General

I’ve been writing this blog for nearly a year and a half.  With that in mind, I’d like to ask you, dear readers, what you’d like to see in here.  I have two reasons for doing this.  One, like any writer, especially a blogger, I’d like to make sure I’m connecting with you and offering you what you want.  And, two, I feel like I’m running out of blog topics that excite me.

And, so I am turning to you, if indeed you are out there!  What do you want to know about freelance writing?  Do you want to know about freelance writing?  Do you want to know more about my daily life?  Do you want to know more of my thoughts on motherhood?  Do you want to see more faith-based posts?  What have you enjoyed that I’ve written about in the past?  What have you NOT enjoyed that I’ve written about in the past?

One thing I have preached in teaching and in this blog is to know  your audience.  With that in mind, I am reaching out to you, my audience, for some feedback.  Let me know what you’re thinking.  Post here, e-mail or send smoke signals — whatever works for you.  On second, thought, avoid smoke signals.  I don’t know how to read them and I’m not outside all that much.

I hope to hear from you!

While I’m relatively new at being a mom to a human, I’ve been a mom to a dog for nearly five years.  In fact, my adorable Lhasa Apso, Buckles, will celebrate his fifth birthday on June 25.

But, beyond just looking for an excuse to show off my cute pooch, I have a point.  While being Buckles’ mom I have learned lessons.  Earlier this week, I learned a big one from him.

I had just put his human sister down for a nap and needed to go and get the mail.  Buckles loves traipsing out front with me on his leash to get the mail.  I didn’t want to wake up his sister.  So, as I was letting him in from the backyard, I picked up his leash nearby without saying a word.  He saw the leash and knew we were going somewhere.  He didn’t know where.  I didn’t even ask him if he wanted to go get the mail, which is the phrase he knows.  He was just excited to go with me.

So that got me thinking about my relationship with God.  I have many times bemoaned the fact that I didn’t know what God had planned for me.  I have said time and again that I wish He’d just send a note so I’d know what the plan was.  But God and faith don’t work that way.  Instead, I need to be more like Buckles.  He was up for going anywhere with me.  He trusted me completely because I’ve never led him astray.  God has never led me astray.  He’s led me through some dark times and deep valleys, but He’s never let me go.

As my life shifts once again with change, I’m ready to be harnessed to God and follow His lead.  Just like my dog, I may not know where I’m going, but I know Who is taking me and that’s all that matters.

I’m not sure why I’ve taken so long to do this, but I have finally created a business page on Facebook for Written Creations.  I’ve been using Facebook for about two years now for a personal page to connect with friends and family.  I’ve enjoyed it, but I have resisted creating a business page.

Since I am in the habit of checking Facebook more than Twitter these days, I’m hoping that the Facebook page of Written Creations will be much more frequently updated.  My schedule has changed these last few months and I am paring down extras.  So, in an effort to be more collaborative and keep folks updated, I’m now switching primarily to Facebook for communicating rather than Twitter.  Ideally, I’d keep up with both, but I know my limits and what I can do while still being able to get my work accomplished for clients.

All that said, be sure to stop by and check out Written Creations on Facebook.  I can’t promise that it will make you rich or lose 20 pounds, but I can promise that your readership will be much appreciated!

My daughter has slept well from the beginning of her life.  Of course she’d wake up in the early days to eat a time or two at night, but she has always been good at putting herself to sleep.  From the second month or so on, she’d fall asleep best on her own rather than with us holding her.  Sometimes she’d talk herself to sleep, but nothing dramatic.

Then came this week.  She will be seven months old on Sunday.  I’m not sure if she’s more aware of being alone or if she’s teething, but she screams bloody murder when we lay her down at night.  She does fine with naps.  So, after two nights of trying to console her and only making it worse, last night I knew that I needed to just leave her be.  I decided to give it 15 minutes.

We put her down.  The screaming started.  My husband closed her door so she wouldn’t hear us, but we could sure hear her.  I sat in the hallway.  I just couldn’t bring myself to go to the living room and watch television or something.  I shed some of my own tears as my heart broke for my baby girl crying so hard.  I prayed for her.  I prayed for me.  I asked God to comfort her as He could since I couldn’t.  I asked Him to give me strength and guidance to do and know what is best for her.

Within 10 minutes, she settled down and was fast asleep.  I was relieved.  My husband, who had been online looking for solutions, was relieved.  Then I started thinking.  I had worried that she felt abandoned by us.  I knew this was one of those times where she would never understand that as much as she was hurting, I was hurting for her even more.  That’s part of parenthood.

Then I realized that must be how it is for God sometimes.  I have had times where I felt like He abandoned me or wasn’t doing what I thought made since for Him to do.   Dealing with my daughter made me realize that He has never left me, just like I would never leave her.  He sat in the hallway and cried with me and for me.  His Son prayed for me.  They never forgot me or left me alone, but They knew that I needed to go through those difficult times to come out better and stronger in the end.  Just like I know my daughter will realize that she can fall asleep and all will be well, so have They known that I had to cry my tears and go through trials to come up stronger with even greater faith.

I am thankful that I have a God who will never abandon me.  I’m thankful, too, that I have a God who will help me to grow through hard times even when it breaks His own heart to do so just because it’s what is best for me.

On Monday, Al Tompkins from Poynter blogged about the use of laptops in the college classroom.  He said some professors are tired of trying to compete with Facebook and other online distractions so they have banned laptops in their classrooms.

As someone who has taught a few classes at the collegiate level, this got my attention and got me thinking.  I have had students bring their laptops to class.  And I haven’t minded.  Are they always paying attention to me?  Probably not.  Do they need a laptop to distract them?  Certainly not.

In teaching a general studies English course at a local community college a couple of years ago, I had one student basically tell on another in an in-class writing assignment.  He wrote about how his classmate was surfing the Internet looking at skateboarding items during class.  I have to say, though, I didn’t much care.

The thing is, students don’t have to be in college.  They are choosing to be there.  And they are paying to be there.  Maybe it is because I have always been adjunct faculty and never on a tenure track, but I don’t feel responsible to make them learn.  I do, however, feel responsible to be prepared and do the best job I can to help them learn.  I love what I teach.  I love writing and researching.  I want to share that with students.

I must say in teaching at my alma mater, I’ve had more luck.  At Ball State University, I have taught journalism classes to journalism majors.  These students are in these classes because they want to pursue a career in the field.  They are more interested.  I still allow laptops.  And we work on computers.  Do I think that even in those classes no student with a laptop has ever wandered online for personal use during class lecture?  No.  I am realistic.

But, honestly, I think that hand-holding is not what should take place at the college level.  Banning laptops in the classroom doesn’t seem to be a solution to me.  It hinders students who can use them to more effectively take notes.  Responsible students will use laptops in a responsible manner.  Irresponsible students will only find other ways to distract themselves if they don’t have their laptop.

What do you think?

Working from a home office means not having to worry so much about a business wardrobe.  But, even when spending all day in the office, what you wear makes a difference.

I have always dressed up in nice clothes to go for article interviews, client meetings or teaching classes.  On days I don’t leave the office, though, what I wear doesn’t matter as much.  Clients, interview subjects, editors and students can’t see me over the phone or through e-mail.

I learned early on, though, that I really am what I wear.  On days that I stay in my pajamas until noon, I am a bit more lackadaisical about my work.  On days I get dressed and do my hair and makeup right after breakfast, I seem more productive.  Somehow what I wear makes a difference.  I take my work seriously all the time.  Getting dressed for it, makes it even more serious to me.

And, of course, working from home doesn’t require me to wear shoes.  Another trick I learned has been that on days when my motivation is lacking, I put on a pair of shoes.  When I’m wearing shoes I’m more likely to keep my feet on the floor rather than have one tucked under me.  Sitting more formally and less casually also helps keep me going.

I think the whole thing boils down to how I feel about myself.  While I am comfortable in my PJs, I don’t feel like I’m at my best.  I wouldn’t want people to see me.  Being more presentable makes me feel better about myself and, in turn, makes me have more energy to do the work I need and love to do!

We all have moments where we do something and find ourselves embarrassed.  And for those of you like me, that embarrassment really does lead to a red face.

Today, I’m taking a jab at myself and the faux pas that I’ve made in the past when trying to be a svelte business person.  We all have them.

My most recent red-face moment happened a couple of months ago.  I was working on a series of articles for my local newspaper.  I was conducting interviews with business owners all over the city.  I headed to a downtown restaurant that is closed for a couple of hours between lunch and dinner.  The owner asked me to come during the downtime.

I entered the closed restaurant, told the employee who I was there to see and he went off to find the owner.  I stood beside the bar, waiting.  A minute later, a well-dressed man came walking through with a purpose.  I assumed he was the owner.  Trying to be assertive and overcome my natural shyness, I stuck out my hand and said, “Hi, I’m Stacey with The Star Press.”  The man kindly took my hand, shook it and responded, “Hi, Stacey.  I’m just passing through.”

I’m not sure what I said, if I even said anything.  I do know my cheeks turned bright red, though.  Now, it’s quite funny.  It was a bit funny then, but it was definitely more embarrassing.

And of course smaller embarrassments happen as well.  I have a small digital voice recorder that I often use for in-person interviews.  Combine that with my clumsiness and the formula for disaster is quite apparent.  I was interviewing a local school principal for an article when the recorder flew out of my hand and hit the floor.  Like everything I own, I’ve dropped this recorder numerous times, but somehow this time it hit just right and the cover flew off and the batteries rolled out.  Yeah, I’m a professional…  Definitely worth a good laugh now, though!

Even though it isn’t a work-related incident, I have one more red-in-the-face moment to share with you.  I suppose sharing my shame is cathartic!  Not so long ago, my husband and I were working around our house.  He needed to make a quick trip to the home improvement store.  I decided to tag along.  Since we’d been working, I had on old clothes and ran inside to change quickly into something more presentable.

I grabbed a green V-neck T-shirt from my closet and threw it on with some clean jeans.  We headed to the store.  I never looked in the mirror.  As we were walking in, I realized I was getting a breeze on my back.  Yep, I’d put my shirt on backward.  I looked down and realized the size information was on the front.  Not only was it backward, but it was also inside-out.  I was already embarrassed.

Fast forward to paying for our items.  The cashier looked at me a minute and said, “You’re shirt is on inside out.”  I mumbled something about how I knew that.  Then he said, “And it’s backwards.”  Yeah, thanks for pointing out my incompetence!  I was definitely red-faced over that one.

No matter what happens to embarrass us, at the end of the day we are at least left with good stories and good laughs.  We are left with lessons learned.  I know make sure to find out who is walking toward me before I introduce myself.  I am still working to clutch tighter to my recorder and not drop it.  And I most definitely check my clothes to make sure they are right-side out before I put them on.

Feel free to share your red-in-the-face moments so that I don’t feel quite so alone…

Part of this blog is to share with you the ins and outs of freelancing.  While I’ve listed the drawbacks of being a freelancer on here before, I also felt it was important to share some of the tasks I dread.  Though these are tasks that I personally dread, I know they aren’t dread-worthy for everyone.  Perhaps I just needed to vent them!

Updating my clips. I love what I do.  I love having articles published, but I hate organizing my clips once I have them.  Right now I have a pile in my office of clips that need to be organized.  I started by cutting out each article, pasting it on black card stock and inserting it into a sleeve in my portfolio.  I’ve stopped doing that for all articles because I have too many.  But, I still try to do that for my big articles that I’m most excited about and want to really showcase.  I also will scan clips to have the electronically for my Web site.  However, I put it off.  This task is especially easy to put off because I can justify that doing paying work takes precedence over non-paid work.  The downside is that I end up with older clips than I’d like to have on my Web site, too, which could inhibit my paying work.

Processing income. I also love getting paid for what I do.  But as a self-employed person, it’s up to me to track every check that comes across my desk for paying taxes.  I also have to track them to ensure I’m getting paid for the work I do.  I tend to let check stubs pile up until there are a few to process at a time.  I’m not sure why I put that off, but I do.

Processing expenses. This is pretty much the same as above.  I tend to wait until I have a few expenses to track, like mileage, office supplies, etc., before I knuckle down and just process the information.  All I have to do is enter it into a spreadsheet, file receipts and make sure my business check register is updated, but I still put it off many times.

Filing. This kind of goes along with processing expenses, but filing is another task I just don’t enjoy.  I’ll let the aforementioned receipts stack up a bit before filing them.  I’ll have a pile on my desk of papers that need to be filed somewhere in my office that I also let stack up.  I just put it off.

I guess that’s my top list of tasks that aren’t fun.  They are all part of my work, but I’d much rather be researching and writing than conquering these tasks.  Since none of them directly result in income, I find it all too easy to make excuses for putting them off.

What tasks do you avoid doing?

If you’ve searched for information online, then you’ve surely come across Wikipedia.  It’s user generated and regulated — meaning anyone can edit the information.  And information can be found on a broad range of topics from diseases to celebrities to televisions.  Pretty much anything.

But is it trustworthy?  That’s where the debate starts.  And the debate is important.  For example, New Scientist recently reported that 50 percent of medical doctors are using Wikipedia for information.  Its trustworthiness goes beyond whether an article we’re writing is accurate.  It affects our lives.

The theory on Wikipedia that I employ and teach my students to employ is that it’s a good starting point, but any information found on the site needs to be confirmed by a more solid source.  That’s what I hope is happening with doctor’s using Wikipedia to look up information on certain prescription drugs or conditions.

In the end, the Wikipedia debate comes down to whether the information is reliable.  Because it is user generated information it is both reliable and unreliable.  My very tech-savvy husband falls more to the reliable side of the debate.  His argument is that with so many people editing it, the information is bound to be accurate.  Someone who knows better isn’t going to let a mistake go uncorrected.  The New Scientist article even points out that no factual mistakes were found.  That’s a decent track record.  And we can surely all agree that multiple heads are better than one for catching mistakes.

However, I fall more on the unreliable side of the debate, especially for article writing.  I feel as a journalist that I have a responsibility to my readers to dig deeper than the general, user-generated information on Wikipedia.  Does that mean I never visit the site?  No.  Does that mean that I may start with the site to get an idea for what kind of sources and information to look for?  Sometimes, especially if it’s a new article topic I’m not familiar with.

All that said, I also need to point out that Wikipedia articles include references for where the information is coming from.  That means the information has to have some credibility to it.  I would say, though, instead of using the Wikipedia page as a source to go to the actual sources quoted.  First, you can confirm what is written on Wikipedia is true.  And second, you’ve just found a primary source.

Primary sources are those who were/are directly involved in the event or topic being covered.  Secondary sources are people outside of the event/topic reporting on it.  For example, I originally found the New Scientist article through another Web site.  But, to use it as a source and credit it, I went back to the actual article.  I even checked the information the article references for accuracy.  I’ve long been a fan of the Pew Internet & American Life project for data, so I made sure what New Scientist reported was actually what Pew found.  I didn’t want to quote a secondary source even in my blog.

Wikipedia seems, to me, to fall into that secondary source category.  Sure, some of those editing the posts may be directly involved, but we don’t know that.  My biggest problem with Wikipedia is that very fact — we don’t know who is behind the information.  Since it’s such a large collaboration, knowing who specifically said what is impossible anyway.  How do you quote that?  At least going to the primary sources at the bottom of each Wikipedia page gives you a more primary source to reference.

At the end of the day, credibility is most important.  Wikipedia is credible to an extent.  But, it’s a secondary source that has no place being quoted or referenced in articles.  Too many other sources exist to draw information from if you’re willing to take the time to look for them.

How do you feel about Wikipedia?

I love my work.  I make no secret about it, but even in loving my work, I struggle to stay motivated 100 percent of the time.  As I’ve written in this blog before, external things like deadlines can keep me motivated.  But, sometimes I have fewer deadlines and more time to work on pursuing new projects or do paperwork and my motivation lacks.  Here are a few tricks I’ve learned to keep myself motivated when I don’t necessarily feel like working.

Set your own deadlines. I learned this trick while working as an assistant historian for the History Program of the National Model Aviation Museum during graduate school.  My biggest task was to compile biographies of model aviation enthusiasts.   It was an ongoing project that had no deadline or end in sight.  I would set deadlines to have so many biographies or certain biographies completed by certain dates.  I also knew that I had to schedule other tasks to keep myself from burning out, so I also set deadlines to create things like a writing guide for the biographies, a form for modelers to use, etc.   I employ the same tactic today in setting deadlines for non-deadline tasks, like updating business finances, pitching new projects, etc.

Know when to switch tasks. This is part of what I mentioned in the first tip.  Some tasks just don’t hold our interest for long.  If I have a task that I dread doing, like updating business finances, then I reward myself with a task that I like to do.  Knowing that as soon as I’m finished with the dreaded task that I can start on something more fun helps keep me motivated to keep plugging away.  For larger tasks, sometimes that can mean breaking it up over a couple of days to avoid getting burned out.

Find someone to keep you accountable. A little while back I wrote about how Twitter can keep me accountable.  That’s one option, but sometimes I need a bit more interaction with someone.  I have another writer who lives across the country from me that I’ve discussed this with.  Sometimes we e-mail each other and encourage the other to keep going.  I also use my family support when needed.  I’ll tell my husband about a project I’m working on, and as he asks me about how it’s going, I want to have answers, so I stay motivated.

Understand that sometimes you just need a break. I’ve also learned along the way that sometimes to maintain my motivation and drive I need some time away.  When I’m working on more technical aspects of writing and less creative ones, I will sometimes need to take a creativity break.  Just spending 30 minutes playing the piano can refresh me to return to my task more motivated.  I also take breaks sometimes just to throw the ball for my dog in the backyard or chat with a friend on the phone.  Whether it’s a five minute break or an hour break, it’s sometimes just the thing I need to refresh myself and my motivation.

Work through the drudge. Another tip I have for now is working through the lackadaisical feelings.  Sometimes I find I get the most done by simply applying my backside to my chair and working when I don’t feel like it.  Usually by the time I’m 20 minutes in (or sometimes less!), I forget that I was even dreading work.

Music as a motivator. My final tip is to use music as a motivator.  I love music.  It’s part of everything I do.  I’ve written a bit about this before as well.  When I’m feeling least motivated, I can put on the right music to keep me going.  For times I am struggling to write, I turn to the soundtrack from “Riverdance.”  For times that I’m feeling sleepy and need to do some design work, I turn to peppy tunes that make me happy.  I’ve been known to jam to old M.C. Hammer tunes or Broadway scores when I need some pep.  It works for me.

What do you find helps you to maintain motivation on days/times when you feel like doing anything except working?