After recently teaching six students at an arts center, I screwed up my courage and told the personable program coordinator I wouldn’t be able to offer my services there again.

“It simply doesn’t pay enough,” I said.

“How about offering a free seminar to the public so more people can learn of the class? Some of them might enroll,” she suggested.

To boost enrollment at a couple of places where I teach, I twice (make that three or more times) offered talks about creative writing. I even had my students read from their very fine work. The audiences sighed and clapped and laughed at all the right moments during the programs.

Afterwards, we held receptions and served coffee, tea, and pastries. Often I bought or baked the goodies myself.

Guess what? Few people who attended the talks ever took a class. One time, several people just wandered into the room and sidled straight up to the cookies.

No more freebies for me.

Since then, I’ve made it a point to seek (and get) teaching jobs that pay a flat fee.

But that can be tricky, too.

Recently I had an opportunity to submit proposals to teach several writing classes to a community education program where I’d always longed to teach. Then I learned they would pay $22.00 per teaching hour. Nothing for preparation. Nothing for the 30 minutes after each class answering questions from students too shy to ask during the class. What about the emails from students between classes?

So, I had to learn to demand not only a flat fee, but a decent one.

Writers are mostly paid peanuts, considering our formal education, and post college training and experience. (I won’t even go into our years of blood, sweat, and tears.) Most of us have written for free many, many times. We even guest post on one another’s blogs—for free. But, at least that’s usually reciprocal.

No more ridiculously low-paying teaching gigs for me. Well, except for two classes I’ve had for years and love.

How about you? Do you teach writing for pennies? Are you fed up with writing for free? Have you got a plan?

Some feel that contests are a waste of time and money, contending that publishers aren’t impressed by a writer winning a contest. And they’re not very happy that most contests require an entry fee of $10.00 or more.

On the other hand, entering writing contests can be a way to get your work measured against other writers’ work. Sometimes the contest judges will give a contestant valuable feedback; many contests offer publication of your writing, if you are among the winners.

Recommended Resources
One of the best sources of writing contests is Poets & Writers. Read one perspective (okay, a rant) about submitting stories to writing contests in “Common Faults in Short Stories,” by Stephen Moran, The New Writer’s Handbook, Volume 2. (It’s a book.)

What’s your opinion on writing contests? Have you entered any? Benefitted from any? Been burned by any? Leave a comment to share your experience.

I’d be honored if you’d subscribe to this blog and follow me on Twitter @lynettebenton for more writing tips.

Grounds of a Sculpture Park

Under similar circumstances, though, I’d hasten to get my hot (and I do mean “hot”) hands on just one little item: a prescription. I’d march into my HMO and accost the first person I came across, and demand to to see my grim primary care doctor.

“I want a prescription.”
“For what?”
“Prempro.”
“Prempro? But . . .”
“Prempro. Now.”

For you fortunate ones who have no idea what Prempro is or does, and no need to know, its the drug that offers miracle relief to women like me. It makes us cool. Cool and comfortable. It eliminates hot flashes and night sweats. It eliminates the need for me to adjust the thermostat in my husband’s car every few minutes, depending on whether or not the sun is shining through the windows on me, or don or remove a sweater each time I move from room to room in our 80-year-old, unevenly-heated house.

Prempro says to my faulty temperature-regulating hypothalamus, “Everything’s fine. There’s no need to flood her with perspiration to cool her, when she’s standing outside in 30 degree weather without a coat. No need to soak her short, sleeveless cotton night gown when it’s 70 degrees inside. Turn off the body heat.”

So, if you hear the world’s about to end, run to the candy store with my husband, if you want. Just please don’t get in my way. I wouldn’t want to step on you on my way to get that big, fat dose of delicious Prempro.

If you have hot flashes, or know someone who does, you might enjoy “What Keeps Me From Writing? The Fire Within.” Part 1 and Part 2.

That's me, dressed up for an event

Why?

My mission as a copy editor is find the errors in your manuscript that you’ve overlooked—which happens if you’ve been staring at your words until your vision’s blurred, and your forehead hits the table in front of you.

Or, maybe you didn’t overlook those errors. Maybe you made mistakes you didn’t recognize as mistakes.

Say you think periods and commas go outside the quotation marks in your dialog.

Or you don’t know when you’ve got a phrase wrong. (You’d be surprised how many writers think the phrase “wreck havoc” is correct. It isn’t.) Maybe you’ve never understood the distinction between disinterested and uninterested.

It’s the copy editor’s job to point out the misuse—and overuse—of words and phrases like “hopefully” and “begs the question.”

Perhaps you treat the same word(s) differently in different places in your work. Is it “copy editor” or “copyeditor?”

At some point in your story, you might have put two periods at the end of a sentence. Or, throughout your book, you’ve inserted two spaces at the end of sentences.

There might be a word that you always misspell. For me, that word is “narcissism.” I had to try three spellings just now to get the right one.

If you’re like me, when you type fast, you write “ot,” instead of “to,” and “of,” instead of “or.” That’s why I always give work I intend to publish to a copy editor before I submit it. (Blog posts are a different matter. I can’t afford to have dozens of them copy edited, so I hope you’ll ignore any errors you find here.)

Get your work copy edited so you won’t be embarrassed when you submit your query letter or manuscript to an agent, or upload your book to sell online. Strong, crisp, correct copy allows your readers to lose themselves your writing. Isn’t that better than having them shake their heads and sigh before casting it aside?

Please share this post with anyone you think might need a copy editor. Or, with anyone who needs to think about editing their work before publicizing it.

But those writers who’ve been fooling with Chapter One for two years, who can’t get the story down because the little time they devote to writing is spent tweaking those first 15 pages? The ones who insist they’re preparing to write when what they’re actually doing is caressing the new writing tools they got for Christmas, or shopping for color-coded stickies at the stationery store? The ones who tell me their latest accoutrements are just what they need to make significant progress on their book? Encouraging words for those writers? Sorry. I’ve run out.

These are not my students. The “writers” I’m referring to haven’t found time to take classes with me or anyone else. Instead, they accost me after I give a talk on writing or when I’m on my way into the library for some focused writing time.

I’ve Heard All the Excuses
For years I’ve nodded patiently while listening to these writers list the reasons their lives are busier than other writers’ lives.

I tell them about Cynthia Ozick and Margaret Walker and countless other women and men who had children to rear on little money, or struggled with illnesses—their own or their family’s—or scrambled to subsist in war torn areas—but still wrote and published their work.

The wannabe writers smile sheepishly. “You’re right,” they say, earnestly. “I know you’re right.”

I tell them to take a writing class of their choice; it needn’t be one of mine. A class will help keep them accountable.

But when I next see them, they offer a new raft of excuses.

Do You Really Want to Write—or to Have Written?
Brenda Ueland wrote If You Want to Write, a wonderful book for aspiring writers. Go ahead and read it.

But if you really want to write, stop talking about it. Quit complaining. Give up the excuses. (You can’t come up with any I haven’t heard ad nauseum.)

Don’t grab me to whine when I’m on my way to write or to teach. Just sit down and write.

If you’re an aspiring writer who’s running out of time, you might want to read Finding Time to Write.

If you’re running out of excuses, bookmark Excuse Editor. You’ll get spot on tips and gentle nudges that can help you. Or, at least read Writer’s First Step: Show Up.

Finally, I recommend this post: Hardworking vs. Talented.

For more writing tips, please follow lynettebenton on Twitter.

Relief11@verizon.net

Thank you.

- Lynette

Writer Leslie Fulton

I have been a freelance writer for more than 20 years—after working in print and broadcast journalism, as well as public relations. I’m lucky to have reached a point where I don’t have to cold call people looking for writing assignments. Most of my client base now comes via word of mouth.

My degree is in journalism and I also took creative writing courses while working on a Masters at Stanford University (which I didn’t finish, but that’s another story).

For a long time, I put aside creative writing as I focused on my career. After a long day writing magazine articles, speeches, white papers—you name it—the last thing I felt like doing was writing fiction for pleasure.

However, I soon realized I was missing something. Writing wasn’t fun. I was getting stale and bored. That’s when I understood that I needed to write creatively, otherwise my career would suffer. I needed that outlet and that sense of fun and joy that creative writing can bring. But, mixing the two can be precarious. How to balance?

My number one rule is that paid writing comes first.

Other freelance rules? Never miss a deadline. Never take on too many projects. Being greedy won’t pay off; you’re bound to drop the ball on one of the projects. Take the job that interests you the most; you’re more likely to write a better piece for your client. Never take on something you can’t complete. And there’s nothing wrong with accepting an assignment you don’t fully understand—I have a number of high tech clients—but make sure you do your research, learn all you can, and get it right.

Freelance writing can be lonely, especially if you work by yourself out of your home. I talk to the dog a lot. Sometimes he answers back.

If I’m stuck on a particular issue, I’ll go work out. Doing something physical gives your brain a chance to process the problem. I’ll come home sweaty and refreshed. Then, after a shower and maybe a coffee, I’ll sit down at the computer and—voila!—the block has disappeared. This little trick has never failed me.

I have often cursed my journalism degree and my business writing, thinking they hampered my creative side. Now, I don’t feel that way as much. Like anything, you have to practice. The more you write, the better you’ll be. Long flights of fanciful prose still aren’t my thing but I’m okay with that. In fact, I dislike reading them in other people’s writing. So, the clean and spare style I was taught in school and honed in my professional life is how I write creatively.

You can contact Leslie at fultonjohnsonassociates@gmail.com.

Follow tweets by Leslie’s fascinating persona @LizziePepys.

To see the original post about the tensions between business and creative writing, click on When Business and Creative Writing Clash. And here’s another first person perspective on the subject. Michele Chiappetta: Balancing Business and Creative Writing.

If you enjoyed this post, you might also like What to Expect From Your Copywriter.

Some of her responses appear in the post, When Business and Creative Writing Clash. But Michele offered so many other useful insights on the tensions between being a business and a creative writer that I knew immediately I wanted to share them on my own blog. So, with her permission, here’s Michele’s guest post.

- Lynette

Michele Chiappetta, Chipper Muse

I definitely have conflicts between my creative work and my business writing. Most of the conflict is related to time management. Because I have an office job doing nonprofit writing (fundraising, PR, etc.), I have plenty of interaction with others during the course of the day. So I don’t mind being alone in the evenings to work on my creative writing. I make sure I attend critique groups to meet with other creative writers for input, but it’s tempting to blow off those opportunities when I get busy with work or tired from writing all day.

In addition to my day job, occasionally I also freelance write and edit to earn extra money.

I don’t know that my time management methods are all that great. I try to stay on a specific schedule (day job, work out, eat dinner, pull out computer to write novel). I carry flash drives with my personal and freelance projects on them, so if I have some downtime at the day job, I can turn to my creative writing or freelance work. I also carry notebooks to jot down ideas or do some writing if I’m waiting somewhere (like a doctor’s office). I even use a note-taking app on my smartphone sometimes. Anything to capture ideas when they come.

I need to take breaks to give my brain a rest; writing full-time and then coming home to do creative writing can be exhausting. I try to take a mental break by walking for 15 minutes mid-morning and mid-afternoon when the weather’s nice, and I try to really be in the “now,” feeling my body moving, enjoying the sunlight and fresh air, and not thinking about work. This helps me feel refreshed, which then gives me more energy to get back to whatever I’m writing, personal or work-related.

I actually think my business writing has greatly improved my creative writing. When you write for a living, you get in the habit of doing it daily, which improves your skills. Also, I’ve learned not to take it personally when my writing gets critiqued. I’m better able to take feedback and apply it in a way that works for me. And I have plenty of writing successes under my belt because of work, which makes it easier to encourage myself that my creative writing will also be a success.

As hard as it is sometimes, I wouldn’t trade the experience I’ve had doing business writing and creative writing simultaneously.

Question from Lynette: How do you balance your business and creative writing?

Michele Chiappetta is a professional nonprofit writer, and a freelance writer and editor. In addition to working with clients, she runs “a funny, intelligent, artistic, creative, and spiritual look at life” at The Chipper Muse. Michele is currently working on a novel.

Follow Michele on Twitter @chippermuse.

Contact her at: chippermuse@gmail.com or on Facebook on the Chipper Muse page.

See how another writer views the relationship between business and creative writing.

If you enjoyed this post, you might also like What to Expect From Your Copywriter.

Because she’s so prolific and thoughtful a reader and has given me feedback on so much of my writing, I wanted to present her ideas about writing and reading here.

- Lynette

How do you feel reading benefits people?

Lesley vacationing in Montreal

First, there are the pragmatic reasons. Most of us have to read to do our jobs, even if we’re just reading memos or instruction books. The more you practice on your own, the better you get—not just faster but deeper. Reading taught me how to write grammatically, a skill that’s still valuable though increasingly rare. It taught me how to think from different perspectives—I’m able to translate two sides of a conversation that otherwise would go nowhere.

And then there’s the sheer delight of a plot turn, a character, even a perfect sentence. The pleasure of new companions, all with new stories to tell. The escape from the mundane, the escape to a new culture. The sobering reflection to count my blessings. Reading has taught me empathy.

I share my favorite books with my friends and family. When my mother started passing me books she’d just finished, it was a rite of passage. I read aloud to my children long after they’d learned to read themselves, right up to the point where their longing to know what happened next overwhelmed the comfort of my presence.

What do you read—and why?

Read Part 2 of this interview.

What are your favorite books from various eras in your life?

Lesley vacationing in Montreal

The Narnia books still inform my spiritual life.

When I was 11, I must have read The Descent of Woman—in which the author proposed that homo erectus spent a couple of millennia on the beach, thus the lack of fur and the presence of sub-cutaneous fat—at least ten times. I was like a toddler watching a movie over and over again, deriving new meaning each time.

As an adolescent, I loved Les Miserables. The melodrama of it, especially the resolution—the hero on his deathbed, with his daughter and her beloved beside him—reflected my own emotional life.

Now I have so many favorite book, but I don’t reread them the way I used to. Instead I press them on my friends. The most recent was Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand. I read Cider House Rules when it first came out, and could hardly wait the ten years or I needed before I’d forget enough about it to read it again.

Have you ever thought about writing a book? 

There’s one book I want to write. It would be for grade-school or younger children. It’s about a young man finding his vocation in a very abbreviated and visual way.

Do any particular topics appeal to you?

I dream constantly about parallel lives. About the door I’ve never opened in my house. About the back stairs and hallways that servants used in estate houses. About worlds you can move between if you follow the correct ritual.

In one recurring dream, I enter a spiral staircase at the bottom, climb to the first landing and turn around. Suddenly, the staircase doesn’t end where I came in, but spirals down into another country.

These books would be for young readers: as you can tell, my imagination is plot- and location-based, not character driven.

Do you think you’ll ever write one?

Maybe. My cousin could illustrate my story. But I’d have to conquer my internal editor first, and she’s fierce.

Anything else you’d like to add?

I have opportunities to write from time to time. I wrote a devotional for my church’s Advent booklet, for example. I find writing very satisfying – but only when I have something compelling to say.

What do you read—and why?