Freelance Writing

Posted by Sharon Hunt

Life is busy. Life is unbalanced. Life is chaotic. Life is ever-changing. All of these facts have been brought home to me again in the past few months, after a dear uncle die suddenly, other family crises occured, and I contemplated moving house again.



Certainly these facts are nothing new. They are as constant as the rising sun, but there are times in your life when life hits you like a hammer smashing into your skull. You fall, and are stunned by your inability to pick yourself up. When you do, finally, get back on your feet, you understand some other constants, as well. That life goes on and that, as a writer, one of the best ways of getting yourself going again is to write.



We are very lucky, as writers, to have this gift that we not only share with others, but which helps us get through the difficult times and to celebrate the great ones.



I recently re-read a terrific book about writing, which I’ve reviewed and placed online. It’s called Zen in the Art of Writing, by Ray Bradbury (of Fahrenheit 451 fame). If you get a chance, check out my review, and the book. It’s a keeper, and another way to pick yourself up when you are down.

Posted by Sharon Hunt

Although I am not a label-conscious person – I prefer quality to fad – I do have some exceptions. I would love to play a silver Haynes flute; to write with a sleek and sophisticated Montblanc pen; and to occasionally abandon my computer for a 1970s Hermes typewriter. Perhaps some day I will. In the meantime, I satisfy myself with Moleskine® notebooks. I just can’t seem to get enough of them.

I am the first to admit that you either ‘get’ or you don’t ‘get’ the allure of Moleskines, those black-covered notebooks with elastic closures and inner pockets. I fell in love with my first one a few years ago and have remained passionately in love ever since.

At the little shop where I buy my Moleskines, the clerks love them as well. They understand my need to buy the small water colour book when, only the week before, I bought the storyboard book. And they fully concur with my need to keep adding to my cache of larger, reporter notebooks. One clerk has recently suggested that we – she, I and the other clerk – should form a Moleskine® fan club. There has always been an unofficial fan club. After all, this non-descript black notebook was once used by Van Gogh, Picasso, and Ernest Hemingway, to name but three.

I like the idea of continuity through the generations of writers and artists. When I write in my Moleskine® I imagine Van Gogh sketching in his. A very happy thought.

Posted by Sharon Hunt

I’ll admit that I’ve often been reluctant to part with books. Although I love buying books for others, I have always balked at giving my own away.

I think I inherited this reluctance from my grandfather who had to leave school in grade 4 after his father died, and he had to work to support his mother and two sisters. Nevertheless, by the time I knew him he was a renaissance man in the breadth and width of his knowledge, all of which came from books, books that he struggled to buy, books that he kept all his life.

BookCrossing, however, might have made him reconsider his need to hold tightly to every book in his collection; it certainly has done that for me. Have you heard about BookCrossing? It’s a terrific service, an ‘abandoned book finds new owner’ club.

Here’s how it works. When you sign up as a member on the BookCrossing website, you can register a book that you want to give away. Your book gets a BookCrossing identification, which you write on the inside cover. This identifies your book to anyone who may find it as one that was intentionally left behind. You leave your unwrapped book at a local coffee shop, or somewhere that it’s likely to be found.

If the person finding the book registers his or her find on the BookCrossing site, you can track its journey. Some books have taken journeys that most freelancers can only dream of; they see the world as they are passed from reader to reader.

Posted by Sharon Hunt

Do you have a journaling partner? Have you ever had one? By ‘journaling partner’ I don’t necessarily mean someone who takes turns writing in a shared creative or working journal, although writers have had success with this type of journaling, too. Most journaling partners I know use their computers and e-mail to create electronic journal entries beneficial to them both.

A friend and I carry on such an informal process. She is a wonderful writer and writing coach. Our journaling is regular, although certainly not daily; we throw back and forth ideas for projects that we are, or would like to be, working on together. We brainstorm. We give each other leads for our individual projects. When one of us finds something – a book or an online site – which the other would enjoy or find helpful a quick journal entry is sent.

Ours is a very informal ‘journaling’ approach. We each keep our own separate daily working journals. This informal e-mail approach works well for us, but it might not work for other writers. A journaling partner might not work in any form for some writers.

Our co-journaling does not cross over into co-writing.For any projects that we do work on together, writing tasks are clearly defined. This works for us.

Read more about the benefits of creating an illustrated journal.

Posted by Sharon Hunt

Happy New Year! May this be a great year, both personally and professionally, for you.



It certainly will be a busy year in the Writing Non-Fiction section, with more great articles to inspire, push you forward, or make you consider a different kind of non-fiction writing.



Have you ever written a personal essay? A book review? Do you have a terrific idea for a non-fiction book? Maybe this will be the year when you take a chance on writing something you have only dreamed about writing.



My list of take-a-chance writing projects includes a book of essays about moving back home, and how I’m rediscovering the things – both wonderful and distressing – that make it a unique place to live. The great American writer Thomas Wolfe wrote a novel entitled You Can’t Go Home Again, and I think that he was right. Our memories never quite meld with the realities before us, and maybe that’s as it should be.



Of course, I am excited about writing more articles about non-fiction, and more blog entries, too, and hope that we can develop a stimulating dialogue about this great genre.



I’m also planning to finish a family cookbook, with recipes passed down by generations of women who could turn their hands to anything cooked or baked and make it delicious. I pride myself on being handy in the kitchen, too, but as I’ve been testing recipes I loved as a child, I realize that I still have a lot to learn, and am eager to do that.



Bette Davis, that great actress, had a line in the movie All About Eve: “Fasten your seatbelts. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.” I’d like to take a liberty and change two words: “Fasten your seatbelts. It’s going to be an exciting ride.”

Posted by Sharon Hunt

It's the day after Christmas Day. All the gifts have been opened, 'oohed' and 'ahhed' over, and now I'm settling in for a few days of reading, eating, and movie watching.

I'm a big fan of movies, and, despite the rush and noise and too expensive treats, I love going to the cinema. I also love to stay home, pop my own popcorn and get a big bag of something sweet - these days, it's chocolate - and watch movies in the living room.

This season I've been re-watching some terrific movies about writers and the writing life. Some are funny. Some are serious. All are inspiring and reaffirming that yes, we're right, writing is tough work, but it's worth it. Check out the following for some holiday movie entertainment:

1. All The President's Men - break-ins and cover-ups at the highest political level, and Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman, as journalists, getting the story.
2. Adaptation - Nicolas Cage as a screenwriter who is struggling to adapt another writer's book for film.
3. The Hours - for fans of Virginia Woolf who, even while battling her demons, kept writing.
4. Stranger Than Fiction - Emma Thompson struggles to finish her novel, but her main character (played by Will Ferrell) gets out of hand.
5. Michael Palin's Around The World In 80 Days - this documentary is for every writer who has wanderlust and longs to set out on an epic journey. It's full of wonderful encounters with people Palin meets on his trip around the world.

Posted by Sharon Hunt

It's Christmas Eve and, as usual, I am wrapping the last of my last minute gifts, always extra books that I can't resist buying for friends and family.

This year I discovered a wonderful second-hand book shop with an amazing stock of books in good condition. Not only did I get a few first edition novels for a friend who will love them, but I also found some gardening books for another friend who is trying to turn my 'thumb of death to all plants' into a 'green thumb of life'. Maybe these books will help, although I'm not confident.

I also picked up a few cookbooks for my ever-expanding collection that threatens to take over my kitchen and push the pots and pans out into my postage-stamp-sized back garden. Oh well ... books will always win out.

As well, I picked up a second copy of The Word Museum (by Jeffrey Kacirk, Touchstone 2000), with the subtitle "The Most Remarkable English Words Ever Forgotten". It's a terrific book that I use often to find a gem of a word that shouldn't have been forgotten.

I'll leave you with a great one, after wishing you a wonderful holiday season, and all the best in writing and in life in 2008.

From The Word Museum - abracadabrant: it means " marvelous or stunning".

May your holiday be truly abracadabrant.

Posted by Sharon Hunt

On Monday or Friday afternoon I head downtown to play tourist. I live in an old city with more history in its downtown core than I could write about in a dozen lifetimes, but I still love discovering new things.

Since I live downtown, it’s a short walk to the oldest part of town and, even though I often take the same walking route, I usually see something that I didn’t notice before. Whether it’s a wall mural advertising a long-ago brand of tea, or a quirky little gallery whose owner opens his doors when he’s inclined, I don’t get far in my journey before I’m marveling over something new (at least to me).

When I go into shops – as I inevitably do, especially in December – I like to talk to the oldest clerk. Sometimes the oldest clerk is the only clerk and isn’t a clerk at all but the shop owner. This is even better.

People here like to talk, even to strangers. As a writer, and a generally curious person, I like to talk, too.

It’s through playing tourist and talking to people that I found what has become my favourite bookstore. I’ve also found a new collecting passion, costume jewellery from the 1960s, and on one outing I found a signed edition of a recent Seamus Heaney book of poetry. I was practically floating home after that purchase.

Playing tourist has also garnered me a few dozen ideas for articles, but most of all, these few hours give me a new perspective on my city. When I get home I feel refreshed, and return to my desk eager to start writing again.

Do you play tourist in your home town? I’d love to hear your stories.

Posted by Sharon Hunt

I’ll admit that when the holiday spirit comes over me – somewhere around now – I find it hard to stick to my writing schedule. Of course I have commitments that I must honour, but now, in the middle of December, I’d rather be doing anything but work. I’m sure we all feel that way as the holidays approach.

One thing that helps to keep me in a writing frame of mind is making a list of practical and fanciful things I’d like to learn more about in the New Year (and that I might decide to write about, as well). Reading the newspaper or one of many magazines teetering in a corner of my living room gives me inspiration and lets me dream. So do conversations with friends, and fellow writers.

Last week I had one such conversation with a woman who has decided to mothball her computer (on Sundays only) and dig out her old Smith Corona.

“I love the sound of the keys hitting the paper,” she said, somewhat sheepishly, then took a small step backwards when I exclaimed, “I do, too. I have a little portable that I play around with from time to time.”

We both laughed. As technologically savvy as we both pretend to be, it’s the sound of typewriter keys hitting a piece of white paper that makes us swoon. Hum … writers who still use typewriters, if only for fun … there might be an article in that.