The Little Tornado

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Three important stories I wrote in 2021 as a freelance journalist

3 important stories I wrote in 2021 and why I think they were important.

The stories I wrote in 2021 did number more than three, I promise. But most of them were about cycling or fell into the realm of penning an unbylined radio news bulletin on COVID-19 public health information. So out of all the stories I wrote in 2021, here are the top three. Life in Limbo for The Age (reprinted in the Sydney Morning Herald) Link to the story:…

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6 Lessons from a year of writing crime fiction

I spent a year writing crime fiction and livestreaming it and here is what I learnt

If you didn’t know yet I have been writing crime fiction for the past entire year. I have been working on a crime fiction novel in the hopes that I could finish it off and start working on the next one. But it is taking time. And last year I decided to livestream the writing so I could get more done. Here are the lessons I learnt. Lesson 1: Livestreaming yourself writing crime fiction pays…

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How much I made in 2021 as a freelancer

How much I made in 2021 as a freelancer and why it is important to talk about it.

I mentioned my income goals in my last post but what most people want to know is how much do freelancers make? So here is what I made NOT in the last financial year (since in Australia that would be from July 2021 to June 2022) but what I made in the last calendar year from January 2021 to December 2021. A little explanation on the different types of work that I do as a freelancer I have quite…

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My goals for 2022: making my freelancing work better for me

Here are some of the goals for 2022 that I plan to work on. What are yours?

We talked about how I am trying to set and plan goals for 2022 in the last blog post. So this one is to tell you what those goals are. Goal 1: Blogging more often Why: I started with the blog and the purpose of this blog is to provide information that I struggled to find when I first started out. It is also meant to help market my work and my services. It is also something searchable which not…

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How to successfully set goals and plan for 2022

How I plan for 2022 and set goals as a freelancer

A plan for 2022 is going to start with some goals but it’s important to take stock first of what you have done. We discussed what I managed to achieve last year, last week. Are there goals, habits or systems that you want to continue with? Have some been achieved so it is time for the next phase or next thing on your list? More importantly, what worked? And why? What didn’t? And why not? What…

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My 2021 year in review - amazing goals success or failure?

My 2021 year in review - some of the goals I had and how I hit or missed them wildly.

The 2021 year in review – were all the goals met and hit and what of COVID-19? 2021 year in review: Goal 1: Do more journalism work So with all my goal setting I set up actions that I thought would get me closer to achieving this goal. I deliberately didn’t set a target for this goal because it was more of an experimental year to see how much I could do. Actions I took: Trying to pitch 5…

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How to write a freelance pitch to an editor

How to write a freelance pitch to an editor

If you want to be a freelance writer, getting your head around how to write a freelance pitch to an editor is vital. It is something that requires a lot of practice and from time to time you will feel like you have forgotten how to go about doing it. But it isn’t that hard to send out a pitch. Sometimes the hardest part is coming up with the story idea. But in this post, we will go over how to…

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Why I really need to take a week off for rest right now

Why I really need to take a week off for rest right now and why freelancers need to start building time off into their businesses.

When I first started working as a freelancer, I never really thought much about setting up the business in a way that demarcated clear boundaries about my personal time off. And I put that down to knowing I would have to work hard, having a great deal of independence and autonomy about how I could choose to spend my time but also thinking that it would sort of fall into place. But here is the…

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7 Important Lessons I Learned About Running Awesome Livestreams

7 Important Lessons I Learned About Running Awesome Livestreams

So as you may know by now, I have been running #writewithme livestreams for the past few weeks. In order to create a writing habit and to help others do the same.This is a summary of what I have learned so far. 1. Three livestreams a week is probably what I can manage without making myself go blind. I am prone to dry eyes and while I am not staring at my ring light for most of the time that I…

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My 10 Compelling Reasons For Running Youtube Livestreams Right Now

My 10 Reasons For Running Youtube & Twitch #writewithme Livestreams Right Now

In case you missed it, I am running #writewithme livestreams on Youtube and Twitch every day this week Monday to Thursday (I was too tired on Friday so it didn’t happen), for one hour at 9 am Melbourne time, 6 am Perth, Australia time and 5 pm NYC time. The livestreams are free. You can turn up with something, anything to work on. You can chat if you want to. You don’t need to log in and if you…

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10 Important Things You Need To Know About Finding A Mentor

10 Important Things You Need To Know About Finding A #Mentor

This post came out of a chat with accountability partner and all around awesome shenaniganist Creatrix Tiara so all credit to them for the idea. But basically I was recounting a few mentoring ups and down and times when people had deemed me an unofficial mentor and they said “You should write a post about that.” And so here we are. Here are the things you need to be mindful of when you seek out…

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How to easily track pitches in Google Sheets as a freelance journalist

How I track pitches in Google Sheets as a freelance journalist

Before I start, I want to give credit to Rachel’s List as I used to use their pitch tracker which is worth checking out. But I wanted something a bit more tailored to my specific workflow. Because I might also write creative writing work to submit to outlets.And I also didn’t want to track some of the things that they did. I try to keep it simple and easy The spreadsheet in Google Sheets that…

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What you need to know about freelancing in Australia and COVID-19

Thoughts on freelancing in Australia with or without COVID-19.

COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on the workforce in Australia. The current effective unemployment rate is something around 9.3%. As more people get to return to work after lockdown and industries recover, the numbers will go down. But for many people and industries, it’s going to be a long hard and slow slog. For many there are no options but to regroup and go off in a different direction. This then…

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How my business will change for the better in 2021 and why

How my business will change for the better in 2021 and why

In a lot of ways this year I have been perfectly positioned to do well despite a global pandemic. So maybe this should be a post on how and why I have weathered this storm. I might still write one of those posts. But moving forward, some things are going to change about how I run this business. And all of them have nothing to do with Covid-19. Some of them have been thoughts in the back of my…

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December 2020: What's new & what I have been upto

Blog post: What I have been upto in November and what I am planning for December.

Well first of all I had had plans for November 2020.

I had planned to sit and relax and write more of the book – about 30,000 words extra to be exact. That worked for about a week.

I am also involved in various projects in a voluntary capacity where I try to provide some assistance somehow. One of these ended up having a lot of drama and that caused a lot of stress.

So I didn’t get to…

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How I am planning for the next financial year as a freelancer - despite Covid-19

How I am planning for the next financial year as a #freelancer - despite #Covid19

This may seem strange to you. In a world that increasingly seems to offer little prospects for freelancers, why would I plan for 2020-2021? Or at least plan to continue freelancing?

Reasons it’s hard on Australian freelancers:

Closures & shutdowns of sections, papers and magazines and budget cutbacks leave freelancers with very few places to pitch to.

The knock on effect of…

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How you can help regional papers from closing even if you live in the city.

Here is how you can & why you should help regional papers from closing even if you live in the city. #ourstories #ourcommunities @withmeaa

If you have been paying attention, you would have heard about the recent closing down of many regional newspapers and outlets across Australia.

You might wonder what that has got to do with you. You might be wondering why you should care.

It affects you immensely.

Do you rely on the ABC for your news? A lot of what the ABC can cover in the regions depends on smaller local and rural…

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