Studio Blog

Today we have a blog post from LIVESTRONG.COM winner Andrea Cespedes. Andrea shares how she started writing for Demand Media Studios and how she fits writing into her hectic lifestyle. Read more about Andrea at her blog, http://www.fitnessbetweenfriends.com.

I must admit, I am a food diary junkie. I’ve tried about a dozen different ones, but always come back to The Daily Plate. When using it one day back in the summer of 2009, I saw an ad to write for LIVESTRONG.COM.

I’d always had aspirations to be a freelance writer – I’d won creative writing awards while at Princeton and even dallied with food writing after culinary school – but had never really figured out where to start. That was August 2009, and I wrote a whopping 2 articles that month for eHow. I thoroughly researched each one – printed out pages and pages of studies -- and was bolstered when an editor gave me big props for one.

In the beginning, I made my share of mistakes. I did not pay much attention to formats – back then there were almost too many to count. I’d get rewrites because I wrote to the wrong format. I kind of just dove in without reading the guidelines. What’s more, I over-researched. I would have far too much information and articles would be so long that it took time to trim them down. I even chose articles that were “writable,” but took a lot of extra research because I did not have inherent knowledge of the subject.

Eventually, I started using tips from people in the forums to streamline my writing process. Particularly useful tips included sticking to writing about things you know and abandoning titles when they take too long to write.

Over time, I’ve started to develop my own tricks. I write all my articles in Word and run spell and grammar checks. I also look for words I tend to repeat and use the thesaurus function often to add variety. I have a number of go-to references memorized. Sometimes I even use blacklisted references to get information and then find acceptable references that say the same thing.

Perhaps my best piece of advice is what to do when you’re not writing. Honestly, I don’t always feel inspired to write. During those times I look for new titles, add pictures to titles in my queue or fill in references and key words.

Other than that, I multi-task and work hard all the time – there’s no magic, just plain determination. I get up at 4:00 am almost every day to finish one or two articles before I teach a 5:30 am cycle or kickboxing class. Try to finish another in the morning between 8:30 am and 10:00 am and then do my best to fit other writing in after 12:15 when my son goes to preschool and I have about 3 hours to myself. My computer is in the kitchen/living area so I can always write while making dinner, assisting with homework and pretending to watch Icarly with my daughter. I set a goal to do at least 4 articles per day, but really try to write more. It’s not easy, however. I teach about 25 group fitness classes per week, act as a consultant for Gold’s Gym here in Colorado Springs, have four personal training clients weekly and am training for a marathon. I also have two kids and a husband…and a very messy house.




More tips on achieving your daily goals…

“Choose topics that are enjoyable and teach you something. That way, you grow as a person as well as a writer.” – Barbara Dunlap, Writer

“I used to purposely look for titles that interested me, but were about subjects I didn’t know much about.  I thought that would put me in the position of the reader looking for valid “how to” or background information on the subject. I still try to do that, and I recommend that to new editors as a way to ease into this.” – Ward Triplett, Copy Editor

“When, where and for how long I work day to day is closely tied to my other obligations, namely homeschooling my children. I've learned to adapt and change things up quickly as life throws me the inevitable curve balls. Sometimes that means getting up at 4:30 in the morning to get a few hours of work in before the kids get up. Sometimes it means picking one day a week to send the kids off with family so I can have my own little all-day DMS Titling Fest in order to meet my goals for the week.” – Stephanie Hoyt, Titling

Since we announced our Contributor Awards, we’ve heard many of you ask how our editorial team decided who is the “best of the best.”
   
Truth be told, it was hard. Our editorial team spent hours poring over our writers, copy editors, titlers and bloggers, trying to decide what exactly constitutes “best.” It was a close race but in the end, we chose winners based on impeccable work, passion for Demand Media Studios and dedication to always getting better.

But that’s not the only question we received. So many of you also want to know: what’s their secret?

To uncover the secrets, tips and tricks of our top contributors, we conducted interviews, sent out surveys and commissioned videos to truly surface their secrets. Throughout the week, we’ll be featuring an interview, blog or video from at least one of our winners.

To kick off the series, we wanted to share some top tips from a variety of our winners. We’ll continue to share more tips, along with a featured winner each day.


“Create a ‘flow’ that works for you. Last year I was completing my first novel. For a while, my goal was to work for X-number of hours on fiction and X-number on articles daily. But I gave myself permission to spend more time on my novel if it was really flowing...and equal permission to work on articles if I met a creative slump or needed to let a part of my novel marinate.” – August McLaughlin, writer

“Mornings are best [for writing], but all too often I ended up with late nights to get as much done as I could for the day. And I hate doing that. The more you accomplish early, the better you feel to keep going and pull off a great goal for the day. Nothing feels better than knowing you've written X amount of articles by lunchtime. Makes the rest of the day less stressful to be over the hump.” – James Highland, writer

“The difference between how I edit now and when I began is that I…look through the entire piece before I start editing to get a feel for it and to judge whether I think I can approve on first read or will have to send back, which then informs how closely I edit.” – Suzanne Tarrant, Copy Editor

Starting today Demand Media Studios is sponsoring an exclusive deal for our community members eligible to participate in the Demand Deals program. With Demand Deals, eligible community members can save on everything from movie tickets, clothes and accessories to electronics and more.

For the next few days we are making the Barnes and Noble Nook Color available exclusively to the DMS community for 50% off! Be sure to act fast because there are a limited quantity of Nooks available at this discounted price each day.

Head to the forums for more information on how to take advantage of this exclusive deal!

For information on Demand Deals please check out our FAQs in the Resource Center. Or for more information on our eligibility requirements click here.