It's nearly here!

Only a mere few days until my story is published on Anotherealm! Be sure to check back on Friday for the link!

Tereasa.

Some good news for July

July is almost here, which means that it's getting close to publication date for 'Time Waits for Norman', my short story, on Anotherealm.

Be sure to check back, I will tell you all when it's up!

The worst boss I ever had

I’ve had quite a lot of different jobs, in lots of different industries. I’ve worked in a Museum, an accountancy firm, a metal casting company, a college…to name a few. In those jobs, I’ve worked for all kinds of different people, managers with very different approaches to the way an office should be run. Most, I’ve got along with, some I haven’t, but when I think about my worst ever boss, the thing that I remember is the awful way she’s treated me. Every day, she put me down, made me feel inferior, told me I was useless, that I wasn’t working fast enough or hard enough, and made me believe that even though I was working the best I could that I was being downright lazy.


And I’m writing about this terrible boss, because she is still my boss, and she’s probably yours too.

That’s right; it’s me.

This morning, I had a project to do, so I got myself ready, booted up my computer, and sat down. After I set up my document, I stopped, because my boss said, “You know, this is a hard project. It’s going to take you ages, and what makes you think you’re qualified to do it anyway?”

My confidence left me. I stared at the blank screen, and couldn’t do a thing.

“See,” said my boss, “you don’t even know how to start, do you my dear? Why don’t you just run along and do something easier?”

Sometimes, I listen, but today, I decided not to. I straightened my posture, put my hands on the keyboard, and did the project anyway. It took me just over an hour, and really wasn’t that hard at all.

I think there are lessons to be learned there. Firstly, no-one is ever harder on you than you. Secondly, if you don’t have faith in yourself, who else will? And thirdly, and probably most importantly, always treat yourself with the same respect you would treat others.

And there ends my lecture for today.

How to get a job just by asking

When I first decided that I wanted to write as a freelancer, I had all these ideas of the type of work that I wanted to do. My aim was, and still is, to build up a portfolio of work, so that I could one day go it alone and make a living from working for myself.


But there were two little obstacles I had to overcome; I had no experience and no contacts. No-one was going to take me seriously because I had no previous work to show them. I had to find someone to hire me to write for them, and trust that I could do as good a job as I promised I could, without having anything to show.


The first words I wrote.

 I have always been a writer. For years, I wrote nothing but fiction, but it wasn’t until I had one of my short stories published in an online magazine that I started to believe that I was any good. I wrote more stories, and got no bites. I felt disheartened. I tried my hand at writing a factual story, about the sinking of the famous ship, the Lusitania, and sent it to a magazine. They didn’t publish it, but I did get a handwritten note from the editor, saying although he like the story, the magazine had already published something about the Lusitania earlier in the year.


I wrote some more short stories, and eventually got an email from Another Realm magazine, who wanted to publish. That story, ‘Time Waits for Norman’, is due to be published next month.


But in order to get noticed as a freelance copywriter, I needed to write more factual articles.


I had a few ideas, so I wrote articles around them, and submitted them to Squidoo. I intended that these would at least provide a place to point to, should anyone wish to see samples of my writing. As it turns out, I haven’t had to use these yet, but they are there online, if I need them.


Finding my first clients.

 I read a lot of different blogs about freelancing, and the one question that gets asked time and time again is ‘how do you find clients as a freelancer?’ I don’t really know the answer to this question, I’m still trying to figure that one out, but I can tell you how I got my first three clients.


I had this idea that I wanted to work with people who lived in my local area. As far as I know, there are not many freelancers offering what I offer where I live, and I didn’t know how to get people and businesses to understand why hiring a freelancer is a good idea. Because I didn’t have a portfolio yet, I knew I’d have a hard time finding paid work, so I emailed my local Parish Councillor, and asked if I could be involved in the Parish Newsletter. To my surprise, he asked me into his office the following week, where we discussed how I could help to edit the quarterly newsletter, and how I could get involved in writing for the website.


My next project came when I bid for a job on people per hour. I was lucky in that I only applied for this one project, and it so happened that the lady was looking for someone based in the UK. I was the only UK bidder. She wanted someone to write blogs for her online store, wowthankyou.com. As we speak she is setting up a new website, and I will be writing a regular blog for her.


My third job came when I was looking at other UK based freelance writers’ websites, to get an idea of what they offered. On a whim, I emailed one of them, and asked for her advice, and if she ever hired other writers to help out with surplus work. Almost immediately she emailed me back, saying she’d keep me in mind for some projects she had coming up. I have since written a few articles for her, one of which she has published on her own blog, and have also helped her by creating a couple of databases.


The next step.

My fourth client? Well, I’m still working on that one. But at least now I’ve got a little more experience, a few more things to show, and a teeny bit more confidence.


In my opinion, this is all just a game of chance. There is no right or wrong. But I’ve learned that you get nowhere if you sit back and wait for jobs to come to you, you have to be prepared to get out there and look for opportunities. And you have to have the courage to ask stupid questions, and the cheek to ask for work. The old saying is true – if you don’t ask, you don’t get.

Dogs, barbecues, and mobile phones.

It pretty weird how dogs personalities and moods can change. When we fist brought Lea home last summer, she was so friendly with other dogs, but now she seems to have changed her mind and barks at pretty much every other dog we come into contact with. I'm not sure when it started, really, but we always used to let her off the lead on our walks, and she was fine, but a few months ago, she attacked another dog, for no obvious reason. So now I'm afraid to take her off the lead, and she seems to have gotten a bee in her bonnet whenever she so much as sees another dog. Funnily enough, she seems ok when the other dog is off the lead, or she is on a long lead. We've tried tempting her away with treats, which works some of the time, as long as you can clock the dog before she does, and we tried her on a halti, but she chewed it in half the first day we used it. Short of paying for her to have specialist dog training, I'm not sure what else I can try.

I'm writing another article this week for Cosy Home Blog, giving information about the pros and cons of both charcoal and gas barbecues. I was sitting here on my laptop this morning with the TV on, and overheard that it's barbecue week this week! And with the promise of nice weather this weekend, perhaps I should get David to drag our barbecue out of the shed. Yum!

I also heard on the news this morning that this worry about mobile phones and cancer has reared its ugly head again. I remember that this was a big worry when mobiles first became popular, but it seems to have been forgotten about for quite a while now. It makes me wonder, really, after all this time, and with the millions of people who are using mobile phones these days, surely this issue must have been researched and improved by the mobile phone companies? Where is the evidence that there truly is a link between the technology and the illness? This article from the NHS website seems to think that it's all been blown up out of all proportion - what do you think?

Anyway, lots to do! Bye for now,
Tereasa.