freelance writing

5 Ways to Know When Your Writing is Done

April 17, 2018 by diannejacob 4 Comments

Image for how to know when your writing is done. How do you know when your writing is done or your blog post is finished? You could keep going over it endlessly, rewriting and wondering if you need to do more research or explaining. Or adding more keywords and spiffing up the SEO.

But if you do so, will it be finished then? Or maybe you’re not sure what constitutes “finished” in the first place.

As an editor, I know what it’s like to pull a piece away from a writer who wants to keep working on it. And as a writer, I also know what it’s like to refine right up to the last second. So I have some ideas that might help.

Here’s how you know when your writing is done:

1. You have a deadline. If an editor hasn’t given you one, set one anyway. Doing so helps you create an end for your work or post. My blog post deadline is Tuesday morning. I can’t keep working on each post forever that way.

2. You have been over the blog post, chapter, or story, many times. You gave yourself time for a thorough edit, and you don’t see what to change any longer.

3. You have spell checked every single sentence. Everyone hates typos. It makes you look careless. I find that even with spell check, errors creep in, so make time to print out the piece or post, and look it over carefully. Or have someone else read the post for you.

Also check all links to make sure they open correctly, and in a new window.

4. You met your criteria. If you have an assignment letter or a contract, review it. Or review your pitch letter and emails to make sure you’re sending the story the editor expects.

If you’re blogging and use regular structures for your posts, make sure your post complies. (You use links to past posts, for example.)

5. You have done your best. Do you feel satisfied that you have said what you wanted to say, the best you could? If you have a level of confidence about your piece or blog post, you’re done.

Do you have trouble letting go of a story or blog post? As an editor, I can relate. I can keep editing forever, it seems.

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Why it’s Both Easier and Harder to Freelance for Publication

January 23, 2018 by diannejacob Leave a Comment

Bonnie Tsui has freelanced for publications for more than a decade, including The New York Times, Travel + Leisure and as a contributing editor for San Francisco magazine. Recently she received an annual award for food writing from the San Francisco Chapter of Les Dames d’Escoffier.

That gave me the opportunity to interview her, since both of us became Dames recently. She concluded that [Read more…] about Why it’s Both Easier and Harder to Freelance for Publication

Damn Right: I Do Make a Living Writing About Food

April 18, 2017 by diannejacob 37 Comments

A guest post by Naomi Tomky

As a freelance food writer, when I saw Dianne end her post positing that, perhaps, food writers are their own worst enemy when it comes to demanding good pay, I knew she was right.

But it’s a deeper problem than that. Not only did her piece on how there’s no money in food writing not match my experience, but in a way, it [Read more…] about Damn Right: I Do Make a Living Writing About Food

12 Tips for Pitching Articles to Publications and Websites

February 28, 2017 by diannejacob 6 Comments

I’m just back from the Wine Writers Symposium in Napa, where one of the panels I was on covered pitching articles.

I was really roughing it at this conference, if you must know. The event was at Meadowood, a luxury resort, for four nights. We drank or tasted many fine Napa Valley wines both there and at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone. And we feasted on fresh crab, duck, truffles, and waygu beef.

But now back to real life, where I need to diet. And you, dear reader, would like more freelance assignments. On the Symposium panel with me were [Read more…] about 12 Tips for Pitching Articles to Publications and Websites

On Writing an Award-Winning Essay

October 4, 2016 by diannejacob 29 Comments

Can you tell that I still love mangoes, the subject of my essay? My local supermarket stocks succulent Atulfos, similar to the ones my dad adored. (Photo by Owen Rubin.)

You might think that writers who win awards have natural talent and dash off their stories in an afternoon. That’s the stereotype. Yes, a story I wrote called The Meaning of Mangoes won two national awards! But I didn’t dash it off, and it took me forever.

Here’s the path of my mango essay and what I learned:

Sixteen years ago, I wrote a piece about my parents and mangoes. A start-up website published it. It happened because I sat next to a woman during an International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) conference, and told her a few stories. The next day she [Read more…] about On Writing an Award-Winning Essay

My Year of Submissions to Literary Magazines

October 7, 2014 by diannejacob 24 Comments

A guest post by Paula Panich

Fueled by frustration and a manuscript of unpublished culinary essays with recipes, I spent two years writing letters to agents.

Silence.

Only one wrote back with regrets: She hadn’t heard of M.F.K. Fisher.

Fit to be tied, I swore I’d never write again. Then I thought: The literary magazines! Why not make a game of getting published?

Hundreds of small magazines buzz under our radar. These publications—some print, some online, are known as literary magazines and journals. They’ve been quietly present since [Read more…] about My Year of Submissions to Literary Magazines

How to be the Writer Magazine Editors Want

September 30, 2014 by diannejacob 14 Comments

John Kessler explains how he gets repeat assignments.

Freelance writers like John Kessler are rare — the kind of writer editors can count on, who can tackle just about any story and come through at the last minute.

John is the full-time dining columnist at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. On the side, he freelances for Garden & Gun, Food Arts (recently deceased), GQ, and has written for Cooking Light and Every Day with Rachael Ray.

What does it take to be the writer editors call upon? Kessler has ideas:

Q. Do you pitch new publications or do editors come to you?

A. My best work always comes from magazines where I’ve [Read more…] about How to be the Writer Magazine Editors Want