Freelance Writer and Social Worker

25 Strategies for Smashing Through Writer's Block

Even those writers who swear they never have any kind of writer's block (and don't you just hate them?) have probably had some days when writing was easier than others. They just gave those hard days another name.

Whether you want to attribute the more difficult days to writing block, a runaway muse, not feeling well, or even dealing with the agony of an assignment you hate, there are a few quick fixes for powering through this tough time and getting back on track. Here are some of my favorite methods.

1. Skip the part that's giving you trouble. If you have no idea how your characters are going to stumble across a fresh body in Chapter 1, don't worry about that and head on to Chapter 2 where they're being interviewed by the police.

2. Play Sudoku or work a jigsaw puzzle. Or if you like, you can play a computer game. The idea is to engage another part of your mind which may have some ideas to contribute to your writing.

3. Vacuum. Repetitive motion. Soothing sound. House looks good when you're finished. Yea.

4. Wash dishes. Again, a simple, ritualistic task that takes you mind off your story and actually improves your living space.

5. Take a walk. Many people think best on their feet.

6. Pay bills. Sometimes a low account balance can scare you into getting back to work.

No Health Insurance - Walking a Tightrope without a Safety Net

(Note: I'm not a doctor and nothing in this post should be considered medical advice!)

On February 1, 2012, I became one of the 46 million Americans in this country without health insurance.

When I left my social work job to work fulltime as a freelance writer last August, I planned to keep coverage from my former employer through COBRA.

After a few months of that, I realized that monthly premiums cost almost as much as my rent. Also, the plan had a $2000 deductible, so it wasn't doing me much good anyway.

But actually taking the plunge was terrifying. I have a history of bipolar disorder, diabetes (resolved after weight loss surgery), and high cholesterol. My family medical history includes heart disease and breast cancer. In other words, unless I can slide into a high risk pool, I'm pretty much uninsurable.

But it was either give up the insurance or start living on a cat food diet, and my cats are not big on the concept of sharing.

If you, too, are considering ditching your health plan, the following information may be helpful.

1. Make sure you're in good health before you go.

Before I canceled my plan, I saw all of my doctors and advised them that I would be switching from insurance to private pay. My primary care physician gave me a physical, did blood work, and sent me for a mammogram--all clear.

5 Important Lessons I Learned Writing for Content Mills

Over the years, content mills have gotten a bad reputation, and it's not all undeserved. They pay rock-bottom prices. Much of the material they publish is inaccurate or just plain incomprehensible, they stifle any glimmer of creativity shown by their writers, and they value quantity over quality.

That said, I'm not ready to grab a torch and lead the townspeople to burn down the nearest content mill. I actually started my writing career working for content mills. They have helped pay off my student loans, sent me on more than one fabulous vacation, and helped me keep my utilities on when cash was short.

Although they're no longer my bread and butter, I'll still zip over to one of the mills and churn out a few articles if business is slow.

I would also be remiss if I did not give content mills credit for five of the most valuable lessons I've learned as a writer.

1. Writing quickly. I used to be a slow writer who agonized over making each word perfect, but when you're racing a six hour deadline, it doesn't take long to replace perfect with "eh...good enough." Now I always pound out my first draft as fast as possible, often within a matter of minutes. Of course, my first draft is not my last draft, and revisions can be a painstaking process, but at least I've learned how to get my initial thoughts down on paper where I can play with them and reword them to my heart's delight.

2. Writing plainly. When you document in a medical chart, you say a patient "ambulates." When you write for a content mill, you say she "walks." I once got into an argument with an editor about whether or not I had used a word correctly. "I found it in the dictionary," I emailed. He shot back, "You don't understand. Our readers don't want to have to go to the dictionary." Point taken. I made the revisions he requested.

What's Love Got to Do with It? Doing What You Need When It's Not What You Want

"I don't feel like writing today." Have you ever heard a friend say that? Have you ever given yourself a day off when you couldn't afford it because you felt that way? I have, and every single time I've let myself off the hook with that excuse, it's turned out to be a mistake.

Those of us who work in the arts are the only people who get to base our work--or lack thereof--on our feelings. Imagine a doctor telling his patient, "I'm just not in the mood to do open-heart surgery today. I'd rather do an appendectomy." Imagine your accountant calling you an April 14 and announcing, "I didn't file your taxes this year because I couldn't get in the mood."

If there's one thing I've learned as a freelancer, it's that I'll never be in the mood for some tasks. I'll never enjoy marketing, for instance, and some of the writing assignments I take on in order to pay the bills are just plain boring. If I waited to do these things until I felt like it, they would never get done.

So, how do you force yourself to do what you really do not want to do? The techniques below have worked pretty well for me:

My First Paid Assignment

Do you remember the first time you were paid for something you'd written?

I do. I was in high school at the time, and my imagination blazed with dreams of being a best-selling writer. Unfortunately, typing out reams of admittedly horrible stories on my mother's IBM Selectric earned me nothing but a bunch of rejection slips.

When I wasn't writing, I escaped into the soap opera, Guiding Light (now off the air). I knew every storyline, every character, and every actor who had ever played that character. I even sent some of the actors birthday cards which, in retrospect, I doubt they appreciated.

I also got very good at spotting bloopers, both the obvious kind that daytime drama has always perpetrated (kid goes up to bed at age 7, comes down to breakfast at age 17) and the unintentional kind (an actress wearing different clothes at different times in a scene). I started to type up my observations and send them to a few soap opera publications that published bloopers columns.

Oxbridge Media Project - Deadbeat or Just Disorganized?

This is the kind of column I never like to write, but if I've been taken advantage of by a company, I imagine other writers have been, too.

In this case, the company in question is Oxbridge Media Project. They contacted me on July 16, after I had responded to an ad they were running for writers, and said that they liked my style. They invited me to pitch three article ideas. I pitched the three ideas, and all of the ideas were accepted. I submitted the articles on July 28, and on August 3, I received an email from the editor telling me that the three articles had been accepted for publication and that I could expect to hear from the accounting department soon.

On August 14, the accounting department got in touch with me and asked me to electronically sign a contributor's agreement. I did so and returned it the same day. Since then, I have heard nothing from anyone at Oxbridge regarding payment for my articles.

I have written to the accounting department three times and to the editor twice. I have asked them if they could let me know when to expect payment, and I even offered to accept a payment plan or reduced payment if the company was in financial difficulty.

As of today, I still have not been paid for the articles, and all of my emails have gone unanswered.

I'm hoping the company is simply disorganized and not a deadbeat or a scam, but at this point my hopes are not high. A word to the wise: If you are approached by Oxbridge Media Project, run in the other direction - fast.

Pinching Pennies

 If someone told my mother she had to survive on $100 for an entire year, she could probably do it. She would walk five miles to save five cents. Don't get me wrong, I adore my mother, but I must confess we do not share the trait for thriftiness.

Put me in a bookstore or an office supply store, and I can gather a couple of hundred dollars' worth of merchandise before you can say, "Stop that!" My Amazon Kindle nearly ruined me. I was afraid I was going to have to convince my friends to break my fingers before I finally learned to control my impulse to order every book that popped up on the screen.

Having the financial self-control of a delayed wombat is not exactly a good thing when you're launching a fulltime freelance business and scrabbling for every penny.

I realized the first week that I was going to have to curb my spending--and fast. That is, unless I wanted to do my writing on a manual typewriter in a cardboard box under an overpass. So, I put together a few budgeting guidelines. So far, they've kept me out of the poorhouse.

Time Management for One-Person Businesses

If I read one more time management book that spends five chapters telling me how to delegate projects, I'm going to scream.

I am a sole proprietor. I have no employees, no spouse or partner, and no children. My cats are not amenable to doing paperwork or housework.

That means delegation is not an option for me. So, how does one handle being the only person in a business? Here are some of my ideas.

1. Use the 30-Second Rule

If you can take care of something in 30 seconds or less (okay, I cheat and give myself two minutes), just do it. Then you can dismiss the item from your mind, your desk, and your "to do" list. The 30-second rule keeps me sane on days when I feel like I'm being overwhelmed with minor requests.

An Elephant for a Quarter: Are You Getting a Great Deal or Just Wasting Money?

Famed Hollywood producer David O. Selznick, whose work included The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Gone with the Wind, once said: "An elephant for a quarter is a bargain, but only if you have a quarter and only if you need an elephant."

As I've been trimming my budget in preparation for becoming a full time freelancer, I've started using that bit of wisdom to make a lot of my buying decisions. For instance:

Marketing Yourself - Learning How to Blow Your Own Horn!

I was raised to be modest and retiring. If something good happened to me, I waited until someone else brought it up before I talked about it. If someone offered me a compliment, my instinct was to downplay it: "Oh, that old essay? I'm glad the editor liked it, but I probably should have shredded it long ago."

I floated along that way through the early years of my writing career, taking whatever the content mills would pay me and occasionally surprising myself by placing pieces with other publications as well.

Then reality, which has a nasty way of hitting people in the face, flew up and bitch-slapped me silly. I realized that I didn't want writing to be my hobby. I wanted it to be my career.

All of a sudden, quiet and modest was out. Marketing myself was in, and boy, did I flounder.

My first efforts at a query letter read something like this: "Dear Editor, I realize I don't have much experience and that this is probably a silly idea, anyway, but would you be the least bit interested in...?" Not surprisingly, the editors I contacted were not the least bit interested.