Liana Smith Bautista is a writer and editor of awesome, reader-friendly content.

The bulk of her work involves writing articles, planning and editing online content, and working with authors on developmental, line, and/or copy editing for their manuscripts, but she has also done some workshops and magazine editing.

She's happy to do anything related to communications, but shaping stories (her own or other people’s) is her passion.

Watch this #JasSuccess interview and discover a lot of things about Liana, including:

✅ The best way to begin a career in writing
✅ How to deal with writer's block
✅ Valuable tips and bits of advice for writers

and much much more.

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Notable Quotes:

• I guess I've been writing, making stories since before I even learned to read because my parents would do this thing called interactive storytelling.
• I'd be like “oh I'm a writer” and they'd ask me for samples. If I didn't have samples I would invent them.
• So you know one of my earlier clients was someone who wanted me to write about real estate in the States, so internet search is your friend. When you don't know anything about what you need to write about. But they were pretty happy because they came back to me with like a series of articles after my first one for them so I guess it works.
• I was applying for a job and I think I was kind of sure like I kind of had a trick that my HR friends get mad at me for because I would apply for jobs and then even if I wasn't really interested in a job I'd apply for it because if they would call me in for an interview I would kind of use it as practice so that when I did get a job that I wanted I would be able to give a good interview so that's what I did. And then my HR friends now are saying don't tell anyone to do that because you're wasting our time but it's out there, that's what I did.
• So then I met you and you're online which I've never done before so, I guess not like that's where I am now where I'm exploring the online thing like I said I just made my Upwork profile.
• Honestly, I came to a point where I don't need to look jobs anymore. Although I'm starting it because I'm taking John's freelance movement class to which you have a module in. You have a course in so I decided okay I'm gonna kind of shift towards actually freelancing.
• I kind of just embrace the craziness because my other homework was to get accountability partners. And I have about three or four now and now was always just telling me like how crazy I am because I am slightly extroverted only unchecked so I guess it's like I just go for it and because I've kind of crafted a career being kind of game for anything I mean even stuff that I hated I've done.
• I think one thing is, there are good things, there are bad things and sometimes the good things for you are not necessarily good things for other people and sometimes the bad things for you are not necessarily the bad things for other people, though.
• I guess the culture of both the family and that was also reinforced by the school I went to was you don't stop learning because you don't know what's useful and not useful.
• Yeah, it was just like because the constraints were universal at least in our family you kind of learn to work around things and you kind of learn to problem solve and I learn how to prioritize because how much do I want to work to watch this TV versus to my sister's chocolate.
• One thing was really from a young age you had that idea that if you work for others then you're earning money for other people but if you work for yourself then you're then at least the money that you get or the effort that you put in the rewards will go to you and your family.
• The good thing about writing is that if you don't have an existing portfolio you can make your own.
• Don't be afraid of a lack of portfolio because I feel like if you have work on developing your skills because if you have the skills then the portfolio is very easy for you to generate.
• Use your time wisely and try not to think too into linear affection when you're doing your research or doing your interviews.
• I come from a school where there is no writer's block and that's a scary idea because then you realize that writer's block is just an excuse. If you really just can't write through it then do things related to writing like outlining.
• Writing would just be a matter of putting together the things that you've researched then I can pitch a story.
• You can't afford a writer's block if you're trying to make money out of writing. You can't afford to wait until you feel like writing to do the work that you need to do.
• You should never stop upskilling because you'd never know what skills you might need

Liana Smith-Bautista’s Journey to Freelancing

• Begins writing since and making stories since before she even learned to read because her parents would do this thing called interactive storytelling. At two-three years old they would make up stories at bedtime.
• She learned to write stuff and sometimes her Titos and Titas would let her write a story or write something sweet about her cousin. She would earn a little money at that time for writing about her cousin.
• During her growing-up years, she used her typing and writing skills (in Wordstar) to earn money to be able to buy books to read especially during summer.
• During her college days, she was part of an online writing forum in which they would do what they called round-robin writing. She had a friend from there that she helped populate her Geocities writer's page. That friend of her referred her to her client who was looking for someone to write a lot of content for fantasy erotica.
• She started writing a bunch of it even she was just less than 20 years old. She makes money from it even until recently and it ranges upwards of a hundred and fifty dollars per story.
• That sets the tone for all her freelancing gigs that followed because a few months into the erotica writing game, she was asked to write for the now-defunct local magazine about college life. She was submitting articles to people, doing ghost-writing or other things such as chatting or going to the forums in ICQ and Craigslist.
• In 2008 she moved to Manila when she got married. She worked for about a year in an internet security company doing consumer tech solutions on their website.
• She then was hired by Summit Media for a website called Female Network. While working in Summit for Female Network she also writes articles in Cosmo and Good Housekeeping Philippines as a freelancer both in their websites and magazines. She had also a couple of stories in Manila Bulletin.
• In 2013 or 2014 she wrote her first steamy novella and published it in a local electronic book called Buku and later in Kindle using a pen name.
• While doing different freelance writing, she is also managing a business (Books and Brews) Cafe in Cebu and help other family businesses such as restaurant and resort.
• She is also doing workshops with other local bloggers/ writers.
• She met Jason and in the process of trying online freelancing through Upwork.

Q and A Highlights

How you came to where you are today. What you're doing in the past and what led you on this path become a successful writer?

Okay, that's a long and involved story. I guess I've been writing since and I think I've been making stories since before I even learned to read because my parents would do this thing called interactive storytelling. So when we were like two-three years old they would do stories, like they'd make up stories at bedtime where it would be like, "once upon a time there was a princess in a tower and what was her name, Liana." And you would have to think up a name on the spot or like when the princess was battling the dragon or whatever did she do to defeat the dragon and then you would have to fill in the blank. So from that we really just got into a culture of storytelling as a family, I guess. And then once I started school from first grade onwards my Mom, because my Dad had passed on by that time, had this rule that you only get allowance when you get during school months because during the school months, your job is school but if you want money during the months when you don't have school then you have to earn it and you'd have to do it through chores you'd have to do it by finding other ways to peddle your belongings or your skills for cash.

And how old are you?

Seven, that would have been only seven or six years old, so back then we had a computer and not everybody had a computer at home so you know I would offer to type stuff up on WordStar for my mom or my Tita. Well, the Wordstar stuff maybe at like eight or nine. But at seven years old I would sell fruits from my Lolo from Cebu and at the time we were living in Manila and my Lola had a mango farm and he would send us these baskets of Cebu mangoes and then at that time we were living across the street from the British school in Manila. So I would set up a table with my little brother and then we would sell to all these moms walking with their kids from the British school. And as you know our mangoes are really good so I got repeat customers so I would know that every three o'clock [or] four o'clock I would set up my table and I could get rid of my mangoes for the day. So, you know we were always selling those things and then later I learned to write stuff and sometimes, I realized that later that a lot of my Titos and Titas were just too … me because they would be like, "Oh write me a story or write me something sweet about your cousin" or something. But, from then I would charge like five pesos or ten pesos at that time for like a paragraph about my cousin. And, then later when we started having family businesses like we put up an internet cafe and so during summers and after school I would stay at the internet cafe and if there were any transcription or data entry jobs that needed to be done in high school, I was the person who did that. We would get these people because this was like the late 90s and then it wasn't like older people tended to not be as technologically look like. It's true now. But older people who are on Facebook now so, but back then they didn't really know how to use Microsoft Word or whatever. Then so, I would type up there but I got a steady client who would send emails to his family in England but he was based here but he didn't know how he could, don't even do the one thing typing so it took him forever. And since I knew how to touch type like he would be happy just bringing his letters to his family and then have me type them up and then thirty minutes or so they would be ready to go.

So going back a little bit you started or you were trained early by your mom in creative thinking.

Yeah and also I guess in entrepreneurial thinking, like if I can save to "bugaw" my skills to anybody who's willing to pay for it just because I wanted to but because that was what funded my book fun during the summer. So I was always reading books and I read really fast so I would always run out of books and usually one month into summer vacation I had run out of books and you couldn't go to school and borrow from the library because school was closed so I would use my freelancing to fund my book fun. So later I guess the first time I got a job that was not for family or for my mom's friends was during college and year beginning second years you're like 17, 18, 19 and I started that because I was a member of, back in the day when forums were really the rage. I was part of an online writing forum and then we would do what we called round-robin writing, so each person takes a turn at a story and then you don't get to write again until somebody has written. So I had a friend from there and I was helping her with her Geocities page, yes I was helping her populate Geocities writer's page so I guess this is me dating wasteful because yeah back in the day guys, if you don't know this it was Geocities or AltaVista...Angelfire.

And then I expanded onto life journal. I was helping her because she had decided that she would want to put up a page but she was based in the States. And she wanted to put up a web page to show if she was in with the times as a writer so that she could get back to that Internet content, not what it is today. And so one day I was angsting to her because I was had fallen in love with Neil Gaiman. And I wanted to buy the entire Sandman graphic novel collection which was at that time around two thousand two hundred pesos, two to five per volume and there were ten volumes plus extra nons like not in the sequence volume. There are about maybe four or five books at the time that we're not even quite a bit but they were additional content and I wanted to buy all of them so, I was gonna look for ways to earn money. And then just so happened that that friend of mine poked me and tell that, I've got a client who is looking for a lot of content and I'm like, "what is it?" And she's like, okay sorry if there are young people watching this but yeah it was writing fantasy erotica and like Smokey fantasy erotica and I was like 18, 19.

I don't know it's a lot to say this but still a virgin then like you want me to write about sex and my writer friend waist legs you know, they don't care just write it and they'll give you a brief of what the sex should be like just watch a lot of ….. and you'll be fine. But at the time it paid really well because the Peso was … so they were going to pay me something on like $10 per the first story and I could crank out a story in about an afternoon so that was  they agreed to pay me that. And that was complicated at that time like I don't know if there was PayPal then. So we had this complicated thing of like they would pay my friend and then my friend who was friends with some other friends would get the money to me. Like she would wait for it to pile up and then she would send me like a bulk. At that time she would I think the first couple she would send me like Christmas cards or birthday cards and she would stick the money in the card, she would send me dollars in cash and she would send it I think like three months to get from the states to the Philippines. And she would put it in the form of a greeting card because that way the paper was thicker and it wasn't so obvious that you're stuck well I thought it wasn't so obvious that you were sending cash. Anyway, I never got my cash stolen so I guess it was at the time. And so yeah, I started writing a bunch of ... It makes money until today I mean recently or not so recently, like last year I got published in a women's erotica anthology and they were paying a buck like upwards of a hundred and fifty dollars per story.

And how long is this one story?

Around three thousand words. Three thousand to four thousand words so that's like I still dabble. I don't do that as a primary mode of income anymore but I had gotten my worst 20 something thousand collections of graphic novels within the year so it wasn't that bad. It was just like, "can you write this?" And I was just like, "I've never done it before, but go." and I guess that kind of set the tone for all my freelancing gigs that followed because the next time like a few months into the erotica writing game, someone asked me if I wanted to write for the now-defunct MTV ink magazine locally because they had a canvas section so they would ask me to write about college life, and so I did. And like I said, you know I've never submitted an article but go and so since then I've been picking up jobs here and there that erotica job was until I graduated. And then I was like submitting articles to people or doing ghost-writing, well it was a ghost-writing gig, so I just continue doing ghost-writing or other things.

For what kind of writing or where you find these?

Okay, I'm terrible because I've never actually actively look for clients. Just suddenly if I just put it out there but at that time I was just posting on everything and then when we were chatting with friends like ICQ or going on forum and you know just like if there was a call out like “hey I'm looking for writers” I'd be like “oh I'm a writer” and they'd ask me for samples. If I didn't have samples I would invent them. So you know one of my earlier clients was someone who wanted me to write about real estate in the States, so internet search is your friend. When you don't know anything about what you need to write about but they were pretty happy because they came back to me with like a series of articles after my first one for them so I guess it works. Sometimes people would come on forums and say I had posted a job but like, "hey I look for Writers here's the link to the job on Craigslist." If you look at Craigslist now it's still very much like it was so yeah Craigslist. So then they have the details about the job there and then you just email and say, "Okay I'm interested." And then they would send your samples or invent your samples and go from there and so I didn't really go out and go for cold leads in terms of clients, it's 'cause usually they were already there and they're like, "Hey you're awake" or sometimes I would get yahoo messengers or usually in if I was in forums I had my, you know, like what in forums you have your signature at the bottom with your post and usually have your Yahoo ID or ICQ number so usually I got to the point where I just would sometimes get messages on ICQ or Yahoo.

And later on in your career, this was still early?

Yeah, that's still early then like early 2000 first half of 2000, I guess.

But later on, you wrote in some pretty popular magazines.

Yeah, cause what happened was after I moved to Manila within 2008 which was when I got married. And I moved to Manila in 2008. And I was applying for a job and I think I was kind of sure, I kind of had a trick that my HR friends get mad at me for because I would apply for jobs and then even if I wasn't really interested in a job I'd apply for it because if they would call me in for an interview I would kind of use it as practice so that when I did get a job that I wanted I would be able to give a good interview so that's what I did and then my HR friends now are saying don't tell anyone to do that because you're wasting our time but it's out there, that's what I did.

And then you people can do that with Upwork as well just get interviews and then use them for practice.

Well, I just started with Upwork so, I haven't gone through the entire process of Upwork yet. So, this is how late I am to the game that I signed up for up work maybe three or four years ago and then I populated my profile this month because he told me it was my homework during the flip meet-up last month. I am hearing about after hearing oDesk or Upwork he will answer and other things like three years people would be like “Oh have you had much success on these platforms, I signed up and then never came back”.

I'm like after I got to Manila and I got job with an internet security company doing their consumer tech solutions on their website so you know if you're a home user and you're trying to troubleshoot a problem I'm the one who writes the articles that say you know click Start (Tech Writing). Because it was for consumer field, it was super basic so you cannot say “okay go to the control panel” you know like how to clear cache on your browser that kind of thing. So I did that for about a year and then I got a call from the resume and a cover letter that I had submitted the previous year to Summit media and they hired me for a website called Female Network for that. And so I got the job and I was terrible. Well, I mean like my foundation with writing was pretty solid but this was a site that was very low rooted in local concerns and there was an element of showbiz and I didn't even own a TV. I still don't own a TV. And so I remember her first writing assignment was my boss put a press release on my table and she says, "I need you to write about a story about Tweetie and I needed to write it by this afternoon." And I said, "...the Looney Tunes?" You know my boss burst out laughing. And she's like “no dear it was Tweetie de Leon”. So if you ever meet anybody who knew me in Summit they knew that my Tagalog was terrible and then even though literally I basically learn Tagalog even though I'd gone to college in Manila and had lived in Manila as a child, I only really learned Tagalog when I was in Summit. I learned it on the job. And the other thing was, I'm really bad with celebrities. And, I like to tell people I have partial face blindness, it's not diagnosed, but I'm just really bad at recognizing people and so I am very, okay not very, but like slightly notorious among certain circles as the girl who asked for Regine to spell her name because I didn't know who she was. One of the Regines.

Usually, what I would do as if I knew I was interviewing somebody I would stop them online and look for lots of pictures of them with different hairstyles especially the women because sometimes when you change your hair and you look completely different. And so, the night before I would like to look at their pictures so that I could inception myself into knowing who they were. But sometimes something that like when you're in the media sometimes it's like you're on your way to work and your boss will text and say don't go to work go here and interview this person instead. And then it's kind of mild panic because that's what happened and I had to interview Aga Muhlach and I didn't know who Aga Muhlach was.

So you were working in Summit?

Yeah and the thing is Summit is pretty good at recruiting freelancers from within its ranks.

So, you became a freelancer until today?

Yes, not recently, probably my last article was in the last issue of Good Housekeeping Philippines, which was in August and I guess they featured Liberty Baldovino like “hey I know this person”. Well, not really but I know this person from here from the group.

Yeah, you'll meet her next month.

And then that was a little bit of like my six degrees of separation has reduced to like one degree because we were in the same magazine but yeah I used to write for Good Housekeeping and I wrote for Cosmo both the website and the magazine and then I've done some writing spot as well.

So both employed and as a freelancer?

Yeah and even when I was employed by them I was freelancing for their other publications so that was one thing I did my spot work while I was still working with Female Network. My first Cosmo articles were still while I was with Female Network.

And I think the one thing I took away from Summit was, I got a good network of fellow writers and media practitioners so even when I was out of Summit already people were asking me “hey can you write a press release or can you write a story done separately”. I've had a couple of stories in Manila Bulletin and I think that kind of thing, so just like a lot of writers and editors tend to just crowdsource from their walls so if you're friends with them on Facebook they will like you don't go a month without having an editor friend saying “guys I need writers read this and that's one thing like network building is huge”.

Honestly, I came to point where I don't need to look for jobs anymore although I'm starting it because I'm taking John's freelance movement class to which you have a module in. You have a course in so I decided okay I'm gonna kind of shift towards actually freelancing. And also because now that I moved to Cebu a lot of my clients in Manila who require that I pick up my checks from them, yeah it's kind of a hassle. But doesn't have that you know I have to ask a friend and then send an authorization letter and then if it's a wait you have to get it sometimes you get them if you forget that you have a check with them and then it gets to be like three or six months and check goes stale you have to ask them to re-issue the check. So then I met you and you're online which I've never done before so I guess not like that's where I am now where I'm exploring the online thing like I said I just made my Upwork profile this month.

But aside from that, you're also writing books on Kindle?

Yeah, like in 2013 or 2014 I think I wrote my first steamy novella and published it myself. I had done writing, ghostwriting in the past but not done it like where I published it myself. Actually, at first, it wasn't Kindle it was under a local online book called Buku. And then I put it out in print and then I took a course on how to publish your book on Kindle and then I put it on Kindle and then this year by the way I published that book under a different name just because guys, Google, you don't like if you're still getting clients from, like I'm still getting clients wherein the topics are real estate or families and yeah wholesome topics or business related topics and you don't want those things to intersect so one thing that I always ask my authors that I work with cause I also edit books is the pen name question, are you going to use a pen name because maybe if you're a school teacher or you're doing work unrelated to the thing that you write. Especially if it's steamy because people do form a certain perception then you might want to consider using a pen name but I don't hide it, it's Sebastian. I published that novella and then this year I edited an anthology of romance, romance stories, love stories by local, all Filipino authors and all set in the Philippines and then we publish that on Amazon also and released a local release printed copies locally also and we and our first week we got into the Amazon like top 100 for the category. Pretty good it's a good learning experience and I got to work with authors that I never worked with before so it was fun.

So, you're doing that you're still getting some freelance you're trying to start with Upwork and then you're also managing a few of the family businesses?

I’m managing this business (Books and Brews) and I'm helping out with some of the menu development and then marketing for our business upstairs which is a kind of like, kind of a leveled up carenderia called "Sa Kanunay" which is a Bisaya term. It was what your Lolo would have used to sign his love letters to your Lola. I haven't been so hands on yet but starting next year I look like I'll also be helping with the reservations and events for our Beach Resort down south in Moal Boal.

So, you're managing this cafe also have a hand in Handuraw as well right?

Not so much, that's more handled like that's the guy sets a pizza restaurant and events venue and it's more handled by my brother and my sister. And actually, I'm the black sheep of the family who has finally come back into the family business for after how many years. The other thing that I'm doing is Ginger Arboleda has minimal workshops and she recruited me to do Cebu workshops so we've done a couple. I've done one with EJ from TechSumo and then we had one with Toni Chan from this happy blogger and she did her brand parity workshop here so just last month so, we've started that and then I have more on the roster for next year.

So you have all these things going on?

Yes.

And you're married you have your husband?

Yes.

So how do you manage to “not go crazy”?

Well, I kind of just embrace the craziness because my other homework was to get accountability partners. And I have about three or four now and now was always just telling me like how crazy I am because I am slightly extroverted only unchecked so I guess it's like I just go for it and because I've kind of crafted a career being kind of game for anything I mean even stuff that I hated I've done. I mean I've done like I know that some of the jobs that I've had previously because I've been a lifestyle editor and I've been a travel and food editor which people think is amazing but guys when you have eight food reviews in a week it's somewhat amazing somewhat expensive because of how much you're spending on Maalox and other antacids and also there is a point where people will just have to roll you home and you don't enjoy like there is a point where you don't enjoy food anymore because your whole life is about, but you know on the other hand I got to take like a four-day tour of Singapore for free just because they wanted me to write about it and I've been offering hotel stays that kind of thing so I think one thing is, there are good things, there are bad things and sometimes the good things for you are not necessarily good things for other people and sometimes the bad things for you are not necessarily the bad things for other people though. Like for example one assignment I hated was they sent me to Boracay during the Labor Day weekend and they had me do a sequence of physically active activity with a guy who was fresh off Survivor Philippines and they had it posted by local celebrities, Bianca Gonzalez. You're like these two tall statuesque people and then how come I'm the one that they're making do skimboarding and wall climbing they stuffed me in a zorb and threw me down a hill and understand that I'm not very active you're filming me doing these things and we're holding up the activities because you're just gonna have to find an angle so I made the cameraman lying on the ground while I was doing the rock climbing so that it looks like I'm higher up there. But I honestly hated it and never going back to Boracay again.

But I guess that kind of attitude where you say yes to everything that's open doors for you?

Yeah, cause I think part of the reason why food editor job was because I'm like that when food also yeah try everything so you know.There's one where they're like, "Can we send you to eat some crocodile?" And I'm like, "Okay." And I'm not so picky with my food I'm not picky with assignments.

And I think based on this interview and based on me knowing you, a lot of that stems from how you were brought up.

I think 'cause I went to an international school where learning is very much like yes you have classroom learning but it's kind of also self-driven so I tutoring is not really a thing. Like in the schools that I went to, unless you're borderline failing you don't really get a tutor. So now when I have friends who have kids and I realize that you have straight A students who have tutors in other schools and I'm like, "But why does your child need a tutor?" And we didn't have that but instead we were encouraged to do a lot of experience outside like clubs. You had to be in a club and some of our clubs have done crazy things like we did island hopping or outreach. You teach students from public schools that kind of things so we kind of do get out in the world and I don't like I'm not saying this doesn't happen in other schools I don't know if it does because I didn't get to a local school until college but I felt like that was a big thing that we had limited homework. Our school ended at 3 o'clock in the afternoon and then when 3 o'clock it's like we didn't have that much homework so I could go and do these extra jobs I spent time shadowing my sister because she was a DJ at the NU107 Cebu so I was the button monster for a while in NU107 like I guess the culture of both the family and that was also reinforced by the school I went to was you don't stop learning because you don't  know what's useful and not useful.

Yeah being open-minded even as a kid you know even though your mom could have probably got a Yaya to do chores she taught you how to do chores and then you get a reward.

Yeah and we also had this thing that I didn't realize until I was ordered that not all parents do is that my mom has made us very conscious of our budgets cause she was a single mom and one when I was kid my mom was working three jobs to keep us in school to keep us financially stable and she would say, for example especially around Christmas time and around the time of our birthdays and it just so happened unfortunately for my mom that my brother my sister and I are all born in April so the birthday time is very expensive because we're all born in the same month and so she would say, "Okay here this is my budget for a year this year" And so if it was like 500 for your Christmas one big Christmas gift or you could have multiple small people whose gifts we would negotiate and sometimes if I wanted something that costs one thousand my mom would make me sign a contract to say, "Okay I'm willing to spot the five hundred because that's what my budget was for you for Christmas, but how are we going to make the other 500 happen so that you can get the gift you want" So in some cases it would be allowance deduction so we would have contracts that said, "Okay if you get allowance every week this is how much is subtracted from your allowance every week and it goes to paying back for your very expensive Christmas gift or you could sign another contract which said you forfeit your birthday gift so if you really want this Christmas gift then you forfeit your birthday gift" And you sign a contract for that and it was always on the fridge or in my mom's home office so you could not escape. You could not escape the contract that you had sign and I remember a couple of times when I did the whole thing back from allowance deduction thing that was because I felt the deduction that was part of what spurred me on to earn more, yeah, do extra jobs to earn more.

All of you are I'd say relatively successful right with that upbringing I guess being taught the value of money I'm at a young age being taught the value of hard work and the creative storytelling, the no TV.

Yeah, we had a rule that we could watch one TV show a day, each child could watch one TV show a day and there was always a chart on the fridge to say what your one TV show was. You could watch two TV shows if you shared it what your sibling watched. If you watch the show that your sibling launched but you could not choose for that sibling and I kind of learned to make money from that also because there were shows that my sister would want to watch or my brother would want to watch and I would say okay give me your money or give me a chocolate or something that I wanted and I will on Tuesdays or something like that.

That's a very smart way to earning extra money giving your TV slot.

Yeah, it was just like because the constraints were universal at least in our family you kind of learn to work around things and you kind of learn to problem solve and I learn how to prioritize because how much do I want to work to watch this TV versus to my sister's chocolate.

So priority and discipline.

I guess yeah.

Lessons that you guys learned at a young age that's, I see that a lot of that contributes to where you are right now.

Yeah, I think it helps, I don't know obviously like when it's done in your family and it's done the whole time here growing up you don't necessarily know until you talk to other people what other people's upbringing are like but I think one thing was really from a young age you had that idea that if you work for others then you're earning money for other people but if you work for yourself then you're then at least the money that you get or the effort that you put in the rewards will go to you and your family.

How can newbie writers get started in the local market?

Yeah so I thought I would just because I worked with a lot of writers and we're just starting out and one thing is a lot most editors will have a pool like either it's an excel file or like a dedicated contact list which is just their go-to writers and if you can get on that list it's ideal, so feel free to email editors like most like websites will have an email contact or like there will have contact medias if not for the editor directly then you can just make sure to address it to the editor who's credited for a website or a newspaper and just say hey I would love to write for your publication whether it's a magazine, a website, a newspaper.

Yeah that all goes into a file and like I work on both sides of the spectrum so I know that when we need more writers we have that and we go through it and I don't like a lot of people tend to because of portfolios. The good thing about writing is that if you don't have an existing portfolio you can make your own. And you don't have to get like if you publish it on your blog that's considered published so like if you don't have a blog then you can just write the article and you can actually say like I've actually done it like a couple of times where I've written an article for just to show that I had something in that field or like related to a certain topic and then later I turned around and see, by the way I never publish this article it's for sale and then somebody would buy it and like it's work that I've already done and if I charge less for it then that's fine because I wasn't going to sell it anyway so like that's something that you can always do and honestly just build your network because I don't go online without recommending a writer to somebody who needs a writer for example so and I know a lot of other writers and editors who do the same so and I've gotten a lot of gigs because I've received that kind of referral so just keep building because like you're like it's not a competition. Writers are so in demand right now and like writers editors content strategists are just so in demand right now that you're like if  there's like two of us like sitting on this couch and we're both writers there's enough work to go around and like if I'm successful and you're maybe less successful that doesn't mean that I've taken work away from you that probably means that if I get to the point where I'm so successful I have a lot a surplus of work I will pass it on to you.

So creating that network having those sample articles.

Yes, because like decide what you want to write about and then just write about it whether somebody's buying it or not if you have the time because he that stuff can be used to build your portfolio or be sold later on.

And not only for writing that also applies to other fields as well as websites graphic design but for writers, you can create.

Yeah, like one person I knew of was a graphic artist wanted to get into the book cover creation business, you know just put up a website put up your sample book covers and then the ones that you haven't sold the ones that you just invented just put a generic title and author name and then just say this-this cover is for sale and he actually sold a couple.

Don't be afraid of a lack of portfolio because I feel like if you have like just work on developing your skills because if you have the skills then the portfolio is very easy for you to generate.

One thing I tell writers is just, buy your name by your dot-com. Buy your name as early as you can afford it just buy it and keep paying for it you know it's probably like it'll cost anywhere between five and fifteen dollars a year.

I actually did this thing where I bought domains that I didn't even know if I would use but like bought lianasmith.com and just to that if ever I'd wanted it, then I would still have it and then for my author name I bought petesebastian.com so I have like the videos about my books are there and also the detail about my writing I also have my portfolio on me on lianasmithbautista.com both for writing and for editing.

What are some of your secrets or proven tips for good articles?

Oh actually I have a good one, it's like one thing especially if you have a regular client is to really get a good understanding of the kind of content that they really like to publish a lot of and then start thinking about that early on so for example when I used to assign writers to interview someone for a website that I was editing for I would tell okay your interview needs to be worth three articles and they would freak out because one thing is like you think okay you're gonna interview for example if I'm interviewing Jason Dulay like then I think that I'm just gonna write about what your life has been like or whatever angle that the editor requested for the main article but like that okay and like ask him his top five tips for new Freelancers if he gives five tips then that's an article ask him ask why ask him like who were his inspiration so what are the five books that he read ask him this like five people to follow if you're in that thing and that's instantly what you have the profiled story you have the five tips for newbies you have the five books to read and you have the five influencers to follow and that's four articles and that's that you can do that all in one interview and then the other thing is like especially if you're doing interviews because that's just that's no effort writing guys because all the content will come from the person that you're interviewing so you don't actually have to do like that much like work outside of the interview itself so the other thing I like to do is do omnibus stories so for example I'll say Jason what's your motto for your business what's your approach in business things so like what's an inspirational quote that you can give and then my the next five interviews I do I'll say what's the inspirational quote you can give and then I'll say and then like a month later I'll put up an article that says the five inspirational quotes from these five people that we interviewed or like find a unifying theme like if it's if it "Artistas" for example sometimes I'd be like oh what's, sometimes it's even in super "babaw" or like what's your favorite Filipino food and like but then like that article gets super successful because you have ten celebrities saying you know oh I love Sinigang or so stuff like that like use your time wisely and try not to think too into linear affection when you're doing your research or doing your interviews because also research is like for example if you're researching a story on say the top five destinations for summer then you're probably going to in play you're probably going to be able to match that with like looking for a top five beaches topped by shopping destinations or whatever and so if you do a five destinations and like it's different categories then that's one story but then in the meantime might as well save the information that you got while researching this article and pitch another story if not through the same publisher then do another publisher and you're like hey I already got the stock photos because that's something that they need like especially if it's a site that has a low budget sometimes they'll ask you to look for Creative Commons photos so on like Wikimedia or Pixabay or other creative places where you can get photos for free with just like attribution or even like in cases like Pixabay they don't even require attribution. So you've already downloaded the photos that means you don't have to spend present one thing that takes a lot of time if you're an article writer is you spend a lot of time looking for photos if that's part of the brief so at least if you have the photos already or like Flickr photos for another thing might as well download something like another photo that you can that you think you might use it use for another article later save the details about where you took it from and then move on so like don't waste your time.

Especially like if you're trying to write for a website then having a blog is already instantly a portfolio especially if it's a blog related to the website that you want to write for.

How do you deal with writer's block?

Writers block, okay I come from school like where there is no writer's block and like that's a scary idea because then you realize that writer's block is just an excuse but what I always say is just right through it because even if it's crap then you can fix crap you've heard across that yeah I'm sorry it's not good you can fix it what you can't fix is nothing so I and honestly like if you look at any successful writer if they will tell you that you write on the good days and you write on the bad days I mean Stephen King said you know he writes you, he'll write writer's block or no you get like a lot of famous people where they all give the same advice just right through it and if you really just can't write through it then do things related to writing like outlining wait if you outline when you have your idea when you're not feeling the writing or you don't know where to start you can go back to that outline and just fill in the blanks. I used to keep a notebook actually I still keep a notebook where it's just story ideas so and sometimes it'll be like inspired by a problem I'm having so, for example, I moved into a condo and now my husband and I are talking about maybe getting a dog but what's a dog that would be happy in the condo. So okay, oh this is an article okay so I'm researching it for myself but maybe I'll probably want to do an article about it that kind of thing or like I'm having coffee and like what are different ways to make you popular, interesting  or if for example you're lactose intolerant what are your options for getting that caffeine fixed for example you can't just like okay you could just buy Americano all day long but eventually you'll get jittery and you stuff like that like one freaking my husband recently has to got me into which I stopped and which I'm starting again actually next week is intermittent fasting so like I would research that and like because I'm doing it for myself but like I'm if I was going to look for people to pitch to then since I've already done the work of researching which actually takes the most time because writing would just be a matter of putting together the things that you've researched then I can pitch a story on intermittent fasting so that kind of thing like what your life inspire what you write and I think when you do that it'll be very clear what spheres your interests lie in. So for example with me, I've written a lot most the bulk of my article writing is general lifestyle just because I like to do it that way but I do know people can focus exclusively on travel and leisure I know people who are very concerned about like cold stuff I know people who write like who are the mommy writers who are the business writers I know somebody who is the sex education writer I know somebody who writes about like breastfeeding like breast feeding and babies exclusively like even when you say mommy writers there's the niche topics where you can be the authority there and anytime somebody needs an article on that though people like once you get a few articles out there people will start going to you because I've gotten a lot of article like article I'm not sure what you say like invites to write articles based on articles I've written previously.

You can't afford a writer's block if you're trying to make money out of writing. You can't afford to wait until you feel like writing to do the work that you need to do. I mean if you look at it as in any other career for example if you're in the call center you can't say I'm not taking calls right now because I don't feel like writing it or like I'm not inspired to give the customer my service, therefore, I won't do it you can't do that so writing is the same way.

Some great advice, what's your regular writing day look like?

Honestly, I write when I need to write so if there's no assignment then sometimes I'm not writing and I'm doing my other business stuff, but like I write a lot at night mostly because like the businesses are closed during that at night and I  have always been ... So, my most pretty times are actually around Eleven to 3:00 in the morning like that's my peak productivity period and like it doesn't have to be like I know that's kind of like cliche for writers no oh calling out in the night with my "Hugot" but like, I know writers who write best in the morning so if you can track when you're most creative when the words come easily to you then work around that so like for example, if I know that I have to do an article then then I'll try to get everything out of the way and then I'll work on that article during that period because that's when I know that like during like maybe if I try to do it in the morning like right now if I have to do an article right now it would probably take me a little bit longer than if I had to do it like at midnight and again like just don't like I said don't waste your time so if you know that they will do it faster then, focus on the other stuff he can do now that you need to do anyway and then do it when you're creative.

Every writer is different but you do have to have your discipline but like what schedule you stick to or that tends to be up to you.

What's some advice you can give to our audience right now just in general for there because we have more than writers in the audience so in general what's one if they were to take away one thing that you want to leave them with?

I think that you should never stop upskilling because, you'd never know what skills you might need and even if you don't use the skill yourself, it's still good like if you can be conversing in certain areas especially related to your field so, for example, I am a writer but in this day and age you can't be a writer or a Content generator without talking about video now maybe I'm not great at shooting video myself or writing scripts but I need to know what goes into a successful video and how it can be incorporated into the article and or for example if you're a copywriter but you're not familiar with SEO but even if you don't primarily focus on SEO you don't know what SEO is then that's kind of your crippling your crippling yourself because your clients will be like oh okay then I guess I'll go find a writer who knows what SEO is or email marketing that kind of thing then even if you're not the one making the email for example if you're writing for a website that has a daily newsletter or a weekly TV and you can make sure that your article is featured because you'll get more views then chances are that website hiring you are higher so like even though it's not a direct one is the one I learned the skill, therefore, I make money from it you don't know what contributes to it later on.