Comments on: FWJ Mega Icebreaker

By: Stop Being Your Own Worst Freelancing Enemy | Freelance Writing Jobs

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 01:07:33 +0000

[...] Megatron posted the FWJ Mega Icebreaker, I noticed that there were some readers who shared that really wanted to write but that they were [...]

By: Jenny B

Jenny B — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 21:39:24 +0000

Megatron,
No, I’m not familiar with this year’s Newberry winner but thank you for bringing it to my attention.

Amy, thanks, I find it really helps because they know that we’ll get everything fixed up in the edit but it will still be their “voice”.

By: Megatron

Megatron — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 20:48:22 +0000

Jenny, that sounds so much fun! Are you familiar with this year's Newbery winner, Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! by Laura Amy Schlitz? I hear she originally wrote it for her grade-school classes to perform.

By: Amy

Amy — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 19:15:22 +0000

Jenny — I think the “making mistakes copy” idea is great!

By: Jenny B

Jenny B — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 18:44:23 +0000

@ Megatron and Amy: I agree with you both. Comics work well too. For the students that are more fearful of writing their thoughts, I ask them to make me some comics. Using the pictures and just a small amount of words is just what they need. Amy, I reassure my students that I’ll be able to figure out what they write. I don’t want their fear of mispelling or grammar to stifle their self expression. It’s what I call their “Making Mistakes Copy”. Their good copy is always edited but their mistakes copy….I want them to just let go and create. I’ve also shared some of my writing with them and have written many poems/plays for my kids to perform.

By: Amy

Amy — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 18:18:11 +0000

Jenny — That’s really cool. I do this volunteer judging thing once a year for the Do The Write Thing challenge, where inner-city middle school kids write essays about how violence affects their lives. Every year there is at least one that really makes me cry (and I’m not a crying type). And I am always amazed at how some of these kids, even though they can barely spell and their grammar skills are terrible, can really express themselves through writing.

By: Megatron

Megatron — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 18:09:27 +0000

Awww, Jenny, kids are the best. Their creativity is so amazing! I also work closely with kids’ creative products for one of my gigs, and I’m always absolutely blown away by what they manage to come up with. Sometimes I feel like I could stand taking a page or two out of their books.

By: Jenny B

Jenny B — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 15:52:39 +0000

Megatron,
I’m a primary/junior teacher. I’ve taught grades 1,2,3,5 and 6. Ilove the research and prep work. I particularly enjoy reading the stories my students write. Some of them have really developed a knack for writing that I hope they keep up. Thanks for asking.

By: RobinMarie

RobinMarie — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 14:17:15 +0000

Kirsten, Leigh and Victoria: I’m with you. In October, I quit my full-time job and started up freelancing without really knowing where I was going. I was pretty sure that I would shoot myself if I had to stay at my current job another day, so it seemed like a good time. I literally signed the documents for my house and then went in the next day and put in my two weeks notice. Three days after I started “full-time” freelancing with only one part-time gig, I got three new blogging gigs.

Samantha: The earlier the better for me, too. I think better when I work in the morning and I enjoy it more.

@Jessica: My writing professor MADE us get published – it was 20% of the grade for one of the classes (if we tried a certain number of times and it didn’t work out, we still got the grade, but we had to bring in the rejection letters). If you have a local newspaper, either in your college town or your hometown, try submitting there – a trend piece or something. And if you write for the college newspaper, that’s a clip, too (that didn’t count for us since we were all required, but it was nice to be able to send it with our “official” query like “see! I’ve been published!”).

By: Amy

Amy — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 01:57:42 +0000

Dani — That’s funny! I do have a facebook account, because I signed up for one just so no one else with my name could have it. How mean is that? I never use it, but I keep getting messages like “so and so has requested to add you as a friend” or something like that. I don’t even know how to use facebook. I got a headache trying to figure it out. But apparently I have a few friends in case I ever do learn how to use it. LOL