Hello, LinkedIn. Let's Be Friends.

Remember when I talked about this being the year where I said 'yes' a lot more? Well, I've noticed that without the right tools, I haven't had the chance to say yes to anything yet, because no one's asking the question.

I've had a LinkedIn profile for a couple of years, but I've never really found a way to utilize it as a freelance writer. I find it much easier to use other social media platforms to discover clients and publications that I am interested in working with. But I've made this a year of radical change, so I went back to my LinkedIn profile and realized that I've been doing it all wrong.

The one piece of advice from career experts talking about LinkedIn is that your profile shouldn't look like your resume. Mine totally does, so I'm making the point to fix it. I started with the headline, which once I changed it to better describe my wide range of freelancing skills (without being too jack-of-all-trades, of course), I noticed that it just looked better. It fit my personality. It was right.

Now I just have to put the work in on each of the sections. I still feel like the whole thing is one giant humble brag. I have to get over that attitude and be confident when I tell people I have accomplishments. And like in the world of independent publishing, if something isn't doing the job--change it. That's what I intend to do.

Terri Deno

Fire Up the Back Burner

...because I've got something to simmer. I set out to finish two first draft manuscripts this month, and I'm halfway there. The novel that I started for NaNoWriMo last November (Verses and Vows) is now a complete first draft! It's a very rough first draft, but there's a distinct beginning, middle and end to work with. And since any good writer will tell you that you need a little space between writing and revising, that's exactly what I plan to do.

The other first draft (In Another Life) is still right in the middle of all the action. If I want to get both of these novels published before the end of the year, I really have to get this first draft finished by spring. This second novel is actually the one I want to put out first, simply because it is the novel I chose to have cover art done for when I won a contest last year. This novel process has actually been going completely backwards--I have the cover and a lot of the promotional work planned out, but I'm still lacking the actual novel. 

If I want to get anymore done, I better get back to it. ;-)





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P.S.: If you are curious about any of my current or upcoming work, you don't have to wait for the next blog post. Go ahead and follow me on Facebook, Twitter or Google+. I'm also on LinkedIn if that's more your thing.