I went on a long, long break form my creative career cause I was feeling burnt out due to some failures and now I can't seem to get back into it, possibly because I no longer have a financial incentive to do so. How can I fix this? Warning: Long, super privileged person problems.
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posted by anonymous
on May 7, 2013 -
18 answers
I'd like to get more into freelance copywriting. It's something I can do from home, and I'm pretty good at it. I have a money and time goal for it.
Money: 5 cents a word
Time: 15 hours a week
Total: About $1,500 a month.
I'm on Textbroker, but they rarely pay more than 1.5 cents a word. I'm open to pay-by-project too, if they're consistent. How would I go about finding regular clients/websites that could help me reach my goal?
posted by tuberose
on Feb 27, 2013 -
3 answers
I work in communications and would like to start a blog that I could link to from Twitter and LinkedIn. But I'd also like to write about my personal life. How do I thread this needle?
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posted by kat518
on Jan 8, 2013 -
8 answers
I've always had communications-related jobs, but they never seem to be the right fit. I'm a great writer (although I have a love/hate relationship with writing), but I also helping enjoy helping people and interacting with people, etc., and writing is a pretty solitary job. (Well, PR isn't, but that's one area I want to stay away from, as well as fundraising). Have any other writer-types who are like me found a solution? (Oh, and I don't want to take on grad-school loans right now.)
posted by trillian
on Dec 14, 2012 -
15 answers
What are non-clinical, location-independent jobs that advance (or could advance) the cause of reproductive health? How do you get the skills for those jobs? Do they exist?
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posted by c'mon sea legs
on Oct 19, 2012 -
2 answers
Help me to make a great leap forward in my PhD in the next six weeks. I am in the last year of my PhD (philosophy) so the thesis has to be finished by December, however, I am also full time university lecturer, so when the term starts my ability to write every day is drastically compromised. By selling part of my soul I negotiated almost complete freedom for the next six weeks and I want to use them to make massive progress with writing the thesis. I already have about 40,000 words written and I am hoping to write another 40,000 over the next 6 weeks. The challenge is to stick to the daily quota of 1,000 words, as some days it is possible, even fun, other days it is very very hard.
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posted by slimeline
on Jul 31, 2012 -
23 answers
My supervisor has pointed out to me that I tend to take language very literally, and it's impeding my performance at my job. Help me rewire my brain!
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posted by anotheraccount
on Jun 21, 2012 -
33 answers
I recently attended a job interview which included a copywriting test - I was given some facts about an upcoming event and asked to write a press release. I did not get the job, however, the press release was released exactly as I wrote it (without my byline) and was picked up by a small local news blog and a local religious newspaper, as well as being used in the organisation's internal newsletter. The headline I wrote was also tweeted with a link to the event info on the organisation's website.
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posted by cilantro
on Apr 15, 2012 -
26 answers
Habitually editing while I write, want to try free-writing and getting it all out, having difficulty: can I temporarily disable my backspace key in Microsoft Word?
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posted by NikitaNikita
on Mar 8, 2012 -
22 answers
How can I adjust my work/life plans in the face of serious vision problems and recovery from surgery? (Details inside.)
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posted by bad grammar
on Dec 17, 2011 -
12 answers
I think I procrastinate on projects as a dysfunctional way to manage my anxiety about them. Can you help me manage that anxiety more productively?
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posted by colfax
on Dec 8, 2011 -
8 answers
How important is context to getting work done? What are effective ways to manipulate context to get more done?
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posted by parudox
on Sep 24, 2011 -
11 answers
I'm a depressed not-incredibly-recent college grad with less than a year's experience under my belt and I'm still clueless. More snowflake-y annoying first world problems inside.
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posted by themaskedwonder
on Jul 12, 2011 -
9 answers
I have written a cover letter. I would like to know whether it makes recruiters jump for joy or punch the screen.
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posted by Fen
on Mar 11, 2011 -
40 answers
Following your bliss, writing mentor edition -- how can positive experiences with mentoring and writing lead me to a career I'll love?
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posted by elephantsvanish
on Oct 3, 2010 -
2 answers
"Does my dream job exist?" Or, "What are some good fallback jobs for an aspiring actor who does not enjoy starving to death?"
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posted by Wanderboy
on Aug 16, 2010 -
24 answers
How can I make a living doing what I love?
My almost-50 birthday is this week. Several years ago I quit my job to start a new career. I still have little idea how to make money from what I want to do. I'd hate to go back to my former career, and I can't imagine who would hire a man nearing 50, who hasn't had a job in years...
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posted by ifnot
on Aug 15, 2010 -
12 answers
My boss has asked me to work on getting our company a contract with the U.S. government's General Services Administration (GSA). I have been doing some research and reading everything I can about it, but I think this may be too big of a job for just me. Does anyone have any experience with working on a contract like this or know of any good resources for help? Anything that any of you can offer would be great. Thanks!
posted by healthykindofsick
on Aug 6, 2010 -
9 answers
Some casual web writing I've been doing for my brother and his friend has suddenly ballooned into something resembling full-time work as requests from various Phoenix-area businesses to re-write their web-page copy have come pouring in. How much should I expect in compensation?
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posted by Ylajali
on May 31, 2010 -
2 answers
Are there any websites that hook up editors with students willing to pay for paper-editing?
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posted by ollyolly
on Mar 17, 2010 -
8 answers
In the past I have worked as a staff writer for a newspaper. The process of learning about something first-hand, then distilling it into everyday language was something that was totally enjoyable. It was so cool to be continually kinesthetically learning from "the horses mouth," so to speak.
Print journalism has reduced its numbers drastically, and jobs are now few and far between.
Are there any other vocations you can think of that would let someone actually go out in the field and talk to people and get their story then share it with others? How about jobs that let you learn all the time?
posted by srbrunson
on Feb 23, 2010 -
20 answers
How can I be a better writer? My value at work would increase if my ability to write formally improves. I'm an admin in the IT department and don't realy understand the technology or procedures that I have to write about. I think that part of the problem is that I am just not that great at communicating in general. I don't talk a lot, hate leaving vm's. And even writing an email can leave me frozen, constantly worrying saying the wrong thing and/or not being understood.
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posted by mokeydraws
on Sep 23, 2009 -
17 answers
Tell me what I need to do, or which bums I need to kiss, to write a storyline for a video game.
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posted by metalheart
on Jul 8, 2009 -
15 answers
I am a community college English instructor, and I am working on structuring my Comp I class around the theme of work. Can anyone recommend some thoughtful articles, websites, books (easily excerpted), etc. about work or the workplace? Most of my students have limited reading comprehension skills, so I can’t use anything that is too specialized or advanced. I’m looking for articles on the level of Time or Newsweek. Thanks!
posted by alspeigh
on Jul 3, 2009 -
23 answers
What are some good sites to find short-term freelance writing/Internet gigs?
Similar to this post, I'm looking for some temp work that will bring in a little supplemental income.
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posted by adverb
on Aug 13, 2008 -
4 answers
Academic writing filter: I am a painfully slow writer. How might I go about developing a composition process that's higher-output, requires less concentration, and is more revision-friendly?
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posted by Bardolph
on Aug 8, 2008 -
13 answers
Last October I left a great full-time job, ostensibly to write a novel. Now it's a year later and, for a variety of reasons all having to do with me, there's no novel and chances are slim that there's going to be one. I'll have to go back to work eventually. When coworkers ask me how the book is going, what do I tell them to save the greatest amount of face?
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posted by Work to Live
on Aug 7, 2008 -
24 answers
20-something INTP, bored to death in his corporate gig, asks: What should I do with my life?
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posted by anonymous
on May 8, 2008 -
28 answers
Journalists of Metafilter – hit me with your tips for fast filing. My job (as a reporter at a daily newspaper) has gone really well and I just got a promotion!!!! Hurrah! But soon I'm going to have to do a lot more work in a lot less time. So I need to file my copy much, much faster.
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posted by t0astie
on Jan 13, 2008 -
12 answers
I'm 23 and working as a sales assistant/helpdesk support/office admin/web designer/receptionist in my hometown. How do I go about getting a paying job as a writer, without formal qualifications?
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posted by saileyn
on Dec 7, 2006 -
10 answers
Who writes all those pages and pages of text that the US government generates? More to the point, might someone pay
me to write some of them?
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posted by nebulawindphone
on Feb 10, 2006 -
23 answers
I'd like to find more about selling my writing (
not books), please!
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posted by tommyc
on Sep 16, 2005 -
1 answer
I want to spend three to six months writing a novel as my primary activity. I have savings, but not enough. What kinds of work can I pick up and do, wing in and out of, make money but have maximum flexibility to do my writing? I have published two books previously and have strong well-developed skills in technology writing, web writing, some copy writing, etc., if that matters to your answer. Many thanks.
posted by lustra
on Mar 1, 2005 -
9 answers
I hate all forms of work (hence the anon. post) and the only way I've found to finish papers etc. is to stay up all day and night procrastinating until the last possible instance writing a bit here and there--an agonizing process--until, as the last chance deadline aproaches, something takes shape. These papers are usually final papers and usually earn me between a B+ and an -A... which is probably why I never learned how to do work in a painless and organized fashion... at any rate, I have two papers due on the same day and no chance of an extension on either one and am incapable of forcing myself to work. WHAT DO I DO?
posted by anonymous
on Dec 10, 2004 -
55 answers
MLA Citation Filter: The information I'm citing was found on a
website. However, the person who made the website did not create this information. The information I'm putting into my paper is all from articles cited on the website; it's either a direct quote from the journal article that I copied and pasted from the website, or it's factual information from the articles that is presented and cited by the website author.
In my paper's bibliography, how should I cite the copied portions of journal articles? How should I cite the facts from the journal articles that are presented by the website's author? Do I cite the journal article, or the website?
posted by punishinglemur
on Nov 23, 2004 -
5 answers