How Can Freelance Writers Make It in This Economy?

Now is the time for creative thinking

Dear Ellie:

This recession has impacted my income as a writer so severely that I don’t know what to do. For more than 30 years, I have been successful as a freelance writer. I enjoy an excellent reputation in my city and have had continuous contracts with newspapers and a wide variety of magazines. Now newspapers are shrinking or going bankrupt, and many magazines have simply stopped publishing. I have recently been writing for some medical magazines and have experience in the restaurant and travel industries. I have not had a new contract for a number of months, and I am getting desperate. I am over age 65 and cannot survive on Social Security alone. What do you advise? Read More >>

Help Friends Stay Away from Regrets over the Past

Don't regret the things you did not do

Dear Ellie:

Recently, I have been hearing many of my older women friends talking about the things in their life that they regret. Mostly, their regrets seem to be about things that they did not do, rather than things they did do. It seems sad to me that they are thinking so negatively and missing out on the pleasures of their mature lives. What might I do to help them change their attitudes or focus their attention on the future rather than the past? Wilma

Dear Wilma:

You are very generous to want to help change your friends’ negative and remorseful attitudes. I agree with you—there is little to be gained from thinking about what we did not do in past years. However, the good thing about talking about our regrets is that we can acknowledge them, perhaps do something about them, and move on. If our regrets stay buried, they can gnaw away at our current satisfaction and cause us to live unhappily in the past. Read More >>