A Very Personal Post

Hello folks. Just a reminder. A new article by me is posted on TSN. Enjoy and please share your thoughts!

I am a self-employed freelance writer and if you have ever worked for yourself (or worked at a demanding job), you can probably related to the sentiment that stress from work is one of the biggest factors that can cripple your mind and body.

As much as being your own boss is fun and it can give you the tremendous freedom, it can also be extremely demanding and emotionally stressful. You end up wearing many hats in your company: marketing, HR, the IT person, customer relations and CEO. If I stopped working, so will my business. All pressure is on me.

As the day starts, my brain races through the list of tasks that “must” be fulfilled during the next 10-12 hours. Sometimes, I’d get so distracted that I would completely ignore what my partner just said. Sometimes, I would rush through a whole day and not remember what I ate for breakfast. [Read More].

Photo by Angelo González.

Tags: Coping with Stress, freelance writing, think simple now

Failure: There’s None; There’s Only Feedback

If you are aware of NLP (Neuro-linguistic Programming), you have heard these words before. There is no failure, only feedback. This is something I thoroughly believe in from my personal experiences and from listening to those of others.

Failure & Writing: Personal Experience

Most of you who are a regular here know how I switched careers from being a software engineer to a full-time writer. The most wonderful thing about this whole transition is that I never thought of it until a month before I dived into writing full-time. Some would feel this was a sudden, unforeseen move–may be even unplanned.

Tags: freelance writing, inspiration, Writing

Why Do Writers Fail

Have you ever been in a position when you didn’t know what to do next? As a writer, has there been a time when you thought that this was the end of your writing career?

Ever thought why do writers fail? Why is it that we hear endless stream of stories where writers confess they have failed in their mission be it writing a fiction book, promoting a non-fiction blog, creating a new website or marketing their copywriting services?

Tags: inspiration, writer, writing tips

Open Invite for All Writers

Hello folks,

Lately, I have been working on a high-quality and high-traffic blog which is in the niche of (wait for it. . . my personal favourite) productivity, personal development, working better and efficiently and managing things quicker. The old owners are handing over the site to us and we aim the content featured to be more organic, fresh and inspiring than it already is (check it out here).

The idea is to build an even stronger community where real people would come for real awesomeness.

Since the website is undergoing a complete overhaul under my management, I share this with you first and seek out to you for help. If you’re a reader at Of Parchments & Inks, I am sure you will hold an interest (even if a mild one) in the topics I am going to mention.

Exercise your writing-muscles

So. You’re a writer. But are you a passionate writer?

If you love and/or have some prior experience in topics like below-mentioned or if you’re an early (and brilliant) writer looking for exposure, you should definitely reach out! We’d love to see you onboard.

Topics:

• Life improvement tips
• Personal development
• Business tips
• Life hacking
• Communication skills
• Software reviews
• Creativity
• Leadership
• Money management

Here’s what I am looking for specifically:

• 700-1000+ words article
• Clear
• Concise
• To the point–not long-winded or verbose
• Clear formatting: headings, bullet points, and lists
• Interesting
• Useful
• Helpful
• Comprehensive

Similar sites, similar topics:

If you’re a sucker for the following websites but never got a chance to be featured on them, now is the chance to flash your supreme skills:

• zenhabits.net
• dumblittleman.com
• lifehacker.com
• webworkerdaily.com
• lifehack.org
• freelanceswitch.com
• 43folders.com

 What’s in it for you?

• You showcase your writing on a website that has 250,000 monthly page-views
• You talk to 12,200+ RSS subscribers directly
• You get featured on a quality website with PR6 – Google page rank
• You get a permanent link from the site to anywhere you want

Don’t care about the numbers? How about this?

• You express your thoughts and share your passion with real, like-minded and enthusiastic audience

Still with me? Interested? Please get in touch and we can take it from there. Vrooooom . . .!

Thank you all for your entries. Speak soon.

P.S. Please note that you’re welcome to talk with me on this, but I cannot guarantee you the publication. Don’t take it personally. It’s just that I am not the only one involved–there’s a team. Good luck!

Photo by anotherphotographer at Flickr

Tags: blog promotion, blogging, business tips, communication, creativity, freelance writer, freelance writing, freelancing, inspiration, new blogger, new writer, personal development, productivity, self-improvement, time management, Writing

Free Ebook: Ghost-Writing Secrets: Uncovered

With this give-away, we have crossed the 100-posts benchmark! Thank You for the support.

A while back, some of you asked me about my ghost-writing projects and how I was able to bag them.

I have been thinking to do a post on it but was not sure if it a post was the best way to help every one who visited this blog.

The next best choice for me was an ebook. An ebook format, I thought, would be easily downloadable and readable. What’s more, how and when you read an ebook is completely up to your discretion.

So, a day before today, I started to write a 13 page-ebook. I believe that in the material, I have covered my exact mind-set which went into getting ghost-writing projects.

I also believe the tips mentioned in this ebook are applicable to all types of writing and not limited to ghost-writing only.

The ebook is titled Ghost-Writing Secrets: Uncovered – How I Won a 3-Book Ghost-Writing Contract in Just 5 Months.

What This Ebook Will (Un)Cover for You

• How I Got Started in this field
  
• What is Ghost-Writing and What Does it Take
  
• The Three Shining Saviours of Writing
  
• Seven Things No One Told You About (Ghost) Writing
  
• Parting Words and About

I plan to keep adding to it in future and make the download process simpler. As I progress on my path, so it will. I may also give away more freebies like these in future. For now, I am offering this one to team up with my free critiquing service.

A note about the critiquing service: Only subscribers are now entitled to the free critique service.

How to Get Your Free (Ghost) Writing Ebook

• Go to the home page of OfParchments&Inks.
• Click “Free Ebook” link at the top.
• Fill up the form. Please put in the correct email address. A space for commenting is provided for you to enter whatever you’d like to tell me.
• Check the little box “YES I Want My Free Ebook!”. You should see a tick mark in the box. If you do not check it, the ebook won’t be delivered to you.
• Click Submit.

I will personally send you the ebook in a few hours at the email address you have provided.

I hope you will like the ideas presented in the ebook. If you have any feedback or comments for me, please send them in via the Contact form.

Enjoy!

Photo by goXunuReviews at PhotoRee.com

Tags: free ebook, ghost-writing, ghost-writing secrets uncovered, how to get writing projects and make money out of it, learn ghost-writing