Blog Day Planner

Image by ginatrapani via Flickr

It's goal setting time once again this year and I'm reviewing my income, my work habits, and all my freelance writing techniques. You would do well to re-evaluate your freelance writing business at least twice a year. This planner is a format that allows me to write, to plan, to evaluate and focus on any improvements that I could make in my personal business practices.

I came to the realization that time planning is a crucial element in any project, whether personal, civic or business. Taking that into consideration, my goal is to assess how I use my freelance writing time to discover how much I earn per hour. I want to improve my work habits to maximize my earnings and to increase my writing proficiency.

One thing that must remain intact is writing quality. Never sacrifice quality for any amount of money. Stay true to your style but be willing to try other styles. This practice will broaden your horizons and help you to discover whether your talent lies in other areas. Remember though, if you are a freelance writer, you are operating a business in which your time as a freelancer is valuable. After all, you want to get the most out of life so write in such a way that you will have more time in other areas of your life.

Maximize your earnings.
Free up your valuable time to allow for personal time.
Become more time efficient.

These are the goals for this fall. I hope to practice writing so that I will earn a minimum of $70.00 per day, every working day. For me, that will be six days per week to equal $420.00 weekly. Maybe I'll exceed that goal. For now, that involves writing 7 ten dollar articles daily, if that is all that I find in my task boards. Some days I'm very blessed to have $20 to $25 or $35 assignments. On those days, I'll exceed my goal because I am planning to write four hours every day for six days. That's a minimum. Some other time will be spent working on a novel, so I'm cutting out about 20 hours of blogging a week so I can focus on writing a chapter per week of my novel.

I'll post updates on my progress. Let me know how your goal setting lines up with your actual turn out this fall.

The Midnight Writer

Image by cobalt123 via Flickr

I'm sitting by a lake in California just totally enjoying the peace and quiet that came just after midnight. Maybe that tells you why I like sitting up late at night to write. That midnight hour just seems to strike some magical chord that resonates throughout the night. It really inspires me to be creative.

An hour ago, voices were buzzing everywhere amidst the sound of opening and closing car and truck doors. The water was lapping harder against the shore because there were dozens of boats out on the water. The birds were calling out to muffle the sound of the engines. Then, almost all at once, the people drove away, the boats got quiet, the birds hushed and the water lapped softer against the shore. A lone dog gave a soft bark five minutes ago as if tempting the silence to be broken.

Nature. Solitude. After midnight. A special time.

Tonight, I have plenty of time to ponder what to do on my blogs in the coming week. I'll be writing a post here next on traveling in an RV this summer. Since I'm an avid traveler and freelance writer who lives on the road, this is the perfect opportunity to work it into my blogging plans. Naturally, we should share some RV news and experiences. My van is a camper van so it qualifies as an historic RV. (a little humor there)

The Midnight Writer