WritingForDollars.com: A Website Review

As the adage goes, “Writers write.”  There is another one, known as Yog’s Law, which says, “Money flows to the writer.”  The goal for many writers is publication.  Preferably paid publication.

WritingForDollars (www.writingfordollars.com) aims to help with that.  OWFI member Dan Case has maintained WFD since 1997 as a service of AWOC Books, which he owns.  Writers’ Digest has rated Writing For Dollars! as one of the best websites for writers.  A quote from the front page of WFD says, “Writing for Dollars! focuses on the business side of writing (making money).”

In this day of CSS, widgets, and the like, the site is simply put together, which contributes to the user-friendliness of the site.  Other features include a free newsletter and a guidelines database.  An e-book, 83 Ways to Make Money Writing, is free with the newsletter subscription.  Visitors to the site can also get their daily dose of humor with the Chicken Writer comic.

There is a link to AWOC Books’ bookstore where books from several OWFI members, including Charles Sasser, Dusty Richards, Peggy Fielding, Robyn Conley, and more, are available.  Subscription links for Writers’ Digest and The Writer are also listed on the site.

A report from Dead-Links (www.dead-links.com) shows there are several broken links.  However, from looking around the site, those appear to be from within the guidelines database.  Perhaps the publishers/publications changed the URL for the guidelines page, went out of business, or simply removed their guidelines from the web.

Rating:  * * * *

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SIDEBAR

Facts about WFD

• Writing for Dollars! is a paying market.  Their guidelines can be found at http://www.writingfordollars.com/wfdguidelines.cfm.  

• They buy all of their articles from freelance writers.

• Writers’ Digest lists WFD as one of the best 100 places to get published on the Internet, ranking them seventh on the most recent list.

(Originally published in the OWFI Report. September 2007)

Filed under: writing , reviews

Adelaide Crapsey: American Poet

In a reply to a comment on the Monday Poetry Train, I mentioned Adelaide Crapsey and the Crapsey cinquain.  I thought I’d bring some information about Ms. Crapsey to the blog just because.

I honestly don’t know much about Adelaide Crapsey at all.  I first heard of her about 10 years ago when I took a community education class on syllabic poetry. 

At that time, I heard only her name and that she had developed the form.  A couple weeks ago, I found out the Crapsey cinquain is most common in the United States and rarely used anywhere else in the world. 

Adelaide Crapsey was an American poet who died in 1914, probably from complications of tuberculosis.  From what I’ve been able to find by reading the wikipedia article on her, I don’t think she ever married.

She wrote most of her poetry in the later years of her life.  Her first collection was published after she died.

She developed what we know as the Crapsey cinquain.  It is a five-line poem/stanza with 2, 4, 6, 8, 2 syllables per line.  

I’m sure there’s more information available about her but I haven’t been able to find very much so far.

Filed under: Uncategorized , poetry, verse

Monday Poetry Train

I know many of you are accustomed to reading the Monday Poetry Train on Evolution.  However, I’ve merged Evolution and Creatif since they’re both about my journey along the creative path and whatever evolution happens with that.

So…

With that said, here’s the poetry train.  This is another syllabic form.  The rictameter is possibly related to the Crapsey cinquain.  It has nine lines with the following syllable count: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2.

“Get out,
Way out” sounds more
like a cheer from high school
rather than like something you’d see
on HGTV about landscaping,
improving your home’s value
by adding a koi pond
just to be more
outside.

(Take a ride on Rhian’s Poetry Train, no reservation required.)

Filed under: poetry train, writing

Confidence

The Merriam Webster Dictionary Online defines confidence as the following:

con·fi·dence noun 1 a : a feeling or consciousness of one’s powers or of reliance on one’s circumstances <had perfect confidence in her ability to succeed> <met the risk with brash confidence>

Bear with me here.  I have to kind of spiral around to this.

synonyms CONFIDENCE, ASSURANCE, SELF-POSSESSION, APLOMB … ASSURANCE

I wish I had the confidence in myself when it comes to writing and related activities that other people have in me.  In “Spreading My Wings,” I mentioned several applications, among them, one for the About.com Freelance Writing Guide.

In an e-mail to some friends, I said:

Yeah, like I have the experience for that??  What am I thinking??

I’m honestly surprised with some of the comments I’ve had from that.

From Dot: 

YOU WOULD BE PERFECT FOR THE JOB, WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT, GIRL?

From Nita: 

Of course you can be a guide for About.com, why not?

From another friend:

You are sososososo too hard on yourself!!! You would be great in that job!! You always have been able to help inspire and encourage me about writing.  I for one, hope to heck something does come of that! 

Yes, I am too hard on myself.  I’ve always said I’m my own worst critic.

I don’t have a problem in recognizing the talent/potential in someone else and encouraging them to work on it, develop it, and promote it.  I think that’s one reason why I want to be a creativity coach.  I do, however, have problems doing the same thing for myself.

How can I take their confidence/belief in me and transfer it to confidence/belief in myself?  A big step in that direction, I believe, has been the Just Hit Send challenge I referred to in the “Spreading My Wings” post.  Perhaps more of the same and small successes along the way will do the job.

Filed under: writing , creative, creativity

Spreading My Wings

I’ve been doing a lot lately to promote myself and my writing (and to hopefully get me out of transcription).  This is because of the “Just Hit Send” challenge on the Absolute Write Water Cooler. 

I committed to 4 “sends” this month.  Right now, I’m at 15.

*Application for Axia College (a division of the University of Pheonix)

Application for Suite 101

Application for About.com Freelance Writing

2 paid blogging applications

*8 contest entries to the Ozark Creative Writers’ contest (although in the beginning, I was only counting this as 1 but each entry counts as a send of its own)

*My “Once Around the Web” column for the OWFI Report, the newsletter for the Oklahoma Writers’ Federation, Inc.

*The August contest entry for the AW Freelance Writing contest.

Whew!  I remembered them all. 

The ones I knew about/committed to at the beginning of the month are indicated by asterisks.

Hopefully I’ll keep this up.  Hopefully I’ll use it as the confidence-builder it has been so far and run with it.

Here’s a secret, guys…  I may pretend to have confidence, and in a lot of areas I do, but this isn’t an area I have it in.  I don’t know why.  I haven’t tried to figure it out.  I’m not sure I’m going to try to figure it out either.  I’m just going to keep on keeping on and hope it leads to paying assignments and gigs.

Filed under: writing , applications, contests

Follow the Yellow Brick … Arrow

I’m a bit impatient.

Filed under: writing

7-10 Days?

On one application I made, which I referred to in “Moving Right Along,” I was told they would respond via e-mail in 7-10 days.

Today marks day #9.  Though, I’m wondering if I should discount the weekend?  If that’s so, then today would only be #7.

I keep trying to tell myself that as part of the process, I should just apply, let go of it, and move on, but it’s not that easy.  I tend to get antsy/nervous even though I know I shouldn’t.

Years ago, I used to have a book called Let Go, Let God, which actually dealt with alcoholism.  (I picked it up at a book sale and didn’t look at the back cover for the blurb.)  I got it purely based on the title.  This seems like a good time to put the title’s advice to practice if I could let go of it.

I’m anxious about other applications I’ve made, too, but not like I am about this one.  If this one works out, I can quit transcription in the foreseeable future instead of god-knows-when.

I do need to let it go, though, because it (along with a couple other issues) is hampering my creativity.

Filed under: writing , applications, creativity, queries

Monday Poetry Train

I’m sorry for the lack of poetry train last week, folks.  There was just too much going on and my stress level was sky-high.

This is a (poor example of a) tetractys, a five-line poem with the following syllable count per line:

1
2
3
4
10

The one-syllable line has to be a strong word and should not be “a,” “an,” “the,” etc.

Heat
shimmers
off concrete
and glares off cars.
First we had too much rain and now?  Heat wave.

(Take a ride on Rhian’s Poetry Train.  No reservation required.)

Filed under: poetry train, writing

Moving Right Along

For a while, I was beginning to think my quest for personal evolution was at a stand-stilll before I even really got started.  This week, though, I have come to realize I can only do so much.  Once I send an application/submission, it is out of my hands.

Case in point:  Monday evening, I received a resume request for an online teaching position I had applied for.  Since it had been almost three months ago, I had written them off, thinking no response meant, “No way, no how!”

Now, however, they have a copy of my master resume.  It includes publishing credits and real-world job experience.  My thought is sending that resume to them instead of dividing the writing and other job experience into separate resumes and sending one or the other would have a more complete picture of what I can do and if I would be a good for with them.  (I hope!)

I’ve also been submitting more and applying for paid columnist and blogging positions.  On the surface, it might look like that is counter to my main goal, but the exact opposite is true.  Such positions would give me needed clips and provide increased confidence to continue to pursue my goals.

I will also continue to work on these when I return to the Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, to complete my residence. 

It’s all part of the process.

Filed under: writing

Poetic Practice

In with everything else, I write poetry too.  (For some examples, look at the Monday Poetry Train on Evolution.)  Instead of formal rhyme and meter, I use syllabic forms.  Most of my poems don’t rhyme.

Syllabic poetry forms have a set number of syllables per line, determined by whatever form used.  My form of choice lately has been the Crapsey cinquain, developed by Adelaide Crapsey, an American poet.

A cinquain, by its nature, has five lines.  The Crapsey cinquain has the following syllable count per line:

2
4
6
8
2

I’ve decided, though, I need to stretch myself a bit.  Not long ago, I found an online guide to poeic forms.  Other syllabic forms I’ve been working with are the nonet, rictameter, and tetractys.

One thing I have found:  Poetic practice like this influences my other writing.  Finding the right word, re-ordering what I want to say without sounding forced, to fit with a syllabic form carries over into word choice for fiction and nonfiction as well.

Filed under: writing