Time after time....

We're a week and a half into the summer here.


I'm not sure about anyone else, but part of the reason I freelance is so that when we get to the holidays, I can take some downtime with my kids - so that there's no holiday problems with care for them, and so that I'm not spending every minute in work wondering whether I'll need to leave early and find they've caused riots.


It does mean, however, that all of the work I'd planned on doing is being is being sandwiched in between episodes of Hannah Montana and Tom and Jerry. It's a nice life, but it's hard to measure the value of the work I'm snatching in. It also means that I've been pushing back and pushing pack things like theme designs and my fiction writing. I got up on Sunday morning though and decided that I needed to stop procrastinating and actually take control!

So, I've written a post over at Publishhacks about the best, and worst freelance tools, in my opinion, for monitoring and supporting any freelance career.


I'm always expanding and testing them though, so I thought I'd find out what your favs and time sinks are.


(so far, I've got Xobini, RescueTime, WordPress, the Internet (wikipedia), The Internet (RSS), Zoundry Raven - some good, some bad ;)) What do you have, and come on over to PublishHacks, to find out about the tools I've mentioned.

How do I get started?

Heck if I know. My process is an eclectic mixture of Googling, wondering whether I should throw in a load of laundry, and letting the dog out. I think I've come to the place where I accept that this is what it takes for me to really get going. I do have a couple of tools that help me maintain focus in the midst of all that procrastination.

1. Open a Word doc, title it, and save it to the appropriate folder.
The second two actions are vitally important, and I've learned this the (really very) hard way. Nothing is worse than unloading some brilliance onto a blank Word doc and then having your laptop battery die or software sieze up, causing you to lose all that work. Even though my computer gives me recovered documents when I reboot, some changes or additions can be lost forever. (And whenever I do lose something, I'm absolutely convinced that it was my best work EVER. Funny how that happens.)

2. Collect everything to this document.
I transcribe my interviews, paste urls and snippets of research, make outlines, and write various versions of ledes and transitions in this document. By the time it's all said and done it's a mess, but everything is there. And this document will never be seen by anyone else... unless I accidentally send it to the client. Yikes. But to keep that from happening, I title it something like, "Name of Assignment Notes."

3. Open a new Word doc, and start writing gibberish. Hopefully it isn't all jibberish, but it is basically free-writing at this point. It looks something like this:

When Mary Arthur first opened her lizard-training business in [date tk],
she had no idea it would be so popular among the [word for people out of
high-school but not yet 30] set.

Later I'll look up the date she opened her business in my notes and decide what to call her customer-base. But at this point, it's just about the getting the words to flow. Usually this freewriting produces both the worst and the best writing I've ever done.

4. You may have noticed that I didn't title and save this new Word doc. That's because I ALWAYS forget. So do as I say and not as I do: Give it a title like "Name of Assignment Freewrite" and save it.

5. Put it all together in a new titled doc with my byline, print it out, read it out loud, cringe, edit, read it again, cringe less, let it sit, read it again, tweak, and send it out. If I'm on deadline (which is always), I don't have time to let it sit, and when I finally see it in print, I think of a thousand other ways I could have written it better.

A great sentence from an article by Chip Scanlan of Poynter.org helps me out of this writer's remorse, and helps me write faster: "Fight perfectionism by telling yourself that what I wrote today is what I was capable of at this moment."

So there you have my convoluted process for getting started. For this post, I did NONE of the above. I just opened up the little blog-posty box and started typing. That's another very good way to do it.

Getting Organized: Accounting, Taxes, and the Freelance Writer

First of all, I’m not an accountant, so don’t think I’m doling out tax advice – this post is about organization. I do recommend finding a good accountant – not just a tax service – to help you with the legalities of everything. Don’t mess around with taxes.

If you make money, you have to pay taxes on it. So keep good records. (Again, I’m not going to tell you which records to keep, because you’re going to ask your accountant about that, right?)

These records need to be kept for filling out your schedule C, schedule SE and schedule @^#&%*.

So I have three super-secret weapons to help me with taxes, and I’m going to reveal them to you.

1) I want to make an argument for the shoebox. If you, like me, have a fledgling writing business, you might not need a 4-drawer cabinet with color-coded files just yet. The shoebox is great for containing receipts and check stubs. (If you absolutely must, you could buy yourself a proper storage box.) I prefer this to the filing cabinet, because receipts can tend to slip out of open folders and get lost at the bottom of the drawer. I hate losing a receipt; it’s like throwing away good money.

The point is, really, whatever method you use, keep it simple so you will, indeed, use it. For me, the shoebox works. Whenever I come home with a tax-deductible receipt, it’s the easiest thing in the world to toss it in the box. (At the end of the year- I mean month, all those bits of paper are organized and stored properly in nice, orderly file folders.)


2) Do you want a free software program that allows you to keep track of your invoices, payments, expenses, bank balances, and client contact information? Okay. Here you go: Quick Books Simple Start Free Edition.

(I don't get any money for the click. Don't worry, no ulterior motive. Although, I wonder if I should. Maybe I really, really should be getting money for all my promotional efforts. Suze says not to put myself on sale EVER again. She says so in her book she gave away for free on Oprah yesterday. Yeah, click here before 5 p.m. today and download it for yourself. I've begun reading it, and I think it is great. No complex trading tips. This is real-life useful stuff.

I’ve never been a fan of accounting software, because ugh, none ever seemed to fit my situation. Either they were far too simplified for a self-employed person, or they were designed for big businesses with payroll and inventory. Simple Start Free Edition is the Goldilocks solution for me. Um, and “free” is the right price.

No accounting software will work if you don’t input your information, but they’ve made this one so easy I have no reason to procrastinate. I do have some complaints about it though. (This is why my parents never gave me a gift-horse.) It’s a little slow to open, and very, very slow when it tries to sync up with Outlook to send an invoice. I also can’t find where the program stores the invoices on my hard drive. This bugs me because I file each invoice in the same folder as the article and assignment details. The workaround is fairly simple though: I email the invoice to myself. It arrives as an easily save-able .pdf.

3) Third secret weapon: www.irs.gov Download forms, brush up on regulations, even apply for an EIN. Yes, it’s fun for all ages. Best of all, it’s searchable, unlike the 900 lb. print version of Tax Guide for Small Businesses.

Okay, your turn. What method do you use to stay organized for tax time? And do you like it? Or do you wish you had something better? What’s your biggest challenge when it comes to taxes (besides paying them, lol)?

Getting Organized and Getting Things Done

Getting Organized and Getting Things Done

Whether writing is a side job or the way you make your living, it won't be long before you realize you need some semblance of organization to meet your deadlines, track your income and maybe even reign in your blog-surfing so that it doesn't consume your writing time.

(MNABC is, of course, exempt. This blog is for your business!)

In my pre-mom years I was an administrative assistant for a busy sales office, and developed systems and helpful manuals and whatnot that ultimately made the sales team more productive.

It was easier managing all of that than it is to manage my own freelance schedule.

I love the new QuickBooks ads that show people trying to do what they do and hassle with invoicing and receipts and etc. One ad shows a dressmaker pinning all his receipts onto a dress form.

Those ads are a vivid illustration of why it’s difficult. When I’m in “writing mode” my mind is not on invoices and paperwork. When I’m in “administrative mode” my mind is not on writing. And some days, it takes a lot of time and energy to transition between the two.

With productivity in mind, I've been “collecting” organizational systems to help me manage the unpredictable workdays that come with being a freelance writing mom. If you think about it, any one of those three job titles presents an organizing challenge: “freelance” can mean a wildly deviating schedule, “writing” means thinking of the perfect phrase at the weirdest times and squeezing in interviews when you can get them, and being a mommy - heck, I don't have to tell you about the unpredictability of that job.

Some of these tips and tools I have actually implemented with great success. Some are great in theory, but didn't work for me. Some might work for me if I get around to using them.

And I'd really, really like to hear what works for you. Please feel free to add to the discussion!

So here's the deal: I'm going to post anything I find that can make your life easier as a writer and/or as a mom with the tag "Getting Organized." To find them, just click on that tag in the sidebar, and all those posts will show up in an orderly fashion. How organized is that?

Since it's almost tax time, I'll start with that. (Tomorrow. :) )