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childhood creativity

Your Inner Kid Has Something to Say About Your Writing. Start Listening.

Between the options of reading a book and talking to a person, I usually go page-turner.

This truth has been self-evident since I can remember, or in other words: elementary school.

While all the other boogers bounded off to the crumb rubber for recess, I roamed my mental playground, pondering whatever glossy-covered paperback I’d glommed onto that week, while noting ideas to scratch down in the mucked-up composition notebook I toted around.

This youthful indifference toward socializing powered hours of quiet, private activities —unleashing my creativity through fitting together puzzles, sketching pictures, scribbling in my journal, and most exciting of all… sticking my nose in books. Belle fan from way back.

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How to Get the Most Out of Hiring a Freelance Writer

How often do you ask for help with your work?

For most people, and especially for entrepreneurs, asking for help carries some stigma — there’s an unfortunate stereotype that suggests we should be able to do everything ourselves, and that asking for help is a sign of weakness or failure.

But in reality, no successful person has ever achieved what they’ve achieved alone. In fact, many of the most successful people are those who ask for help readily, intelligently, and without embarrassment.

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self-critic

Practical Creativity: 7 Tips for Silencing Your Self-Critic

“This article is terrible.”

“You call this writing?”

“Everything you have to say is boring.”

“You’re just not good enough.”

These are the kinds of things you’d expect to hear from a horrible boss, a troll in the comments, or a cruel bully.

Yet too often, these are the kinds of things that we say to ourselves.

We may claim that this way of speaking to ourselves and attacking our writing is useful: It’s just us being realistic and giving ourselves an honest self-critique. After all, Simon Cowell was the best judge, right? So why should we be Paula Abdul, overenthusiastically praising ourselves?

But this sort of thinking isn’t constructive criticism. It’s just, well, mean.

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content creation

Writing is Still The Most Important Medium in Content Creation

I think every writer goes through an existential crisis (or 50) in their lifetime, and at least one of those crises is brought on by another article with the title, “Publishing is Dead.”

All through high school and college, I was inundated with advice to choose a career in a science, technology, engineering, or math (STEM)-related field. And though my passion for writing was evident, the attitudes of my teachers suggested my passion would soon enough turn into failure.

But, because I’m a stubborn and spiteful person, I pursued writing anyway.

That’s not to say that my confidence didn’t falter in college. When I would hear someone call publishing “a dying industry,” I’d panic and think, “Oh my god, what am I going to do with my life.” So of course, within my first year, I sat down with an advisor to talk about pursuing a double major. One in english, like I wanted, and one that was more career-viable.

I settled on a minor in marketing and felt safe in my future as a young professional.

I’ve since figured out that my minor in marketing isn’t worth as much as I thought on paper. However, the knowledge and experience it provided did help me get most of the jobs I’ve had since graduating.

It’s also given me a profound sense of confidence in my career choice as a writer.

Because everything I did (and still do) involved writing.

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