Writer's Blogs that I Love

Today, I thought I'd share some of my favorite blogs. Most are ones that I've been using since I started freelance writing, and they've been a tremendous help to me, and others I've started reading as I've progressed in my writing career. All are packed with great information, and the writers are terrific people.

• My favorite blog when I first started freelancing, and one that I still frequent almost daily, is Ask Allison by Allison Winn Scotch. Since I started reading her blog a couple of years ago, she has written and published two books and is writing a third. Prior to that (and still, I think) she wrote for several magazines, and her website archives have a ton of info for anyone aspiring to write for magazines. You could spend a month there!


• Another blog that I love is The Urban Muse. The writer, Susan Johnston, has recently moved to full-time freelancing, but has been writing for a living for a long time.


• My other favorite blogs include The Renegade Writer (they offer classes too), Men with Pens, Serenity for the Self-Employed and Inkthinker.


• One that I recently started reading is The Writer Mama Riffs by Christina Katz. Here I'm learning a lot about building a writing platform. Christina also offers some great classes.

Economic stability...We can all use some of that!

A blogger friend of mine just spilled the beans today that he isn't being paid for his blog posts. He had been posting quite intermittently and it was becoming apparent that something was wrong, but there were no real explanations...until today.

The really sad part? The company that he blogs for is very well known by writers (think magazine)--and it's really a shame. Seriously, this company knows full well that writers don't eat if they don't get paid.

If nothing else, they should have told him that they were struggling financially--that they weren't going to be able to pay him any longer and let him go on his way. He'll probably do that at this point anyway, but they should have been up front with him.

This story is nothing new to writers these days. There are new instances daily of writers who aren't being paid for work that they've done. Plus, with the current economy--and magazines closing left and right--the pool of freelance writers just keeps getting larger and larger. What's a writer to do to stay calm? Make a plan and get creative!

One way to start planning--with some calm--is to check out Heather Boerner's new 30-day challenge at Serenity for the Self-Employed. Her new series is called the 30-Day Economic Stability Challenge. Check out today's post here.

I plan on following Heather's blog throughout the month, and I hope to learn a lot! Thanks for such a timely challenge, Heather!