What should a writer do for the holidays?

Recently, I've seen several articles listing opportunities for photographers to use their cameras for good and I thought, of course writers can do that, too. Many of us do, providing pro bono copywriting for charitable causes, not charging for author presentations at our children's schools, writing press releases for our local parks system or library levy campaigns, or simply by polishing up a friend's resume gratis.

But writing for free is a great way to make no money. And besides cheer and glad tidings (and good intentions, like doing pro bono work) the holidays bring bills. Lots of bills! So what can writers do to manage, and make good, on their good intentions while not ending up doing ALL charity work?

One solution is to put your offer in writing. If you're a professional writer and have great resume writing skills, too, a note to a friend, like this, might be very well received: "Dear Tom, I know you're looking for a job. Can I help you polish your resume this year? I'd consider it an honor, and a gift to you."

Similarly, if you'd like to do more to help out at church, but aren't able to tithe quite as much as you'd like, you might contact the church secretary with an offer to polish resumes for job-seeking church members, and suggest that those who can pay for the service should donate (your hourly rate) to the church.

Hint: I'm sure you have a big heart and all, but if your congregation is very large you should consider putting a limit on this offer, say, good for the first 10 or so folks who contact the church office.

Maybe you can start a Twitter account, manage a Facebook page, or create some Google+ buzz for a charity or one of your favorite organizations that hasn't done so yet.

What else can you do as a writer? Quite a bit of good, I bet. Words are powerful tools. I'd love to hear about how you're wielding them.

The next-to last word -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Highly recommended reading; found it just before publication. Kismet!
 Give back & get new business - from All Business

The last word -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Add your pro bono work and charitable intentions to your business plan. Make time for it so it gets done, and so it doesn't undermine your primary business goal (whether it's to make money or finish that novel) in 2012.

On Demand Studios and Defining Your Job

I've weighed in on the pros and cons of writing for low-paying content providers in the past, so there's no need to revisit the whole debate. Today, however, I managed to remind myself about two important things regarding Demand Studios and other low-budget content farms. In case you need reminding, too, here they are:

The Good: Sometimes you're getting paid to learn! 

I recently snagged an assignment about creating writing prompts for third-graders. Next month, I'm presenting to middle-school students about the writing process. What a perfect excuse to do a little research and get paid (a little) for it, I thought.

It worked out just like that. (I'll paste a link to the article here as soon as it's published.)

The Not-So-Good: Some assignments are poorly defined.

In my excitement over the first article, I grabbed a second, on creating T-shirt slogans. The problem? The assignment just wasn't well-defined. I should have recognized that, but it's not always easy.

An article for eHow, for example, is supposed to be pretty cut-and-dried. Think how to tie your shoelace, or replace the engine block in a '79 Camaro. It might be involved (and you're supposed to cover it in 500 words) but it's well-defined.

Now, I think it's more fun to wrestle with T-shirt slogans than with engine blocks, but the fact is, I wasn't dealing with motor head T-shirt slogans or political slogan.  I agreed to write about T-shirt slogans. Totally unqualified, undefined T-shirt slogans. Dirty T-shirt slogans? Funny T-shirt slogans? Nope. Maybe I could have covered that in 500 words.

My mistake. I'm still wrestling with the slogans. On the plus side, I got a blog topic out of it. I also got  a little philosophical exercise thinking about the creative vs. the copywriter.  While that may be worthy of a blog entry, it definitely doesn't belong on a T-shirt.

If I figure out what makes a good T-shirt slogan, I'll be sure to post it here. And if I figure out how to make money entertaining philosophical thoughts, I'm outta here!