We’ve been having two bedrooms repainted and refloored over the past six weeks. We had planned to have the old, ratty, who-knows-how-old-it-is carpet removed and replaced with Pergo(R) (that fake laminate flooring that resembles wood). However, we got a big surprise when they pulled up the carpet in both rooms and found old, rolled-up linoleum that wasn’t glued down. And, under the linoleum, they found a layer of old newspapers in excellent condition.
Why do people sign up for content mills? To make fast, easy money like their ads usually state, right? Well, from what we’ve been reading over the past several months, the money is anything but easy.
Letters will return next week.
Environmental writing is becoming more mainstream, and it’s a great way to expand a freelance article writing career, but it’s also fraught with risks.
I’m wondering if you’ve heard of this outfit (email removed by WritersWeekly) and their offer. What you think of it? Does it look legit to you?
My daughter recently said she no longer eats meat, which meant there would be no more Sunday roasts or fast food burgers as part of her menu. It put me in quite a quandary. Not knowing what or how to cook without meat, I turned to the pages of vegetarian magazines, looking through recipes, articles and features. It turned out to be a real eye opener in the form of a new writing niche as I realized that between the covers of these magazines lay lots of opportunity for writing submissions.
I woke up on Tuesday morning and started doing my morning chores – laundry, breakfast, you know the routine. I was still rubbing sleep from my eyes when I heard a very loud “RAT-A-TAT-TAT-BANG-TAT-BANG-TAT!!!” in the kitchen. I ran in there and found Mittens trying to scale our wooden blinds. There was a bird between the blinds and the window. Mittens moved faster than me and had that cute bird in his jaws before I could grab him. But, grab him I did and I managed to pry his jaws open and free the poor thing.
For the past six weeks, we’ve spent every spare moment judging the hundreds of entries submitted for the Spring 2010 24-Hour Short Story Contest. In case you’re not familiar with our quarterly contest, this is how it works. On the date of the contest, at start-time, we send out the topic for that specific contest to all registered entrants. We also post it online. Entrants then have 24 hours to write and submit their stories. The stories “must deal with the topic in some way to qualify” and they must not exceed the pre-assigned word count.
After reading the entries for each contest, we can see how difficult it is to come up with a unique plot when working with an assigned topic. But, inevitably, a few writers do manage to successfully break away from the pack.
So, sit back, relax, and take a break from your busy day to…watch death and greed collide.
This week:
How can freelancers get assignments to cover important breaking news stories? During most of my freelancing career I felt I was on the outside looking in as magazines and newspapers assigned their staff writers to cover breaking news stories. It’s often difficult for freelancers to get assignments to cover important breaking news stories. Many, if not most, don’t even try. The query submission and review process takes time. Most assignments are given to newspaper and magazine staff writers because of time constraints. However, freelancers can surmount this problem and win rapid acceptance of their queries, or sidestep the querying process completely. The ongoing BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico provides interesting case histories on how freelancers can win breaking news story assignments.
