There are only five things (other than my laptop) that I use every single day in my writing business. Only five items! Find out what they are: five essential tools for writers.

Just a quick share. Over the last week or so I've been addicted to Rachel Kaufman's Media Jobs Daily and wanted to suggest that freelancers and aspiring freelancers take a look at her feeds.

While I am grateful that she linked to my income disclosure, it's more than that. Kaufman shares freelance industry news that is infomative and interesting. She keeps readers updated on job markets, and her blogs about authors and writers really help to feed the writing spirit.

MediaJobsDaily is hosted at MediaBistro.com, which is a great source for classes and job listings.

When I wrote my article about the Top 15 Gifts for Writers and Readers, I didn't realize that suggesting an action figure of the writer's favorite author would indirectly feed into some odd behaviors. It seems that Scott William Carter, an author with an interesting blog and several books, actually speaks to his Poe figure. And then blogs those conversations. Funny! Although, since I regularly talk to my dog, Jack, throughout the lonely writing day, I guess I don't have a leg to stand on!

What do you do to combat the long writing hours? Anyone like to write at Starbucks?

I recently read about project creep- and then it happened to me!

Project creep- or "scope creep" - is when a project grows from its original parameters into something more. For example, you agree to write two articles, but are asked later to also market those articles through social media outlets- with no mention of adjusting fees.

Scope Creep is defined here at About.com Consulting.  About.com's management page has an interesting example of scope creep here, and desktop publishing talks about preventing scope creep.  So, knowing what it is-- have you ever experienced it?