Think Freelance Copywriting to Support Your Fiction Writing Career

There are many writers struggling to balance their love of writing with full-time careers. In this situation, it's not unusual for a novel to take years because of the time constraints involved. However, making a full-time career out of novel writing can be an impossible task. For the majority of writers, advances and sales aren't enough to sustain your career over the long haul. One way to support yourself and still do what you love is to become a freelance writer. Here are some ways you can get started and the benefits involved.

Why Freelance?

First of all, freelance writing spans the entire world of writing possibilities: from writing web copy and marketing materials to ghostwriting novels and e-books. The range of genres, styles and topics is enormous.

One thing you will learn quickly in becoming a freelance writer is that you will expand your writing skills exponentially in a very short time. By tackling areas of writing you've never tried, you learn new principles, strategies and techniques that will actually improve your fiction writing capabilities. When you tackle academic writing, you learn research skills and formal grammar/punctuation rules. You also learn to tighten your writing to keep to the subject. Copywriting and developing marketing materials teaches you how to write succinctly, precisely target audiences and think like your readers. It also helps you learn to write your own marketing materials.

The second and main reason to freelance is that there is a huge market for freelance writing out there. Companies rarely have the budget or need to employ full-time copywriters on staff. They often turn to marketing companies to source their needs. Marketing companies in turn often source to freelancers for much of their own needs. Again, this keeps them from having to maintain a full-time staff of writers. Companies generally turn to a base of several freelance writers with different specialties. If you can lock into a strong company - whether a direct business, a marketing company or whatnot - you will find a very steady base of work and income. Just two to three clients like this can keep you steadily employed in freelance writing with a very decent income.

Getting Started

Getting started as a freelancer is always the hard part. If, like me, you start out with an excellent set of writing skills but no official past writing work experience, building a credible reputation can be difficult. Here, it is important to look at all of your past jobs and pick out the pieces that involved professional writing. For me, I was a paralegal and spent 12 years writing at a highly technical and formal level. I also spent two years as an editor on my high school paper and one year as a research assistant with a university where I wrote and edited professional journal articles for my professor. I also had vast research experience from most of my past jobs. While you should never lie about your abilities or experience, feel free to make a big deal about what is there.

Next, you will need a portfolio. You will want to focus on the type of writing for which you are going to be bidding. If you want to write marketing materials, create a set of promotional material for a fake company to show your skills. Sometimes it's good to learn complementary skills, such as Photoshop, to go along with your writing.

Now it's time to get the word out and market yourself. The two big players in the freelance market are Elance and Guru. Guru recently lowered its membership prices to better compete with Elance. Both sites offer the opportunity for freelancers to create a profile and portfolio and bid on posted jobs. Keep in mind that much of the time when you are first starting out, you will get jobs based upon being the lowest bidder. However, not all clients choose this way, so you should research the bidder to see how they've made past contracting decisions.

Finally, I highly recommend you become an EzineArticles author. Once you've become an expert in your chosen freelance field, it's important to be recognized as such. It is an enormous rush when someone picks out one of your articles to post on their expert writing website. The recognition is invaluable to a freelance career.

Developing a strong freelance career takes 18 to 24 months overall - if you're good at what you do. The harder you work to create solid material and market yourself, the faster success will come to you.

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Medieval Castles - An Essay

Castles remind us of a time that was full of adventure and romance. Castles remind us of a time in history in which there was a lack of government and order. Although there was not mass confusion and anarchy, there was less order. Castles were the basis of feudalism. Castles can be seen as a manifestation of feudal society. Feudalism started with the rise of castles and ended with their end. The castle set the tone as the only homestead that nobility would live in during this time. Castles were influenced by and influenced many medieval cathedrals in Europe. Although castles served many purposes, their primary purpose was military. At that time, people were not protected by merely shutting and locking a regular wooden door. They needed the protection of castles and their knights. The lords and constables of castles needed serfs to work the land to make revenue in order to pay rent to the more important nobles. Given the following evidence, it is relatively obvious why castles and castle building played an instrumental role in the development of Western Europe.

Castles are unique to a time in history known as medieval times. The word medieval in our times is an insult to anything as is the word feudal. Through the haze and ruins, one can imagine dungeons, chivalrous knights, and mighty Lords who ruled the land and protected the common peasant from barbarians and other invaders. The rise of castles marked the rise of feudalism. This was all started by the crusades. The majority of the knights and nobles went to liberate the holy land from the Muslims. The Crusades influenced castle builders back in Europe. Ideas were gathered from Muslim and Byzantine fortifications. Because of the lack of protection in Europe, a castle's strength needed to be increased because of the ever-present threat of a Muslim invasion. The end of Feudalism also marked the end of the middle ages and hence the end of the great castle era.

Castles integrated the combination of residence and fortress. The first castle dates back to King Sargon II of Khorsabad in ancient Egypt. He erected a grand palace for himself to protect him and his subjects. The first recorded references to castles was the Edict of Pistes by Charles the Bald, king of the West Franks. "We will and expressly command that whoever at this time has made castles and fortifications and enclosures without our out permission shall have them demolished by the First of August" (Brown Architecture of Castles 13). Other castle laws were the Norman Institutions handed down by William the Conqueror after he took over England. One law says that no one shall raise castles in Normandy without the Duke's license.

An ideal castle site was one that had natural obstacles for defense such as steep hillsides and water. Castles that were built on rocks or islands were especially effective. An example of this is Bodiam in Sussex which was the home of Sir Edward Dalyngrigge in 1385. A moat offered good protection, but building on a lake or river offered better protection. The site should not be too remote. It should have water and building material readily available nearby. A site should have a good climate, good pasture, and ample fertile land. If a castle had all these things, it would increase its chances of surviving a siege.

A large majority of early castles followed the motte and bailey design. These designs utilized earth and timber. A motte and bailey design is a design where the keep is on a hill or motte behind the bailey which is the open area of the castle similar to a town square. A bridge usually connected the motte to the bailey. The motte was a great mound of earth or rock. Sometimes it was artificial, but the majority of the time it was authentic. At its base there was a deep trench that resembled a moat. This was used as defense. Surrounding the motte was a wall of timber. The motte also contained the keep which is where the lord of the manor and his family lived. The keep was the innermost part of the castle. It was the last defense against attack. The keep has also been referred to as the donjon. This is where the French got the word dungeon meaning the jail or place to hold prisoners. Surrounding the entire premises was a wooden fence that was at least ten feet in height. These wooden stakes were then implanted in the ground for support. The fence sometimes stood upon posts to allow men to get through. During a siege, the perimeter would be covered with wet animal skins to curb the threat of arson. Most motte and bailey castles were built before William the Conqueror's conquest in 1066.

Walter the Archdeacon wrote a biography of John, bishop of Therouanne about 1130. In it he describes Merchem Castle near Dixmude: "There was, near the porch of the church, a fortress which we may call a castle... exceedingly high, built after the custom of that land by the lord of the town many years before. For it is the habit of the magnates and nobles of those parts... to raise a mound of earth as high as they can and surround it with a ditch as broad as possible. The top of this mound they completely enclose with a palisade of hewn logs bound close together like a wall, with towers set in its circuit so far as the site permits. In the middle of the space within the palisade they build a residence, or, dominating everything, keep" (Brown Architecture of Castles 21)

Castle designers saw a need for improvement because wood and earth were not strong and were not effective protection against fire. There was also a need for bigger, grander castles because noble visitors did not travel alone so a castle would have to have enough room for the occasional visitor and his or her group. The architects who designed castles were known as master masons. They saw that stone would be a more effective building material. Although it was cold and hard to work with, it provided the much needed protection against fire. These newer castles are called enclosure castles. Like motte and dailey designs, enclosures castles had a wall protecting the perimeter of the manor. However these castles were not built upon hills or mottes. The keep of the castle was incorporated into the wall surrounding the property. These castles still had a bailey. With this new style of castles came a new construction material. Stone became the only material to build one's castle out of because it made castles much stronger against attack. The tower of London is an example of a masonry castle. The ideal stone for castles was the fine limestone of Caen in Normandy. This limestone was soft when first quarried, but gradually became hard as it was exposed to air. To insulate against the cold stone walls of castles, the women made tapestries for the walls. The tapestries almost always contained a story relating to the castle. One of the most famous tapestries is the Bayeux Tapestry. It depicts the Norman knights before Hastings in 1066. Since they were now using stone, castle builders were able to integrate defenses into the castles.

Castles needed to have defenses. They were not made impregnable. They were made so that it would take an enormous amount of artillery and money to take the castle. They were made so that it would take a large amount of time to take a castle. The castle of Newcastle at Tyne was far from impregnable in 1173, but it was strong enough to make an ill-prepared Scottish King William think twice about a siege: "Well sees the king of Scotland that he will never complete the conquest of Newcastle on Tyne without military engines" (Ibid 80). Some defenses used by castles were machiolations. Machiolations were projecting battlements to protect against arrows and other weapons. They were at the top of the wall surrounding the castle. Arrowslits or arrow loops were slits that were cut into stone to allow sharpshooters a place to shoot. They were angled so that the sharpshooter was protected from oncoming projectiles. Another defense used was Greek fire. This was an incendiary device that was used against wooden attack machines. The ingredients of Greek fire are a mystery. It is thought that it contained some of the following components: crude oil, refined oil, naphtha, pitch, resin, sulfur, quicklime, and bitumen. This deadly mixture was put on an arrow and then shot onto one of the attacking machines and it gave explosive results. Greek fire was probably developed in the seventh century by the Byzantines for naval warfare. Greek fire was a morale builder for the defenders during a siege. The Lord of Joinville described Greek fire as "This Greek fire was suck that seen from the front as it darted towards us it appeared as large as a vessel of verjuice, and the tail of the fire that streamed behind it was as long as the shaft of a great lance. The noise it made in coming was like that of a thunderbolt falling from the skies; it seemed like a dragon flying through the air. The light this huge, flaming mass shed all around it was so bright that you could see right through the camp as clearly as if it were day. Three times that night the enemy slung Greek fire at us from their petraries, and three times they shot it from their arbalestres a tour" (Ibid 88).

Weapons were used against castles during a siege included the trebuchet, mangonel, belfry, ballista, ram, and bore. The trebuchet was a big machine that flung artillery like a catapult. The mangonel was similar to the trebuchet but smaller and more maneuverable. Its strength was based on the tautness of the hemp, rope, or tightly twisted animal sinew. Artillery used by these weapons include rocks, fireballs, and dead animals to spread disease. The belfry was a mobile tower which was built higher than the castle walls in order to scale them during siege. The ballista was essentially a large crossbow that hurled rocks and other large boulders. The ram was a device that did what its name says. It was used to knock the portcullis or gate down. The bore was a device used by the attackers during a tactic known as mining. They mined from their camps to the castle walls. They would set up a support then start a fire to break down the castle walls. The defenders of the castle also used this tactic to counter the attackers siege. They would watch the moat to see the vibrations caused by the attackers shovels. Then they would start a counter mine. This was the most effective tactic used in a siege but it was the most dangerous. It was dark, had contaminated or little air and there was always a threat that the tunnel would cave in or be caved in by the castle's garrison.

Castles were not just fortresses but also residences of the nobility. It is this balance of military and residential qualities which make a castle so different from other fortifications. Castles had all the best furnishings and colors. They had chapels because Europe was a Christian continent. They occasionally had more than one. On the castle property were things like gardens, parks, vineyards, dovecotes, fishponds, mills, and stables. Castle were not as primitive as we think them to be. They had some of the conveniences that we have today. They had a form of a toilet. It was a toilet made of stone. People who wished to use it had to bring some material to protect themselves from the cold stone. The waste would eventually drain to a river by way of an underground pool. These cesspits would often have to be cleaned out by dung farmers.

Not all castles were extravagant fortresses that housed kings and all his subjects. Many castles were just built for the lord, his family and a few servants. Other castles that were not well protected or had no threat of attack were called fortified manors. The design of a castle was taken very seriously by the lords. There is reference to Aubree, wife of the Count of Bayeux, executing on the spot, Lanfred, her master mason after he completed her castle. She did this because she was so pleased with it that she didn't want him to build one like it for anyone else.

Castles were the basis of feudalism. They controlled the land and all within it. A castle was a lord's response to a mounted cavalry charge. Castles were effective centers of military power and territorial lordship whether or not the king or prince was there. Castles are an important part to history. They are phenomenal structures that still influence modern houses today.

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Paying For College - Where's the Money

Right now, parents are struggling not only with taxes, but with determining HOW to meet the ever-rising cost of college. College costs (sometimes known as the Cost of Attendance) include tuition and fees, room and board, textbooks, personal expenses (think pizza night, movies, and laundry), and travel costs.

Two types of money exist to pay a student's college costs: free money (grants and scholarships) and self-help money (loans, work-study, and savings). Money comes from many sources: the government, community organizations, the colleges and universities, mom and dad, relatives, and the student.

To access the government money pot, a family must complete a FAFSA, the Free Application for Student Aid. This form asks personal and family questions as well as information from the parents' tax form, the student's tax form, the parents' savings and assets, and the student's savings and assets. The student must also list all colleges and universities to which they have applied. For families with more than one student attending college or university at the same time, a FAFSA must be filed for each individual student. This form is only available on-line. Search for the term FAFSA. Make sure the URL ends in.gov. Otherwise you may be going to a paying site.

Community organizations offer money through scholarship applications. Like college applications, they have deadlines. Many local scholarship opportunities will be listed through the high school guidance office, but some are listed in the local newspapers as well. Most scholarship applications require activity lists and essays.

The colleges and universities offer scholarships, sometimes know as tuition discounts, based on the type of student the college or university wants to attract to their school. Some colleges use the admissions application form as the scholarship application; others require still another separate scholarship application form. Make sure you check to see which is required!

Mom and dad and other relatives can contribute the cost of college, but the parents and other well-wishers need to remember that the education truly belongs to the student. People value that for which they have to work. Allow your student the privilege of paying for as much of the cost of college as they can.

After all the forms have been filed and all the financial aid offers have been received, the student and family determine the college or university that best meets the student's needs. Be sure to consider academic load, extra-curricular activities, and financial implications (remember loans have to be paid back). Then the scramble to meet the cost of college continues.

Additional funding can be found in restructuring debt, selling assets, or eliminating unnecessary daily costs. Many families have found extra money through brown bagging, ending the "latte and biscotti" break, reducing gasoline consumption, and eliminating the cost of having a student living at home (though you do have to pay living expenses at college, this is usually calculated into the cost of attendance in the room and board and personal expenses categories).

The paper work can be overwhelming. The deadlines can be confusing, but with a little education and lots of planning, paying for college can be achieved when parents and students work together.

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What Are the Disadvantages of School Vending Machines?

People see snack vending machines everyday, usually no matter where they go. They are so common that most aren't given a second glance unless the person passing needs a chocolate or soda pop fix. One's only lunch preparation is to make sure to have a handful of change for the machine.

This has made school vending machines a popular thing in schools across the world. This article is going to discuss why these machines are a problem for schools and students alike.

Initially, the idea of having vending machines in schools did not seem too bad. Junior high and high school kids seemed like great candidates for snack vending consumers. This is exactly why schools choose to place the machines in their schools. It is widely known that schools are usually low on money, so what better way to generate some extra income than through their own students!

Kids will pump hundreds of dollars into drink and food vending machines rather than purchase what the school is serving for lunch in the cafeteria. Still, this does not seem like such a bad thing, as the children enjoy the snacks and the school makes a little money. It seems as though everyone wins.

Unfortunately, winning is far from what the children are doing. Supporting the presence of school vending machines makes the people on school boards all across the world hypocrites. In general, schools try to teach good health and nutrition to their students, they even go as far as to have certified lunch programs to show how well their students are being fed.

By allowing these snack vending machines, they are losing everything they have worked for in the past. There are, however, ways to get around this. The fact is that the children will eat and drink whatever is offered, so instead of offering soda, offer water vending.

This notorious issue could be changed quickly. Chances are the children will probably be surprised but not too upset if they are presented with healthier options. This is not to say that candy and soda need to be taken out completely, just less of it.

If the schools intended for their students to eat unhealthy all of the time, then they would not have put forth the effort to teach them about nutrition and healthy food choices in the first place. School vending machines do not have to be a bad thing. With a few changes, they can be useful in many ways.

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Essay Editing Services

Professional essay editing services help students and job seekers. Students are required to compose essays of increasing complexity right from their early academic life. Although learners are given inputs regarding how to structure the essays for school assignments, even the best writers can benefit by hiring an essay editor.

Students also compile essays to complete for various scholarships. It provides the selection committee insight about the prospective candidate's personality, intellect, and aptitude. Most of the universities and colleges make it mandatory for applicants to submit essays on a pre-defined topic. This helps them in the selection of prospective students for admission into their educational institution. It is but natural that such people approach essay editing services for help to deal with the task. After all, good grades would mean high academic achievement, which in turn increases your demand and qualifications for a high-paying job and career.

There are instances where the employer requests the aspirants to submit essays before they are hired. The well structured, flawless, coherent, and interesting essays make a positive mark upon the selection committee. Essays written by students also serve the purpose of deciding which students will be awarded a scholarship. Essay editing services have a number of top-notch editors with extensive academic writing experience.

The scholarly editors provide excellent support to the student in the process of writing an essay. They ensure that they streamline the thoughts expressed by the student, without changing the fundamental essence of the write-up. The one-to-one communication between the editor and the student is a perfect way to reap rich benefits from the most from the essay editing services.

A well-written essay makes its points succinctly and in a structured format. Essay editing services are aware of the importance essay writing and make every effort to give you a cutting edge over others by strengthening the essay you have written. The invaluable feedback offered by them is individualized and goes a long way in instructing you in the rudiments of essay writing.

The editors can pin point any sort of error, do away with it, and improve your overall presentation of the subject matter. Since the essay editing services meant for students, they understand their needs and constraints. They accept multiple modes of payment, even installments. Editors are can also provide feedback act in dual roles as advisors. Hire an essay editor today to edit and improve your essay based on your specific needs.

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Playing the Publishing Game: Simon Says

I lovingly remember those childhood days playing Red Light, Green Light and Simon Says. Back then it was just another way to pass time at the bus stop, or, for me, another opportunity to display just how slow and uncoordinated I was. Only when I became an adult did I realize these games actually teach kids valuable skills: listening and following directions. As a middle school teacher, I can attest to how desperately our children need these skills. As an adult, however, I can get a little frustrated when I feel other adults are yelling "Simon says!" just to test my resolve, and possibly my intelligence. I am no longer a child. I no longer need someone to explicitly tell me things that to anyone with average intelligence would be considered commonsense. Apparently, though, there are enough adults out there who do. At least, I'm giving the publishing world the benefit of the doubt, that their sometimes condescending submission guidelines and ever-changing formatting requirements, are truly from years of bad experiences and not just an evil scheme to frustrate hopeful authors everywhere.

Yesterday I prepared and sent out a new round of queries, hoping to find a publisher to accept my book. By the end of the day I was bleary-eyed and a bit annoyed. It wasn't just that I had a killer headache and had spent too many hours trying to find anyone on any writers' websites who liked any publisher. (There are some really bitter writers in the world attempting to give postal workers a run for their money.) The publishing websites themselves are often maddening. I teach writing to seventh graders. Even at thirteen my students are expected to follow a particular formatting guideline. I get that. Having everything in the right place, in the right font, hopefully not riddled with grammatical errors makes me happy, and it makes reading others' writing easier. But I don't develop my own guidelines arbitrarily, and I don't make nasty sarcastic remarks about the fact many of the essays I correct hardly resemble anything close to the English language as it should be written. Ok, I have on occasion, but I'm dealing with kids, most of whom would rather live at home indefinitely than ever enter a profession that involved writing, not adults who have completed entire novels. Yet, reading these some of these sites, a writer might think these publishing companies and agents are addressing a classroom full of ADHD teens.

Maybe I'm in the minority, but before I submitted anywhere, I spent time researching standard manuscript format, which is different from synopsis format, which is different from a teaser in a query, which is not the same as a cover letter. Yes, it is as confusing as it sounds, at first. Yes, it sucks time like a thousand thirsty leeches. But, if it gets a writer published, it's all worth it. Right? Well, I can't yet answer that one, but I can tell you that all the time I spent learning the proper formats according to a few major websites and books, which I was told were authorities on such things, was often a waste of time. It seems every publishing company and small press (and many literary agents, as well) each has its own preferences. Unlike academic writing, ninety percent of which uses one of two standard formats, MLA or APA, the publishing world has no set standards. Some like Times New Roman, others pooh, pooh it and prefer Courier. Some like chapter titles centered, others don't or don't care. Some specify how many single spaces down from the top of the page they should be, but no one wants single-spaced manuscripts, so that guideline doesn't even make sense. Wait, one e-publisher actually did want it single-spaced. They must buy stock in Tylenol and Visine. And don't even get me started on word count. Who knew you needed a math degree to be an author? In this day and age, can't we trust the computer to be fairly accurate? If any agent or publisher saw my math grades, they'd let Word handle any computations-I make it a habit not to question people as successful as Bill Gates.

These seem like minute details, hardly worth griping over. And they are, which is precisely the point. The publishing world is probably too large and too diverse to ever agree on a set format. Perhaps, instead, they should let go of the little things and trust that writers who are serious about their craft will have done their homework and followed a format that is both readable and professional. If a writer needs to be told not to send a draft with coffee stains, not to include bribes disguised as odd gifts, or not to write an email query with the same level of informality one would use to text a friend, his work isn't likely to get read no matter what size margins it has.

Like most writers, I hope, I can handle some adversity, and I play well with others, following the rules as asked. To the many great companies out there whose instructions are clear, polite, and professional, you have my most sincere gratitude. To those who like to have a little more fun with their prospective authors, all we're asking in return is that if we have to jump through a few hoops, please keep them still. And just because a few of our predecessors may have gone hog wild and broken a few, please don't light them afire for the rest of us!

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How to Keep Your Essay Relevant to the Question

One of the most frequent mistakes in student essay writing and academic essay writing, whether you are tackling a weekly essay or an undergraduate dissertation, is a habit of drifting away from the question. You can write a brilliant, carefully argued essay and still get low marks if it is not altogether in every part relevant to the question.

Some assignment writers make a strong start when they essay write, but begin to wander away from the question, whilst others tend to allow their argument to veer off in completely the wrong direction altogether.

When looking at students' essay examples, you can see that most essay writers deserve much higher grades for their essay writing and undergraduate dissertations, but are simply being marked down for the failure to show strong connections between their essay and the original question, not because their essay writing is deserving of low grades at all.

Below you will find a comprehensive list of tricks to ensure that your academic writing is always on target, and avoid losing those crucial extra marks for good!

Essay writing: planning

One very successful method to make sure you will stick to the question throughout your task is to write a clear, comprehensive plan before you commence writing and then make sure you stick to it.

Map out your four or five central points and underneath each jot down the arguments you will use to convey them. Then read through each section and ask yourself whether it answers the question directly. Get rid of any points that aren't relevant, and make sure that you stick firmly to your plan when essay writing.

Essay writing: referring back to the question

This is a simple method that can really make a huge difference. Use a signpost sentence when you begin each new essay paragraph or idea, which connects it strongly to the question and proves to the marker its relevance to the overall topic.

Don't be afraid to use the wording of the question itself in your essay writing - as long as it's not too repetitive it will greatly enhance the sense of cohesion and relevance of your argument when the marker subjects it to essay analysis.

Essay writing: developing your argument

Often students start out with a very clear introductory discussion that addresses the question, but when their essay develops to branch out into more detailed or tangential lines of debate they fail to prove that they are still focusing on the main topic with which the question is concerned.

One clear way of creating this focus is to make the relationship between the various parts of your essay argument clear using attention grabbing separators like 'firstly' and 'secondly' or 'conversely' and 'furthermore' in your essay writing. This might sound easy but it really does encourage the essay marker to link your different ideas together and see how they all fit into the overall argument instead of disregarding one of your paragraphs as irrelevant to the question.

Essay writing: conclusions

The most successful essays always have one thing in common: a strong, clear conclusion to provide a clear summary of your essay argument. You can use this essay paragraph to really prove to the marker why each paragraph of your essay was relevant to the question.

In your essay conclusion, refer back to the topic, even quoting the question itself to make it really clear, and briefly mention each of your main essay paragraphs in concluding your argument. This essay writing technique will ensure the reader is reminded at the end of your essay that everything you have written was contributing (and relevant) to your answer to the essay question.

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