Skip to content

Category: Opinion

It’s Not The Dog; It’s You

It’s Not The Dog; It’s You

Published by Contributing Author on May 3, 2019

How many times have you heard pet owners scold their dog in an angry voice?

“Bad dog, what have you done?”

Most often than not, the dog, taking its cue from the tone of the voice, manages to look guilty. Dogs are great in this; they do look like they’re genuinely sorry for the mayhem they’ve caused. However, back to the topic of bad dogs. What is really a bad dog?

As a pet owner, you need to know that you’re responsible for your pet’s behavior. It’s fair to say that you can’t control everything they do, but more often than not there is a causality link between a good dog and a skilled pet owner. Indeed, next time you are scolding your pet for chewing your shoes or breaking furniture you need to ask yourself what you should have done to prevent it in the first place. Yep, the truth is that there are no bad dogs, only bad owners.

Your dog bites someone

The golden rule that every pet owner needs to remember is that whatever your dog does, you are responsible. For instance, if you take your dog to a friend’s house and your pet accidentally breaks something, your friend might expect you to pay for the damage. Similarly, if your dog attacks someone, you will be the first in line to face the law – and it’s crucial that you work with experts on this instance. Indeed, if you’re involved in a dog-related incident, you should let this firm solve your legal problems. Similarly, if your dog is the one facing charges, finding an expert who can talk and negotiate with the legal representant of the victim can not only help to manage expenses but also potentially save your dog’s life.  

Lyme disease is a real risk

You might have heard of Lyme disease as an infectious disease caused by ticks which can lead to fever, headache, chronic tiredness, and even facial nerve paralysis. In the Northern Hemisphere, it’s the most common tick-related disease. Ticks, unfortunately, are everywhere. It’s not uncommon to get bitten while you were taking a stroll in the woodland. But, it’s precise because they know ticks are present in nature that most people use preventative sprays to deter bugs. But don’t forget that ticks can also jump on your dog and then affect you in your home when you’re at your most vulnerable. Don’t blame it on the dog, though! It’s your role to keep the fleas off the back of your furry friend, using shampoos and consistent grooming. Ultimately, flea control protects both your dog and your family from Lyme disease!

The dog ate my favorite shoes

Puppies are just as sweet as they are destructive. They can leave an expensive path of damages behind them! For first-time pet owners, it’s a harsh wake-up call. Indeed, the adorable ball of fluff they’ve chosen to adopt is a heartless shoe-chewer. And it was your favorite and most expensive pair! What is wrong with the dog? Nothing is wrong with your puppy. Some dogs like to keep your smell close by when you leave them alone during the day. Others might have developed bad habits from a young age – and it’s your fault! You need to train your dog not to eat your belongings. The first rule is not to offer your dog an old shoe to play with; he won’t be able to tell the difference between your expensive Italian leather pumps and the old sneaker you gave him. Additionally, you need the patience to train him out of a bad habit, using positive rewards only!

Train the dog to chew his toys

Your dog barks to communicate, so listen

Bad dog, will you stop barking?

No, he won’t. So you need to understand what your dog is trying to tell you instead of scolding him. Dogs need to communicate, and barking is one of their favorite methods. It’s their language, and while you only hear an irritating noise, you have to imagine that your dog is using words to talk to you. The problem is that you haven’t learned how to speak dog. Therefore, you need to unravel the mystery to help him: Why does he bark? Some dogs bark because they want something from you, others are anxious about a situation, and others are just excited. Decypher the emotion through the context to react accordingly and stop scolding your pet.

More often than not, pet owners who fail to take responsibility for their pet can face a lot of issues, from legal complications is the dog becomes aggressive to expensive damages at home. The better you understand and train your pet, the easier it is to transform your bad dog into a good boy that everybody loves!

Comments closed
Key Legal things to Remember in Case of a Bicycle Accident

Key Legal things to Remember in Case of a Bicycle Accident

Published by Guest Author on January 19, 2018

It’s getting close to biking season, in fact, we have already had a few good riding days already here in Boise. Today, our guest post talks about what you should do in the unfortunate event of a bicycle accident.

Disclaimer: the material presented in the article below should only be considered as a general overview regarding bicycle accidents. Should you or anyone you know, find yourself in a bicycle accident, it’s best that you speak to an attorney immediately. They can help you decide on what the best legal actions are to take.

Bicycle accidents are not relatively common, that’s why it’s hard to get bike accident advice. Most bicycle riders can get confused and feel isolated if they get involved in an accident, and because of this, there’s a big chance that they would make mistakes. And if you’re a bicycle rider who’s been involved in an accident, you must avoid these errors, as they might hurt your case. Avoiding these mistakes might be difficult, especially if after the crash you’re still in shock, struggling to get your life back, or dealing with the injuries. That’s why we’ve put together the key things you should remember legally about bicycle accidents.

  1. Doctor

You should see a doctor as soon as you can, even if you don’t see or feel any injury. Insurance companies will most likely decrease or decline your claim if you don’t see a doctor. Remember to take down note of your doctor’s assessment of your well-being. Keep every prescription, receipts and medical bills, as these are very helpful when you’re filing for claims.

  1. Lawyer

Before taking any legal action, make sure to hire or consult a lawyer that specializes in bicycle accidents. Hire someone that’ll give an assurance that they’ll be able to guide you throughout the whole process.

Give your lawyer the full details of the accident, and always be honest when giving them your perspective on what happened during the accident. And before giving them any payment, make sure that you and your lawyer have signed a representation agreement, to avoid any dispute between you and your lawyer.

  1. Complete Details

It’s essential that you take down notes of every detail of the accident and people involved in it.

Don’t forget to list these details:

  • Names and addresses of the people involved.
  • Driver’s License and Insurance details of the other driver.
  • Date, Time and Location of the Accident
  • Details of vehicle(s) involved

  1. Argument

There are a lot of causes for bicycle accidents, so no matter what your take on it, never argue with the other driver. If they blame you for the accident, there’s no point in arguing. Consult your lawyer first on what to do; don’t volunteer any information without the presence of your lawyer or try to settle the accident on your own. Doing any of these could result in making things worse, and these might be used against you in court.

  1. Witnesses

Make sure to obtain the details of every possible witness, and ask for their take on the accident. If you can, ask them to file a statement to the police, as this will help your case become clear.

  1. Photos and Videos

Make sure to take photos of the accident, nearby areas, and objects that may have caused the crash at different angles. And if you can, take video of the scene right after the crash. If you have a head cam installed, make sure to save the recordings of the events before, during and after the accident. The photos and videos can be used as reliable evidence if you want to file a lawsuit or claim for compensation.

  1. Police Report

Right after the accident, make sure to file a police report as soon as you can. This will serve as an impartial report of the incident and will help you determine the extent of the damages. It’ll also help you file the claim since most insurance companies need a police report to release compensation.

  1. Items

Never throw away any items that you had at the time of the accident. Take photographs of the items, and if you have them, gather the pictures of your bicycle before the crash for comparison. Receipts would also be helpful if you’re looking for compensation.

Make a list of:

  • Names of the items
  • Date purchase
  • Price
  • Extent of the damage

Nobody can ever predict an accident. Bicycle accidents unfold so suddenly that you may not be able to keep your wits. It can be a painful and traumatizing experience that nobody would ever want to go through. And dealing with the aftermath of the accident may be harder. This is why you should remember to deal with it with grace. Just remember to see a doctor immediately, call a bike accident lawyer, take down notes of every detail, never argue with the other driver, look for witnesses, take photos and videos, file a police report, and take note the items you have during the accident. Follow these guidelines, and you may able to claim for compensation or avoid getting sued.

Jewel Spencer

Jewel Spencer is a promising young law enthusiast. Her pieces offer a youthful perspective on  common law topics. Jewel is your go-girl when it comes to sports, and she is often seen jogging when she has free time.

Comments closed
GUEST POST: 10 Tips for Writers: Identifying Your Target Audience

GUEST POST: 10 Tips for Writers: Identifying Your Target Audience

Published by Troy Lambert on May 3, 2017

GUEST POST: The following is a guest post by Nicole Lewis, who is a professional blogger and freelance writer for Edubirdie. She prefers academic research and writing useful articles. 

There are a variety of audiences for various types of writing. In order to sell your content, you need to identify the audience that will engage with and share your work. The ten writing tips below will help you to determine your target audience.

Define your target auditory and market niche

Your book could be about an archaeologist who uses an artifact to stop time. Then your content will interest fans of science fiction and those who are history buffs. If the main character is a former Marine, your book will also interest military personnel. Determine who might follow and like your work.

Look for books that inspire millions

Look at books in your genre that are selling, nd check the profiles of those books’ main readers or buyers. The desired audience is not always the people you had in mind when you wrote the book. They are also other demographics who might be interested. The Twilight Saga is full of jokes about Bella’s great love for a perfect vampire. A vampire is brighter than Lisa Frank’s stickers. The movie appeals to teenage girls. Its premise involves an everyday, normal girl. A girl who failed into a romantic relationship with a young and handsome man. The appeal also expanded to middle age females who love romance.

Point out what is unique about your story

All writers think highly of their books, but in the end, what matters are the magic words that describe your book when you tell someone what it is about. You need to pinpoint your hook. For instance, you might tell someone you are writing a book about a wizard. One who uses his power to communicate with animals. He uses this power to rescue the dog from dog-napper. One, someone might be wowed by your unusual imagination. Or two, one might think that you took in 101 Dalmatians too much as a kid. Or three, most people will think that your story is more soft-hearted than frightening. So, readers and viewers would be enticed by the mystery of your cozy-type tale. Target those readers who love paranormal stories involving ghosts, witches, and their ilk. Hence it will insert more followers.

Determine some demographics

For instance, your content might comprise a wizard who hunts a hound-heisting criminal. Then the main character is a girl who is eleven years old. She has to keep her little sister studying for her math test. At the same time, she has to stop Cruella DeVille’s doppelganger. This content is for a Middle-Grade novel. Hence, do not target an audience that loves paranormal amateur sleuth tales. Kids of age between 8 and 12 years. Since the main character is girl aged 11 years old, the story will appeal to children who like mysteries. It will also draw kids who love magical characters and those who like animals. The parents of these children can also be your audience.

Problem

Your main character has a problem that real people face. He could suffer from AIDS, cancer, schizophrenia, homelessness, or autism. Therefore some of your readers are those who suffer from that disease. They could also be the people who sympathize with such an ailment. An example is a non-profit organization that is dedicated to helping such people. They could offer you a platform to reach your customer base. Such organizations could sell your book to their members. This is especially if your book has offered guidance and help in dealing with the ailment.

Environment

Some contents have settings that explore specific worlds. People will read that book with interest in exploring that world besides the plot. Your book could involve the world in the 20-th century exploring Navajo reservation. Or the world in the 12th century exploring the Benedictine monastery. For instance, you could write content in the world of horse racing. Your intended audience is, of course, people who love horse racing. You can sell your book to people attending a horse racing event. In the case that your book is about the world of art, your audience is present in art events. A writer should increase regular writing and prepare useful tips and tricks.

Theme

Every novel has its life lesson. If you can identify the teaching, then you can know your customers. For instance, your lesson could explain that the simple things in life are the most essential. Then your exact target audience is those people who visit simple living blogs. Your book could guide on the importance of family. Then your clients are those people who visit mommies’ blogs. Visitors will always read helpful freelance content.

Character

Getting your audience to identify with your protagonist is important. It helps in telling a great tale. Your protagonist represents your target market. Hence, your main character could be a college graduate striving to leave a dead end job. Then millions of people with the same description and life story are your clients. Your protagonist could be a teenager in a high school setting. The character is going through adolescence and heartbreaking relationships. They are involved in drugs and are taken to a rehab before they go to college. Your target audiences are millions of American teenagers.

Genre

This is the clearest way of identifying your target market. If your book is a great love story filled with heartfelt emotions, then your target audiences are females. Women adore fantasy and drama books. Some detective, Nancy Drew-like stories are also targeted to females. Your book could be filled with great science fiction stories. Then definitely your target audiences are males. Men also enjoy inspiring action stories. Anything that is adrenaline packed is definitely for the boys. This is inclusive of murder mysteries and horror stories.

Combine the nine tips above to get more insight

And to narrow down your target group. Having multiple target audiences is possible. Create a Venn diagram. With a Venn diagram, you can get to see where the different age groups of audiences overlap. This refines your target groups. This mix of people is your primary target audience.

The above 10 Writing Tips will help you planning and evaluating best options. You can know whether to sell your content to middle-class dads going through a mid-life crisis. You can know whether to sell to young girls who are on the verge of adolescence. You can target your content to people who like ancient times or those who like the ancient England. Such content is likened to books like Lion Heart and Robin Hood. So refine your content to target a large customer base that can generate a lot of traffic or sales for you.

 

Comments closed
Why a Freelance Content Strategist Would Have Saved Pepsi

Why a Freelance Content Strategist Would Have Saved Pepsi

Published by Troy Lambert on April 21, 2017

Brands are increasingly abandoning ad agencies or acquiring them and forming in-house marketing and content creation departments in the name of efficiency and speed.

Pepsi is no exception. At last year’s Cannes Lions Festival, president Brad Jakeman energetically talked up its decision to form a new in-house content creation arm, Creators League Studio.

“Instead of five pieces of content a year, a brand like Pepsi needs about 5,000 pieces of content a year. Instead of taking six months to develop an ad, we have six hours or six days. And instead of it costing $2 million, it needs to cost $20,000,” he explained, further complaining about complicated procedures and the time and cost involved with any campaign. “There is no infrastructure to advertisers to be able to quickly produce that content. You have to patch it together. Certainly, the traditional agencies can’t do it.”

Maybe not, but Jakeman might be eating (or drinking) his words now. One thing every writer and marketer knows is that you need a second set of eyes. However, not just any second set will do. You need an outside perspective, one with no stake in the outcome other than looking for errors and trying to create excellence.

Jakeman might be eating (or drinking) his words now.

Click To Tweet

This is why every author needs and editor, every athlete needs a PR spokesman and an agent, and why every brand needs a consultant of some sort. When something is totally in house, many sets of eyes can miss exactly the same thing.

The Story of the Pubic Restrooms

No, that isn’t a typo. But this story is about one. It is about a sidewalk sign that went through internal review at a museum where I worked. The eyes on the original copy were not dumb: they belonged to a copy editor and writer, a proofreader, a former military officer and accountant who was meticulous, and a former banking professional who consistently showed extreme attention to detail.

Every person made comments too, most related to layout, logo, and color. Not one of five sets of eyes internally caught the mistake before it went to the printers. Or when it came back, and before it went out onto the sidewalk.

A tourist came in and asked me if our sign was a sick joke. A quick look showed me it was. Our proudly created sign boasting of museum tours and public restrooms did indeed contain a tragic typo that had we left it uncorrected would have delighted teenage boys for days.

We needed an outside opinion, and unfortunately, we didn’t get in until the sign was, well, outside.

We needed an outside opinion, and unfortunately, we didn’t get in until the sign was, well, outside.

Click To Tweet

Making it Public

Not only did we pull the sign quickly and put in a rush order for the new one, corrected to “public restrooms” of course, but we did without a sign for a couple of days.

Luckily the mistake was caught early in the day, and our “focus group” on the sidewalk was small. Could we have prevented the disaster in the first place? Probably. Was it fortunate only a few early birds saw it? Yes.

Which is exactly the point. With an internal marketing or content department, you need someone outside, not related to your product who you can’t really fire for speaking the truth, and bold enough to be honest. A small group even, maybe a test market before you take something national.

Was Pepsi’s ad so time sensitive that another twelve hours would have killed its timing? Nope. And showing it to a small group or even an outside consultant would have taken only that long or less. Twelve hours, maybe even for someone to screen the idea before video shooting even happened.

Instead, the responsive, nimble internal department Jakeman wanted pushed the ad national right away. Resulting in embarrassment, an apology, and possible boycotts and business repercussions for an indeterminant amount of time.

The Nimble Workforce

So the traditional agencies don’t cut it for you? True, ad agencies have their own issues and sometimes get it wrong too. Just because you hire one is no guarantee that you won’t have an issue.

Still, bringing everything in house creates its own issues. If the CEO or CFO comes up with an idea, it’s hard for an employee to look them in the eye and tell them it doesn’t work. Also, when you live, eat, breathe and sleep a brand, you get internal blinders and the feeling that you and your brand can do no wrong.

There are alternatives, of course. There are smaller, newer agencies who can create the amount and kind of content you need at an affordable price. There are those who are combining creative content and more traditional approaches into a single agency to provide full service in an innovative way.

There are also freelancers. Those who specialize in helping small brands who can’t afford an agency or who even create and review content for marketing firms who need some supplemental talent or, <gulp here Pepsi> another set of eyes.

You don’t have to bring them in, give them an office, or even a permanent position. You can pay them a relatively small fee just to look at something and tell you if it looks okay or not.

The Honesty Factor

A freelance content strategist gets exposed to a lot of things. They don’t typically work for only one website or company. A freelancer can look at your web content or your campaign from a fairly objective point of view.

Because they have seen many well-done websites and campaigns, they can give you an idea of what will work, what won’t, and why. Without the expense of an agency, they can at least provide outside consulting and feedback.

The other advantage is that since they don’t work for you except on a tangential or contract basis, you’re more likely to get straight feedback. Whether you like their advice or not and whether or not you tell them to go pound sand doesn’t matter as much to them. You don’t hold the keys to their 401K, PTO, or even next week’s paycheck.

Freelancers want steady clients they can count on as much as possible. But they also want good clients with good websites. Bad advice or advice not followed reflects poorly on them as much as it does your brand, but unlike large agencies, they don’t have the bandwidth to deal with and mitigate that negativity.

A Finger on the Pulse of the Industry

A successful freelancer will be a busy one. Not only will they be dealing with regular and add on clients, but they will also be constantly learning more about the industry and networking. You can bet they know what trends are hot, what is working and what isn’t, and how to get results and quickly demonstrate ROI.

Your internal department can easily become siloed from the direction the industry is headed and the trend of brands overall. Marketing is about more than just your competition. It is about social and political trends and the overall consumer climate.

Yes, an agency can give you the same things, but probably won’t be as nimble and responsive. A few newer agencies are exceptions, but they are definitely harder to find, and not surprisingly they are busy as well.

Hey, Pepsi! Mr. Jakeman? Are you listening now? Did you get the point? It takes more than one perspective and another objective set of eyes to determine if a campaign will work or not. Your internal department let you down, and maybe it is time to ask why they weren’t listening. No one wants to end up with a sign for a pubic restroom.

Would you like to learn more about content strategy for your business, or even hire me in some capacity? Get in touch, and let me know what you think Pepsi could have done better in the comments below.

Comments closed
Business 101 for Writers: Production Part 3: Self-Editing

Business 101 for Writers: Production Part 3: Self-Editing

Published by Troy Lambert on April 14, 2017

So many writers never reach even this point in production, or worse, they skip it. They get stuck on writing and never finish. But if you are among the lucky few who finish a story, you must move on to editing.

This post is titled self-editing, but before we even get to that, let me say it as loudly as I possibly can, to wake up those of you who might be sitting in the back of the classroom dozing.

You cannot skip the editing process, and publish something unedited. You cannot edit your own work. You need to hire an editor.

Let me say it again, just in case:

You cannot skip the editing process, and publish something unedited. You cannot edit your own work. You need to hire an editor.

You cannot skip the editing process, and publish something unedited.

Click To Tweet

Now stop. I can hear some of your arguments already, so I am just going to make a list for you here of the ones that are invalid:

  • I was an English Major.
  • My mom is an English teacher, she does it for me.
  • I have an MFA.
  • My spouse has an MFA.
  • I can edit my own stuff. I use method “x” with “x” software.
  • I took a course on self-editing at “x” writer’s conference.
  • My favorite indie author, “x” just uses beta readers, not an editor, and his/her stuff is pretty good.

Here’s the thing. Probably 99% of the population cannot edit or even proofread their own work effectively. The rest of us hate the 1% who can. Even if you are one of the rare authors who can proof or edit your own work, you should not. Just like you should probably not create your own covers even if you are a trained graphic designer, although we will cover that (pun intended) in another blog post.  

Here are some of the reasons why you should never be the sole creator and editor, or in other words, the sole producer of your work.

You become word blind.

What this means is that unless it has been a really long time since you have seen what you have written (and sometimes no length of time is enough to cure this) you see what you meant to write. You see those words whether those are really what is there or not.

Recently I read one of my own blog posts I had written two years ago and found a typo. A typo I did not see at the time, that grammar check did not catch, but that was glaring all that time later. No one noticed it either, or at least no one who did pointed it out to me. The thing is, in context, it almost looked right even after that much time had passed.

If you are writing quickly, as you should be, and editing shortly afterward, there is no way you will catch these things yourself. I promise you will miss at least one or two in a medium length work. In a novel, you might miss several.

You are in love with your own words.

Go ahead, tell me you aren’t. Then show me that clever phrase, that joke you think is hilarious, or that gorgeous description on page 53 of your self-published (or hopefully yet to be published) novel. Those are probably things you should cut out.

As Stephen King says, “Kill your darlings.” If you don’t believe me, take a journalism course and then write for a paper or magazine of any size. You will find that your editor and your readers do not love your precious words and phrases nearly as much as you do.

Here is the thing: as an author, you have built a fire with your story. The likelihood is that there is some damp wood in there, some moss, or some torn up cardboard. It makes for a lot of smoke. The job of an editor is to clear away the smoke so that everyone can see and enjoy the fire.

You will find that your editor and your readers do not love your precious words and phrases nearly as much as you do.

Click To Tweet

You cannot do this yourself effectively. Please, on this one point trust me. I can read a few chapters or maybe even pages in your book, and I can tell if you edited it yourself. There will be a whole lot of “you” in the way of the story.

Your project will feel narcissistic.

All of that you in the way will show through. Your book will feel like one of those body builders in the gym who spends as much time looking at himself in the mirror as he does pumping iron. It will probably feel like it is all about you. Because it is.

You need another set of eyes, another voice, one that is not close to you or at least can be objective about the way your work is presented. More on why you should not use relatives or those close to you in a moment.

A professional editor can see things you cannot: they see phrases you use too often, things you repeat often, and redundant descriptions you may miss. They can hear when your dialogue is stilted, and can offer advice about better word choices, sentence structure, and even point out when your plot has holes you may not notice, but that a reader will.

It is a good thing that you love your work. It is a good thing that you value your words. It is also good for you to be able to take critique and instruction from an editor at this phase in your journey. Hearing from an editor and changing things now is better than getting bad reviews on Amazon and damaging your reputation, which is your brand. (More on that later in our section on branding).

Note on Relatives: It is rare for a writer to have a relative that can honestly critique their work and make it better without also being word blind and leaving those phrases you love. It is also harder to argue with that person, as it can result in marital or family conflict.

If you are one of the rare people who has a relative who can edit your work objectively, thank your lucky stars and use them. However, I would encourage you to try something. Have your relative edit one of your short stories or novellas, something not too big. Then hire a professional editor to edit it, and compare the two.

If your relative does just as good or a better job than the editor, keep using them. If they do not, keep your eyes open.

Note on Revisions: A part of the writing (production) process we will talk about soon will be revisions. Revisions and rewrites are not a part of the editing process and are also not self-editing. You should revise and rewrite your work before an editor or anyone other than a writing critique partner or someone who reads your work as you go does.

Since we are on the subject, rewrites and revisions should be done quickly too, for the same reasons drafts are written quickly. You do not want your mind or heart to change during the process, or you will do a lot more rewriting than you need to.

Once you have started the editing process, do not do any more rewrites except those recommended by your editor to fix plot holes or other obvious issues. That is the point at which you have to let the story go: it is time to let someone else work on it at that point.

This is of course because we are talking about writing as a business. If your goal is not to sell lots of books, but rather to create a single literary masterpiece in your lifetime, you can revise and rewrite as much as you wish and take as long as you wish to produce drafts before letting anyone else see and edit them.

Exceptions to the Rules:

In the world of publishing and writing, there are exceptions to every rule. There are writers who can edit their own work. There are relatives who do a great job of editing their author brother/husband/son’s work.

There are also authors who can kill their darlings, and create work on their own that does not feel narcissistic. However, if you feel that you are one of these writers and have not tried professional editors, or had someone in the upper reaches of the field validate this truth for you, it probably is not true. If you send your work to a pro editor who hardly touches it, or says to you “You don’t need me, you just need a proofreader” or something along that line, go forth and do wonderful things.

Most of the time, this type of thinking is just self-delusion. If no one close to you is honest enough to tell you the truth about your writing, just try getting one professional, honest opinion. If I am wrong about you, in your case, please email me and let me know. I would love to meet someone who is so extraordinary.

In the next section, we will talk about money for a little bit. After all, this is the stage when you will invest more than just time. You will invest dollars, and a part of a business is working to get the best return on your investment. That does not mean always hiring whoever is the cheapest.

Have questions and can’t wait for the next section of this series? Want to hire me, or just need some coaching advice? Click here or email me at [email protected].

Comments closed
Business 101 for Writers: Production Part 2: How to Write More

Business 101 for Writers: Production Part 2: How to Write More

Published by Troy Lambert on March 27, 2017

We ended the last post on a cliffhanger, something you should always do to yourself. I mean, it is great advice to write some words. If you are going to have a writing based product to sell, you need to have something written.

However, the first step in production is where writers often get tripped up. They get caught up in the business side, especially when they first become stoked about writing for a living, and they get so busy creating an author platform, getting their website ready, and being sucked into social media (Oy!) that they neglect the writing part of the business.

Before you know it, they wake up realizing their novel is stale, they have not posted an article on their blog or sent out outreach to new freelance clients in weeks. Here is the one line, simplest truth of the matter: You are a writer when you write. When you are not writing, you are no longer a writer.

So how do you make sure that this terrible tragedy does not happen to you? Here are some really obvious tips, but ones writers often neglect.

Write Every Day

I have tons of aspiring writers tell me they do not have to write every day. They are absolutely right. You can go for days without writing until you really start to take yourself seriously. Once you embrace writing as a profession, you can’t help but write every day.

Why? Writing, or engaging in any creatively based activity, changes something in your brain. It releases chemicals that make you happy when you write, and when you don’t, depression and anger take the place of that happiness. There is no one worse to be around than a writer who is not actually writing.

Once you embrace writing as a profession, you can’t help but write every day.

Click To Tweet

Your brain changes, chemically and in its thinking and habits, when you write every day. Nearly every professional writer I know writes something nearly every day, even if they are on vacation or it is their “day off.”

Try it. If it doesn’t work for you, email me. Honestly. I will talk you through it because I have never found any true writer who after giving daily writing an honest try, did not find that it changed things dramatically for them.

Have a Writing Schedule

I have heard all of your excuses. My kids, school, house, the laundry, you have five cats, four dogs, and your poor neighbor needed help with cleaning their gutters. So how could I possibly write every day? I am going to be frank and potentially offensive.

All of your excuses are bullshit. Nearly every writer I know who does write every day, who does it for a living, did not start out that way. They had full-time jobs, wives, kids, and pets just like you do. They started to write every day anyway.

How? They set a time, usually early in the morning or late at night, and wrote at least for a little while no matter what else was happening in their lives. Read that last sentence again. They set aside a time and wrote at least something, even a single page, no matter what else was happening in their lives.

It can be a page in a short story. A page in a future article. A page in a novel. 365 days of a single page a day means you have a full-length novel completed. Stop telling me how busy you are, and that you do not have time to write. Set a schedule, and keep it.

They set aside a time and wrote at least something, even a single page, no matter what else was happening in their lives.

Click To Tweet

If your first schedule does not work for you, find one that does. Find your optimal time when everyone else is either gone or asleep, and keep your schedule no matter what.

Allow Yourself the Freedom to Write More

Wait a minute. I just spent a whole bunch of words trying to convince you to write every day, and schedule that time, keeping it sacred. Now I am telling you to give yourself the freedom to write more?

Yes, if you are using the 12 minutes a day method I mentioned in the last post, and you get to the end of the 12 minutes, your timer goes off, and you are on a roll, keep going. That’s right. Keep writing as long as the words keep flowing, even if you are interrupted. Get back to your work and follow the flow.

No matter how long you have been at this, there are days when the words do not flow as easily as they do other times. Don’t mistake this for writer’s block. Once you finish reading this series, you will never be allowed to have that, or blame it, again. But sometimes writing is hard, and so when it is easy, let it flow.

Especially when you first start out, or there are many distractions in your life, you will sometimes struggle in your daily, scheduled writing sessions. Write anyway.

Some days, the words will flow from your fingers quickly and easily, and your fingers will fly over the keyboard. Keep going. Write as much as fast as you can. That will probably be some of your best writing, and stopping can kill your spirit. If your flow is interrupted in those moments, you may even get angry.

Good. That means you are on the right track and your writing habit is taking hold. Control your anger, roll with life in general. But give yourself the freedom to write more when things are going well, and take the time you need to follow your muse when things are good.

Leave Yourself Hanging

Am I contradicting myself again you ask? No, not at all. Even if you get on one of the beautiful rolls above, where your words are flowing like the water over Niagara Falls, when you stop, leave yourself hanging.

Stop writing at the point where you are excited about writing what comes next. Be that the next point you are making in a non-fiction work or the cliff hanging, nail biting end of a chapter in fiction, stop there. I have heard of writers who stop in the middle of a sentence.

If you are excited about what is coming next, you will be anxious about sitting down to write again, excited about it instead of dreading it. Make no mistake, writing is work. It is a job. But you can make it much more enjoyable for yourself, to the point where most days you actually enjoy going to work.

This is just a small technique and not one that always works. Often as a freelancer, you have to finish the article and submit it. Or you are under deadline with a publisher for your next novel, or even your own deadlines (more on this later in the series). Sometimes you have to write “The End” as you finish a writing session or writing for the day.

The more you can do this for yourself, the better. The more excited you are to write, the less likely you are to quit, and the more likely you are to write every day, keep a schedule, and give yourself the freedom to write more when you are on a roll.

Don’t Stop Believing

Sorry for the cheesy song reference, and you can thank me for humming the Journey hit the rest of the day by buying one of my books. Or more that one, if you really love Journey or even just this one song.

But this is important. There will be times in your life when no one around you believes in what you are doing. It will seem like no one understands you, and you will never make it as a writer. Tell them to shut up, and keep writing.

Believing in yourself is an easy thing to say. It is much harder to do, and there have been some dark days, some dark times in my life. I have been where you have been, and if you struggle with believing in yourself or acceptance, reach out to other writers. We really do understand.

We also want you to be successful. That means that no matter what, you believe in yourself. No one else will ever be as big of a fan of your work, and you are your harshest, yet most important, critic and cheerleader.

So don’t stop. Keep writing. Keep working. Keep believing in yourself, and you will finish whatever it is you are writing. Then you can move forward in this process of production to the parts we will cover next.

Because once you have mastered writing some words, gotten yourself into a writing habit, and finished what you are working on, you need to move forward and do something with your writing.

I’m going to teach you exactly how to do that.

Comments closed
The First Year: A Marriage of Ideas

The First Year: A Marriage of Ideas

Published by Troy Lambert on March 17, 2017

When any two people come together in any kind of relationship, you can expect that certain ideas will clash, and others will meld perfectly. As a man I once knew said, “If two people agree on everything, one of them is unnecessary.” The adage is just as true today as the first time I heard it.

If two people agree on everything, one of them is unnecessary.

Click To Tweet

So I’m not going to tell you a fairy tale here about the first year of marriage. It will not be a tale that will inspire those of you who are single to rush into a relationship and marriage. The truth of the matter is that marriage is hard, and the first year could be argued as the toughest. Abby talked about our first year of marriage over at Unbound Northwest.

But I am not going to tell you a story of woe either. Instead, I am going to tell you about true love, and what that has looked like over the last year (and then some). Because true love is not the fairytale first dance. It is life, lived together as partners every day.

The Honeymoon from Hell

This year for our anniversary we are headed to McCall to redeem our honeymoon and will be staying at the Shore Lodge. And yes, I will call out the horrible experience we had last year at the Hotel McCall. I wrote a review of them here, here, and here. To put it simply:

  • I tore my calf muscle a week before our wedding, so I was using crutches and a cane to get around. Our room was on the second floor. Did we get help with our bags to our room? No.
  • The restaurant they use for room service was closed from Sunday until Wednesday, so we had no room service. Did they tell us this when we booked? No. Contrast: the Shore Lodge is doing some renovations this winter. Immediately after we booked, we got an email telling us exactly what was going on, and apologizing in advance for any inconvenience it would cause during our stay.
  • The Hotel McCall has an indoor salt-water pool. They had an issue with the heater, and so it was cold–unable to be used the only day we could have used it. Did they compensate us, or offer any discount or anything else in return? No.
  • When confronted about our poor experience (before I left the reviews) the manager offered excuses. There was no offer of a discount, refund, future free nights, nothing. Apparently they don’t care if we return (or if you ever go there if you are reading this). They have enough tourist who get suckered in when everything else is full. They don’t need the likes of us, paying customers in the off season, coming in and interrupting their staff’s time on Facebook. (yes, I saw a staff member on her social media, and it took her a couple of minutes to acknowledge me when I dared ask for something)

Needless to say, we were off to a rough start. Put a groom in pain and a tired bride in the same room for a few days without the capacity to be pampered, and although we made the best of it, we need some redemption this year.

The First Few Months

Often, newlyweds live in a place that is less than ideal, but we had a place we were making work. We also had our then 14-year-old son living with us pretty much full time, interrupted with rare visits to his mother. We had an agreement to stay there until December, at which point we would decide where to go next.

The time period was designed to give us space to save money, recover from the wedding, and be able to move.

Not to mention that Abby had a major medical issue in May, just after she also graduated from college, and that set us back even more. Recovery from one thing or another just seemed to be the theme of the moment.

Then our landlord decided to sell the place we were living. With two dogs, we had to scramble to move with no money saved up and only 30 days to find a new place. This meant, more than likely our 14-year-old who was already adjusting to a number of things, would have to switch schools. Again.

We did it, and with the new place came a new peace for everyone. It was astounding the difference it made in our family. The drama, however, would continue.

Career Choices

Abby struggled with what to do after college. From simply getting a different job than the one she was in (she hated it) to going for a Master’s degree in…something…she wasn’t sure what was next. During her senior year, she had a mediation internship at the courthouse and found her calling: mediating conflict was her happy place. However, turning it into a career? There were a ton of questions about how she should best do that.

The answer came in the form of law school. It was something she had thought about, but never really investigated. The investigation turned from casual to serious to filling out applications and attending interest nights at law schools.

She’s retaking the LSAT in June, even after an amazing first score in February, so she can get more scholarships.

In the meantime, I was used to being a freelancer but had taken a job with a local internet marketing company, a job I like and dislike at the same time. The steady income and benefits are good: but it comes at a sacrifice, and does not pay as well as freelancing once did.

It has worked out well, though. I am still able to freelance on the side, not write as much fiction as I would like, but I am headed toward doing more of that. I’m also going to school, but slower. I am taking a freelance writing course, and am enrolled in college online, going back with the eventual goal of getting my Master’s in writing and rhetoric.

All of these career things equaled stress. Every decision was agonized over. There were moments when my job was going well, Abby’s was not. And vice versa.

Conflict

If you have not figured out by now that we are both ambitious people with lofty goals, go back and read what is under the headings. Stop skimming this article. When two driven, strong-willed people come together, they are bound to butt heads. Not to mention we have different styles of dealing with conflict: Abby is a verbal processor, and I process internally. I need space and time, she wants to tackle things right away.

Big honesty moment here: it took us ten months to figure out how to balance this out. Every time we had an argument, even a small one, I would try to retreat, and Abby would verbally chase me. I did not always handle being pursued well, and she did not handle me trying to back away well.

I had trouble expressing my need for space and time, while Abby had no trouble expressing her need to verbally process (no shock there, that is verbal processing). I’d never before dealt with anyone who pursued me with such zeal at those moments of, shall we call them intense marital bonding?

Love and Partnership

Want to know the secret of how we figured it all out? The one thing that will make your relationship perfect like ours, since now we have how to do this conflict thing figured out? HA! There isn’t one, and we don’t. We do better every day. We love each other more. But we are far from perfect. However, here are some tips that might help you:

We love each other, and we are on the same side. This applies to so many areas of life, but especially in marriage. We both want to raise a teenager from a boy into a good man. We both want our family to be well provided for, comfortable and happy. Neither one of us wants conflict, and certainly not with each other.

Our first year of marriage was not a picnic filled with rainbows, unicorns, and tooth-achingly sweet love. It’s been filled with real life, real challenges, and real work.

Click To Tweet

We are team Bertmore, and both of us want that team to be the best it can be. Neither of us are trying intentionally to tear the other person down and assume some kind of dominant control. This leads me to the next point.

We are partners. It is one thing not to oppose someone. It is another to be partners with them, coming alongside and supporting their goals and ambitions. But it is not just about supporting the other person’s goals and joining with them to help accomplish what they want. There are two other key elements:

  • Your partner comes alongside you and supports you in your goals and ambitions as well. This is not always perfectly balanced. Sometimes one person’s needs or goals come ahead of the other person’s, but this is constantly in flux. It reverses as often as it needs to.
  • You make shared goals and work together to accomplish them. These can be relationship goals, financial goals, and even career goals. They are short and long term and show your commitment to each other’s needs.

When does disaster strike in partnerships? When you have goals that are pulling you in opposite directions. Your shared goals must take precedent over your individual ones, at least if you are determined to stay together, so sometimes those goals have to take a back seat.

We cannot afford for Abby to go to law school and me to go to college full time, and support a teenager in the house at the same time. Abby gets to go to school first, me second. While she is in school, I need to support her in every way possible.

It does not mean that my goals are any less important, or that our partnership is unbalanced. It means that, although it is hard, I need to put my personal goals on hold so we can accomplish our shared goals. The time of a reversal of that will come.

None of these final tips I have shared mean we will have a perfect relationship going forward. It hardly means that I will never retreat, and she will never over-pursue me to get a verbal resolution.

It just means that we know a few simple things. We love each other. We have shared goals. And we have promised each other to partner in achieving those goals, no matter what that looks like. Our first year of marriage was not a picnic filled with rainbows, unicorns, and tooth-achingly sweet love. It’s been filled with real life, real challenges, and real work.

That is true love.

Comments closed
Doing What you Love for Money

Doing What you Love for Money

Published by Troy Lambert on March 14, 2017

It is said that writing is the world’s second oldest profession, and it is just about as respected. From a young age, I was taught that doing what you love was no way to make a living. In some ways, those who dispensed that wisdom were right: writing for a living is hard, and there are seasons where it is less hard, but it is never easy.

I was told this despite the fact that many who told me I needed to plan for a “real job” were Christian school teachers, pastors, and others who certainly had not pursued wealth, but were doing “ministry” work, something God had called them too. But the arts? Please. That was a dirty word.

Not to mention that I wanted to write the things I read: sci-fi, horror, and thrillers. These books and their topics were clearly sent to my mind from the depths of hell. After all, many of those sci-fi writers were atheists who believed in evolution. The horror!

It never seemed to resonate with me that I was part of the evil poor: that my single mom, a school teacher, might be somehow less because she chose to do something she loved for less money than she could have earned elsewhere because she loved it, and felt like she was making a difference.

Yet lately, we are bombarded with generalizations that say the poor are lazy, handle money poorly, and don’t deserve our respect. In fact, they are evil.

But musicians, artists, authors, even freelance writers are told to live frugally. Often we are told we should stop acting like children and get “real jobs.” Yet without writers, almost any business is dead in the water: you need artists, you need writers, you need musicians. Yet there is a strange aversion to paying for this type of work: when there is free music you can pick up on the internet (the equivalent of a dive bar) why would you purchase an album (i.e. hire an escort).

Art is Not Always a Choice

Here’s the thing. As a creative, making time for your art is not always a choice. Sometimes it is a need, and if you ignore it long enough, bad things happen in your life. A bored creative who is not creating is a monster.

It is good to understand this, even if you are not a creative yourself. If a creative person can get paid to do what they love, they should do so, even if it means sacrificing a huge income or grandiose career prospects.

As I stated above, as a musician, artist, or a writer, you must learn to live frugally. That has always been true. However, someone who gets paid for their craft, especially if they get paid well, is not a shameful thing. It doesn’t mean they have sold out. It simply means they have found a way to make what they are compelled to do into a job.

Art is an Honor

Have you ever read a book or an article that changed your thinking or your life almost instantly? Have you ever looked at a painting or read a poem that took your breath away? Someone created that art or wrote those words, and that person has bills to pay just like you do.

As a creator, it is an honor to inspire others with the things you do. As a writer, the goal is not only to make a living, but to touch others, and to be read and understood. When someone gets what you have to say, or even better is moved to action, the euphoria is amazing.

As one who has been inspired, it should be an honor to support the artist who inspires you, the writer who influences your thinking, or the poet who touches your heart.

Art Should not Equal Poverty

Despite what art does for us, we are often loathe to pay for it. We download books onto our Kindles or other e-readers for free. We listen to free music, complaining when we have to pay a premium to remove ads. We download art and photos through Google images, often without credit to the creator. We torrent movies, justifying to ourselves that they are just too expensive, and those Hollywood types make tons of money anyway.

We steal creative endeavors from the creator and then make snide comments about how no one can make a living as an author, an artist, or a musician. We laugh at them because they have to work a “day job” and pursue their hobbies in the wee hours of the morning or late at night.

It is not the profession that is the problem. It is our unwillingness to pay for things that are truly valuable, that add meaning to our lives.

Making a living doing what you love is hard. Not being able to pay your bills by doing it makes things even tougher. Your profession being treated like something that has no value is discouraging and depressing.

But loving what you do and making money should not be things that are exclusive. Being able to do both should be considered one of life’s highest achievements.

Comments closed

Is Finding Freelance Gigs Using Job Boards Worthwhile?

Published by Troy Lambert on March 4, 2017

The number one issue with being a freelancer is discoverability. Of course, you are already treating your writing career like a business, but how do you market your work and get your name into the hands of the right recruiters? Truth be told businesses are looking for freelancers with your particular skills and areas of knowledge. You just need to find them, and they need to find you.

While there are advantages and disadvantages to the disruptive nature of the freelance gig economy, businesses are hiring more freelancers for more tasks. They look for freelancers in several ways, and just one of them is through the use of job boards.

The one thing we freelancers never have enough of is time: marketing is vital, but not wasting time is essential. Job boards and content mills like Upwork and Demand Studios are a waste of time for the most part since well-paying jobs are so few and far between. So are there any job boards that are worthwhile?

The answer is yes, but very few. Putting in an alert for a freelance writer on job sites like CareerBuilder and other similar sites will fill your inbox with job suggestions from car wash attendant to security guard, but few if any will be for writing positions or have anything to do with your particular skill set.

Here are a few places where the search can be worthwhile. You will still have to vet clients, but they are more likely to be professional and the kind of gigs you are looking for in the first place.

DISCLAIMER: Job boards and these sites do not take the place of good marketing of your freelance business.

Ebyline

When looking at job boards, Ebyline is what is referred to by Carol Tice of Make a Living Writing as a “move-up board.” You are expected to be more professional, and clients who come to the board expect to pay, and for the most part pay well, or at least better than an Upwork or worse, a Fiverr gig.

This is also a good place to find fill-in work when things are slow, or you just need a gig to tide you over to your next client payment. Jobs typically pay quickly, something relatively important to freelancers when they are just starting out.

Skyword

Skyword is another “move-up mill,” and offers reasonable pay. For the most part, you will be creating branded content or other types of writing for the web. This is a place where you can potentially develop long-term relationships, and it is definitely worth being a part of.

As with any job boards, be sure to vet clients. There is nothing wrong with offering a free initial consultation, but don’t give away too much at the outset. Share your ideas in a more general way, and only get as specific as you need to to get hired. This is good advice for any job board, but especially more “content mill” like sites.

LinkedIn ProFinder

One of the better places to look for freelance gigs and to find other freelancers is LinkedIn, but if you have a strong profile, this can be a great tool for you. Since you are already using LinkedIn, it is a simple matter of upgrading to at least a Business Plus membership, and sharing your profile on their job board, ProFinder, designed to help businesses find the best local and regional freelancers.

This will cost you $59.99 a month, but it shows clients you are serious about your career. If you are going to make this move, be sure that your profile is complete, and that it includes all of your accomplishments and a job history. Ask your connections who know you for recommendations, and give them out as well.

LinkedIn can be a great place to showcase your skills and to find new clients, even using their regular job board. Due to the professional nature of the network, though, LinkedIn Profinder may be one of the best job boards currently out there.

There is a balance between working and marketing when you are a freelancer. You need to satisfy the needs of your current clients, but you also need to constantly develop new leads. Job boards, if used properly, can help you do that.

Comments closed
Why I Bother to Write Fiction at All

Why I Bother to Write Fiction at All

Published by Troy Lambert on February 27, 2017

There are times when I realize fiction is really hard work. It is perhaps the most time consuming of things that I do in the writing and publishing world, and if you work out the pay by the word or the hour, there are plenty of other ways to make more money writing.

At the same time, I love it. I am a born storyteller. Every article I write, every blog I post is a story of some sort. Even marketing materials take the reader on a journey, if a short one. The reader has a problem, and the writer leads them on the journey to solve it, even if it is as mundane as someone with dirty clothes looking for the best laundry soap to get them clean.

But every now and then, a reader or reviewer reaches out, and when you hear or read that your words, the story you have told, touches someone, you pause and realize those words, those touched lives, are why you do what you do. It is worth all of the pain, the hours of writing and editing that go into producing a book.

It happened to me again recently, when I got a notification of a five-star review of my Kindle short, The Angel. The reviewer said simply this:

“I’ve suffered several tragedies in the last few years. I thought I had dealt with each loss in turn. Yet Lambert’s prose is so deceptively innocent that shines a light on any darkness lurking on the fringes of your consciousness. I found the message of The Angel stayed with me for days.”

Her words warmed my heart. They made me smile in all the right ways. There was more, too. You can read her full review here. https://findingmeinwords.wordpress.com/2017/02/27/the-angel/

I write stories so not only will they be read, but the world will be changed for the better because they have been told. I have not always been successful in achieving that goal. Sometimes a story is just a story.

But The Angel was different. It was special to me and still is. When I read Hans Christian Anderson’s poem “The Dying Child” I knew it had to be a part of this.

When we read, we do so for many reasons. We want to feel, we want to escape, we want to travel to other places. But sometimes if I can make you feel the warmth of the sun on your skin, if the light that shines from my stories can dispel the darkness in you at all, it is worth it.

That is why I write stories. That is why I bother to write fiction at all. Because words can change the world, even if only the world of one person, and only for a moment.

Comments closed