Archive for April 2008

I generally don’t talk about myself as I accept that people don’t come here for my personality. Instead, people like you come for the information I provide that I hope helps you in your life.

From reading other blogs, it looks like many love to hear how writers and freelancers went full-time. So here’s the full story.

In the beginning…

After kid #2 arrived, I started New York University’s online program in Internet Technology while on maternity leave. Initially, I wanted to do web design. After few Web design projects, I discovered web design was more frustrating than enjoyable.

Around this time, an e-mail newsletter for web designers had a contest where readers could submit an article related to web design. The winners received high quality software like Photoshop, so I gave it a shot. Readers loved the article, so I wrote a few more in the series for the newsletter.

The series started my writing portfolio and helped my land my first paid professional writing gig with a web design magazine. Slowly, I picked up more paid writing assignments discovering I loved working as a writer.

However, I was apprehensive about pursuing a career as a writer. I heard from many people how they wanted to be a writer. I honestly didn’t think I offered anything special as a writer. It also didn’t help with many talented bloggers and web site writers hitting the writing circuit. Regardless, I kept my eyes open for gigs and considered writing a sideline since I still had my corporate job.

Furthermore, I never dreamed of having my own business. I feared the sales aspect — getting more clients — because I couldn’t make normal phone calls. Cold calling was always awkward no matter how comfortable I was with making phone calls. Then there was finances, bookkeeping, the usual business stuff.

Returning to the Dilbertesque world

I returned to work a couple of weeks early from maternity leave on a part-time basis in hopes to convince management that I could do the job part-time. Management wasn’t receptive to the idea.

I wrote a memo with various options supported by data. Eventually, the company let me work part-time because there was another part-time employee who joined the team. We didn’t job share, however. Together, we made up one employee.

Eventually, she went with the wireless part of the business and I stayed with long distance retaining my part-time status. This let me build the writing business.

Dot com blah

I lost several clients when dot com went boom. This was a turning point because I could either scramble to get more clients or resign myself to a corporate career.

While feeling a pit in my stomach stomach I hit send and emailed people in my network including those I had interviewed for articles. I landed two new clients, one of which I met in person for the first time after working with him for six years.

I worked part-time until March 2005 when my company required me to return to a full-time schedule. By this time, I had plenty of business writing experience and a healthy portfolio.

The benefits… the benefits…

I couldn’t quit my job yet because my husband didn’t have health benefits. We had three kids, so it was important. My husband landed a job with decent benefits in June 2005. A month later, I retired from corporate America for full-time freelancing.

Just found this article on health insurance for freelancers for those who don’t have the luxury of relying on someone else for benefits.

Other becoming a writer stories…

Mary E. Lyons

Bob Younce

Many at how we became writers

Delaune Michel

Philip McCord

Catherine Shaffer

Catherine Leigh

Geoffrey Zimmerman (video)

Earl Pomerantz, TV writer

Jared Head (video)

Yours?

I’ve been noticing this trend lately (thanks to teen daughter)… people keep their ears plugged in while talking to others. Even if the iPod is off (or maybe it isn’t), having earbuds in your ears during a conversation indicates the other person isn’t important.

This is where headphones have an advantage. Just pull them down around your neck when someone comes to talk to you. But really… how hard is it to pull out the earbuds?

This is a business issue as many work environments allow employees to listen to audio while working as long as they use headphones so they don’t disturb neighbors.

Whenever my coworkers or manager stopped by, I immediately pulled off my headphones even if I could hear them with the headphones on. It’s about perception not about hearing.

Being deaf, I have a habit of always looking at people when they talk and expecting them to look at me even when I’m talking. Can’t tell ya how many times my hubby would have eyes someplace else and ears open. I just can’t talk to him that way though he doesn’t need to look at me to listen.

It takes a moment to unplug the headphones and earbuds and send a positive message to the other person that you want to focus on what he has to say.

A game… worrying the movie makers? According to canada.com, Hollywood needs to keep an eye on this game’s mega release. I just don’t see gamers giving up movie watching because of a game no matter how popular it is.

Gamers have games they captivate them, but they still do their regular activities. Those who already spend hours gaming gave up on movies long ago.

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010 Meryl Evans

How often do you get an e-mail from a prospect who asks, “I need help with my web site’s content” or “I need five articles on such ‘n such topic”… “How much do you charge?”

Web content — one page takes less time than five pages. Even on page can vary depending on the page’s content. Will you provide information, content, etc.? Or do you want me to come up with it from scratch?

Five articles. 500 words vs. 1000? About social networking or some obscure medical topic targeted to those in the medical profession? Big difference. Writing doesn’t have a standard process like other jobs.

New writers have emailed me asking how much should they charge for a project. As if I can give them a magic number. Like Deb says, our experiences vary so what I charge won’t work for most people. Not only does our writing experience differ, but also our topic knowledge.

This formula should help most writers get started in the scary world of coming up with rates. Yes, it’s scary. After lots of practice, I’m more comfortable providing quotes — but my stomach still stirs whenever I press, “Send” with my quotes.

1. Start by figuring out how much you want per hour.
2. Estimate how long it will take you to get the job done.
3. Add 10% to that time because there is almost always something to make the assignment take longer.

After gaining experience, you won’t need to focus on how long it takes to do an assignment. You’ll get faster in some assignments. So if you charge $20 per hour and an assignment originally takes five hours, that’s $100.

With experience, the assignment takes you only one hour. $20 isn’t fair anymore. Instead, charge a flat fee such as $100. You factor in experience.

However, for some clients — I charge by the hour because they’re open engagements. I adjusted the hourly rate based on experience.

Doing enough assignments and quoting will help you come up with rates to use as the baseline. Experience will help you get a handle on rates and feel good about giving quotes.

So when a writer asks me how much to charge, don’t be offended when I don’t offer numbers and point to resources instead.

What works for you?

• Liz Strauss on creating a successful blog with community. Long transcript (we deafies thank you), but great conversation. You can download the PDF for reading a bit at a time.
• Fail frequently. Edison didn’t fail 1000 times, he found 1000 steps to creating the light bulb. Also, think about how you deal with mistakes.
• Making Headlines: This takes time, but it will pay off.
• Online Writing: How one teacher uses social media in teaching a writing class.

And for fun because you’re allowed

• Bored people find x-ray machine
• Toddler sings The Beatles’ “Hey, Jude” [Link: Buzz Bishop]
• Traveling to a subway city? Hop to HopStop to get all the bus and subway guides. Washington, DC’s metro system is amazing — complete with information visualization through its maps. New York City? It only confused me. I’m underground, how am I supposed to know which way is north?

Geeky couple’s rings [Link: Chris Kieff] looks almost obscene. Chris and I were joking in Twitter. He said, “… I think it would be a little awkard to have them plugged together… God what a geek I am to think that!”

I replied, “Yeah, just amazing hooking ‘em up and trying to walk together side-by-side… ohhh, carpal tunnel!”

Casual gamers who enjoyed blockbuster Dream Chronicles will be excited to see the Faye returns for another adventure. In the previous episode, Faye went on a quest to find her husband, Fidget. She reached him only to find the sneaky Liliith, Fairy Queen of Dreams, take him away again. To find her husband, Faye must go deeper in the dream realm in Dream Chronicles 2: The Eternal Maze.

Dream Chronicles 2 follows its predecessor’s footsteps with its phenomenal art nouveau scenes, graphics, and effects. Players again fill in Faye’s shoes to find Fidget and their daughter Lyra. But like any good soap opera, we won’t find all the answers in this latest episode and must wait for another. Nonetheless, solving puzzles, picking up dream jewels, and collecting clear and hard to see dream pieces will entertain and challenge.

When the dream pieces fill a dream jewel (you must find the jewel first), players must solve another puzzle before receiving a clue to help them in their adventures. This puzzle consists of words that form a sentence.

We must figure out the order of the words to create the correct sentence. Here we discover one of the annoyances with the game. We can’t backtrack or swap words whenever we mess up or change our minds. So reset we must hit and start over. 15 dream jewels will dutifully reveal their secrets after we solve their puzzles. Some of the dream jewel clues do come in handy.

The best part — the 80 assorted puzzles — comes between finding jewels. These puzzles can spread over several scenes requiring us to move back and forth. Some needed items won’t appear until we first finish another task. The game lets players move freely instead of sequentially. Sure, you won’t be able to go certain areas until you solve a puzzle — but some adventure games don’t venture beyond a set sequence.

Oh, how the puzzles vary! A few puzzles call for putting something back together to make it work (my favorite type). Another has us matching musical instruments with their sheet music. My least favorite is the Simon-like game where the game plays a sequence and you must repeat it. Never like that kind of game, but I get through it.

Dream Chronicles 2 treats us to 25 chapters, seven over the original’s 18 chapters. Though the game lasts longer, it’s shorter (it took me less than eight hours) than the average game in its genre except for Mortimer Beckett and the Secrets of Spooky Manor — the shortest of ‘em all.

Even if you haven’t played the original, you should be able to play Dream Chronicles 2 without confusion since the story stands alone. Although, the game tells a stronger story than stories found in most casual games, the original Dream Chronicles spins a more compelling story. I’m ready for Dream Chronicles 3 — will it stop there? Will it continue? To be continued…

Download Dream Chronicles 2.

In 2000, I earned a certificate in Internet Technologies in hopes of becoming a Web designer. Working on the blog today reminded me why I changed my mind and went into writing instead.

Based on advice (you know who you are — I don’t want to put your name in here again and have people thinking I’m trying to make nice nice), I took off the excerpts on the main blog page so you don’t have to click the entry to see the full content.

But in doing this, my paragraphs disappeared (the extra blank line). The blog entries looked like a ruddy mess and hard to scan. I looked at the code and don’t see anything that would make paragraph <p> not add a blank line.

So back to excerpts because the unformatted content broke too many web content rules. Oh, the bolding was there as were the bullets, but the whitespace was terrible. Content overrules features when it comes to the following:

• Bold headings.
• Bulleted lists.
• Easy to find paragraphs.
• Short paragraphs and sentences.
• Text and background color contrast (too many blogs and web sites use gray for text with white backgrounds — this resembles reading in a fog. Black isn’t boring — black works.).

If my blog breaks these rules, then the feature will have to go away until I can solve the problem. So, the main blog page continues to use for technical and readability reasons and not for usability reasons.

Using a blog application, bloggers deal with the application’s quirks, CSS, templates, plug ins. So a problem might be buried in layers of CSS or code. In fact, Peter Shankman had problems with his WordPress: “… all of a sudden, after switching to Firefox and upgrading AVG, I can no longer upload photos to WordPress.”

I’ve had problems like this happen in the past where the solution meant disabling a plug-in. The problem with computers (especially Windows-based) is there are too many variables that can cause a problem. Even if you add one thing, it could be something you installed long ago that could be the cause of problems.

My computer needs a clean up as it has various problems. However, using registry cleaners and other cleaners could make things worse. I’ve used Registry First Aid, but it requires carefully reviewing changes before accepting them — and that took time.

Also tried CCleaner a long time ago — don’t remember why I stopped using it. I downloaded Revo Uninstaller, but haven’t tried it. Anyone have luck in safely cleaning a computer?

Don’t let the wave of fashion-style games that have come through the ocean of casual games affect your judgment of the latest fashion entry: Zen Fashion. Instead of a running a business style game play, it fashions a game of match three along with a journey through Asia’s world of fashion.

A new Japanese fashion designer explores various Asian cities for eight levels each to learn the intricacies of Japanese design. Match at least three of the same flowers to help the young designer gain experience beginning with her basic designs and advancing to beautiful and detailed designs.

Create matches up/down, left/right, and diagonally. While that sounds too easy, believe me… it’s not after you advance enough levels. The barriers narrow the matching possibilities, lengthening your chances of getting through the level. To complete a level requires clearing all the colored squares with a time limit. As expected of most matching games, later levels have squares that take two, three, or more matches to clear.

Since the game keeps players too busy to notice the shrinking time on the hourglass, it warns players when 30 seconds remain. The game issues another warning at 20 seconds and then counts down from 10. This feature has proven valuable, but it might help to have a warning a little sooner and then another at 20. The countdown just makes a gal panic and give up unless only one piece remains.

Upon completing a level, players pick what new article of clothing to add to their collection. The item comes with two power ups. Zen Fashion comes with six power ups, and although the game introduces each one — players may need to review instructions later when they start needing them. Unfortunately, the game doesn’t come with a Help file. Some like the clock are obvious and others like the “Eye for Fashion” are not. Time and practice will help players discover what each power up does.

Designing 108 new pieces — in the form of making many matches — takes a lot out of a new designer, so take a Zen break and enjoy the gorgeous scenery. A Zen break pauses the game, clears all of the game’s elements, and displays nothing but the serene scene representing the current level’s city. Click anytime to return to the game.

The coolest part of the game is that players can change up the hair style, blouse, and bottoms for hundreds of outfit possibilities. Remember each one comes with two power ups, so coordinate with style and power up in mind. By the way, our designer earns new fashion — real ones based on the styles from the 12 countries albeit with some updates. I’ve never liked playing dress up as a little kid and enjoyed changing the designer’s outfits as she wears them for the upcoming level.

The flowers on the grid change very little — just color variations. Since the backgrounds change with each new city, it would be nice to see the objects also change for variety. The game comes with Adventure mode and Zen mode, which is like adventure without the clock and story. Adventure mode unlocks levels for Zen mode, so you can only play Zen mode as far as you have in timed mode.

Why play Zen mode when you’ve already conquered the level in timed mode? To earn trophies (24 in all) you might not otherwise win in timed mode and to experiment with different styles without the pressure of picking the right power ups or to experiment with power ups so you can finally move on to the next level in timed mode.

The sound effects electrify especially when special pieces come into play and set off some serious action on the grid. If Zen Fashion could walk on the runway in Paris, it would dazzle the fashion industry with its great looks, sharp cut, and new twists. It’ll make a worthy addition to the casual gamer’s wardrobe of games without the high price tag that comes with designer gowns.

Try Zen Fashion.

In reading Writing Journey’s latest entry, a thought came to me about why many people say they couldn’t make it as a writer. Those of you who are writers — what do people think after you tell them you’re a writer?

• You’re a book author?
• You write for magazines?

I think these two are the most common things people think of when someone announces he or she is a writer. But they’re not the best ways to become a writer. Great writers can query magazines many times without getting accepted.

Consider diving into a writing career by writing for businesses instead. This doesn’t mean giving up hope of becoming a published book author or a magazine columnist. I’ve done both — just not early on in my career. Opportunities to write books and magazine articles came from networking not querying.

Here’s a Cliff’s version of how I became a writer along with resources I recommend for writers.

So, what do you write? Newsletters? Brochures? How did you break into writing?

I’m trying with all my might to resist saying this, but my willpower went on vacation today. Hyperballoid 2: Time Rider ain’t your daddy’s (or mommy’s for that matter as I played video games as a kid) breakout game. How we’ve come a long way from Breakout and other bland brick breaking games.

Peggle first convinced me breakout games worth playing do exist even for those tired of such games (me included and that goes for arcade, too). Hyperballoid 2 grips from the start with its firecracking special effects, superb graphics, and variety of backgrounds — known as worlds — including ancient, hitech, original, and planets.

When you change worlds, you start a new game. Return to any world and you pick up from where you left off before. Not only does the background in the world represent that world’s theme, but also the arrangement of the bricks. In hitech, the game treats me a UFO flying in and out of the screen.

With 280 different kinds of bricks, it’ll be tough to get bored. There are standard rectangle bricks, rectangle bricks with a circle inside, stone bricks, bricks that detonate when hit. They also disappear and reappear, float, move back and forth, act as barriers.

Elements come flying down like a bridal bouquet for the catching for bonuses. Bonuses expand your paddle, give you multiple balls, shoot flames, shoot cannons. These bonuses have three different colors: green, yellow, red. Just like stoplights, green is good. Red is bad. Yellow — slowing down the ball’s movement, for one — is so so. Slowing down the ball gives you time to move your paddle, but it also makes you impatient waiting for it to do its thing.

The physics of the game work beautifully. Be prepared for balls defying physics as bonuses can turn them into crazy balls doing loopty-loops and other unpredictable moves.

For those who love to design and create, you can edit any of the levels to change them up and create your own to share. But this doesn’t appeal to me — it’s not easy to use and I don’t want to mess up the original settings. The toggles, options, buttons have no labels, so move the mouse pointer over each item to see its tooltip to find out what the item does. Too time consuming.

The game’s mode (easy, normal, hard, expert) is adjustable, but the pop up window that appears at the start for selecting the mode has typos, so it doesn’t make sense. It also takes effort to figure out how to switch modes because this doesn’t appear in the options. Instead, you return to the main menu and click “Other Campaigns.” Here you can download new campaigns like Chinese Zodiac and each new campaign comes with a five star rating system as voted by the community.

Hyperballoid 2 lasts for a long time with over 200 levels to beat. It’s also easy to pick up the game when you haven’t played it for a long time. Hyperballoid 2 is like playing a variety of solitaire games where the rules never change. Superb visuals, diversity of everything, and smashing audio effects (loud, too… had to turn down the settings… way down) will take players out of this world giving them a break from their daily lives for a little while.