Archive for the "Doing the work" category

There’s a couple ways to look at doing commercial work: 1) A way to make money while you’re trying to hit it big. That’s the way a lot of people choose to see it whether it’s commercial writing, commercial art, or doing tedious copypasta database programming for Meglocorp Inc. Usually, people get into freelance fields [...]

It’s a simple question, do you answer your phone, or do you let it ring through to voicemail?  For that matter, do you leave voicemails or just send emails or texts? When you’re running the oDesk client you usually don’t want to be interrupted.  It can be annoying to suspend and restart the client half [...]

In a previous post, Becoming Invisible I mentioned some errors that shock readers out of the spell you are casting with your fine writing. I’ve accumulated more for my list and here they are. Gaffs to avoid These are mistakes I have collected from writing I have read or edited (and some I’ve made myself). [...]

I was reading a writer’s forum the other day, and came across a post by someone who had been receiving files in .docx format and wasn’t quite sure how to handle them.  At it’s a helpful forum, various other people chimed in and explained that it was the new format for Microsoft Word that was [...]

oDesk is a great place to get started as a freelance writer. I know- it’s where I got started. What could be better than earning money while you develop your skills? Unfortunately, there’s a flock of novice wannabes jumping in who can’t write well at all. They think commercial writing is a home business venture [...]

Yesterday, I was wandering around town and having a generally good time. I haven’t been to the library in a while because I knew I had some fines I needed to pay off. One short story collection I got the last time I was there was so bad that I think it ended up in [...]

How well do you know yourself? For example I’m a left-handed male in my mid-forties; I’m a Meyers-Briggs INTP, Astract-Sequential, Visual Learner who prefers compromise to conflict. That all sounds really wonderful, but what does it mean?  To some people it doesn’t mean anything, and to others it means a lot.  I could also have [...]

So here you are, spending some time searching out work on oDesk and you keep seeing references to “Affiliates.” That leads to two questions:  What’s an affiliate?  And, is it good for me? The principle behind oDesk affiliates is simple:  more people can do more work than one person.  That’s why some people on oDesk [...]

As a writer, I’m interested in the written word. How it connects my mind to yours and how that process goes awry. I’d like to point out something that happens to me quite often on the Internet. I’m reading along, and like an electric shock, some error or other jumps off the page and jolts [...]

The constant drone of the air-conditioner reminds me that summer’s here again. As I write this the kids are in the pool out back, and half a dozen friends have joined them.  The fridge is full and tonight we’re having a barbecue. It’s a common picture, and seeing as today’s Father’s Day I wouldn’t be [...]