackney, on FreelanceWritingJobs

Have I missed any great articles about writing or blogging this month? If so, feel free to leave us a link in the comments below. I’d like these posts to serve as great reference tools for learning about the craft and business of freelance writing.

Image via Flickr user sam_churchill

How to Make Money Writing: 113 Grow-Big Actions to Earn More

How to Make Money Writing: 113 Grow-Big Actions to Earn More

Long ago, I came up with a list of ways working freelancers can grow their writing income. If you’ve been wondering how to make money writing—serious money, that is—this list is for you. If you’re a newbie, you’ll find plenty of useful suggestions here, too.

Fire Up Your First Draft: 10 Time-Saving Ways to Boost Writing Speed

Fire Up Your First Draft: 10 Time-Saving Ways to Boost Writing Speed

The Blazing-Fast Way to Boost Writing Speed. Makealivingwriting.com

Are you struggling to boost your writing speed?

You’re not alone. Cranking out a first draft is agony for many freelance writers. It can kill your productivity and suck the joy out of your work. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

I used to hate first drafts, too. I could sweat for hours over one paragraph. Hours! My writing speed was so terrible, I even quit freelance writing for a while. Don’t do that, OK?

When I came back to freelance writing after a long break, I had a new attitude-and a new skill set. I learned how to triple my writing speed. I’m happier, I’m a better writer, and I make more money in less time.

No matter how slow, scared, and perfectionistic you are, you can light up your first-draft writing speed.

It’s not a mysterious, magical gift. It’s a skill, just like knowing where to put the commas or how to pitch an editor. And the better you get at it, the more you can earn.

Ready to fire up your first-draft writing speed? Check out these ten tips to write faster.

7 Reasons Why Writing Killer Headlines Will Change Your Life

Whose responsibility is writing killer headlines anyway? In the old days of journalism, headlines may have been left up to the copy editor to determine but in this digital day and age, writers should pay as much attention as possible to coming up with hooky headlines...