The Renegade Writer Blog

Over at the Freelance Writing Jobs blog, Deborah Ng wrote about the importance of keeping good records. Apropos for me this month as I continue to recover from the frenzied weeks leading up to April 15, spent analyzing parking receipts and checking deposits. Every year I promise myself I’ll balance my checking statement the day […]

First, what’s a hack? A hack can be a writer who churns out copy, yes, but here I mean a tip or trick that makes your workday more productive. And hey, I welcome any and all tips that help me churn out the words. Here, the ten productivity hacks I use most often and recommend […]

I wish I were one of those freelancers with a perfectly organized office. I long for a clear desk and floor space that doesn’t require fancy footwork to get around. I spend hours looking at organized offices on flickr — and dreaming.
Recently I noticed how much the clutter was getting to me. I have plenty […]

One of my favorite organizational tools is a plain old dry-erase board. In fact, I have two: one for my interview schedule, and one to list my assignment due dates and to-dos that are too far in the future to put on my daily to-do list (like conferences that take place months from now). You […]

We all have lists of things that bug us: The dog keeps jumping on the couch. My nails are a wreck. The coffeemaker is on the blink. I hate the “boing” noise my computer makes when an e-mail comes in. While they aren’t emergencies (except for the coffee maker), these little annoyances — called “tolerations” […]

Recently, I spent hours calling podiatrists looking for a quote. After I finally found someone and finished my article, I remembered that I had interviewed a well-known podiatrist the year before who would have made a perfect source. I made a plan to organize my sources so when I needed quotes, I could find just […]

Renegade readers, I don’t know the answer to this question. Can you help? Please post your advice in the Comments section below. Thanks so much! [lf]
Melissa writes: How do you wrangle photos for your articles? I just sent off a holiday roundup that entailed getting photos (about 3-5 per) from about 15 sources. Captions, credits, […]

In January I wrote about my experiment using what I called “scheduled procrastination” to boost my efficiency. I’m a big proponent of “planting seeds” for future work by doing little things now, so I was excited to find the website for the book The Seven Minute Difference by Allyson Lewis. Lewis says that doing […]

If you have trouble getting started on important projects because you have so many other things to do, follow the advice of a brilliant writer I know and abide by the “Rule of Four”: At the beginning of the day or in the evening before you go to bed, make a list of the […]

If you’ve been getting published, you probably have a stack of magazines with your articles in them. My husband Eric and I learned the hard way, when we moved, that boxes of magazines are extremely heavy. So we set aside a couple of days to go through the mags and, using an Xacto knife and […]