Freelancewritingtips.com

My writing day

IT'S ten past eight and my daughter informs me there's a pair of socks down the toilet.

I'm at the computer, dealing with emails in connection with my role as editor of the parenting website, Ready for Ten. Most days I receive pitches from writers who would like to contribute. I try my best to respond to everyone. Some of the ideas -- and the writers behind them -- are fabulous. They may be commissioned and join our team with a first post, or depending on circumstances beyond my control, told there are no current opportunities.

The Greatest Freelance Writing Tips in the World: Book, blog and training

THE Greatest Freelance Writing Tips in the World was published in November 2007 and can be bought in bookshops and from Amazon here.

See a selection of reviews, plus feedback from readers, here.

Listen to a podcast about The Greatest Freelance Writing Tips in the World.

This blog was set up to help publicise the book.

Here are some of the most popular posts:

Back to basics: Ten mistakes to avoid when writing a news story

The most important thing? Learn multi-media skills

The fine art of negotiating press trips, by Andrea Wren

Should you write for free?

Coping with rejection: Editors are people too!

Freelance journalism: Start low, aim high?

How networking can boost a freelance writing career

How journalists can survive a recession, by Sara Edlington

Making the most of Twitter

Going freelance after being made redundant by a regional paper? Hard-learned lessons to help you on your way

Can you send the same pitch to different editors?

How journalists can reap the rewards of blogging, by Craig Mcginty.

Six myths about freelance writing.

Depression, my story and how journalists should speak up when they are feeling down

Six characteristics of a successful freelance journalist

Real life, real profit? Selling features to women's weekly magazines

A small selection of pitches that worked

Freelance writers describe their writing day.

Ten blindingly obvious things I have learned in my first year as an author.

Think you know "mummybloggers"? Think again!

My work as a writer continues to be varied, interesting and fun. My latest project, a site reporting on holidays, short breaks, days out and activities, is called Havealovelytime.com

I'm the director of the Midlands agency, Passionate Media, and our blog chronicling news from our company and clients is here.

We also run training sessions for freelance journalists wanting to make more money. The following is feedback gained from a London session:

Great course. Up and at 'em now! Anne Marie Flanagan

Thanks again for yesterday, feel very motivated today!  Rachael Glazier

Thanks for a very enlightening day. I feel like a Jedi Knight to your Obe Wan Kenobi. Catherine Goddard

Thank you! It was a fantastic day! Emma McNeil

Thanks Carol and Linda for today and the kick up the bum, enjoyed course. Michael Cross

Had a great time on Saturday. Course was brilliant, thank you. Really useful. Siobhan O' Neill

Thanks so much for the fab seminar - it was sooo helpful and have come away full of ideas and plans. You and Carol were both brilliant. Olivia Gordon

Thanks to you and Carol for a really great training day today - definitely the best course I've been on for a while. You two should add life coaching to your list of talents. Olivia Holcombe

Just wanted to say thanks for the fab course, Linda and Carol - very informative, inspiring and good fun too. Judy Yorke

I'd like to add my grateful thanks for the well-delivered and extremely interesting course - it was great to meet such creative, positive and friendly people and I now feel inspired and ready to take the plunge into a new and different world.  Ruth Derrick

Brilliant, thank you both for a very informative and enjoyable day.  I think much of what we learned will be of huge benefit in all areas of our working life. Amanda Lees

I thought it was the best course I've been on - full of practical advice and illustrative examples. It has really got me motivated and excited about getting out there and chasing down the commercial work. Thanks. Emma Jayne Jones

Please get in touch with me via email Linda@passionatemedia.co.uk if you would like to know more. Our next training date is Saturday, June 27, in central London.

My writing day: Anne Wollenberg

FREELANCE journalist Anne Wollenberg specialises in entertainment, technology and workplace issues and also works on more general or 'real life' features.

She writes for newspapers and a mixture of consumer, trade and customer magazines. As a result, she says that “working” has involved "interviewing everyone from members of the Lost cast to a woman whose husband is impotent."

Anne is a fellow member at JournoBiz and I know I speak for more members there when I say that her success in her freelance career, just 12 months in, is an inspiration.

My Writer's World by John Craggs of thewritetuition.co.uk

IF anyone has any preconceptions about successful writers - then let them go now! One inspirational figure is author and journalist John Craggs - known to many at My Writers Circle as "Gyppo." John's sound advice and unassuming humour have helped many of the forum's members - myself included.

Now John has taken the leap into self employment as a writing tutor. Having benefited from his wisdom to help progress with my short stories, I can heartily recommend his services and wish him all the best in his new venture. Here, he shares his experience of juggling various writing jobs over the years and what that experience has taught him.

I WAS always a part-time writer, cramming my writing into the gaps between various 'day jobs' until life grabbed me by the scruff of the neck and shook me like a terrier with a rat.

My writing day: Journalist and lecturer Carrie Dunn

BEING paid to write about John Barrowman is what I call a dream job. Freelance journalist and lecturer Carrie Dunn shares an inside view of what else she gets up to each day. The RSI doesn't sound quite so ideal. Hope you can get over that soon, Carrie.

MY writing day varies, and no two days are the same. As a freelancer, I do shifts at magazines and newspapers as well as lecturing in journalism at two universities – and that's on top of my usual freelance pitching and writing! However, if it's an at-home day, it generally goes something like this:

My Writing Day: Freelance Writer Nick Daws

NICK Daws is a Midlands-based author who has written more than 40 books and is known internationally for the wisdom and support he has passed on to aspiring writers. Nick's work and his starting point from a non-writing related career are an inspiration to many, me included. And isn't that an impressive picture?

MY daily schedule varies according to whether my partner, Jayne, is working in the morning or not (she's a college IT lecturer, and works varied hours). If she's around we have a leisurely breakfast and I don't start work till around 9.30. Today she's working a standard 9 to 5, however, so after seeing her off I have a quick breakfast and am at my desk by eight o'clock.

My writing day: Freelance journalist Hazel Davis

HAZEL DAVIS is a leading UK freelance, working on a variety of jobs for clients including broadsheet newspapers and specialist magazines. Recently, she flew to St Petersburg to report on its famous conservatoire.

I OFTEN say to people that I work much harder as a freelancer than I did as an 'employee'. In fact I say it so often, 'people' are tired of hearing it. But it's true. The main thing I have found since going permanently freelance two years ago is that people who work in offices 'faff'.

My writing day by Lesley Smith, freelance games journalist

NORFOLK-based LESLEY Smith is a freelance journalist and passionate gamer. Since launching her freelance writing career in 2005, her work has appeared in a wealth of games magazines and websites. Here, she shares her writing day, giving a glimpse into the work of someone who has made the most of a specialism.

UNLIKE other journalists, I’m a bit strange - I don’t need coffee or tea to function but that doesn’t mean I won’t be found at my PC first thing each morning. Despite the persistent idea that freelance journalists don’t roll out of bed before noon I’m usually up by nine as I try and keep the same hours as my clients. This can get interesting when it’s time to file copy for American editors and I’m sometimes working very late – 3am has to be some kind of depressing record.

My writing day by author and journalist Maria McCarthy

MARIA McCarthy is the author of The Girls' Guide to Losing Your L-plates: How to Pass Your Driving Test, contributes features to national papers and magazines and is a lecturer in journalism. She still found time to share her writing day with us...I hope you find it an inspiration, I certainly did.

THE day starts with a cup of industrial-strength tea at my computer. I’m currently working on a feature for one of the colour supplements entitled ‘I found a fortune’ - about people who’ve found junk at car boot sales or in the attic which has turned out to be worth thousands. I’m finding it good fun to do and most importantly, the case histories aren’t proving too hard to track down.