I'd like to take a moment to talk about the books I keep on the shelf in my office. These books have never made it to a real bookshelf, they've always been close to where I work. Hardly used, they still hold significance.

1. The reddish binder - this is my novel. First draft completed a long time ago with just a few edits in the margins. It needs a complete rewrite and someday I will accomplish that feat. Everyone has a novel in their heads - an idea they think the world would want to read...

Shifting from the full-time corporate world to one of freelance affords me the opportunity to refocus on my passion, writing. Having more time to write, as well as an incentive to continue developing my writing skills forced me to look at my own writing process and really discover I can produce my best work. After having gotten so much advice over the years about writing, the most important bit I can pass along is to practice. Ignore whatever else people tell you to do to be a good writer....

I was a writer when I began college, studying journalism so that I could turn writing into a career. The requirements for a major included classes one would expect - news writing and reporting, media law and ethics, etc, but one requirement seemed out of place to me until I actually took the course - Design. I obviously knew everything written for a publication has to have photos and graphics added and has to be designed onto a page, but I had assumed that was something unrelated to the role...

I think it started early on, before spelling words correctly was something I was concerned about. I caught the writing bug. We had this assignment in school where we had to write and illustrate a book. I wrote about my cat running away (we found her a few days later.) I still have the book because it had a profound effect on me. I’m still writing to this day.

Personal narratives are the best place to start

Being a writer requires so much practice, so before you sit down to write the next...

The answer to this honestly varies week-by-week. The hardest part about being a freelancer is ensuring work continues to flow in, so that you’re never really without anything to do. Sure, the volume of work will be different each week, so will the deadlines associated with each project. I just had less than a week to complete a 6,500 word project that I was working on until the very last minute, while another project I have for 2,200 words isn’t due for a month. Because of all these...