About

I’m a magazine editor living in Santa Barbara, CA. I am a professional writer/editor with over 15 years experience in technical writing, marketing and promotional content. I’m also the head of SeaWrite Media (www.seawritemedia.com) a web content provider. I consider myself well versed in new media trends, and am an ace at empowering small businesses, freelancers and artists to use the web to promote their work and their passions. I’m also a member of the Society of Professional Journalists and during Hurricane Katrina, I participated in (and received certification for) the Red Cross’s Disaster Preparedness training, including Shelter Operations and Logistics.

I’ve spent the last several years working as an Editor for two national trade magazines. During my 6-year tenure as Editor, I’ve conceptualized and coordinated all editorial content for two environmentally-based publications. Not only do I create regular editorials and blog entries for both titles, but I also manage a healthy stable of freelance writers, guide the efforts of the design department, and work closely with our sales team and online education department to insure that our message and focus is effectively dispersed to our national audience.

I’ve also played a central role in expanding the social media outreach of all of our products. I’ve been active in leading the rest of our staff towards a better understanding of the strengths and opportunities presented by Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other online social media outlets— all the while making sure that the magazines I work for continue to have a vibrant online presence. I also conceptualized and guided the development of the Waterprint iPhone app. www.waterprint.net

In my spare time, I feed my need for knowledge and creativity by writing freelance articles and learning all I can about the vagaries and opportunities provided by this new media landscape. I’ve participated in a number of educational seminars about social media marketing, and am currently learning all I can about Social Media Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Drupal Commerce and Wordpress.

As I’ve explored and expanded my career path, I’ve picked up some valuable tools and smart strategies that I’d like to share. I’ve been able to craft a creative career as a writing professional, and you can too!

Date nights and the creative pause.

“Even the smallest amount of self-nurturance will have an immediate and beneficial impact on our writing,” advises Julia Cameron in The Right to Write.

Take a closer look

A new goal for this week: look closer, dig deeper, find the details. When you’re not working on a big project (like a novel or a collection of poems), it can be difficult to get to the page and write something imaginative. But sometimes even the most prosaic of situations or items can contain […]

The Expected and the Sublime

Finding Transcendence in Sevilla By Elizabeth Cutright The church bells just chimed in the witching hour, and the buildings across the river are basking in the golden glow of sunset. It’ the eventide and I’m feeling melancholy – no quite sad, not quite lonely, just sort of poetically alone. But the night feel pregnant with […]

When the world is a monster, tame it with details.

The World Is Enough By Elizabeth Cutright Slipping through the Spanish countryside on one of Spain’s speedy and modern trains headed to Toledo, I was so happy that I’d looked sleep deprivation bravely in the face and said, “you will not defeat me!” At about 4am in the morning, it looked like I wasn’t going […]

Perfectionism and Shitty First Drafts

Draft Dodging By Elizabeth Cutright Yesterday I wrote about the paralyzing power of perfectionism. And whether we like it or not, the most successful weapon against perfectionism is imperfection – we must face our fear of looking stupid or inept or untalented by just giving in to our weaknesses. In that way, we will uncover […]

Let your character tell the story.

Contrasts and Comparisons By Elizabeth Cutright (Excerpted from East Junction, a novel in progress) It was the sort of exhaustion that takes over your entire body – wrapping you up in a gossamer web of steely threads. Gillian felt paralyzed, and she knew it had more to do with emotional exertions than anything overtly physical. […]

Constructed Realities

The Garden By Elizabeth Cutright I’ve built myself a garden, and on the surface it’s quite beautiful (as you can plainly see) I think the ivy covers the wall quite nicely – don’t you? If you look closer you’ll see the flowers are made of paper (and you thought I had no skill) Nevertheless I […]

Drama As Creative Fuel

Drama – a renewable resource By Elizabeth Cutright “Keep the drama on the page.” Julia Cameron, The Right to Write “I refuse to engage in any drama except the drama that serves me and my purposes. I practice what I preach: if you dump drama into my life, I will put it and you onto […]

In Remembrance

To Me, You Will Always Be (for CH, who lost Doc on 01/01/1999) By Elizabeth Cutright To me, you will always be… running after rocks, and chasing your own tail; that goofy smile across your face, pawing me in a muddy embrace. To me, you will always be… the one that was up for anything […]

Overcoming Doubts and Doldrums

I’ve been feeling under the weather the last few days – finally succumbing to whatever flu virus is going around – and so I haven’t felt up to writing, let alone creating any new content. Of course I feel tremendous guilt about this. I committed to writing in this blog regularly – hopefully every day, […]

the daily creative writer

“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed…”