Jesse Says It

If you’re a writer and you don’t check Daily Writing Tips regularly, you’re missing out on some great ideas that can help boost your creativity and motivation. The site also boasts a lot of fun content, like this article by Mark Nichol that lists 30 adjectives and adverbs you probably shouldn’t use anymore.

Being the rebellious writer that I am, though, I’m going to challenge myself to use some of these in the next piece I write. I’ll probably fail miserably, but I’ll be sure to let you know if I succeed. 

1. Anon (adv.): soon, or later (“They will arrive anon”; “I will reveal more anon”)
2. Aright (adv.): correctly (“Did I hear aright?”)
3. Athwart (adj., prep.): across (“The locked chest lay athwart the planks”)
4. Belike (adv.): probably (“Belike we are more similar than you think”)
5. Enow (adj., adv.): enough (“If I had loved enow, I would be a happier man”)
6. Fain (adj., adv.): willing, compelled, inclined, pleased (“Fain am I to hear you sing”)
7. Forsooth (adv.): indeed (“Forsooth, I do believe you envy him”)
8. Forthwith (adv.): immediately (“Carry this message forthwith”)
9. Froward (adj.): contrary, adverse (“His horse was froward, and threw him when he set his spurs”)
10. Heretofore (adv.): up to this time (“Heretofore, I had not believed it possible”)
11. Hither (adj., adv.): to this place (“Come hither when you are able”)
12. Hitherto: see heretofore
13. Lief (adj., adv.): beloved (“You are my lief friend”); willing (“I would as lief be beside you now”)
14. Mayhap (adv.): perhaps (“Mayhap we shall see them tomorrow”)
15. Meet (adv.): appropriate (“It is meet that you do so”)
16. Nary (adj.): not any or not one (“Nary a sign have I seen of him”)
17. Natheless (adv.): nevertheless (“Though it is dangerous, natheless will I go)
18. Needs (adv.): necessarily (“I must needs be heard so that all shall know”)
19. Nigh (adj., adv.; prep.): near, nearly, direct (“Those who pursue are nigh upon us”)
20. Peradventure (adj., adv., prep.): see mayhap (also n.: a doubt or chance)
21. Posthaste (adj., adv., n.): immediate (“Your posthaste reply is appreciated”); as quickly as possible (“We will arrive posthaste”)
22. Puissant (adj.): powerful (“She is a puissant adversary”)
23. Sith (adv.): since (“Sith that time, I have wept often over the memory”)
24. Strait (adj., adv.): narrow, or strict or rigorous (“I would have you be strait in your habits”)
25. Thither (adj., adv.): there, on the other or farther side (“Our host took us thither”; “What you seek is in the thither valley”)
26. Verily (adv.): certainly, truly, with confidence (“Verily, I did see it with my own eyes”)
27. Whereof (adv., conj.): of what (“Whereof have you seen in the world?”)
28. Withal (adv., prep.): besides, nevertheless (“Though you may be right, I withal must see for myself”)
29. Yare (adj.): agile, handy, ready (“She’s a yare vessel, all right”)
30. Yon (adj., adv., pron.): over there (“I ride to yon village”; “What do you see yon?”)

1. Google

If Google were to go away tomorrow, I would utterly fail as a freelancer. The majority of my personal and professional life takes place within the Google ecosystem. I use Google Docs as my primary word processor, Google Calendar to organize assignments and meetings, Gmail to manage over a dozen email accounts with well over 30 filters to keep the experience nice and organized, and Google Voice for both my personal and professional telephony services.

Everything Google offers is free and indispensable to my daily routine. Yes, Google knows more about me and my digital habits than even I do, but this invasion of privacy is worth the price because of the interconnected-ness of the Google ecosystem. Everything I do is available from any computer or smartphone with Internet access. I use multiple computers throughout my day and the ability to access my files from any of them – or even on the go with my smartphone – is essential.

2. Tumblr

Tumblr is my blogging platform of choice. It doesn’t have the most features, and it certainly has its downfalls, but it does what it does really well. I manage several blogs from a single interface. The ability for other Tumblr users to follow my blogs and access my content directly from their Dashboards, as well as its tight Twitter integration, makes it the perfect platform to spread my work without much afterthought.

3. Shoeboxed

I hate paper. My digital life is organized down to the last kilobyte, but I have yet to find an organizational system for my physical documents that works for me. With Shoeboxed, I can scan all of my documents, receipts, expense reports, contracts, or any other document and have it analyzed and organized for me. I use the free option, which allows for 5 automatic document processings (which includes OCR and verification). The service also offers a premium version that bumps that number up to 500. Once you use your allotted processings, you can still upload your documents, you’ll have to manually tag everything. Google Docs can work in a similar fashion, but I prefer the organization Shoeboxed offers.

4. Billing Boss

While I love the freedom freelancing affords me in terms of choosing my work hours, working around my academic and personal responsibilities, and not having to deliver pizzas or up-sell to customers, I really hate having to chase after my paychecks. Invoicing. No one likes doing it, but it’s one of those things that has to be done. Billing Boss is my invoicing service of choice. The service is completely free and offers unlimited invoices (unlike some of the more popular services such as FreshBooks, which only allows a few free invoices per month), and allows invoicers to send unbranded emails, accept payments online, and keeps track of all payments. All for free. It’s really amazing. The one thing the service doesn’t offer that I would really like is the option to pay a small fee for them to print and mail a physical copy of the invoice to your client. Other (paid) invoicing services do offer this feature, but Billing Boss does give you a PDF of the invoice, so it’s not difficult to print and sent it yourself. In short – it makes my life much easier.

5. Cardcloud

It doesn’t happen often (given that I don’t leave my house unless I’m absolutely forced to do so), but every once in a while, I run into a potential client in the wild. I don’t use paper business cards because we all know how well those work. You give it to the client, they throw it in their wallet or purse and it’s never seen again. Instead, I use Cardcloud, an app for iOS and Android that allows you to create a business card and send it to another person. If the other person has the Cardcloud app on their device, you can send it using the app’s location-based connection. More than likely, though, the other person won’t have the application install on their phone. In that case, you can email it to them directly from the app. All you have to do it ask for their email address. They’ll instantly receive a message with your business card in the email itself and as .vcf (vCard) that can be imported directly into their email client’s contact list.

So there you have it – 5 absolutely essential tools for freelancers. Now go be productive!

You all suck.