Writing & Translation

In this final issue of our first season, Jeff shares more about his recent “retirement” announcement and hints at what’s next. It turns out we are always retiring from something, outgrowing an old way of being and graduating to the next. This week,...

If you take the right approach, it’s possible to earn big on platforms like Substack. While some writers devote time to publishing completely free newsletters, that approach is unlikely to be worth your while unless you use the newsletter as a...

Do you ever sit down to write a blog post, article or chapter, and nothing, but nothing appears in your mind? The good news is that if you use the following 15 tips, you will generate more ideas than you need, love the writing process, and never...

The action of actually writing, putting your fingers over the keyboard and typing, or grabbing that pen and putting words down on paper, is only part of what it means to be a writer. To be a writer, it’s important to actually sit down and write....

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way people work forever. Remote work is now more widely accepted by organizations, flexible work schedules are becoming more common, and millions of employees are resigning from their jobs in search of...

This week, as we prepare for our season finale, we have a bonus episode for you. Recently, while walking through the Art Institute in Chicago, I had a revelation. Observing the Picassos and Warhols and O’Keefes, I realized that art is not...

Of all the questions to ask as an author, have you ever found yourself pondering “what genre is my book”? Maybe you want to sell to a traditional publisher through an agent. No matter which route you choose, your ability to pick the right genre for...

Ah, fight scenes. Unless you’re writing a particularly tame story, it’s almost certain that you’re going to have some sort of fight scene in your story (or at least a particularly action-packed one). This might be super exciting, or it might fill...

While all of our businesses and industries are different as freelance writers, email prospecting remains my greatest source of revenue. My highest-paying and most impressive clients have ALL come from email pitches or they were referrals from...

If you have something important to say on your blog on any hot or controversial topic, one of the best ways to gain credible visibility and recognition for your ideas is to develop a strongly focused opinion piece, known in the newspaper trade as...

With our work, we are all trying to answer an important question. And how we choose to answer it affects everything. Art, however, may not be about answering the question as much as learning to live well within the unknowns of what we do. In this...

What’s the last thing someone says before they break up with their partner of twenty years? What’s the first thing your lovebirds say to each other? Your main character is trying to impress someone they think is out of their league. What do they...

Apart from one thing: how do you set yourself apart from all the other freelance writers out there? Do you need a copywriting niche? You notice pretty quickly that all kinds of businesses need writing help. And that a lot of copywriters seem to...

Someone once asked when I was preparing to give a talk if I could make it practical—and I had to wonder what that meant. Is Art practical? Does it need to be? This week, we explore how our life informs our art and how what we make influences...

If you’ve sensed the winds of change blowing here at Make a Living Writing, you’ve got good instincts. Maybe our blog’s new footer clued you in. After more than a dozen years building this blog and my Freelance Writers Den community on my own, I’ve...

Not only that, but it can get stale. Sometimes we fall into a formula when we write books, or we can’t get ourselves past the first few chapters of an idea, or we’re stuck in the dreaded middle section of our novel for what feels like forever. It...

We all want to create things that matter, that actually make a difference. But how do we know when we’ve done our job? Do we need others to “get it” for our work to be meaningful? Is “art for art’s sake” a real thing? What does it all mean? This...