Writing Advice Wednesday: Shitty First Drafts Make It All Less Daunting

Take the anxiety out of writing — especially freelance writing, which is compounded by having to create great work for others — by simply pounding out a shitty first draft.

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The Daily Freelancer: They Won't Come to You

I recently heard that there are some freelancers who just set up their profile on Upwork and wait for clients to come to them, or who only send out one pitch a week. As someone who built a website based on getting my presence and my value out into the world, I’m learning how to increasing my efforts at visibility to land more clients — and you should too.

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The Daily Freelancer: How to (Really) Proofread

Proofreading isn’t just a glance through before hitting publish. It’s a lot more intricate and nuanced than that, and today I share how I go about proofreading (since I’ve been actually getting paid to do it recently!). Ultimately? All those writing mechanics should disappear to create a seamless reading experience.

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The Daily Freelancer: When Writers Have Typos (and How to Better Proofread)

Writers aren’t perfect…but kinda have to be perfect when they write (so says I, who found a typo in my Upwork profile this past weekend). Since I’ve been going overboard on proofreading today, here are some quick tips on how to get rid of those last-minute typos.

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The Daily Freelancer: Writing Should Provoke Emotions, Not Check Boxes

While SEO might be a great framework, and a way to crack the formula of Google rankings, there’s something at the core of good content that we never talk about: emotion. Today I talk about how to craft great content by focusing on writing techniques.

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Freelance, Resources for Authors Jessica Kent Freelance, Resources for Authors Jessica Kent

Setting Up an Author Website on Squarespace

Authors, you know that having a website is crucial to not only getting the word out about your work, but having an authoritative online presence that people can visit. If you’re not sure how to get started, or the whole idea of website stuff makes you want to curl up in a ball — no fear. Here’s our quick guide to getting started on Squarespace.

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Using the Hero’s Journey to Get Through a Pandemic

I’m a writer, so my outlook on reality is a bit skewed, in that one part of me lives life while the writer part of me stands back and processes it. I’ve also been working on another project about storytelling, and in taking a closer look at the Hero’s Journey, the classic framework for storytelling, I realized that we fit right in.

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Resources for Authors, Fiction Writing Jessica Kent Resources for Authors, Fiction Writing Jessica Kent

Dear Writer: The Muse Is a Lie

Many years ago I took a playwriting class that consisted in part of discussing great drama and reading aloud our own pieces, but mostly consisted of our professor giving us pep talks on the literary life. “No one’s going to care if you stop writing,” he declared, explaining how since family and friends didn’t understand what we did, no one would be concerned if we took a different route. “You have to do it for you.”

Another truth he upheld was, “There is no Muse.”

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