Posts Tagged ‘blog’
Help Make This Important Book Happen
Just over a month ago, my good friend writer/director/producer Scott W. Smith put up his 1,000th post on his Emmy-winning blog Screenwriting From Iowa. For the last several years, Scott has posted Every Single Day. Stop and think about that: even the bad stuff we do, we don’t manage to work it into every day, right? Much less so, the good stuff. Amazing accomplishment.
But more than just being prolific, Scott is insightful. A true student of screenwriting, he has ingested every school of thought and book on screenwriting out there. The suggestions and inspiration he offers on his blog come from these teachers, from writing his own scripts, and from his experiences in traveling the country and world.
Now, Scott has taken the best of his Screenwriting From Iowa writings and put it into a book form. He’s using Kickstarter to get the initial funding together to get this thing off the ground. As of this writing, there are 7 days left in the campaign with about $3,000 in backing to go. If you love films like me, please consider getting involved. Great movies come from great scripts and Scott’s book will, without a doubt, inspire screenwriters in “Iowa… And Other Unlikely Places.”
Screenwriting From Iowa… And Other Unlikely Places Book on Kickstarter
- Matthew Porter
How To Become A Freelance Writer — Part 2: Creating Writing Samples
Part 2 of our week-long series on ‘How To Become A Freelance Writer’. Today…
Creating Writing Samples
If you’re asking someone to pay you to do something, their first (and very reasonable) statement will be ‘show me some samples of your work.’ Don’t have any samples showing off your chops as a freelance writer? Then you’re in trouble, Chester.
But chances are, if you want to become a freelance writer, you’ve probably already written a bit. Maybe even a lot. Mostly likely you wrote about something you’re passionate about (you did already find your niche, right?).
Cull through your existing work and find a few pieces that really shine. Then rewrite and edit them until they gleam. If pitching yourself as a freelance writer is a virtual job interview, then these writing pieces are your clothes: don’t tie a perfect tie only to leave your fly down.
Next, create a very basic website with your name, contact info, and your showcase writing pieces. Don’t have the money for a website? No worries. There are now a bevy of free resources for making this happen including WordPress, Tumblr, Blogger, etc.
Please hear me on this: if you found this article, you can create a blog-based website. This is not a cutting-edge thing anymore. It’s basic. It’s the buy-in. If you want to become a freelance writer, you must have an online presence. Period.
Make It Happen:
- Find and refine your best writing pieces.
- Create a basic blog website and populate it with your best work.
What do we do with this basic website and writing samples? We sell. ‘Sell?! But I thought I was going to become a freelance writer, not a salesperson.’ Tune in tomorrow to find out why the ‘selling’ is just important as the ‘telling’ AND discover how to do it effectively. See you then!
- Matthew Porter
