By Grant Stoner, Writer

Recently, like so many other Americans amidst our brand new Great Depression, I found myself without a cubicle in which to toil away in obscurity for the rest of my days. After sending out 7.2 million resumes without response, I was mired in self-pity, which is not the most productive place to be. I then decided to take control of my life, go back to school, and work on projects that I love. I could do it all from home, spend time with my kids, and maybe, just maybe find an awesome freelance writing job to help pay the bills. Frighteningly, and not without its struggles, things are kinda working out. Yay! I get to work from home!!! Well … like houseboats, backpacking across Europe, or camping, working from home sounds quite a bit cooler than it really is. Unless you’re fortunate enough to have an enclosed home office with all the amenities, you probably deal with the same frustrations as me. Yelling kids, rickety dining room chair, dishes piled up in the kitchen, and dust bunnies that need attending to right away.

So now what?

When you need to get out of the house, the typical alternative is your local Starbucks/Coffee Bean/Peet’s location. Not without their merits – free wi-fi, snacks, caffeine – a crowded, noisy coffee shop is not the most conducive to the creative process. There are also plenty of interesting, non-chain coffee shops in L.A., which you can check out on this nice Huffington Post piece highlighting the top 10 according to Deborah Shoeneman. My goal, however, was to find other resources that our fair city has to offer. My aim is to do a series of brief articles/reviews of alternative places for scribes to scribble outside of their living rooms.

First stop, The Office L.A.

I first heard about The Office L.A. through a friend, and shortly thereafter began following them on Twitter (you can too @theOffice_LA). Soon after, I received a message from them offering a free week to check out their space. Cha-ching… they had me hooked with free! It is a membership-based space, the details of which I’ll get into later. Once I finally decided to redeem the offer, I gave them a call and thus began my mission to find all the fantastic places to write in Los Angeles. The first stop couldn’t have been any better. My initial phone call was taken by Wade who gave me the lowdown, and warmly invited me to come down and try them out. It is located in the Brentwood neighborhood, directly across the street from The Brentwood Country Mart. Not the most convenient location in town, but an incredibly nice neighborhood with tons of restaurants and shops within walking distance. The Office has a few free parking spots in the back, but in my week of working there, I never found one open. No matter, there is plenty of metered parking as well as 2-hour free parking in the neighborhood behind the building. When I arrived the first time (you need to call ahead to make sure they have space for paying members), I was greeted again by Wade, who gave me a (quiet) tour of the facilities.

The Skinny.

First of all, the space is quite beautiful and tranquil, and as their website mentions, the “interior designed by Serena Walther Leventhal, with furniture and finishes designs by Tony Schubert and a good dose of Feng Shui by Master David Cho,” it all works to create a quiet and peaceful place to write. The key here is quiet. All the stations are open, facing the center of the room, so silence is key, and expected. Amenities are solid, including internet and wi-fi, complimentary coffee and tea, as well as a useful resource library with industry info and directories. There is also a community computer, and if you need to listen to music or watch video, they offer Bose headphones to check out. Bottom line, this is a great place to write when you need to get out of the house. You can spend your day here as long as you play the parking shuffle, and you can feel safe to leave your belongings to move the car or grab lunch. The cost is not chump change, $149 per month, but if you are pecking away at your local coffee house, you may be spending that much anyway. So check-em out, ask for Wade. Tell them Grant sent you!

The Office

Address:

256 26th Street, Suite 101

Santa Monica, CA

90402-2524

Phone:

310-917-4455

Next article I’ll cover the Santa Monica Public Library… yeah, you read that right.

Grant Stoner is a freelance writer and producer, currently finishing up his BA in Business and Social Entrepreneurship at Antioch University Los Angeles. You can follow him on Twitter @Grant_Stoner and connect with him on LinkedIn here.

TM:            How did you start writing?

JB:            I went to Cornell for hotel and restaurant management and I owned a motel and restaurant for 15 years, but I hated every minute of it.  After 15 years and after I had my kids, I said I can’t do this anymore. It’s just too much. I always wanted to write. I had taken a couple of creative writing classes in college, but I had a classic problem, which I’m pretty sure a lot of writers have, which is I’m extremely insecure.  I remember I was 40 thinking; I’m a stay at home mom with no kids at home because at that point my kids were in school, and what the hell am I doing? And somebody convinced me to do medical transcribing.  When I was doing the medical transcriptions I realized that I still had a brain and that I liked all those little things; the editing, the punctuation, the grammar, all of that.  It reawakened that desire in me to write, so I started to write a novel.  I immediately got sidetracked by one of my college friends into writing screenplays and I wrote a couple with her.  Then, I adapted the Pulitzer Prize winning book, “Slavery by Another Name,” with its author, Douglas A. Blackmon. We’ve been pitching it and having great meetings on it.  But now, I’m getting back to writing a novel. I’m finally going to write that novel. I’m craving writing alone. I’m craving being able to crawl inside the characters’ heads.

To read the entire article, go to www.examiner.com

For the rest of this article, please go to www.examiner.com

(For more, see the article at http://www.examiner.com/)

Intern Jill and I spent a busy morning in sunny (and breezy!) Santa Monica chatting with students from a multitude of different majors and backgrounds. The response was amazing! In two hours I had ten times more interested candidates than in two months of searching online. I look forward to the daunting task of narrowing the list and picking our summer interns.

Thank you to Judy White, the SMC Internship Program Director, and the rest of the SMC team for putting together a wonderful event and making us feel welcome. Thank you to intern Jill for helping get everything ready. And thank you to all the students who stopped by The Write Approach table. We are excited to read your writing samples!

SMC Internship Fair

Taura Mizrahi from the Write Approach with Nancy Gale and Jacquelyn Weischadle from In True Fashion

Each team has a student in charge of marketing: writing press releases, creating web content, putting together collateral materials, and generally getting out the buzz on their team’s bag. These students, boys and girls alike, are actively taking part in the project. Today’s lesson included a conversation with Taura Mizrahi from The Write Approach about press releases, media alerts, identifying the audience, use of language, and finding the hook.

To read the full article, please visit examiner.com and subscribe to my page. Thanks!

Read the full article at examiner.com.

We’ve all read the headlines about job lay-offs, foreclosures, and businesses struggling to survive. What we don’t see, are the numbers of independent contractors who are thriving right now. As a freelance writer in Los Angeles, it behooves you to take advantage of the abundance that this city has to offer. Not only are Angelinos comfortable with the concept of the independent contractor or freelancer, but our economy is ripe for this type of business relationship. It’s the perfect storm of opportunity.

Read the full article at examiner.com.

Some things to expect from this blog are info on writing, being a freelancer, tidbits and information, tricks of the trade, resources for writers, tips and tools for writers, information for clients, opportunities for writers and clients such as grant RFPs and other goodies!  I plan to also add some guest bloggers as well!

In addition to the nitty gritty of the writing of business, I will also be writing about my so-called crazy life!  With a wedding in the mix there’s sure to be a post or two about that.  I may bring you along on the wedding planning express.  I will also be blogging about things I love or think are worthy of sharing.

So, check in often, follow The Write Approach on Facebook and Twitter (links to the right), and don’t forget to subscribe to my articles on Examiner.com.  If I have worked with you, please be sure to add your testimonial to the site.  Your feedback is so very important!

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