Made Moon Blog

I recently read a book where everything was akimbo. Arms were akimbo, legs were akimbo. Akimbo appeared on every page.

Okay every page is a slight exaggeration, but akimbo was in every chapter more than once. I started thinking of the hero in the book as Adam West’s posturing Batman persona.

Every writer is guilty of the akimbo type of repetitiveness once in awhile. Most of the time we’re not even aware that we’re echoing ourselves.

How do these unconscious akimbo dittos creep into our work? The English language is so rich with descriptors, why would we rob our manuscripts of the warmth and color that this richness brings to our work? Simply put — we’re lazy.

When the afore mentioned writer was feverishly scribbling away on her book, she arrived at a moment when her character took a stance, and the first word that popped into her head was akimbo. Writing akimbo was easier than it would be to stop the flow of her writing and come up with a different way of saying akimbo. The only problem is instead of going back to edit out ninety percent of the akimbos, she left them in and it became a distraction to the reader (and humorous to me, which I’m sure wasn’t her intention).

Don’t let yourself get lazy. Go through your work and get rid of repetitive words. Especially if they’re words like akimbo that are not used in everyday conversation.

If you need help, go to the Georgetown Linguistics website and use their frequency index tool (see the web address below). Copy your text into the box provided and click on the “Do it!” button. This website will give you a list of every word and how many times it was used in your manuscript.

I would suggest (and this is just my opinion) that if you discover that you’ve used akimbo more than twenty-nine times, get rid of all but one of them.

By the way akimbo appears 13 times in this passage. Annoying wasn’t it!

Georgetown Linguistics Website:
http://www.georgetown.edu/faculty/ballc/webtools/web_freqs.html

© 2004 Stacy Verdick Case.

Stacy Verdick Casewrote her first “book” when she was in second grade and hasn’t quit writing yet. She’s had numerous article and short stories published and has a couple manuscripts making the rounds. Her current manuscript, A Grand Murder, is receiving rave reviews, and took third in the Daphne du Maurier contest in the Unpublished Mainstream Mystery category. Visit Stacy on the web at www.StacyVerdickCase.com.

New freelance writers often wonder how to charge for their writing. Writers want to make sure that they get paid fairly for the effort they have put in. In the short term, writers may work for very little while they are getting established. But in the long term, writers who don’t earn a fair wage will not be able to freelance for long. There are three questions that freelance writers should ask themselves when deciding what hourly rate they should set.

What Do I Want To Earn For Writing?

Some writers write in their spare time and have full time jobs elsewhere. These writers may not need to earn as much as those who rely on writing for their income. Whatever their situation, writers should consider how much money they need to earn to eat, pay the bills and maybe have a little fun from time to time. It’s nice to think that you can catch a movie or go to a gig once in a while.

Writers also need to think about the taxman. Depending on where writers live, any where from 22% to 35% or more (if you’re really successful) will be gobbled up by the government. For example, in the UK, tax and National Insurance takes over 30% of your income (after allowances). So writers need to add this figure to the amount they want to earn.

How Much Writing Will I Do?

Full-time freelance writers will spend the equivalent of a working week on writing. That’s more than 2,000 hours a year. However, take out all the time you spend making cups of coffee, filing, blogging as well as sick days and holidays and there will probably be about 1800 hours left.

Writers also need to think about the cost of consumables. Pens, paper and print cartridges all cost money and this should be added to what writers want to earn.

What’s My Hourly Rate?

Once writers have calculated the number of hours they will work and the full amount they need to earn, working out an hourly rate is simple. Just divide the amount you need to earn by the number of hours you plan to work, and you’ve got a your hourly rate. Once writers have worked out what they need to earn, they have a figure to aim for.

One last thing. Even after setting an hourly rate, freelance writers need to be prepared to work for less occasionally. The freelance writing market is competitive and sometimes it is better to eat than to stand on principle. Writers always have to decide whether it is worth some short term swallowing of pride for the long term gain of having a better portfolio. Once writers have a good portfolio, they’ll stand a better chance of getting the hourly rate they deserve.

All my life I’ve relished stories about people who just kept chugging along or plugging away, until the world finally said: “I give up; you’re right!”

For example, as a kid I recall visiting a former champion figure skater by the name of Red McCarthy.

He was a friend of the family and his proudest possession was his own invention: a home gym that he housed in a special place of honor in his garage.

I don’t have to tell you what a home gym is. You’ve seen countless commercials for Soloflex and Bowflex, and you’ve used similar devices at health clubs and exercise studios.

But back in Red’s tinkering days, home gyms were unheard of, and his device was cutting edge.

Sadly, the world didn’t embrace his machine, and it took another two decades for the exercise revolution to reach us. But Red was on the right track, and given just a little more time, the quality of his work, and the thinking that went into it, would have been embraced and even celebrated.

Simply put: The world cannot ignore quality, forever.

If you doubt this, read a book by Dr. Srully Blotnick: GETTING RICH YOUR OWN WAY.

Blotnick studied hundreds of people over the course of decades, and then he compared the successful to the unsuccessful, and he found one significant characteristic that was more important than formal education or nearly anything else.

The winners found some work that they loved, and they stuck with it for the long haul. Finally, and often quite quietly, they grew better at what they did than most others, and the world acknowledged their achievements.

The best butchers, bakers, and candlestick makers grew rich, slowly but surely. It didn’t matter what field people chose for themselves according to the author, higher pay was their due when they were simply the best in their occupations.

So, Red didn’t make it, because he was a little too far ahead of his time.

But I, and some others, remember him fondly and with admiration, which I suppose is some small part of the world paying attention to his quality, at last!