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The Writer’s Journey

 
 Becoming a freelance writer means being able to tap into a steady source of creativity, having the dedication to focus on learning all of the relevant techniques and be able to search out topical stories that people will want to read. A freelance writer must learn to take the rough with the smooth and to build up a resistance to continuous rejection slips, especially in the early writing career stages. A dedicated freelance writer will persevere irrespective of the obstacles that will accrue and learn from any mistakes made en-route.
 
Following an extensive period of writing tuition with Annette Young, Andy Jakubowski is putting his new found skills to the test, determined to become a published freelance writer. He has agreed to map out his journey and share all his trials and tribulations as he climbs that freelancing ladder.
Share his journey as a freelance writer…..here.
 
Week One – Learning the Ropes…..
 
by Andy Jakubowski
andy jakubowski
I’ve always been a communicator, with something of an over active imagination! Perhaps you’re the same? We tell ourselves stories about the world – most of the time these stories our just our daily chats or possibly that ambling stream of thoughts that come when driving or walking, most of the time we may not even be aware of this constant and faithful companion? That inner dialogue – yet we are never alone!
 
With the explosion of the internet, I’ve chattered, Twittered and became something of a jobbing Blogger travelling along that great Cyber highway until I chanced across Annette Young, my now good friend who creates and maintains the Creative Competitor website and who through her one to one coaching service, thought I had some potential ‘to go further’, perhaps even to write some real articles!
 
Of course the above journey into thought construction may feed the soul but leave the body improvised! We may not ‘live by bread alone’ – but without it we will surely die! Thankfully there are quite a few opportunities to freelance! something I wasn’t really aware of until Annette opened my eyes to copy writing, technical manuals or even investigative journalism, a little research on the net will be rewarded with many a niche that will pay for good copy, and how rewarding to get reimbursed and pay those irritating bills while doing something you love!
 
Ultimately I’m here to cut my teeth and earn a living from writing; I’ve got a bit of raw talent but reading some of Annette’s articles has made me realise there’s a lot more to becoming a versatile & successful writer.
 
Where to begin then? Well Annette suggested that I write something on her site which would be an online dialogue between Pupil and Teacher. This way you’ll all get to see the inner workings of developing the tools for professional writing, quite exciting wouldn’t you say? She added I should initially write about something I know and am passionate about, not too long, in the form of a punchy ‘dear dairy’, then she’ll give me feed back, tips and tricks into the whole professional writing process, which will be posted here along with replies etc.
 
A series of weekly articles and guidance then! Written in the Socratic style (Pro to average Joe) progressing and, sharing the thrills and spills of the novice freelancer, readers are both welcome to share in my progress, with questions and offer literary criticism, hopefully sparingly!
Will it be a page turner? Why not find out next week! 
 
 
 Feel like giving Andy some feedback? You can contact Andy via the Creative Competitor, please mark your email subject field as ‘andy-feedback’.
 
[email protected]
 
Week 2 – The Assignment
 
As you’ll probably know I recently signed up for Annette Young’s (Editor of the Creative Competitor) personal coaching course promising an expose into the creative writing process.
 
Annette gave me my first test assignment as a Freelancer, (up to 500 words) on any subject of my choosing, you’d think writing a 500 word assignment would be quite easy; however it turned out to be a real eye opener!
 
Knowing my article was going to be read by some-one other then myself filled me with expectation but also a little dread, so I decided to play it safe and write about something I knew – The environment.
 
I started to write my mini article in a self -confident and happy mood; however a couple of hours later had me in despair. My creative child was turning into 
Frankenstein’s monster, it didn’t read at all well, was full of ramblings and conjectures going off at wild tangents! It was like a patch work quilt, every rewrite, a bit more thread-bare
 
How embarrassing! I thought I’d have some minor troubles but I had to resign myself to the fact I simply couldn’t see what was going wrong!
 
I swallowed my pride and emailed my problem child off to Annette together with one word. ‘Help’, her quick reply made me see the error of my ways. I had broken some cardinal laws of the writer, narrow down your topic to a niche, adequately research that niche and never-never waffle! She also included some various tips on how to focus and define your subject matter which I found a Godsend!
 
After much sweat and almost tears- relief came along with something I felt comfortable presenting to the public, although it was a lesson in humility. Annette re-assured me that being your own editor and critic is part of any professional writer’s job; with only 500 words you must make them all say something, it’s like making a good ‘stock’ you have to keep reducing and reducing it down until all of the flavour of the piece comes through
 
In conclusion the most important thing I’ve learned this week, apart from a bit of humility, is that writing chisels out the broad shape and form of a piece but only with ruthless editing can you polish it
 
So,
 
Edit
Edit
Edit
 
by – Andy Jakubowski

Week 3 – ‘The Psychology of the Writer’

The rigors and thrills of writing up last week’s assignment for Annette’s Creative-Competitor site came as a bit of a shock, but not all shocks are necessarily bad, especially if you can learn a lesson or two from them, and have a sympathetic tutor to pick you up and brush you off. 

Before setting pen to paper again, I have been swatting up, looking back over Annette’s notes and my false starts and I have to admit much of what got me into hot water last week could be summed up in two words; poor preparation, well, o.k no preparation!  

What really let me down last week was the organising & associating my untamed thoughts into a verbal ‘picture-map’. I tend to get ideas in a random way, throwing words at paper – this is o.k if you are writing a sentence or a paragraph; after all those entities are ideal to capture a single thought or particular aspect of a subject (the brush strokes) of writing, but the over all composition, needs structure, consistency and resolution. 

Annette suggested after last weeks feedback using, Mind-Maps. If you watch C.S.I, the cops always end up using a board where they hang all there evidence and clues.

Mind-maps are the writers ‘detective-board’, a place to follow up ideas, clues & cues and hunt down the real story.    

The idea is amazingly simple! Single words connected by lines to other words – forming relations between them. This is a perfect tool for me as I can get my idea’s off my chest fast and quick, producing an over-all ‘view’ from above, once I’ve got  this view, I can succesively build and refine it’s complexity, re-composing parts simply by erasing the connections –  the association (lines) between them, it sounds complex but really it’s childs play. 

There is a lot more information on them, at,  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_map 

They certainly helped me with this week’s assignment, ‘The Psychology of the Writer’ 
by Andy Jakubowski
 
 Week 4  Confessions….

 

By Andy Jakubowski

‘I have covered my first hesitant footsteps along the stony road to freelance writing with the aid of Annette’s excellent tutoring on her Creative Competitor site. Yet I have fallen by the way side into such mortal vice, dear reader and need confess my heinous sin!

 But first let me show you how I was lead astray, so that you shall not falter too’!  

 I’d been writing this week’s techie article, ‘Waste Not Want Not’, which I considered informative, interesting & relevant considering the big push on economy.I had also learnt my lessons from previous weeks, done my research, then finally spent time polishing up the piece with some sharp editing.

 Feeling quite pleased I sent off my Opus-Magnus expecting some well deserved praise from the Maestro!

Imagine how I felt when told ….‘That it was self-indulgent’

 Not quite the acclaim I was expecting! 

Annette explained that previously my mistakes were technical ones and I accepted her counsel with good grace; however, this week’s feedback had touched on my pride! I felt the remarks unjustified; had I not ticked all the boxes? Was it not written well? Had I not done my research? Finally did I not finally polish it with sharp editing?

 Hesitantly I read on, 

‘The problem here is you haven’t kept to the limitations of the article or defined  exactly who the reader is’. As a side note, learning the art of freelance writing you’ve got to develop a talent for constructive criticism! 

Annette pointed out that the article, although well written, failed the reader! If written for the non-professional, it was too technical, conversely if written for the expert it was too obvious! The lesson in this case was to appreciate the psychology of the interested non-professional reader and engage him – not to blind him with science, and be ‘clever’.

 My sin was clear enough; I had written this article for myself, not with my reader in mind, Annette had been quite right to bring me down a peg or two, with her well defined objectivity steering me clear of ‘wanting a sweetie from teacher’, syndrome. 

In conclusion, the nature of the ‘Freelancer’ is dawning on me, although you must be ‘literary astute’ you must also be exceptionally disciplined, clear in your commission and never, never self indulgent-as we would be getting paid for our work and therefore need to provide the client with what they want and not just enjoy our own flair of words for the sake of it.  

 In conclusion, burn these words into your heart; stamp them into every word you write………. 

‘Thou shall always keep the reader in mind’.

 

Week 5 Researching the Research

by Andrew Jakubowski

My Article this week ‘Sending out an S.0.S’ was on the law, which we all know is quite pedantic in its wordiness and  after hours of research, I had almost given up due to what read like nonsense on most of the sites. I am sure Lawyers purposefully obfuscate simple idea’s to earn a buck! I finally made a breakthrough with my research and had that ‘Light switch moment’- thank God! 

Writing ‘Sending out an S.0.S’, was pretty taxing but that old adage stands true ‘no pain no gain’, I guess if writing came easy we would all be published luminaries and there would be no point seeking tutoring from such sites as the Creative Competitor.

 Last week I wrote an article on using visual aids to organise thought, and those concept -maps really helped me capture, connect and speed the writing process on what is a very difficult subject.

 Worried that I may have bitten off more then I could chew, Annette diplomatically suggested I might need the use of a Thesaurus. Of course, I had heard of a Thesaurus before but just thought it was another name for a dictionary, they are similar but the differences are subtle & powerful.    

 Unlike dictionaries that just list word from A…Z a Thesaurus groups families of words that have a similar meaning together, so it’s not a list like a dictionary, but another type of mental map, one which is far more suited to the slippery meaning that lawyers use.

 I found combining my own picture-word maps while referring to a Thesaurus levered my ability to conceptualise, my ideas. As I became familiar with using these two tools, they allowed me to write faster, clearer, deeper, and to ‘resolve’, the many conundrums of my chosen subject, impressive!

 So If you have a heavy article or just want to express yourself with better grace forget those old high school dictionaries and treat yourself to a comprehensive Thesaurus, alternatively you can check out one’s on the net.

 The best of the best I found to be:

 http://www.thefreedictionary.com/

 Having finally actually understood what I was writing about, these tools came in indispensable again – this time to re-interpret the meaning of Law, Acts & Statues into lay-speak, by compressing it down and clarifying the coded concepts.

 In retrospect if I was going to write like this again on a professional level; some points to remember

 Allocate enough time to it.

  • Have a working knowledge of the technical language used.
  • Assess financial reward compensates for  the hard graft involved.

 A caveat to the last one would be if you were to find a lot of work in a specialised subject in which case a steady stream of such articles would warrant the initial ‘pain’

 So in conclusion yet another lesson, you can do all the research and write well but remember to write with the reader in mind. Remember you not writing for yourself you’re (a) on commission, and on commission; you are paid if you ‘connect’ with the reader.

 ‘You have to do a risk assessment’, Annette explained.

 ‘Read the commission in detail and consider the input required. Then assess whether it’s realistic to take it at all! It’s not just about writing articles but about thinking about the business aspect.

 Overall, although it has been a tough week, it has been worth it but I conclude with another adage:

 ‘Don’t bite off more then you can chew’, lest it bites you!! 

 

Week 6:  Choosing the Publication

 by Andy Jakubowski

 Reading the papers this week, X-Factor, a so called ‘reality show’, has been taking a kicking; chunks of the public protesting their boredom have rocketed anarchic punk band ‘Rage against the Machine’, up the music charts for Christmas to everyone’s surprise.

I thought this week I would write an article exploring the possible reasons for this public backlash, wondering whether it was just boredom or perhaps the start of a deeper political unrest with the status quo.

 I grew up in Thatcher’s Britain, Punk & the winter of discontent moulded my outlook-so perhaps not surprisingly, programs such as the X-Factor make me rant. Acknowledging my bias, I would have to justify it by choosing the correct medium.

 The music/political theme instinctively made me think of writing for the N.M.E (New Musical Express); their readers probably created the stir in the first place and I could justify my leanings by writing in the style of their music critics. 

 After reading some current issues of the N.M.E I realised it was a bit tame compared to the 70’s versions. A milder magazine format made me consider weakening my articles punch to gain the editors favour, but I did not want to do that, instead I wrote it as a ‘Retro’ piece.

 By writing it this way, it would not stand out from the feel of the rest of the magazine because it would have a ‘window’ around it, the ‘Retro’, tag. However, through my ‘window’ I wanted to re-connect, perhaps revive, that past healthy anarchic spirit in today’s kids. The N.M.E is a quasi-political rag so I was conforming to its ethos in my style and attitude of writing- and this way I could keep both the editor and the reader in mind.

 Because the ‘70’s was violent there is quite a lot of slang & edge in the writing – hopefully to give it a bit of realism. Paradoxically I have had to brush up on my grammar, tense & syntax to make the rough & ready feeling of the time stand out.

‘I’ before ‘e’, except after ‘c’, and some basic syntax is all I can remember from school; like most people, I have always hated the dry rules of grammar and the pedantic nature of syntax spoiling the flow of my writing. This is another case of keeping the reader in mind though; good grammar is essential to create timing, inflection & setting.

 Thankfully 90% of the time, I only need the main features of grammar & syntax to get me by.

 I thoroughly enjoyed writing it, and going back to those days, writing my memories and feelings down for the reader, gave me some insight into some of my rebellious character traits today – a bit of light hearted psychoanalysis spiced up the article.

 That is the great thing about freelancing; you are free to pick & choose your subject matter on occasions and indulge yourself!

 Enjoy

 

Week 7  Micro Books

 by Andy Jakubowski

 I’ve become pretty used to writing the 500 word set piece articles over the last few months, but there’s is a danger of becoming a bit stuck in that format, as a writer you have to keep flexing your style and content to take advantage of the work that might be presented to you. 

With the advent of electronic book readers coming to market Annette has brought me up to speed on writing for the potentially huge and lucrative market of the e-ink book. 

With her encouragement, I’ve spread my wings and written my first mini, or should that be micro book.

 E-books don’t necessarily have to be big affairs, in fact the opportunities for me as a Free-lancer are in the ability to self publish highly tailored items that reach a selective market – crumbs not worth bothering with for the big publishing firms, but nice little earners from the individual.

 The particular niche market I had in mind were, Ramblers; nature lovers; who would be interested in a spot of hunter-gathering (foraging) for foods, admittedly it’s a past time of mine, so a bit of an indulgence.

 The final ‘book’ was a bulky 20 pages in all, but a highly select and illustrated 20 pages, covering foraging for fresh herbs and wild edible greens native to southern England.

 For me even 20 pages seems like a big leap from the 1 or 2 pages of my 500 word articles, but writing this type of book isn’t so much a jump but a progression; a bound series of 500 word articles; one for each plant or herb, which is a bit of a cheat I admit, but there is some literary framework and expansion required to stitch these ‘articles’ together.

 One of the main difficulties when writing for such a specialized audience is what to leave out and what to put in; there’s plenty of information out there on herbs, edible plants etc in-fact you could be swamped under the weight of the subject material.

 A lot of Herb & Plant books are written in quite a dry impersonal way often by committee, as I call it, resembling no more than a list of properties, which doesn’t really resonate with the nature and intimacy I often feel walking along field & hedgerow.

 Baring this in mind I decided the style for this little book was to take a ‘walk with the reader’ and introduce him personally to the character of each plant; taking 10 familiar plants from childhood and ‘walking’ him through the process of picking and preparing practical recipes and medicinal uses for each plant; while interlacing my own experience and nostalgia’s informally; made an interesting bridge into the subject matter.

 In my opinion,  the great thing about e-books are I can afford to be a bit more experimental and play, to develop a form of literature that suits the nature of this new medium is not only a lovely challenge but where, I believe the money is!

 Check out these great little machines and their potential for the Freelancer at:-

 http://www.ebookreadersreview.co.uk

 Week 8  e-Book Readers

by Andy Jakubowski

Last week I covered e-book readers and how to turn a buck from writing small niche books; this is just one part of the story. 

Annette and I both concluded that there was some mileage left in the theme; some very important points had been omitted, not just about writing e-books but the whole burgeoning field of portable electronic journals.

 When freelancing, you’re likely to get requests from your client for rewrites, that doesn’t mean your material is bad, but it may not meet their requirements, might be in need of elaboration or just plain old creative differences etc. As a side note, the customer is the final editor and is always right – it says so on their cheque.

 With this in mind Annette gave me a revised commission, to research deeper into this new reading medium; which I sharply named ‘The e-book reader – continued’.

 E-books, presently, are just that, simple devices for reading text and basic graphics, however there’s a whole lot more potentially to these devices so I went about writing ‘their story’, – their future potential. More specifically I wanted to write about how, if and when they might affect the nature of freelancing. 

Having asked the correct question I needed to go about finding some relevant answers.

  ‘What exactly is the e-book reader’s future potential?’

 My research consisted in looking at the evolution of comparative technologies-the home computer & mobile phone, how their function over the years has changed and merged from a basic office tool and telephone to the multimedia centres they are today.

 It seemed a reasonable conjecture that the e-reader might go the same way, becoming a hybrid of these other technologies. After reflecting on my notes it was clear that the best way to write this article was from a futuristic slant, a technology-writer who specialises in the shape of things to come and taking some of their basic literary skills and research methods I tried to incorporate their style into my own article (let’s face it, why re-invent the wheel)?

 I’m a bit of a techie myself, which can be a double edged sword when writing this type of content – you have to pitch the article at the right level, informative, not too obscure whilst not talking down to the reader.  

In all I’m satisfied with the end result, I think I succeeded in my mandate and my literal eye is gaining some objectivity, whilst my pen is gaining, under Annette tutorage, a little more discipline.

Week 9  

by Andy Jakubowski

Search Engine Optimisation

SEO or search engine optimisation is fast becoming the way to land lucrative commissions for the article writer, boiled down to its bare essential, it’s the study of trends of market interest and the how – to lever your articles presence on the web to clinch commissions

 The main thrust of my article was ‘persuasion’, showing the relevance of using yet another techie web feature, but this time trying to make a case that it was an essential feature for the article writer not just another bells and whistle ‘app, and after I had decided the theme, the rest was child’s play; involving my describing some optimisation techniques to wet the readers whistle into the world of SEO.

 I had a long productive talk with Annette Young over how to go about this topic, but initially still ended up with 2000 words…eek! Of course I thought all the words were vital to getting the big picture across. I did boil it down chopping out some floweriness, but was still left with the raw facts coming in at 1200 or so words, frustrating as I wanted to keep the article in one piece; any more segmenting, would mean re-writing it as a series of 3, 500 word pieces.

 Eventually I had it down, kind of pat to 1200 words; still too long for net-format and had to sacrifice some salience to hit the rough commission spec of 700 words; that was as far as I was prepared to go, I wanted to keep the impact, and I feel there comes a point between fulfilling a commission and creating a portfolio of work that you’re going to be happy with, after all whatever you write is going to be your calling card for future assignments, Annette agreed.

 I think in retrospect I got pretty involved in writing this piece, which yes is a good thing, but then you have to know when to call it a day, and just present the finished article, even if it doesn’t meet the bill. Life isn’t perfect. I’m ambivalent to how it turned out to be honest, but I’ve made some interesting discoveries and given myself some food for thought – there was a lot of material left over which can be spun for more variant articles dealing with other aspects of the topic, and I’ve decided to start to create an archive of specialities. It’s occurred to me that while I’m learning the bread and butter 500 word format, I’d like to research sites that are looking for more extensive pieces. In this context it’s a win, win situation, I get to write and fill the commission, but then have a spring board into specialising…

Having discussed this with Annette, we both think there’s mileage in the idea for me and my more sleuth-like approach to depth writing…

Week 10

Hunting down the Article

 by Andy Jakubowski

The title of this week’s article is quite fluffy, literally, which belies the analytic process that got me to pen it, the moral – don’t judge a book by its cover or an article by its content.

 Google analytics is the tool of choice for selecting an article’s theme. Last week I touched on Google’s analytical software that puts essential predictive power at the hands of the article writer, this week I’d like to go a bit further with this essential piece of kit and run through how I chose, refined and wrote:

 ‘Wool Insulation means Sheep Heat’.

 Google-analytics is a little theoretical, but a theory that will run through and inform every article you write from now on in; or at least it should do, if you read my article from last week you’ll see why. 

 O.k. as usual I started with a blank sheet of paper and the eventual need for an article, in other words I wanted a full sheet of paper, and a final paycheck. The yellow brick road of preparation and research has to start somewhere, that ‘where’ is a conjectural step or an assumption; once we have a gut feeling for a good article we have to ‘prove’ this assumption as being valid. Google analytics deals with defining how valid your assumption is by polling certain key indicators in the internet market.

My conjecture was, homes have suffered terribly from poor insulation this winter, probably a reasonable assumption giving the media coverage – typing in ‘Insulation’ as a root word to Google’s keywords, brings up a plethora of polled information on web-traffic to do with the theme of ‘insulation’.

 The first thing that struck me was that I was ‘on the money’, there has been a huge surge in advertising and browser clicks on this topic – so far so good, that proves there’s an interested market which consequently means it’s worth writing on this theme; ‘worth’ in this case means net pounds.

 Having proved my conjecture, I could go about re-searching and narrowing in on a particular theme, in the knowledge that my guide  ‘Google’s keywords ‘  wasn’t going to lead me ‘off-the-money’, and into writing an article without an audience or an article with too large an audience; hence competition from other freelancers.

 I eventually used four semantically related theme-words from analytics that had a good balance between average market interest, low peer competition and a growing ‘presence’, all these criteria can be obtained with a click of a button. The final article was driven from the ‘bottom up’, defined by:

 Lucrative commercial niche

  • Low peer competition
  • Average web-traffic

 Google Analytics is rather like following a trail of bread crumbs, you’re looking to stalk a nice juicy pigeon, not too big, not too small, and you won’t end up fighting against other hunters all chasing a worked to death Turkey.

Week 11

Stress Management

by Andy Jakubowski

I tend to think of each article as a flight mission.

  •  You’ve got a briefing.
  • You do the reconnaissance.
  • You execute the mission.

 I’ve found writing isn’t always going to be a creative joy and wonderland, it’s a job, it may be a good job for those so inclined but it’s still a job. Like anything that promises payment for work requested there are times of stress and these need to be managed.

 Stress needs to be noted, it’s a ‘Biggy’, and you can die from it. The more notes and conscious tactics and strategies I can employ to dissipate it, the better for me and for my writing. There is no bigger block to free flowing words then a mind feeling under attack – in ‘lock-down’ mode.

 I left out the last and most import part i.e. what I learned along the way.

  •  De-brief (another name for this is meta-learning).

 I find the internal debrief on my own articles, whether it be, structure, content, commission, stresses or enjoyments can reveal reusable components, new tactics and strategies and ideas for the subsequent articles and how to approach them.

 In my opinion this is where excellent writers can fall down, because they are not being excellent analysts as well. Analytical deconstruction – post hoc, creates a powerful mechanism to lever my works quality while saving me time, thanks HAL (ref the film 2001 a space odyssey for that one)

 As an example this week I’ve suffered some serious external stressors that could have had the whole writing process off of the rails, thankfully I switched into my analytical mode and came up with my own tactics to control the variables affecting my work.

  •  Step into the picture:

Write down your feelings on a piece of paper (remember we’re good at                                                                                            that), expressing just what you want to say to the agent causing so much stress and say it in words in no uncertain terms. Then, burn your notes, the process is cathartic. Often a ‘Creative’ communications solution will come out of releasing pent-up feelings this way i.e. Think from a different angle.

  •  Step back from the picture:

Try to look from a different point of view, every one by definition will have some   credibility in their demands, try to assess how reasonable or unreasonable they are being if, for instance, you were them. Developing objectivity rewires these trigger points to save you from needless burn-out; which will affect other projects i.e. Think outside the box.

 It doesn’t matter how good/bad these tactics seem to others, as long as they work for me; which they have.

 Identifying the need for de-brief and developing my own debriefing methods, really helped me get through this weeks article in one piece, ‘An Introduction to Artificial Intelligence A.I 101’.

Week 12

Valentine’s own Letter.

by Andy Jakubowski

As its St Valentines day today, let us have a ‘break’ & Jubilee from the normal form and reach for the heights by considering what creative writings most real intent is; who really writes and who really is been written to!

 That is a big, big question, the biggest! ‘All’ literature is of one body and addresses this question, the answers are numerously penned by a million authors over countless centuries, but all and within all lays a sealed letter sent by THE ‘Writer’, to THE ‘Reader’, a love letter.

 In my opinion, writing is a masculine activity, we seek to impress our thoughts and idea’s, towards that mysterious ‘other’, or to use today’s sterile lexicon with ‘the reader in mind’.

 Conversely, we assume, hidden even to ourselves, that the ‘reader’ is both ready and willing to hear what we, as writers have to say and be open to the possibilities of the new worlds in the power of our words. If this assumption in us was not so we would not even begin to write.

In this context, the ‘reader’ is always feminine, her eyes trail over our words, and, as ‘she’ reads, she opens herself up to each stroke and flourish of our pen, which breathes wings under her, sighs and brings new light into her eyes.

  ‘Yes-arh-Yes, again! Yes! It is so!’

  Is her complete canticle, her silent ‘vowels’ uttered toward our well-formed word. 

‘Yes’ then is a feminine prerogative, for who can read and be filled without first emptying themselves of pre-conceptions, then by turn, giving consent, opening up, and finally committing oneself to reading on.

 Every tune of the page is another ‘Yes’, is it not?

 This weeks Article ‘Informed Consent’ dips into this heady subject.

Week 13

The Rhythm method – Beat the Blues

by  Andy Jakubowski

The end of February is a real killer for me, having slugged my way through the dark, damp and dismal months of winter my body and mind are at an all time low in spirits.

I’ve found in these months I have to make an extra effort with everything, including my writing. Of course, as I often say, work is work and sob stories just aren’t going to cut it with your commissioners; who might very well be at their seasonal low and wits-end too!

 Bearing all this in mind, this week’s article, “The Rhythm method – Beat the Blues “, takes a look at environmental stressors and some effective ways to keep our minds creatively sharp and brimming with reserves of literary energy.

 I looked at comparative articles that dealt with this topic on the web and found a lot of advice seemed sensible but a little generic. I could have written the same sort of off- the- peg thing with a couple of twists, but ethically that seemed like a bit of a cheat! Also, as I’ve said, in past Blogs, each article we write should raise the bar for the next one, in theory, at least!

 Moving up the research food chain I went online, to universities investigating seasonal disorders and found a brace of juicy academic articles delving into the physiology of stress from the unique angle of body rhythms.

 Settling myself down to sit through a couple of hours of ‘riveting’ downloadable MP3 files of academics lecturing peers on their new insights was, arh-hum, thrilling! However, going straight to the horse’s mouth is where to find fresh material and this is gold dust to the freelancer.

 The flip side to ‘getting the skinny’, on a subject is listening to the boring academic minutiae of detail and disambiguating what is actually being said before spicing it up for the layman-reader!

 In all, I spent about 4 hours on the article, which is a lot and yes I could have done it in an hour but figured ‘Stress’, is a big repeat subject likely to come up again & again; and getting to know these big issue ‘types’ in detail is likely to pay dividends later with repeat custom.

 Finally, when ‘translating’ academia for my articles, one golden rule is essential, sex up the title! Circadian Cycles in Fresh Water Newts, just isn’t going to cut it on Google ad-sense, unless you’re another Newt, of course!

 Combining the core key word ‘Rhythm’, with denotations of Sex, Dysfunction and Depression hits high with ad-sense and, I think you’ll agree, my title probably has a larger audience then the scientific one.

 Admit it, when you read my article’s title, “The Rhythm method – Beat the Blues “,   your imagination & interest was somewhat piqued …I hope.

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