Yes, that title is correct. An interesting read regarding billable hours.
Yesterday, I read a post on Web Worker Daily titled, The Billable Hour Trap. If you’re a freelancer, you should have a look. It’s something I’ve been turning over in my mind for a few months now for future work. I also think packaged services are much more appealing and valuable to both parties than the hourly method.
Anyway, I won’t go into it more now, but check out the post!
The thing about writer’s block is, sometimes, you don’t really care too much about overcoming it. If it’s an especially tricky bout, you may feel like there’s absolutely nothing you can do to get over your writer’s block, so why bother? That happens to me sometimes, but I’ve found some ways to get motivated to write, even when my brain is telling me to pack it in and spend all day on Google Earth zooming around Russia.
You’ve probably heard this one already, but there’s a reason for that. Seriously, just write about anything – it doesn’t have to be good. Write about something that happened to you the day before, a place you’d like to travel to, a funny thought you had, anything. Don’t worry about being able to use it later. I have a half-page written about a dream I had featuring an old house full of talking animals who were all at war with each other. Can I use that for an article or story? Maybe, maybe not. But at least I was writing (even if it was weird)!
Now I’m not suggesting you poach other people’s article or story ideas, but your friends and family can be a useful source of writing motivation. How many of them have ever said to you, “So you’re a writer? Man, you should write about [insert random topic you dismissed because it wasn't your style].” You might consider it a cosmic joke that the non-writers in your life have all the ideas when you have nothing, but use it to your advantage. Write that story that your cousin thought would be cool, even if you thought she was out to lunch. For me, the best way to not give up on writing is to not take it too seriously.
Yes, reviewing and editing finished work seems like the perfect writing motivator. However, I’ve found that it can end up making everything worse. I have two short stories that I was refining for about five years, all because I was intimidated by the prospect of starting a completely new project. By all means, if you come up with a great idea for an old project, go for it. But seriously – working on the same two stories for five years was very much not fun!
