Mastering the Resume

Quick. List all the “resume writing rules” you’ve learned over the years.

Keep it on one page. It can be two pages. Keep the descriptions short. Be specific and detailed when you explain what you did. Include your college education. Don’t include your college education.

Ack!

It’s enough to make any otherwise sane freelancer or job applicant go off the deep end. How can there be so many contradictory rules? And what the heck are you actually supposed to do?

I scoured the Internet looking for resume writing advice. And the conclusion? There are no hard-and-fast rules guaranteed to bring you success. That being said, these pointers can help:

Remember the basics. Make sure your full name and contact information is easy to spot. With each resume entry, include the employer name, your position, and the dates you held the job.

Know what to skip. Don’t bother listing references or complete addresses for employers on your resume. That takes up too much space. Just state that references are available upon request.

You don’t need to state an objective on your resume either. Particularly if you’re including a cover letter or letter of introduction, there’s no need to mess with explaining what you’re after on your resume. Instead, use that space to include more about your experience and qualifications.

Focus on experience before education. For freelancers, experience trumps education any day. So if you keep your education on your resume, move it to the bottom and keep it brief. On-the-job experience will set you apart, not the fact that you were awarded a presidential scholarship.

Be specific. Spend some time on the details. Rather than simply saying you wrote articles for a certain publication, state how many articles you wrote. Were they features? Front of book pieces? Essays? What were they about? The more detail, the better.

Show some personality. When I was an undergrad at Drake University, Glamour deputy editor Wendy Naugle critiqued my resume. Her advice: “Are you fun and trendy? That should show in your resume or cover letter. Ditto if you are a serious literary type. I believe there is no right or wrong here … Showing your personality will help me know how we might fit together as a team, and it may help me remember you.”

Be honest. Whatever you do, don’t stretch the truth about your job title, the dates you were employed, or what you did in a given position. Talk up your strengths, but don’t exaggerate. It will only come back to bite you in the butt.

Use strong language. You don’t have much room to work with, but your resume is another opportunity to showcase your mad writing skills. Avoid passive sentences and bland verbs. Use active (albeit accurate) wording wherever possible.

Watch the length. Be concise and get to the point. Your resume might not get tossed into the recycling bin if it goes onto two pages, but unless you’ve been in the workforce for decades, stick to one. I keep mine short by editing out experience that doesn’t seem relevant for what I’m applying for. And if I’m really tight on space, I’ll cut older entries, even if they may be related to what I'm applying for (sorry, Drake Magazine, sometimes you just don’t fit).

Think formatting. When I was an editor for a custom publishing company, I absolutely hated receiving resumes from freelance writers that were obviously cobbled together and sent hastily—spacing was inconsistent, typefaces switched halfway through the page without reason, some text was abnormally large. Take the time to check the formatting of your resume. Fix bad breaks, messy spacing, text inconsistencies.

Your resume doesn’t have to win design awards. Mine is simple and straightforward—no color, no images, just text. I’m a writer, not a designer, so I focus on getting all of my words on the resume in a way that’s attractive, accessible, and easy to read. It’s functional and that’s what matters.

That being said, if you’re a designer too, your resume is another way to sell your skills. So show off what you can do, without going over the top.

Proofread. This is a no-brainer last step. Double-check dates you listed (mistakes there can raise flags). Check spelling—at least twice. Read through the whole resume looking for mistakes—at least twice. Have someone else read it for you too if possible. Fresh eyes always help.

Learn More:
Dear PEP: How Long Should a Resume Be?
Review Your Resume – Avoid Bloopers
Resume Basics for Freelancers
How to Write a Masterpiece of a Resume
A Freelance Writer’s Resume

Freelancer Fears

Freelancer fears of the day:

Am I absolutely, positively, certifiably insane? Am I about to spend twice as much time working to get paid half as much?

Every time I exercise my freedom to go to the gym or run errands in the middle of the day, will I collapse in a pile on the floor afterward, racked by guilt because I could’ve spent that time drumming up new business?

Will I be able to balance work and the rest of my life when I can’t have the rest of my life if I can’t find enough work?

What scares you?

Getting Over the Grief

I made the leap into the freelance writing world independently, on my own, because it was time. But I know a lot of you who are in the same boat didn’t dive in gracefully. You were pushed. Someone came up behind you when you were enjoying the view and shoved you over the edge. Blame it on the faltering economy. Blame it on a publishing industry in the throes of an identity crisis. Whatever the reason, you’re here now beside me in this boat.

Any major, life-altering change is bound to have an effect on your psyche—particularly if it’s one that you did not choose and that happened to you suddenly, without warning. It’s a trauma and it takes its toll. To really get your feet back under you, to be at the point where you’re able to move on with confidence, it’s important to take some time to address the emotions you’re feeling and to think things through.

Here’s how to get yourself on track by working through the five stages of job-loss grief—and launching yourself into your freelance writing career.

1. DENIAL
What’s going on: You’re numb. You can’t believe this has happened to you. Odds are, the reality of your situation hasn’t fully sunk in yet. You feel unmoored.

How to cope: Give yourself time. You don’t have to jump into a job search or start seeking freelance writing jobs the second you’re laid off from your position. It’s OK to take a few days or even a few weeks off to recover from the initial shock. Sleep late if you need to. Take long walks. Spend time doing activities that you love but that you don’t normally have time to do when you’re busy juggling work, social commitments, and family demands. Work out, meditate, read a good book. Do whatever you can to stay sane, to recover, without falling into your own never-ending pity party.

2. ANGER
What’s going on: The shock has worn off. Now you’re just angry. “Why me?” you ask, and you look for people to blame. This should not be happening to you. You’re smart, you’re talented, you did everything right. Others who still have their jobs may be subjected to your bitterness.

How to cope: Take your frustrations out on a boxing bag, on a long run, or by journaling until your hand hurts. Resist the temptation to launch into a tirade about how unjust the world is to everyone you meet. Rather than playing the blame game, channel that anger. Make a list of what makes you great, of your talents. Your former employers don’t know what they’re missing out on. Now, what can you do with all those stellar skills?

3. BARGAINING
What’s going on: You begin to think that maybe, just maybe, there’s a way you can get your old job back. Perhaps they made a mistake. They’ve realized they can’t live without you, right? They must have by now.

How to cope: Face your feelings head-on. You’re a logical person. You know deep down that as much as you wish otherwise, the job isn’t coming back to you. You can’t do anything about that. Instead, brainstorm ideas for what you can do. You can update your resume. You can identify publications or websites you’d like to write for. You can take that short story idea that’s been lingering in the back of your mind and run with it.

4. DEPRESSION
What’s going on: The reality sinks in. This is real. You aren’t getting your old job back. If you’ve made the decision to start looking for new jobs or to pursue freelance work, you may also be struggling because things aren’t moving along as quickly as you would like. Are you used to working in a busy office? You might be lonely because you don’t have coworkers to talk to anymore. Or perhaps you’re choosing to isolate yourself. You may be doubting yourself and your abilities.

How to cope: It’s OK to be sad. It’s OK to take some time to work through your feelings. This is an important stage of grieving, so don’t feel like you have to “get over it” immediately. At this same time, you don’t want to languish in a pit of despair for too long. Talk to friends or family members who will lend a sympathetic ear. Get out your journal again. Spend some time looking inside yourself. What would make you happy now? What can you do to turn things around? Listen to your heart and your gut. And take care of yourself—work out, eat well, get outside and enjoy some fresh air. You’re about to embark on a busy freelance career, so you need to be healthy!

5. ACCEPTANCE
What’s going on: You’re at peace. You understand now that you couldn’t have done anything to stop your job loss. You’re calm, you’re organized. You may even get motivated. “It’s going to be OK,” you think. And you know what? It is.

How to cope: It’s time to take action. Implement a game plan for where you want to go and what you want to do. You still may face moments of doubt and uncertainty, but you can see the light at the end of the tunnel. You’re confident in your ability to find a new job or make freelancing full-time work. Now run with it.

Learn More:
Job Loss Grief
Job Loss Survival Guide
Job Hunting Tips: How to Deal With Losing Your Job
Five Immediate Work Options After Losing Your Job

Please note: This blog post is meant only to offer general advice and motivation. If you are seriously struggling with depression or pain as a result of your current employment situation, please seek help.

Photo: lisa_at_home2002

Hitting Send

I just sent an info-packed query off to one of my favorite publications. I've never tried to write for the magazine before, but I decided there's no time like the present to give it a shot.

As any freelance writer can attest, there's a moment of indecision when your cursor is poised above the "send" button, just before you launch that query email into oblivion and hope it reaches the intended target.

Am I sure this story idea is good? Maybe I should have done more research. Did I remember to attach my resume? I wonder if I should have included different clips. Should I have proofread my work one more time?

It's easy to get paralyzed by the questions and second-guessing. But at some point, you have to do it. You just have to hit send and see what happens.

I haven't decided yet whether it's possible to overanalyze a query letter, whether it's possible to spend too much time agonizing over every word. But my hunch is that there's a point at which you can do no more, when you just have to submit it and leave the query in the editors' hands to do with it what they will.

This doesn't mean you have to be passive. You don't have to sit back in your chair and twiddle your thumbs or check your email every two minutes just in case. As I mentioned yesterday, it means going about your business. Finding other work. Enjoying yourself. And then, when the time is right—in a couple weeks, maybe in a month—you follow up. I'll shoot another email to the editor just to check in, to make sure she received my query and to see if she has any writing work for me.

And maybe, just maybe, if I'm lucky, before that can happen her name will appear in my inbox and she'll say, "Yes, please! We want you to write for us."

That, my friends, is the freelance writer's dream.

Photo: visualdensity

Magazine Writing 101: Where to Start

A longtime friend (and we’re talking long time—I think we ran around in diapers together) recently asked me a question I’m guessing a lot of other intrepid writers grapple with.

She and her honey started their own independent climbing guide publishing company, but now she’d like to take her specialized knowledge and write for some of her favorite magazines. Only she’s not sure where to begin. “Julie, do I need an agent?” she asked recently.

And I’m incredibly glad to be able to say nope. That’s the beauty of writing in the magazine world. You don’t have to hire some expensive agent to do your bidding for you. Armed with the right words, the right ideas, and the right contact at the right magazine, you can land freelance writing gigs faster than you can scale K2. (Of course, things don’t always move that quickly. But you never know!)

If you’re looking to get your first article or two (or 250) published in a magazine, here’s a look at how I get started. I’ll expand on plenty of these points in future blog posts too, but it never hurts to hit the ground running with a quick overview.

Brainstorm. Like all creative endeavors, the best place to start when it comes to generating article ideas is with some brainstorming. Maybe you start by making a master list of all the topics you know about and would like to write about—no censorship, just write whatever comes to mind. Or, like me, you might generate a list of ideas as you move through life. Sometimes, an idea comes to me in the shower or while I’m brushing my teeth. Other times, I’ll come across a nugget of an idea in the newspaper or on a blog or even when I’m driving down the road. I have post-it notes and receipts and notebooks scattered all over the place with the results of my brainstorming because if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that when an idea strikes you sure as hell better write it down or it may be lost forever.

Refine your ideas. Once you’ve exhausted your brainstorming time (or you have a big enough list you’re ready to forge ahead), it’s time to refine. Look closely at each of those ideas. You don’t have to throw anything out for good, but you do need to narrow down your ideas so you don’t spend the rest of your life sending out queries that go nowhere. Which ideas are you drawn to the most? Which are most timely or seem to have the most potential? Which ones are better saved for another day? You might use your instincts to narrow down the list, or you may have to do some research. (Sometimes, it helps to skip to the next step first and then come back to this one.)

After you narrow down your list, start to flesh out your ideas a bit more. What sources could you talk to? What resources might you rely on? What’s the fresh angle you’d use if this sort of story has been done before? (Do some searching. Make sure your exact angle hasn’t been done before.) The more thought you put into your ideas upfront, the better.

Find the right market. At some point in the process—once you’ve narrowed down your list of ideas to a manageable chunk or once you’ve found the idea—it’s time to pick the right market. If you’re writing about a specialized topic, such as rock climbing, the ideal market might come to mind immediately. That’s great. If the ideal magazine doesn’t jump out at you, however, don’t despair. It doesn’t mean your idea isn’t stellar. It just means you need to spend some time searching.

You might start by heading the library or the bookstore. Check out the magazines. See any possibilities? Spend some time searching online too—you’ll come across publications you may not have thought of. Maybe you’ll even decide an online magazine is a better fit for this story. That works too.

Once you’ve narrowed down your list of possible publications, it’s time to get serious about researching the magazine. Look at their most recent issue. Look at past issues from the library. Search their archives online. Familiarize yourself as much as possible with the publication—not just the overall editorial content, but also the typical length of the articles, the tone, the number of sources used. The more information you gather on your fact-finding mission, the better.

Get the guidelines. If your query never makes it to the right person at the magazine, all hope of landing a story assignment is lost. That’s why finding the right contact—and tracking down writer’s guidelines—is so important. You might start by studying the magazine masthead. If you want to write a feature, is there a specific features editor you could send your query to? Is there a general articles editor?

If the masthead doesn’t yield enough clues, it’s time to search online. Most publications have their own websites, and many even include a section with information on writer’s guidelines. (Writer’s guidelines typically include information on how editors like to receive queries, who you should send them to, the sections of the magazine that are open to freelancers, and sometimes even the rate they pay.)

If you’re not finding the information you need on the magazine’s site, search for the guidelines you need on sites such as Mediabistro and Writer’s Market. You may have to pay a fee for these sites though, but you can also track down guidelines from free sources such as Writers Write and FreelanceWriting.com. Or try searching for the publication name and “writer’s guidelines” in Google and see what comes up.

Craft your pitch. Once you know who you’re sending your idea to and how they like to receive it (by email? snail mail?) it’s time to convince them you have an article idea they can’t refuse. Remember that you’re not only selling your story idea, you’re selling yourself and your mad writing skills too. Why should this editor hire you over every other writer who’s sent a query? Be specific. Show your personality and your wordsmithing skills. Explain clearly what your idea is and why you’re the person to write the story. Be conversational yet polite. Don’t waste too much of the editor’s time rambling, but give him or her enough detail so they can see you’ve put thought into the idea.

(Whole books have been written just on the topic of query letters, by the way, so we’ll dive into this topic often in the future. Remember, too, that you probably need to assemble some clips of work you’ve done and a resume to send along too. More on that later …)

Edit, edit, edit. Whatever you do, don’t send your query the day you write it. I know you want to get your idea in the editor’s hands immediately. I know you want to write the article now. But trust me, as someone who has sent out queries on the fly only to discover glaring errors later on, it’s in your best interest to let that baby sit for a day or longer. Then, come back to it with fresh eyes. You might even have a friend read it for you.

Cut out the crap. Proofread. Look for the littlest error. If you’re trying to establish yourself as a writer, you don’t want a typo or grammatical error or punctuation snafu to stop the editor dead in her tracks. And trust me. Editors are busy. They don’t have time to read all the queries and letters they get from writers. So if there’s anything that’s going to get your idea tossed in the trashcan straightaway, it’s minor errors.

Edit again. Seriously.

Send it! Once you the query is ready and edited, you’ve assembled your clips and resume, and you’ve bitten off all your nails (oh, is that just me?), it’s time to send that great idea off to the editor. Address the envelope and stick it in the mail (make sure there’s a stamp on it!) or hit “send” on your email if the editor prefers an online pitch (make sure the attachments are there!). Now sit back and relax.

I know you’re going to want to call the editor an hour after you send that email to make sure he received it. You’re going to agonize every day over whether it went to the right person. You’re going to want to fly to whatever city the publication is in and snoop around the offices just to make sure your letter is actually there. Don’t. Start working on other queries. Garden. Do something, anything, other than thinking that query to death. It’s not going to do any good. Editors are busy. It may be days, weeks, or even months—yes, months!—before the appropriate editor even has time to look at your query. And it may be longer than that before they can do anything about it—editorial calendars are scheduled way in advance, other duties take precedence over presenting new ideas.

So sit tight. You’ve done the work. Now it’s time for the waiting game.

Learn More:
How to Write a Successful Query
How to Write a Query Letter
Perfecting the Magazine Query Letter
A Query That Rocked

Photo: bravenewtraveler

A Marketing Blitz

Right now I’m in the midst of a promotional blitz of sorts. I’ve identified a list of companies and publications that I’d love to write or edit for (and that, I think, are a good match for my skills and abilities). And now I’m sending out a flurry of introductory letters, resumes, and clips.

Yet I’m not going overboard and sending out queries to every single company to which I’d like to proffer my services in one week. Why? Because as well-written and interesting as I’m hoping my introductory letters are (they are by no means cut-and-pasted for each company, but are for the most part similar in tone and information presented), as carefully as I crafted the descriptions of my experience on my resume, as sure as I am that I picked representative clips that will resonate with potential employers, I don’t have any clue what my success rate will be.

I’m a realist. I know how paltry the actual response for this sort of “cold email” is.

And until I snag a fish—whether it’s a guppy or the big one—I don’t want to throw the same style of introduction to everyone. This is going to take some refining until I figure out how to hit the right chord with the right audience, until I get things just right.

And if this initial attempt to drum up business fails? I’ll go back to the drawing board and try to figure out what I need to do differently. And do it. Such is the nature of starting out in this game.

Learn More:
The Letter of Introduction
Sample Introduction Letter for Blogging Jobs
How to Land an Assigment Without Writing Queries
Hate Writing Query Letters? Try LOIs

Photo: Mzelle Biscotte

A New Chapter

Today is a big day. Today is the day I become my own boss. Today is the day I embark full-time on a freelance writing and editing career.

Sure, I’m nervous. Of course I am. I just quit my job and took the leap into the world of freelancing at a tough time in the U.S. economy. Remember? It’s a recession. Magazines are folding all over the place. Budgets are tight.

But I’m excited too. It’s a new chapter in my life, a new adventure. And I love adventures.

I’m ready. It’s not like I decided to do this spur-of-the-moment. In fact, I:

Thought about freelance writing. Read books on freelance writing. Read blogs on it. Strategized. Budgeted. Researched opportunities. Strategized some more. Ran the numbers again. Thought about it some more.

Tested the water. (Just dipped a toe in.) Thought more. Wrote more.

Jumped.

Now it’s time to breathe. Now it's time to write. Now it's time to be my own boss.

I'm ready.