Hope Darby Writings

I just turned in my latest bit of write-for-hire, and I must say that I can’t wait to see it in print. Yeah, I know, what an odd desire for a writer to have! This time it’s a little different, though. A friend of mine, a brilliantly creative editorial type recommended me for a book-review article, and I leaped at it with graspy hands and more thank-yous than I care to confess to in the bright light of day.

It was fantastic, because I had to read books that I would have typically passed over in sheer blindness, as I had absolutely no idea the genre even existed. Now, I’m hooked.  As soon as I find out the publication date, I’ll be sure to update here.

Oh, and a bit more “stuff”… since I’ve been trying to keep this blog as professional as possible, I think I may add a sister-blog to the site to allow myself a bit more freedom. Unfinished writings, random thoughts and stories, things that aren’t necessarily tips and pointers or “professional” meanderings. Not sure what to call it yet, though…but something will strike me, I’m sure.

I have recently become a huge fan of several online magazines, or e-zines. As you all know, I can’t stumble across a good thing and not share it, so each week I will feature a new ezine which you must check out. Right now, run run run!

This week’s star is:

Writer’s Weekly.com — The standard classic, with the highest circulation of any freelance ezine in the world, the Writer’s Weekly is chock-full of excellent freelance job market opportunities and weekly news stories about the writing world.  Also, when you subscribe, you can also receive the ebook, How to Be a Freelance Writer (with 103 paying markets!) for free.

Follow the link above, or copy/paste http://www.writersweekly.com into your browser, and enjoy!

I have been very lucky with all of the publishers/editors I have worked with: they’ve always treated me fairly, been extremely professional and kind, and generally been fun to work for. My friends and family tend to respect when I say, “No, I’m sorry, I’m writing,” as being as important as anyone else saying, “Nope, sorry, gotta go to work!” Unfortunately, I know that a large number of other writers haven’t had such great luck. So when I came across this post at one of my must-check sites and thought it to be brilliant.

As a note, though, allow me to say that with all “rights” come responsibilities. You have the right to be paid fairly, but you have the responsibility to be reasonable and sensible about your pay. If you’re a new writer, or it’s a smaller publication, don’t expect Cosmo-esque paychecks. If you like a job, take it, and build a relationship with the editor. In my opinion, that is one of the best ways to move up the ladder. So really, look at these rights as being contingent on your having upheld some preemptive responsibilities.

Allow me to share:

The Freelance Writer’s Bill of Rights

1. You have the right to say no.

An editor asks you to write for exposure and you really just don’t want to? “No.” A source asks to see your article before you turn it in, and you don’t have the time nor the inclination? “No.” A friend keeps calling during your working hours because “you’re always free”? “No.” See how easy it is? You have the right to say no — and not feel guilty about it.

 

(Hope’s note here: But you also have the right to say yes. If you don’t mind writing for exposure, or are happy to show a source your article, by all means do so. You aren’t lessening yourself as a writer by saying yes. I’ve done it when I could, and never regretted it at all.) 

 

2. You have the right to ask for more.

If an editor approaches you with an assignment that doesn’t pay what you would need to make it work, or asks for all rights, or offers a pay-on-publication writing contract, you have the right to negotiate for something better. The first offer from an editor is not the end of the negotiation, it’s the beginning.  …continue…

I love that magazines send gratis copies when you have an article writen in a particular issue. Today, I received 6 copies from American Fitness magazine, with my article, “The Top 10 Least Effective Exercises . . . and Their Better Alternatives” spanning pages 14 & 15. Yay!  It’s such validation to see your words in print, you know?

NaNo is going fairly well, despite the atrociously slow site. I finally got to log my word count, which was 9750 this morning. I haven’t gotten a huge amount done today, unfortunately. My peepers are bothering me so much, it’s nigh impossible to focus on writing. Ack! Didn’t mean that to be such a pun! Peepers, focus, blah blah blah.

Speaking of peepers…I went for a LASIK consultation with my ophthalmologist last Friday, and was told that I’m not a good candidate. I have chronic dry eye (whch is why I’m having so much trouble right now), and one of the major side effects of LASIK is dry eye. So if a person does not have it before they get the LASIK done and winds up with it afterward, it doesn’t bear imagining how bad it would be for me.

She did, however, tell me that I was a good candidate for clear-lens replacement surgery, which is essentially cataract surgery without there being a cataract. It’s invasive, but not ridiclously so: they make an incision in the white of the eye, go behind the iris, break up the lens, and replace it with an implant. The lens and implant are about the size of an M&M.  I’d most likely have to wear reading glasses, because the surgery causes you to lose close-up focusing ability. The only way around that is to have a micro-focus lens implant, rather than just a regular one. Unfortunately, with as bad as my eyes are, they are most likely too elongated to be able to handle a micro-focus.

But hey, I’ll take it. I don’t mind wearng glasses for reading and writing, if it means that my vision is darn next to 20/20 the rest of the time. Right now, I wear a -11 contact lens, and have been in strong specs/contacts since age 5 and 10, respectively. It won’t cure the dry eye, but at least it’ll help me be able to *see*, even when running dry.

Ramble ramble ramble. I do believe this is what they call procrastination =D