Stress-free productivity: You can do lots of things to approach it, but let me suggest one that you might not have thought about.

Empty your e-mail inbox.

Why? Because you’re using it as a calendar, contact list, task list,...

The holiday season is over and now it’s time to go back to work.
While no one, with the possible exception of the Mayans, can predict how 2012 will unfold, there are ways to make sure your year starts off well.
Attitude is key:...

Writers are all over the map when it comes to blogging, and this is understandable: as a new platform for communication, its value has yet to be convincingly proven. Blogging is a brave new world, a frontier, and those who have forged ahead have...

Hate to speak in public? Sorry, but you can’t afford not to. Speaking in public is like networking on steroids, because every time you speak to a group, you become the expert, the go-to person. Think about what that can do for your business...

Do you attend conferences and live events?
As a writer, learning how to network effectively will help you get more writing jobs. Live events are ideal, because you can learn more about someone in a few minutes than you can after months of...

It’s often said that volunteering is about “giving back”, but as a volunteer on the PWAC Toronto Chapter board since 2005 who’s learned a ton and had so much fun, I sometimes feel like I’m getting way more in return...

For many years, I have had the privilege of moving in many different writing circles as I continue to explore my own curiosity for my motivation and desire since childhood to become a writer. I still struggle with my place as a writer because not...

With the near nuclear meltdown in Japan, oily death in the Gulf of Mexico, disappearing glaciers, and natural habitats in peril, there’s no shortage of bad news about the environment. But, for writers interested in ecology these are,...

My evidence is purely anecdotal, but it seems to me that an increasing number of my writing colleagues are turning away from magazines and towards books as a means of professional fulfillment. There’s the former technology writer whose how-...

Editor’s Note:
This post follows PWAC Toronto Chapter’s Freelancers Forum, a one-day...

As a writer I grapple with words, trying to paint pictures all day long. As an educator and writers’ conference organizer, my struggle is the same. From the earliest days of the Ontario Writers’ Conference, we had confidence in our...

Dear Freelance Writers,
My name is Nicole Cohen. I am a doctoral candidate in the graduate program in Communication and Culture at York University. I am also a freelance writer and the co-founder and former co-...

PWAC Toronto Chapter’s October seminar, “Insiders’ Guide to Pitching Magazines,” was an enlightening look at how the editors of consumer magazines and their websites...

When it comes to writing for newspapers and magazines or writing fiction, too many writers sit down in front of the blank screen and try to bash out newsy, clever, colourful, creative copy. But when it comes to writing articles or novels, writing...

Kicking back over beer on the patio with fellow writers the other night, it struck me how diverse our membership has become in the decade since I joined ...