Years ago I realized I was a good writer. I would say it started in elementary school when my teachers always told me how creative I was. In college, I helped friends edit their papers, and even though my degree was in biology, my first job after college was as an assistant editor.

So it makes sense that I’m pursuing a writing career.

More recently, I’ve figured out that I prefer writing for businesses. I write website content, newsletters, press releases, sales letters, correspondence, brochures, and more. Basically, I’m a freelance commercial writer.

A new freelance writer asked me to recommend some books that helped me get started. There are two that I found particularly useful for commercial writing, and they’re both by the same author.

Peter Bowerman’s books include The Well-Fed Writer and Back for Seconds. The best thing about his books is that they give explicit instructions for building your commercial writing business. It’s not a bunch of, “Look how great I am!”

Peter’s first book, The Well-Fed Writer, is very specific but primarily based on the way Peter built his business. It’s great for learning about an effective business model. When I followed his directions, I definitely made progress.

His second book, Back for Seconds, includes lots of examples from other writers’ experiences. You’ll learn from people from all walks of life who are running their own commercial writing businesses.I also appreciate that Peter responds to his email messages even though he’s clearly very busy. He has a new book coming out soon, and I’ll be sure to let you know what I think of it.

In the meantime, if you’re serious about a freelance writing career, grab these books and get to work. I pick them up whenever I need a boost.

I write using my keyboard most of the time. My typing speed is pretty good (65-75wpm, depending on inspiration), so typing as I’m thinking usually works for me. In fact, with horrible handwriting and an extreme dislike for writing by hand, typing is the only option. Or so I thought.

Here are three reasons I’ve started writing the old-fashioned way (by hand).

1. You can write while you wait. The other day, I was waiting my turn in urgent care (I was fine, it turned out), and happened to have my “idea notebook” with me. I was waiting, so I started writing. And writing. My hand hurt (see why I hate writing by hand?) but I was getting work done.

2. Children are drawn to computers. I’ve found that my daughter doesn’t interrupt me quite so much when I’m writing by hand. If I even lean toward my laptop, she finds some reason to notice my existence and comes up with some urgent need that only Mommy can tend to. Or she decides it’s time to “play a game” on the computer.

3. Writing by hand is an excellent way to write reviews of online documents. If you do everything on the computer, you have to deal with several open windows. You have to read the site or online document, then switch to Word, write something, switch back, etc. You get the picture. Or you have to print out your document, wasting printer paper, printer ink/toner, and some electricity. I now write reviews by hand while I’m looking at the computer screen. Much more efficient.

Do you tend to write on the computer, or do you use pen-and-paper writing too?

Lately I’ve been noticing a lot of the same types of writing mistakes across the blogosphere.

I’m sure most of the bloggers know the correct words to use and the proper grammatical techniques. Writing online kind of makes us lazy, so we bend the rules a little (some writers seem to just throw them out completely).

This past week I decided to take note of some of the common offenders. And as I explore the blogosphere, I’ll be writing a “writing tips of the week” post from time to time.

On to the writing tips for this week!

1. Complimenting someone is saying something nice about them. Complementing, though, is when two or more items go well together.

2. When you write pretty long sentences, try saying them out loud. Even though commas don’t always go at a “natural breath” point, chances are you do have to pause at some point during the sentence. So be sure to use a comma somewhere. But be careful. I don’t know which is worse; using commas all over the place or not using any at all. Watch those commas!

3. Try not to overuse certain words in a post, unless you’re trying to use a keyword on purpose to boost your SEO. Use your thesaurus, or just go back and check to see if a certain word is repeated 5, 10, or even 15 times in a 100-word post. Nothing’s more annoying that the annoying habit of using a word that becomes annoying after a while.

I’m officially a hired blogger.

Sounds dangerous, but I’m having a lot of fun. Babies Online has a new blog, and the owner decided to hire some contributing authors. Being the mother of a 2.5 year old, my favorite topics are babies, parenting, and getting through the toddler years with my sanity intact.

Crayon Writer isn’t the proper medium for all of my thoughts, so Babies Online is a perfect fit.

Check it out today. There is a lot of interesting and useful information, written from lots of different perspectives. Let us know you’re reading (comment, comment, comment), and if you like it, tell your readers about it too.

I’ve finally decided to try writing online articles for pay.

I’ve heard a lot about Associated Content, and I’m going to try a little experiment. My plan is to submit 50 articles, some exclusive and some I’ve already published. The point is to see if someone, namely me, can make a living from AC, or at least a nice side income. I got this idea from ChrisBlogging, a great freelance writing blog I just found out about.

One of the things that attracted me to AC is that I can write about whatever I want, and possibly get paid for it. Even though I call myself a freelance writer, I don’t spend a lot of time writing unless it’s for a client. This experiment should be a great way to exercise my writing (and typing) skills, and hopefully I’ll make some extra money at the same time.

Stay tuned for updates. Once I have at least 5 offers, I’ll let you know what’s going on. From my understanding it takes about two weeks for articles to be reviewed.

If you’ve tried Associated Content, what do you think about it?

Who knows when to use who, and for whom is this post?

The objective case is very confusing to many, and the who/whom question is at the top of the list.

My first piece of advice is easy, even if it’s technically incorrect:

• Just don’t use the word whom. It’s often used incorrectly, and it’s all but obsolete.

So I say pretend whom doesn’t exist. Just use the word who all the time.

If you insist, though, use it the right way. Here’s a quick lesson:

• Whom is an object, so it comes after a preposition most of the time.

“To whom do I give this book?” “I should give this book to whom?”

• The word who is always the subject.

“Who gets this book?”

So, just remember those simple rules, or, to avoid confusion and complicated decisions, just use who.

Check out this article for a more in-depth discussion, and read my earlier post about the objective case (where I discuss using I and me).

Thanksgiving is coming up, so it makes sense to write about being thankful this month.

Obviously, I’m thankful for my daughter, the sweetest person I’ve ever met. I’m the luckiest mommy in the world!

Second to that, I have to give tons of thanks to my parents. Without their love and support (all kinds of support), I wouldn’t have been able to stay at home with my daughter for this long. There are just too many (like 2 million) things to thank my parents for, including my wonderful education and my skills.

Because I want to write something everyday this month, I’ll list some of the other things I’m thankful for in later posts.

Oh, one more thing, just to keep this on the topic of writing. I’m thankful for my high school English teacher, Ms. Dinwiddie.

Good copywriting requires knowing the right words. But what are the right words, and how do you find them?

There are three main factors. Know your audience, don’t use the same words repeatedly, and understand the feelings behind your words and phrases.

Knowing your audience is key in good copywriting. That includes knowing how to talk to them.

I found a cute test for your blog’s readability. My blog was rated as elementary school level, and I was very pleased.

My blog’s audience is pretty much anyone. All ages, all nationalities.

I don’t want my readers to have to think too hard. After all, you’re looking at a computer screen. You want to get in and get out fast, or else you’d be reading a novel.

So I write in a straightforward, natural manner. Why use a complicated word when a simpler one will get the same point across?

Try not to be repetitive with your words. Often I’ll go back over a post to see if I used any word more than once. Sometimes it’s inevitable, but for adjectives you can almost always find different variations of the same word. I use this online thesaurus for my writing jobs.

Finally, remember that some words convey a feeling or connotation. For instance, you might ask people for hints, or you might ask for suggestions. They both mean pretty much the same thing, but a hint is kind of like a secret, while a suggestion is more sophisticated (I feel).

Also, consider other’s potential feelings about certain words or phrases.

Do you have any suggestions for making the right word choice?

I’m back to writing and blogging with a vengeance.

My day job as a call center representative didn’t last very long. Who knew that talking too much could be bad for your health? My throat is still recovering, even after having taken a two-month leave.

So that’s over, and I’m relieved. I’m back to being a work-at-home-mom. Kind of scary (I was enjoying a paycheck every couple of weeks), but great too (I missed being with my daughter).

I obviously think staying at home with my daughter is the best thing for her.

So I was pleased to accidentally find an inspiring, heartwarming post about WAHMs at Making Sales Making Money, a site about home based business opportunities. I found it on MyBlogLog (join my community)!

The author is also sponsoring a cool sweepstakes. So he recognizes the importance of WAHMs, and he’s trying to put money in folks’ pockets. What a find!

Part of marketing is letting people know you’re in business. So, listen up. I’m back in business! If you need a writer, I’m your gal. I have samples here on my blog, and also on my main website.

Spread the word!

If you are a blogger, you’re a published writer. But that doesn’t mean you’re a good writer.

But what is good writing?

Courtney Tuttle wrote a funny post today about how not to write a blog post. A lot of his points focused on readability online.

Good writing, online at least, includes how the copy looks, not just the grammar or spelling. Perfect textbook writing that is unappealing to readers’ eyes may as well be written by a two-year-old.

Take a look at his post for some humorous, absolutely accurate points about writing for blogs.