Great Wordpress Plugins from Men with Pens

Men with Pens have done it again - they've put together a list of useful plugins for Wordpress blogs. While these plugins aren't specifically intended for writers, there are a bunch of functions I can't wait to try! Find them here: Rockstar Plugins for Wordpress.

Use your hometown landscape

In a few previous posts, I've mentioned that I grew up in the rural Midwest. But for the last twenty-odd years I've lived in a suburb of Chicago - the largest Midwestern city. At a recent writer's conference, I began thinking about what images, smells, sounds, tastes, and textures are stored in my memory because of the landscapes of my life.

For example, I could think swimming, and immediately I remember the warm breakers pushing us towards the seaweed-crusted pier on a Lake Michigan beach, or huddling under blankets on sand that was still warm, waiting for the Fourth of July fireworks to burst overhead. Or the rope swing we'd use to fling ourselves out over Big Paw Paw Lake and, with an excess of courage, let go and plummet before the rope returned us to our friends and their contempt.

Think picnic. For me, it was the summer picnic hosted by the public library, with three-legged races and the tug-o-war over the creek. There was always macaroni salad and lots of watermelon, with seeds, RC Cola and probably three different kinds of jello. I lost at all the games but always won one prize: best reader. My summer reading card always had more stickers than anyone else's; sometimes they had to put the excess stickers on the back.

Autumn. I believe the world was most fragrant in autumn, with the musky-earth smell of dying leaves and the smoky burn piles; apples piled up and oozing cider in the basement, and the shockingly tart and sweet burst of flavor of concord grapes that looked like green mucus once you pulled off the skins. And in autumn, there was the delight of finding a dried-out puffball mushroom to stomp, releasing a rusty cloud, or a dried milkweed pod that had saved its silky parachutes just for you.

Ordinary stuff, do you think? I read about people in Costa Rica, Tibet, Dublin, or Nigeria, and it's all so exotic and strange; caffeine for my imagination. Yet this world of my childhood is exotic to some people, too.

Now that I've lived in suburbia so long, I realized that my perspective has changed about rural Midwestern life. I'm currently on a writing retreat in rural Ohio, and a girl down the road just brought me some freshly-laid eggs. I asked if I could see her chickens, and she let me pet them as we talked. She asked so many questions about my life and where I live, and I tried to let her know how special and interesting I found her world. She laughed at me. At twelve, her world is old news, and I was a glamorous writer from Chicago. I can hardly write that without snickering.

Both suburbia and farmland color my view of the world, and allow me to write with detail and specificity about the Midwest I know. Some people will read my stories and immediately plunge into their own memories, triggered by the authenticity of my descriptions. Others will read and wonder at the world my characters inhabit - and maybe they'll see a side of the Midwest that they hadn't known before.

We often write books that require a flight of inspiration and some amount of research. But try using your hometown landscapes when you're writing; not necessarily every time, but when it suits your stories. I guarantee that the associations you recall will be sweet and painful, sour and savory - and others will savor it, too.

Starting Your Own Writing Business, Part 5: Sign on the Dotted Line!

Once you've identified clients, and have worked lined up, it's crucial that you have a contract or work agreement in place, to protect you and help the client know what to expect. I've had a few client experiences, good and bad, that will help illustrate this need.

I've been working with several clients for years and we have a great working relationship. At the beginning of our first project, we talked by phone and I told them what they could expect in terms of project updates, rewrites, and other matters. In each of these projects, we both signed an agreement detailing the expectations. Because of this, they provide clear requirements at the beginning of the project and like the end result. After a couple of phone conferences we've gotten on the same wavelength so there are very few revisions afterward. They trust my research and love the way I represent their ideas in the blog posts I write for them.

In another situation, I did monthly work for a client who signed a similar agreement with me. However, she did not provide source materials on time, requested rewrites beyond the agreement and did not want to pay for them, and was unpleasant in correspondence. Because she couldn't comply with our agreement, I eventually withdrew my contract with her.

My worst experience came last summer. I found what looked like a great opportunity with a firm that would give me a variety of projects and would cultivate other clients. The owner of the company stated he was swamped with work and wanted me to start immediately. We started with an informal written agreement, and he kept promising a formal contract. Unfortunately, I quickly discovered his company was in serious trouble and had a history of many dissatisfied clients. As I pushed for a formal contract to protect myself against a potentially difficult situation, he terminated our agreement and refused to pay for my last week of work. It wasn't fun getting lawyers involved.

Interestingly enough, I found that this last company eventually lost many of their clients (which was inevitable) and that the owner also laid off most of his work force. He decided who to lay off by looking in the parking lot to see who had an Obama bumper sticker on his/her car, and fired those people.

A tight contract is a writer's best friend. Many good ones can be found online, and a lawyer familiar with "intellectual property" laws will be able to provide you with good advice on the contract you choose. Be safe, and write well!