To be Maria follows the story of Anya and Maria – both aged seventeen – who, in their quest for popularity, befriend Alex and Marissa, a twenty-something couple.

They find out that Alex is a drug dealer, but they do not know that his gang is at war with a rival gang – one that is led by Anya’s older brother, Adrik – until one incident puts their lives in danger’s path.

Chapter 1

Anya wakes, startled by the loud, repetitive beep of her alarm clock. In a daze, she reaches over to the small night stand and slaps the stop button. She groans, her tired eyes half-closed, while she slips out from underneath the old, but comfortable blanket. Great. I’m so tired. If only I had two more hours – but no. When there’s no school, there’s work, and that’s even worse. I hate that I have to get up at five-thirty every Saturday and Sunday morning. My manager always gives me the worst shifts.

Anya shuffles over to the closet. Unlike most other girls in school, she never rummages through the closet in search of the perfect outfit. She rolls her eyes. Oh God, here we go again: the same jeans, faded tank-tops, baggy T-shirts, and sweatshirts. I can’t wait until the day comes when I throw away these ugly clothes. I just wish I had the money to buy new clothes, fashionable clothes. Maybe then I’d fit in at school.

Anya traces her finger over the delicate cloth of her one and only bohemian-style summer dress. Even the dress is a hand-me-down, worn by her mother back in the 1970s. But it’s the only piece of clothing she loves; unfortunately, it’s still too cold outside to wear it. Thank God for my imagination. I don’t know what I’d do without it.

The things Anya enjoys the most are brushing her hair and writing in her journal. These are the only times she can let her imagination take her away from home. She can pretend to be anything – anything but herself.

Anya rakes her slender fingers through her long hair. Today, I’m the daughter of a wealthy architect, so I’m going to wear a pair of Tommy Hilfiger jeans and a green peasant top, the revealing one. Then I’ll put on that expensive necklace and those silver hoop earrings that Mom bought for me yesterday. Anya frowns at her clothes. Ugh, who are you kidding, Anya? Why even waste your time pretending to have something when it makes you even more unhappy to realize that you don’t have it?

To get her mind off her clothes, Anya looks at her mother’s photograph, the one that always sits on top of the nightstand. Every time she looks at the photograph, she studies her mother’s features. Her father used to tell her that she looks so much like her mother, Ana Preschnikov, but until now she never gave it much thought. Anya now realizes why her father used to call her Ana. Ana – who must have been in her early twenties when this photo was taken – boasted the same long, caramel brown hair, chocolate brown eyes, petite, heart-shaped face, slender nose, and smooth, cream-colored skin. Anya often wonders what life would be like if her mother was still alive. It has been so many years since she passed away that Anya has forgotten what it’s like to have a mother. Sometimes she dreams about her mother, longing for the comfort of her tender arms and loving words.

Her eyes eventually shift away from the photograph to the journal sitting on the floor in front of the nightstand. The front and back cover is of a soft blue and leather. She received it as a Christmas gift from her best friend, Patrick, a little over one year ago. Since then, she’s filled it with her thoughts until only a few empty pages remain; she’s planned to leave those pages blank until she purchased another journal – something she’s decided to do after work this weekend.

“Oh heck, I can’t wait until the weekend. I really need to clear my mind,” she whispers. She changes into a T-shirt and a pair of jeans, grabs the journal off the floor, then walks over to the kitchen.

The kitchen is messier than usual. Two of the cupboard doors are left open, the sink is filled with dirty dishes, and the counter is littered with stale food, wrappers, cutlery, and cups half-filled with juice. As she bites down hard on her lower lip, she can feel the red creep up her neck and over her face. Damnit! Why doesn’t my dad clean up after himself? Why does he expect me and Sophia to clean up after him all the time? She sinks into the nearest chair, breathing out a long, angry sigh. Her stomach growls, warning that if she doesn’t eat she’ll spend the entire day tripping over her words and suffering from exhaustion and a bad headache – something she’s endured several times in the past.

Anya leaves her journal, then walks over to one of the open cupboards. As predicted, it’s empty – save one box of macaroni and cheese and a package of Mr. Noodles. Anya shuts the door, then peers into the next cupboard; all that remains in there is a box of Cheerios. She grabs the box, realizing that it’s more than half-empty but thinking that it should be enough to satisfy her until lunch.

As she opens the fridge door, she hears a shuffling noise from behind. Thinking that it’s Sophia, she turns, ready for a round of confrontation; but it’s her father, who stands less than one foot away from the doorway. He’s hardly ever up this early, so Anya is surprised to see him. For the first time in a long time, he’s clean shaven, dressed in a red, button-down, flannel shirt that’s tucked into blue jeans. Anya suspects that his clothes are also clean because she doesn’t smell any foul stench.

Anya cocks her left eyebrow. “You’re up early.”

“Yeah, I got a new job.”

“Where?”

“At Home Depot.”

Anya purses her lips. That’s not a step up from your last job at Canadian Tire. “Cool. Is the pay better?”

“Yeah, enough to get me by.”

Anya narrows her eyes. “Well, I hope you last at this job,” she says, slamming the milk and Cheerios down on the table. It’s enough to get us by, you self-centered jerk. I hope your new boss doesn’t fire your dumb ass like your last boss did.

“I think so. You gonna clean this up?” he says, pointing at the counter.

Anya glares at him. “Uh, no.”

“Why not?”

“Because you were the one who made the damn mess. That’s why!”

He casts her a sharp look. “Don’t talk to me like that, young lady.”

“I can talk to you however I want!”

“Fine then, be that way. I’m off.”

“Clean your stinking mess when you get home from work!” Anya yells after him. She slumps into a chair, her eyes brimming with tears. “Don’t cry. He’s not worth it. Don’t let him get you down,” she whispers over and over again until the anger ebbs. But when she looks down at the diary, the feeling returns. She flips through it until she comes to a blank page.

‘February 17, 2003. Dear Diary,’ she writes underneath the date in the top left corner of the empty page.

‘This day is not off to a good start.’

She then writes about her dad, describing him using every foul word in the English language. Once she’s spilled her anger and frustration onto the paper, she breathes out a huge sigh, which makes her feel much better. She doesn’t want to spend every minute of the day thinking about the people who get her down.

‘I’m sorry I used all that bad language. I just needed to let off steam. Anyway, it’s time to tell you about the good stuff in my life.

            ‘I’m still really excitement that I got accepted into Mr. Hawthorne’s advanced acting class. I know, I already told you this – Patrick’s sick of hearing me say this – but this is the best thing that’s ever happened to me. Mr. Hawthorne doesn’t accept anyone into his advanced acting class. Over a hundred students auditioned this year, and out of those auditions he chose only sixteen students to be in his class. The fact that he chose me over several other good actors is a huge gold feather in my cap.’

            ‘Every year, Mr. Hawthorne sponsors one student to attend Vancouver Film School. His sponsorship pays for one year’s tuition. This will give me a huge start to my career. I’m busting my ass to show Mr. Hawthorne the best of me because I’m determined to be the recipient of his sponsorship.’

As Anya pauses to flex her wrist, she steals a glance at her wrist watch. It reads seven ‘o’ clock. Thankfully, there’s still some spare time to write; she hasn’t told her journal everything she needs to say.

‘There’s this new girl in school. She’s our age, and she’s in our grad class. Her name is Maria, and she’s from Spain, the country everyone seems to think is cool. There’s so many Spanish people who live in this city that it’s no wonder why most of them go wide-eyed when they think about Spain. I’ve never been to Europe, but I imagine that Spain’s a beautiful country, though I don’t think it’s any better than any other country in Europe. Or every other country in this world, for that matter. I think it’s the way Maria dresses and the way she acts that everyone finds so attractive. Well, the popular kids mostly. She’s been at Peach Valley Senior High for only two weeks, and she’s already at the top of the popularity chain. Patrick thinks she’s a slut, an easy layover. That’s why all the boys are so gaga over her. But I don’t know if that’s true. I personally think she’s drop-dead gorgeous.’

Anya’s eyes droop when she thinks about Maria.

‘Her clothes are so stylish. I wish I had those kinds of clothes, and – I know I say this almost every day – I wish I was as popular as her. I’d like to get to know Maria – she’d be the coolest friend I’d ever have – but Carly beat me to it. Carly befriended her the moment she set foot in Peach Valley Senior High. Maria’s in two of my classes, and sometimes I see her in the hallway, but she never says anything to me. It’s no wonder why, though. She’s Carly’s friend. Anyway, I think I’ve told you enough information for one day. I gotta get ready for school. Until next time.

            Love Anya.’

All kinds of websites need content, from product descriptions for lunchroom tables to biographies of company directors.

If you’re considering taking the plunge into freelance writing, make sure you don’t make these common mistakes.

Wrongly Evaluating Your Skills

 It is important to target your applications and advertising in a way that reflects your capabilities. In order to do so you need to take an honest look at what you can offer and how valuable your work is.

If you have trouble with grammar or write in an excessively wordy fashion you could find yourself wasting time applying for roles that you are very unlikely to be offered. On the other hand, many freelance writers pitch themselves too low, accepting uncompetitive rates due to a lack of confidence in their skills and abilities.

Reacting Rather than Acting

 When starting out as a freelancer, it can be tempting to simply spend your time signing up to content mills or applying for advertised jobs. However, developing a strong client list takes time, and the best way to do so is to market your services pro-actively.

In addition to building residual income through blogging, the sale of ebooks and other means is something that can pay off hugely in the long term. Dedicating a portion of each working day to developing your business is essential, and the sooner you start, the sooner you can reap the benefits.

Working for Free

 When you begin to look for freelance writing opportunities you will regularly run across advertisements that offer experience instead of pay or require several sample assignments in order to be considered for paying work. As a new writer, it can be tempting to spend time on these projects to get your foot in the door.

While a non-paid article in National Geographic Magazine is certainly worthwhile, in many cases these jobs offer little that you could not accomplish yourself. Rather than provide free articles to someone else’s blog for the promise of exposure, set up your own blog and publish the articles there. Publicizing this blog will help you learn various internet marketing techniques that could enhance your own prospects, and you are the recipient of any income they generate.

Showing Low Confidence

 Many people make the mistake of selling themselves short when they market their services. In order to be treated as a professional you need to act like a professional. Your communications with prospective clients should give off an air of competency and reliability — even if you don’t actually yet feel the confidence you are trying to put forward. If your sample work is good, then it is good, regardless of whether you have been working as a freelancer for five years or five minutes.

Did you make any freelance writing mistakes? Share your experiences in the comments section below.

At which price do you start writing and which price would be too low for you?

Some new freelance writers make the mistake of charging too little; others charge too much. Either way won’t enable you to make a living. If you work many hours on your writing every day and only end up earning $100 in one week, then you’re doing something wrong. And if you expect to start out making $100 in just one hour of writing, then there’s also something wrong with your expectations (unless you are Stephen King).

So how do you know what you should charge for an article, blog entry, translation, transcription or marketing report? If you are completely new to the freelance market and have no reputation whatsoever, you need to know two truths:

1. Some people might not even consider hiring you; and
2. Others will not be willing to pay you as much as they would pay a writer who has a lot of positive feedback

What’s your price?

How much you can charge for your work depends on how good you are and how quickly you can deliver. It is not easy to find a general guideline on how much to charge. A lot depends on what you feel truly comfortable with. Samuel Cremer, who wrote the book “Do what you love – and never work again” (available on Amazon), says that there is something called the “smiling factor”. In your mind, you go through all the prices you could charge for your work. Let’s say you want to write articles about dating and each article will be around 500 words long. You think about spending half an hour on each article because you would like them to read well and of course you’d want them to be free of grammar and spelling mistakes.

Would you smile if you got $0.10 for a unique, well-written article? Most likely not.

What about $0.50? Still, most people wouldn’t smile.

How about $1? $2? $3? $4? $5? Let’s say $5 sounds good for you. It makes you smile to think that someone would be willing to pay you $5 for writing a 500 word article.

Now: If you go on like that, would you still smile if you think about getting $20 for such an article? Or $200? Most people would of course love to get so much money with little work but most of us would also feel like we’d cheat the person who pays us. At some stage, you will stop smiling because you’d feel like you’d charge too much for the work you can deliver. And that’s the “smiling factor”. It can help you a lot to find out what your writing is worth to you and how much you should charge other people.

Your own smiling factor test might have led you to a price of at least $5 for an article – but you also might feel like you wouldn’t want to charge more than $8.

But the competition charges such low prices!

When you look at different freelance portals like www.elance.com or www.freelancer.com, you will see that every single writing job will receive a great variety of offers. Some of them you should simply shake your head at, e.g. if someone offers to write an article about marketing with at least 1000 words for $1. Don’t even think about putting your own price that low, especially when it comes to good quality writing. Often new freelancers believe that they have to offer the lowest price to be chosen. But when you look at where these low offers come from, you will see that they often are from people who live in countries like Kenya, India, Iran – i.e. countries in which English is not the native tongue or not the only native language and in which workers are usually very cheap.

If you are a native speaker of English, i.e. you are from a country like the U.S., England, Scotland, New Zealand, Australia etc., then you shouldn’t even think about charging as little as some people from other countries do. You are most likely able to offer good grammar and spelling and your articles will most likely make sense.

If you don’t have any feedback yet and if you don’t have a suitable blog that you could use to show people your writing skills, then it might be a good idea to write up some sample articles about topics you really care about. Are you a specialist in something? Then write up an article about it. Put a lot of effort into it because sample articles need to convince.

Ask others

If you simply aren’t sure about how much to charge, then try to get in touch with other freelancers. Not all of them will be willing to tell you about their earnings but some of them might be nice enough to give you an insight in their writing life and how their income actually changed with time.

Long-term success

It is easy to give up on earning money with writing if it doesn’t work out right from the start. In the beginning you might not earn as much as you would like to and sometimes it pays off to compromise, i.e. charge a little (but not much!) less than you would like to – esp. in the beginning when you need to get some jobs and feedback. Once you had your first few pieces of positive feedback and created some good pieces that you could use for your portfolio, things will start to look better. Never work in jobs that would only see you earn $1/hour. You always have to keep this in mind: Your time is worth a lot. If you waste your time on jobs that don’t pay much at all, then you won’t have time to find the better jobs.

Most importantly, you don’t want to come off as condescending or aggressive. Telling someone they have been doing everything wrong might get their back up, in which case they will probably feel attacked and withdraw accordingly.

Similarly, intimating that you know way more than them is disempowering and insulting. Maybe you really do know more than them, and maybe you even want them to see you as some sort of expert. But they need to feel respected. You want to tell them that they have the ability to get to where you are, not that they are incapable of fending for themselves.

Your writing should present you as a teacher, not a lecturer. Nobody wants to be talked down to, and if you come off as arrogant, then your readers will shut down right away.

It comes down to finding the balance between sounding smart and knowledgeable, on the one hand, and portraying yourself as humble and modest, on the other.

It comes down to voice.

Delivery is a writer’s voice. It’s partly the length of the piece, and if you’re telling a story, then the piece of writing might be much longer than if you’re explaining to someone how to put a shelf together. If you’re wanting to sell a service, going on ad nauseum will be, well, nauseating. But not telling enough will leave your reader wondering what that was all about. So this is the first thing to consider: how much space do you need in order to say everything you need to say without losing your reader?

Delivery is also determined by the presence or absence of the speaker. If you are writing sales copy, you probably want the speaker to be either yourself or your company (as some sort of disembodied, non-human entity). Maybe you will write from a fictional customer’s perspective, or you could tell about your real experience with an actual customer, channeling their approval and satisfaction through your writing.

This last approach also solves the modesty problem. You can be surprised and grateful for their support, without pretending like you agree that you are so great. You can even express happiness at having been able to help this person so much.

As long as you are sincere. Like I said, people can smell insincerity, because it stinks.

In some cases, you might want the speaker to be totally absent. By this I mean that the reader will not know who is telling the story or giving them directions. But thinking that the speaker is totally absent can be a misleading attitude for a writer, because you still need to consider your voice. If you don’t know who’s speaking, then you can’t very well let that voice be heard.

So when I say, “The speaker is absent,” I really mean that the reader doesn’t know who the speaker is. But you do. You always do. Otherwise there is no speaker. There’s just words on a page or screen. Words. No humanity, no life.

Nobody wants to read that. We are social creatures and we like to connect with each other, not with cold words.

If you’re a technical writer, you’re probably thinking, “Why would it matter who the speaker is? I’m just putting down instructions.”

But imagine if you picked up a manual and the text was entertaining as well as clear and instructive. In all likelihood, you would remember it, maybe even share it with your friends. At the very least, it would probably brighten your day.

So why not? If you are a writer, probably you want people to read your work. The catch, of course, is that you can’t fabricate a voice. Trial and error will help you find your own, and not everyone can be witty or inspiring.

But that’s okay. Not everybody wants to laugh or be uplifted by something they read. Some of my favorite pieces of writing are dark and serious (e.g. Wolfgang Borchert), or simply well researched and informative (Naomi Klein).

So whatever your voice is like, that is how your speaker will sound, and your readers should be able to identify with it to some degree. In an earlier post I discussed determining your ideal readers, and knowing your voice is a big part of that.

Knowing your audience helps you to craft your voice, as well, so whichever one of these you start with, it will feed into the other, improving both your skill as a writer and your reach and appeal with your readers.

You just need to ask yourself what story you’re trying to tell. If you’re not telling a story in the traditional sense, try thinking about your piece of writing that way for a moment. Is it sales copy? Is it a non-fiction piece about science or philosophy?

It helps to think of your writing as a speech. If you were going to read this out loud to someone, what tone would you take on? How would you stand, and what words might you avoid or definitely include?

These are just a few questions to get you on your way, but there’s no doubt that they will lead to others. The main thing to keep in mind is that you need to be true to yourself. If you want to make a career as a writer, or at least have people coming back to your blog or newsletter, then you have to find your own voice.

It will develop over time, but the key is to not try to be everything for everyone. The people who come back for more will be those with whom your voice resonates, and no matter what your style, I promise that someone out there will enjoy reading any well-crafted work from you.

When you digitize your documents for self storage you are putting all relevant files on a hard drive. You may put your documents on cloud computing or a back-up removable hard drive. The benefits to digitizing your documents are:

• Less paperwork to crowd your office
• Less chance files will “disappear”
• Ease of access when looking for old files
• Ease of classifying documents into separate folders

When you put all your files on a shared work drive you allow access for many team members at once to look at files. For example if you are a small retail clothing company and you have a daily ledger that tallies yearly sales figures and you keep that file on a cloud system any team member from merchandizing to operations can access the current year or past year file with the click of a button. No one has to wait for another department to be finished. No one has to dig through file boxes to find last year’s information.

The downsides to digitizing physical documents when considering self storage are:

• Possible crash of your computers or hard drive
• Need to find a hard copy original file for financial purposes
• Files can be stolen through hackers entering your system

When looking at these downsides one would wonder if they should archive physical documents. When you archive you know that you will have the hard copy to back up any information you need in the future. The upsides of archiving physical documents are:

• Always having original signatures
• Hard copies may have notary stamps
• Original hard copies are tangible proof of a transaction

Going back to the example of the small retail store if a customer disputes a transaction with their credit card company the company will call you. You will have to search for the original receipt for the proof of the customer’s signature. Having well organized physical archives allows you to quickly find the original.

The speed with which you can find physical archives is just one of the possible downsides. Other downsides to physical archiving include:

• Files may “disappear”
• Paperwork boxes take up large spaces
• You cannot cross categorize files without making several copies
• Files may fade over time

While it is easier to simply place a file in a filing cabinet or legal box and store it away perhaps the best option is for you to do both. Digitize and archive your files. Follow the proper system to reap the positive benefits of both:

• Scan in the documents
• Organize the documents into easy to find files
• Store the documents in labeled archival safe boxes
• Create an excel file for where the files are physically located

Though this process may take time and money it will make your documents safer and easier to find. You may want to hire someone internally to take on this task or you may want to work with an external company. Once you have the system in place it should be easy to follow going forward.

You want your company to be organized and efficient. Utilize the best of digitizing and archiving to protect the security of your self storage.
———————
Megan writes for Access Self Storage, an Adelaide based storage solutions provider. They have several business storage options to help you free up your valuable retail or office space.

Touch Typing

In a perfect scenario one would be able to sit at the computer and never have to look at the keys. The sooner you can do this the faster you will be able to type. Practice the touch typing method of laying your hands on the keys and type while looking at the screen. At first this will be hard however it will become more familiar with practice.

Don’t Break Your Wrist

Typing is similar to playing the piano. When you place your hands on the keys you want to gently round your fingers as if there were a small ball under them. Try to keep your wrists straight. You can do this by resting your wrists on the computer itself if it is a notebook or adding a wrist pillow if it is a keyboard.

Short and Sweet

Practice short writing exercises daily. You can type out paragraphs from a book you are reading. Take ten minutes and journal how you are feeling. Short bursts of typing will give you practice.

Writing is About Rewriting

It may seem silly to just go ahead and write everything that is on your mind. However you can go back and rewrite. When you get out your thoughts first you will not dwell on every sentence. Your speed of completion of a project will increase.

Pick a Thesis Statement

When you are composing a body of work it is important to pick a thesis statement. When you know what you are writing about and what your opinion on that topic is it will be easier to be more concise. When you get lost you can go back to your thesis.

Don’t Slouch

When you are working at the computer be sure not to slouch. Adjust your chair or desk height if you need to. When you sit up straight you experience less stress and strain and can work faster for longer.

See Clearly

Keeping the computer a little lower than eye level will cause your eyes to close slightly and reduce the dry eye factor. When the eyes are well lubricated they are healthier and you can look at a screen longer.

20/20 Vision

Get fitted for computer glasses if you experience headaches and blurred vision. You will be able to see the screen clearer. These lenses can be anti-glare in order to reduce the amount of light strain is on your eyes.

Take a Break

Stepping away from the computer for ten minutes gives your brain, eyes and fingers a chance to rest. Your ability to type without missing letters will be easier when you give your fingers a break. Your mind will be able to regroup and think about what you really wants to say making getting your point out easier.

Get in the Zone

When you are writing block out the noise from things around you. If you are in an office and you have people around you put on headphones. If you are at home turn off the television. Concentrate on what you have to say and then let the rest of the world back in.

When you practice these ten tips you should see an increase in your writing efficiency. With some practice your fingers, eyes and brain will thank you.

For startups, this is particularly pertinent. Many new businesses are running on a shoestring, and hiring a “wordsmith” (which is what many people assume a copywriter is) is something that just seems frivolous. And it is. They don’t need a wordsmith, they need someone to help them get their message straight and cut the crap, and that’s what a copywriter is going to help them do.

When someone without writing experience sits down to write, chances are they have one style – their own voice. They find themselves going round in circles and padding out sentences with words that don’t really strengthen the message and in fact don’t really mean much at all. They suddenly forgot how to communicate in plain English. There are millions of home pages and About Us pages out there that attest to this. Copywriters are trained to research different target audiences and write to them specifically, in their own language.

When an experienced copywriter sits down to write, it’s only after having done a ton of research first about the type of person they’re writing for. The writing on your website or in your sales letter needs to speak directly to the reader. It needs to be as specific as possible. Generic copy is weak and watery; it’s not going to achieve the results you want. Examples of generic copy are broad sweeping statements like “We understand you”, We’re unique!”, and “We want to make a difference”. Anyone can say these things about anything. If you want to really appeal to your reader you need to do better. Prove you understand me; and what makes you unique? You need to spell out why you’re different, why you can be trusted, and why the reader should care. A trained copywriter will get to the crux of these questions, as well as what appeals to your audience, and will write copy that resonates with them specifically.

When you hire a good copywriter, they won’t settle for just writing the words you want. They’ll explain why they’ve taken a certain approach which may not have been what you had in mind. If you watch Mad Men, you can identify with the copywriters after they’ve put together a great pitch, only to have the client go for something safe and inferior. This is not restricted to fiction and is the bane of the copywriter’s existence at all levels. Don’t be that client.

Speaking of clients, there’s a saying in legal circles that a man who represents himself has a fool for a client. The same could be said of copywriting. Whatever the field of endeavour, the fact is we make our own worst clients. You don’t see lawyers representing themselves or psychologists trying to sort out their own problems without any help, so what makes you think you can do the best possible job communicating your own jumble of ideas? A copywriter will approach your business with a fresh pair of eyes. They’ll see things you’ve missed, or which you’ve become blinded to from being so close to your project.

Here’s what a quality copywriter should provide:

Objectivity – a hired writer will be approaching the subject without your preconceived and often limiting ideas of “how things are”. They can point out features you might have missed or that you thought weren’t important.

Expertise – an experienced copywriter will have written for many different niche industries so they probably have an idea of your product or service already and who it’s aimed at. If you seek out a copywriter specialising in your niche you may pay a premium for their specialist expertise, but will save money overall because they are already up with much of the material and don’t need to learn it from scratch.

Research – don’t assume you can just give a writer a 200 word brief and off they go to write you 10,000 words of scintillating copy. They need to get to the heart of the matter with interviews and research about who they’re writing for. The collaborative process is what makes the writing specific and non-generic. Be prepared to do some work to help your writer if you want to achieve the best results.

Insight – how much is a million dollar idea worth? Seems a silly question, right? Well sometimes your writer will give you a million dollar idea within a $200 job, or in a 5 minute discussion which has cost you $10 worth of their time. Having someone savvy who knows what you’re on about to throw ideas around with is an invaluable resource.

Structure – you know everything about your product, but it’s so hard figuring out what features should be listed where. A hired writer will bring structure to your jumble of ideas, putting important features first and then developing them in a linear and logical fashion.

Quality of writing – sloppy grammar and poor spelling can be the bane of startups and established small businesses alike. You don’t want your credibility placed in doubt over not knowing where to put an apostrophe, do you? A professional writer will fix these mistakes in your current copy as well as getting rid of excess meaningless waffle and other common writing mistakes.

Feedback and suggestions – when I’m working on a writing project, I usually keep a separate document where I jot down ideas to send the client after the project. They might just be typos I’ve found on their website, or suggestions for cutting down on irrelevant material or amalgamating similar menu items to improve the user experience and make their site less confusing. This takes little time for me and can be of great benefit to the client.

You might be able to bring some of these qualities to your own work. In fact you will often be ahead of the hired copywriter for some of them such as research and expertise on the topic in question. But as a whole package, you’re not going to beat a professional writer whose livelihood depends on being able to produce writing that gets results.

If the writer has spent some time and mental energy doing research about how to talk to your audience specifically, they should also be leaving you with a detailed strategy on ways you can build on their work in future and ways you can improve on other areas of your messaging such as existing lateral copy, imagery, and in the case of your website, the overall user experience.

Hiring a freelance writer to help put your ideas into words should be just as natural a step as hiring a graphic designer or web developer. More people are starting to realise this and copywriting is experiencing something of a renaissance with the advent of split testing, which is proving how much of a difference well-written copy actually makes in getting conversions.

So don’t gamble with your startup by skimping on copy. Hire someone who’s going to lend a fresh pair of eyes and help you get your important messages out there, where they really matter.

A week without your usual entertainment

Here is the challenge: Try to get through one week of your life without reading books, magazines, newspapers etc. (this includes proper hardcopies as well as e-Books). In addition, you also shouldn’t watch any TV, DVDs or movies at the cinema. Don’t play computer and video games. i.e. it is a week in which you limit outside influences and have to find other ways to keep yourself busy and entertained. And it can work wonders for your creativity because for many people it’s something unusual to not read or zone out in front of the TV. Take that time away from them and they might not know what to do.

How much time do you “waste”?

Most people often don’t realize how much time of the day they actually “waste” and wasted time is a creativity killer (because you don’t do anything creative or useful while you are watching TV). Have a look at your life right now and be honest about how much time you spend with activities that don’t really do anything for your life but “killing time”. Examples are: watching soap operas, watching endless hours of music videos on a music channel, watching two different news shows even though they talk about the same things, playing Solitaire on the computer etc. How much time do you spend in front of the TV? How much time do you spend on the computer? Then add the time you usually spend with reading – not that reading is a bad thing but it usually fills you up with the ideas of other people. You are busy with reading the news, reading other people’s novels, other people’s articles and poems. Yes, they can be inspiring but giving them up for a while might do you even more good!

I don’t ask you to give up all your entertainment for good (because I won’t ask of you what I wouldn’t be willing to do myself) – I would just like to challenge you to try one week and see how it goes. Many people usually comment “But I can’t just NOT watch the news for a week.” – “But I can’t just give up on reading the newspaper.” Well, yes, maybe the world will fall apart while you are not watching – but wouldn’t you think that you’d learn about the really important events anyway? Oh yes, and of course Facebook and Twitter will be off-limits during that week as well. It might surprise you how little you will actually miss it.

Why?

What’s the point of that, you wonder? The point is that moving away from all of those influences for a while is to do things you might otherwise not do or maybe even not think about. Unless you are someone who can just sit around and do nothing, you will look for other ways to keep you occupied. It doesn’t necessarily have to be writing – but the activities you will do might help you a lot with getting access to your creativity.

What do people do during that week?

Let’s imagine the internet (Facebook and Co.), the TV and reading fill up around 2-3 hours of your day. If you manage to go without those for a week, that would be 14-21 hours that you need to fill up with other activities. I admit, it might not be easy on the first day – but it can be very rewarding to have all of that extra time. Some people use the time to go through all their drawers, sort through their attic, play games with their children, go for walks (some of the best ideas come to you when you are walking and the old Greek philosophers already knew that), paint, carve or write.

You might find that you actually enjoy doing those things and someone said: “I always thought I don’t have the time to do these things!” That person was me after I went through that week. I gave up watching lots of TV and instead focused on things that made my brain work a bit more. I got active instead of just being passive and having other people’s creativity influence me. I write a lot more these days and I don’t miss the TV that much at all. Yes, after the one week I got back to playing some computer games and I love reading books – but I also learned a lot about my own potential during that week.

Just one week of withdrawal from most media influences (you are allowed to read your emails – apart from the entertainment newsletters) might do you a lot of good.

If you take up the challenge, you might want to leave a comment here and share it with other readers. After one week, tell us how you got through the week and what you did during that week. You might also want to combine this with using morning pages because morning pages can help you with getting ideas about what you would like to do each day (or in your life in general).

The same thing can happen to your writing. If you are inspired and on fire, you might feel inclined to blast out several thousand words in a single sitting. This is great; these are the moments every writer strives for. But as much as we seek them out, we have to handle them with care.

Imagine writing non-stop for days on end. Although a select few (Stephen King, Isaac Asimov) often wonder why other writers don’t write constantly, most of us take breaks. Maybe even more breaks than we really need.

But that’s okay. We do need breaks.

If writers don’t take breaks, then their words start to turn into blobs of letters. Sentences come out as a string of clichés and the whole shebang tastes a little bit like meatloaf – familiar, easy to digest, maybe even comforting or enjoyable, but wholly unremarkable and probably meaningless.

It’s something like brain tendinitis. I recently read a blog post about a phenomenon that most writers can relate to, when you get a shiver that marks your sense of recognition: you have written something brilliant. Often it was easy. Sometimes it even felt like some other being was communicating through you, like you were just the tool for a much better writer to get his or her message into words.

No wonder so many writers are manic depressive. In the manic phase, we get high on our own work, and we think that everybody else will immediately perceive our talent and skill. We have enough energy to write an epic fantasy series.

For a while we float around in our little dream world, and then at some point we crash. We come to the conclusion that our writing is garbage; no one will ever want to read it. We have nothing to say. Everything we try to put out is drivel, a rip-off of someone else, or worse yet, incomprehensible. Sometimes we say the opposite of what we meant.

Our hearts turn black and blue, and we shut down completely. All that energy that we funneled into what we arrogantly imagined would be a masterpiece – wasted. Pipedreams. That’s why they call it fantasy, we tell ourselves. Because it’s unrealistic to think you could ever write it.

As we lay our weary head down on the closed laptop/book/paper/etch-a-sketch and look forward to a life of writing technical manuals and selling second-hand books.

In between these two states of mind, we get a realistic glimpse of our abilities and future. Most writers need to couple their skill with some sort of business savviness if they hope to make a living off of what they write. Unless of course you’re independently wealthy. If you are, please share.

Most of us will face burnout at some point. It can creep up on you slowly or hit you like a thing that hits people really hard and suddenly.

It can happen after the manic or the depressive phase. In my own experience, it rarely happens when you’re just sort of going along doing your thing. It’s usually when there’s a dip or a peak in your mood.

Writer burnout is like tendinitis in that writing becomes inexplicably painful. However, you keep pushing yourself to write, but the results are as disappointing as the process is unsatisfying. Your writing muscles are on fire, and not in a good way. You can only write a few sentences at a time before you decide it’s not going anywhere and it’s time for a break.

Sometimes you just feel like you’re filling up space.

So what do you do? People have different ways of dealing with this phenomenon, of course, and you have to determine your own best course of action. That being said, the first thing to do is to step away from your work. Even if you have a tight deadline.

Now, before you object, let me explain. If you’re working in burnout mode, your writing will be slow. This is the nature of burnout mode. So you’ll feel like taking a break is the worst possible thing you could do, even though you never want to look at the current piece again.

Take a deep breath and go outside. Hang out with some friends you haven’t seen in a long time. Don’t do something like watching a movie, because it’s too close to what you’ve been doing. You need to play a sport, go for a run or swim, or take a long walk. Go out to a restaurant, or check out the latest sales, if that’s your thing.

You need to do this. Otherwise, your writing will be painful for longer. Just as your body needs time to repair overused muscles, your mind needs time to gather new thoughts.

If you don’t take some time to get away from the incomplete mountains of writing you’ve been building up, the process will continue to be slow. But once you’ve taken a break, you might find that you can get back at it with your old gusto.

If your burnout came from taking on too many projects, then the key is to start crossing them off the list. So get the shorter ones done first. These will be easier. Chiseling away at a big block can bring you joy as well as cash, but only if you have the energy to carry yourself through to the end. If you’re dividing your time among several pieces of writing, the chances are good that you won’t be able to give your full attention to any of them , leading to a sense of failure and a total lack of involvement in your work.

You’ll be burnt out and overworked. So take a day off. Seriously. Unless you want mental tendinitis.

But when you’re on a deadline, you know that you don’t have time to play host for the dreaded writer’s block. You need to pump out that article or that blog post, and sometimes you have a paycheck or a boss waiting for your supposedly enlightening piece. Well, what happens if you just can’t write? If that pen on that piece of paper simply won’t scribble? Or when the curser blinks at you from your computer, asking you which words and letters it should make appear?

While there is no known cure for writer’s block (except, you know, writing) I’ve compiled a list of tips that will help you though your writing slump. Here are a few short ideas to jumpstart your writing rehabilitation:

1. Find inspiration. Too broad of a command? Well that’s because you can find inspiration anywhere. Look at your wastebasket with its overflowing mess of crumpled drafts, let that inspire you. Look at yourself in the mirror with your untidy hair and crumpled clothes, let that inspire you. Look at your dog begging for attention or at least for some food, let that inspire you. If this still doesn’t help you, then find a muse.
2.  Read good writing. I am a firm believer that reading good writing inspires writing good reading. You simply cannot read a trashy, badly written piece and expect to gain fabulous insight (However, if reading bad writing inspires you to write better work to prevent becoming a bad writer, then allow it to inspire you with fear). Pick up a classic, read a literary magazine, visit your library—just find a good author and allow yourself to be in awe. Good writing never fails to inspire a writer to grab that pen and write furiously.
3.  Write. Wait, what? Yeah, you read that—write. It doesn’t matter what it’s about, who’s it about, or if it is even worthy of reading; just write. Get your pen moving, put that blinking curser on your computer to work, just do something that makes you feel productive. What you’re writing may be total trash but at least you’re writing. The writing process involves several drafts, so why not start on draft number one. The simple act of writing will allow you to refresh the ideas in your head.  You know what they say: Fake it ‘till you make it.
4.  Rediscover your love. Remind yourself why you love writing. Remember all those times that you read a book and fell in love with the words. Allow yourself to fall back in love with writing. Nothing scares a writer’s block away more than a good romantic stroll down writer’s memory lane. I know that there are times when you feel you’re slowly becoming a crazy person, but hang in there. Remember, you’re crazy in love…with writing.

Writing is usually not an easy process. There are ups and downs to it. Some days we’re a machine and other days we’re underneath our table, hiding from our writing assignments and begging for mercy. When it’s those latter days, don’t give up. Instead, let writer’s block inspire you to write a blog post about—you guessed it—writer’s block.