Freelance Work and Other Places to Work

Today I talked with Mike - .

He's a writer and I discussed with him the validity of basically writing for a living. Not everyone needs to be able to write a novel there are other things. Here's a list of what we discussed:

1) Contract writing: Guru.com is a prime example as was sologigs.com. (looked some more... found these: Craigslist.com, elance.com, freelancewriting.com, hotgigs.com, and write4cash.com.

2) Really get published, even if it is only technical writing and not paying. guru.com is a good place to get paying jobs, but really, you need to get some writing and hone your craft. That also means taking the occasional creative writing class, which I have never done before. This could be the start of contacts, and the next Tom Clancy could be sitting next to you. These classes (held at local community colleges actually)

3) Seriously... I know a lot of trivia. Perhaps I should write about that. Write a book based on some specific amount of trivia that you know about. There are plenty of people who do it, why not me? For example "The Book of Questions and Answers".I had this book as a child and remember questions such as "How did the dinosaurs die?" and "Why do we hiccup?". It was awesome to read. So I could possibly write the same thing.

I also asked him about my help problem. The one where I just can't seem to ask for help. Well, as I was talking to him, what was it that I was doing? I was getting ADVICE, not help. That means that all I really have to do is to rephrase it in my head. Getting help makes me think of someone else doing it for me, where as Advice, I can listen, take tat, use it if I wish or not (more often than not use it of course), but it takes out the stigma of me having to "ask for Help" and feeling like I am having everything taken away form me.

He also suggested that I go back over the original sites I was at (e.g. Writers.com), and really investigate the sites for information as well as other contract writing sites.

Notes on the sites:
(For all sites, it is suggested that you join)

Guru.com - Interesting site. though for most of it, they wish for you to have a portfolio, but after signing up, you could wind up with a lot of money made for proposals and other such miscellany of jobs, anywhere from writing, to illustration, to almost anything that is useful in the job market.

Sologigs.com - appears to have been shut down. Can't seem to find the site itself, but a lot of other sites are talking about it.

Craigslist.com - I don't know how the HELL I missed this site in my searching. This is literally a Free lancer's dream. Everything from everything is there. Anything that you needed to be freelanced is on this site, and it goes over most of the world, though it uses certain cities as hubs, some of them are hard to find (like the D.C. one). However, my dad called it the largest classified ads section in the US. How was it that I missed this again? Not sure, but now I know. In response... this site is just great.

Elance.com - very similar in take and presentation to Guru.com. It is almost an exact duplicate, though it is is a little harder to grasp hold of at first, it does become infinitely easier to navigate. Though the amount of jobs is largely less populous than it's counterpart Guru, which seems to be where everyone is headed.

FreelanceWriting.com - This site seems to have it all. Jobs, contests, even a small section where they type daily news on all aspects of writing. It even has weblogs pertaining to specific sections of writing, from screenplays, to books, to even writing query letters. Also within are large listings of venues in which to publish, complete with submission guidelines and all other pertinent information. The weblogs are mostly sites that are not connected to this one, but have some good information on some of them, while others are simply try to sell you something.

Hotgigs.com - Very easy to navigate. Also a rather good site. The best part about it is that you can find things easier than all the other sites aforementioned except perhaps Craigslist.com.

Online-Writing-jobs.com - I was unexpectedly directed to this site after clicking on what appeared to be a link to somewhere else within Hotgigs. I thought I had seen a link for the same site in FreelanceWriting.com, and sure enough, it was the same. A little hard to read and almost like the old Yahoo search listings - blue links with little information. There is still a plethora of jobs to be had on here.

Write4cash.com - It appears that this site too, has vanished and gone off the face of the web. It no longer exists, but if you want the url, feel free to go there and buy it.

There are also other sites, such as the following:

Writing.com
FictionPress.com
ForWriters.com
Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy (a personal favorite)
Science-Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (not because they are into Sci Fi and Fantasy, but they really have a great section on how to market your writing as well helpful tips on how to write)
WritersDigest (what list would be complete without this and their wonderful edit guide)

Well, there is my information for today. Expect my excerpt later tonight.