Words on a page

I generally don’t put a lot of stock in grammar or style checkers. In my experience, they’ve tended to be a bit too wedded to strict rules. These kinds of checkers don’t take into account personal writing quirks and attempts at trying to make your writing a bit more original and fresh. Two aspects of writing that I think set you apart, and make your writing more interesting and readable, if done properly.

That said, I know more than a couple of people who do rely on grammar and style checkers. A few of them are, in fact, professional writers. Lately, I’ve been recommending After the Deadline to some people.

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Information. It’s the stock and trade of the professional writer. Notes. Facts. Quotes. Sundry bits and pieces that help us when it comes time to write.

One problem that writers face is keeping all the information that we collect in one easy-to-access location. That can be hard because we’re often never in one place at all times. Take me, for example. My main computer is the laptop on my desk at home. When I’m running around, I often carry a netbook. Often, but not always. Sometimes I only have my BlackBerry with me. Sometimes not even that.

So, how can you easily organize that information? Read on for a few suggestions.

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As a freelancer, something that’s probably more than just slightly important to you is getting paid. Most of us enjoy what we do, but job satisfaction doesn’t pay the bills or fund our vices. Obviously, to get paid we need to invoice clients.

To be honest, I do quite a bit of my work in the cloud. For the longest time that included using a Web-based, for-pay invoicing application called Blinksale.

Even though I like using Web-based tools, I also prefer to have as much of our data in my hands. On top of that, I’m an enthusiastic user (and promoter) of free and Open Source software (FOSS). It not only cuts my costs, but also gives me more flexibility.

While there’s nothing wrong with Blinksale, I needed a change. A few months ago, I looked around for a FOSS invoicing solution. I dug up a few, and decided to go with one called BambooInvoice.

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While I use and advocate using a wiki as an online tool for collaborating on writing projects, I realize that not everyone is comfortable with using one. And not everyone is willing to move outside of their comfort zone in order learn the joys of using a wiki.

A number of writers I know (myself included) use Google Docs for writing and collaborating online. When you’re collaborating on a writing project, you sometimes run into a situation where you’re working on a portion of that project in your own Google Docs space. Not just that, you might want to move (not just copy) one or more documents to a central Google Docs account. Or, like me, you either upload a document to, or start working one, in your own account when it should be in your company’s Google Docs space. I do that all the time.

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Like many writers (and others), I use Google Docs for drafting articles and even putting together the finished product. Google Docs makes it easy for me write, no matter where I am and not have to worry about transferring files between my computers.

Until recently, one problem with Google Docs was that if you wanted to backup your documents, spreadsheets, and presentations you had to do it one document or spredsheet at a time. Or, you could use a third-party backup tool.

Google Docs now has a built-in bulk export feature, which lets you download any number of files at the same time, that’s easy to use and quite fast. Here’s how you can take advantage of it.

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