January Just Hit Send

It is halfway through the month and I've done very little, but out of necessity (and also because I love doing this) I'm having to buckle down. So here are my goals for January 2010:

Complete 15 DS articles a week (for a total of 45 articles this month).
Study three different magazines.
Send out one query.
Apply for Suite 101 and Constant Comment.
Find 5 paying blogs in my field and decide how to apply.
Make a list of local newspapers in my area and ask 3 editors if they need freelance writers.
Create yearly goals.

I've read many a JHS forum, but have never participated. This year is different: I've bought my first copy of the Writer's Market Guide (2010), I have recently published over 70 articles on DS which has given me a lot of practice, and I have a lot of spare time which I want to dedicate to hitting the freelance magazine writing world full time.

My current goals:
* Write 10 DS articles a week
* Update a blog post once a week
* Write a local article for two mags in my area (to gain more clips)
* Send out 3 other queries


That should be a good start for January.

-Kati

cnbrath, kati: great goals! Good luck!

Raven, wyntermoon. I took the class in 2006 and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to break into magazines. It is an email class with weekly check-ins and support. She also mails in some reading materials to go along with the email packets. I've printed them all out and kept them in a binder.
Raven - happy belated birthday.
Cat - Don't worry about the clips, I'm sure the query will speak for itself.

wildscribe - Congrats on the article.

On today's accomplishment list was an article for the examiner site about how to donate to help the people of Haiti and rumors that were spread all over twitter and the net. I also interviewed a pal of mine for the moms website I work for. I also found out that the website will NOT be cutting my salary in half AND that any content I write for it can be reprinted in other places! So excited about that.
I also wrote a query letter for WOW-womenonwriting. I subscribe to their ezine as well as the google group so I know their ezine well. I hope to be published in the how-to section of the zine. My writer pal is going over it for me and then I'll be sending it out. Hopefully next week. My staycation has been very good to me writing-wise.
That's all from me.

Heiddi- That's a great publication, Women on Writing! You'll get in, I'm sure.

Kati-Welcome to the fray! Glad to have you!

Sky- Thanks! In an odd twist of fate, email was returned, giving me a second chance. But I don't have an email address now. I called the editor yesterday and am waiting for a call back. I actually called her in the past and we had like a 20 min. convo on the dangers of ultrasounds (yes, there are some... mostly in the way OBs manipulate the data to push women into unnecessary interventions) ... so I KNOW my story is perfect for her.

In other news... me and a few other writers are talking about resurrecting our Writer's Chats, which started here in the JHS thread.

Tentatively, they will be:

- bi-weekly or weekly
- during the day
- for any and ALL freelancers (Web design, graphics, writing, fiction, etc.) with an emphasis on writing
- free for the first 3 months that we offer them, and then a token annual subscription to cover guest speakers, the ability to share transcripts of the chats, and other cool stuff to be decided

Just gauging interest right now... If you were part of the original writer's chats, you know how fun and informative they were. They will be hosted by www.writersroundabout.com. where I've just become a regular blogger, 2 x a week.

We're hoping to kick off in February or March.

Would love any and all feedback... didn't mean to threadjack but also didn't want to start a new thread--it seems pretentious?

CatMuse33 - I'd be interested in writer's chats. I'm home on some days (not every day) but would love to participate during the days that I am.

Ok, with the mods blessing I will start a thread about the WRA Freelancer's Chat. My misgivings were that this will not be tied-in with AW, but with www.writersroundabout.com and will also (eventually) be for-profit. (Although not much!) It will work out to less than $1 a chat for the year.

Dawn

I haven't sent anything in like, three days. I need to get on it!

Okay, we'll just wait until we're ready to launch/announce it then. I think between here and facebook we got what we needed anyway... enough people are interested that it's worth our time to launch. I even lined up our first guest speaker this morning, too!

I slacked yesterday. Somehow, somewhere I lost my flashdrive that has all my fiction on it. Thankfully I've still got the one with all my articles and queries, but it threw me and I spent all day looking for it. So far I still haven't found it. Hubby says stop looking and it'll turn up in the stangest place. I sure hope so. I'm afraid I will not make any of my fiction goals for the month.

Anyways i spent most of today working on some ideas and hope to have them written up before bedtime. My plan is to send out two more this weekend and get to work on my essays for the anthologies. Three day weekend ... hope I manage to get something done.

ravenlea said:

I slacked yesterday. Somehow, somewhere I lost my flashdrive that has all my fiction on it. Thankfully I've still got the one with all my articles and queries, but it threw me and I spent all day looking for it. So far I still haven't found it. Hubby says stop looking and it'll turn up in the stangest place. I sure hope so. I'm afraid I will not make any of my fiction goals for the month.

Click to expand...

Oh, how horrible! I hope it turns up. I have a flash drive with all of my stuff on it, a backup file on my PC, a backup flash drive, all of which I try to update once a month. Every once in a while I also zip my entire backup and email it to myself, too. I'm paranoid.

Well, I've been reading and studying query letter writing. So far so good. I've also been reading O magazine (Feb) and have some great ideas. The juices were really flowing today. I posted my interview of a wondermom at momslikeme. I wrote and scheduled a post at my portfolio about my great day today. I had a really great staycation. I'm also waiting for a arc of a healthy eating book for parents. That's coming in next week. My hope is to post the review in a local magazine and then an interview with the writer who is a doctor specializing in helping overweight children become healthier. So I've had a very full and productive writing week. I also had an idea (thanks to my sister) about kids and parents. I've had many ideas in my crackberry. Now I just have to get cracking on all those ideas and queries. Night all!

WildScribe said:

Oh, how horrible! I hope it turns up. I have a flash drive with all of my stuff on it, a backup file on my PC, a backup flash drive, all of which I try to update once a month. Every once in a while I also zip my entire backup and email it to myself, too. I'm paranoid.

Click to expand...

I usually keep a backup on my laptop, but have been having problems with it so I put everything on my flash so I could clean up the computer and get rid of the problem. I can't for the life of me figure out where I put it. I feel like an absolute idiot! I know better and still ... It won't hurt losing the short stories as much as the eighteen novels (in various stages of completion) that I have on it. I'm still hopeful it will turn up.

raven - I'm sure it'll turn up. With all of the things you do, I'm surprised you didn't misplace it before. It'll come back to you.
I edited a blogpost scheduled for Monday and organized my writing binder. It's full of magazines, and ebooks and other goodies I've picked up in the last five years since I've been actively working toward my writing. I have to touch base with my writerpal about the query for WOW. I can't wait! I also thought about pitching them an interview since I did one this week. What do you think?

Raven, I agree with your hubby. I have a feeling it will turn up, too.

Heiddi, You have got it going on. Way to shake the writing tree.

Blog post up. The guys have taken to gaming at my house. We're not just at Risk, we've got a Feegle on the loose!

I have a story idea rattling around in my head. Lessee where it goes...

totally inspired today. Mega research mode which should turn into at least two if not three solid queries by the end of the night. Promised the bunchkin we'd play the Wii then it's back to work for me. i am in such a good mood.

1000 words on short story today. I will probably work on it later tonight again, and start checking for decent markets tomorrow. I need to start a go-to list so I don't look up new markets every single darn time I write a story.

Well I finally have something I feel is worth posting here (on the theory that I actually have something more than just another writing job, which I get regularly) .

While I've been writing for years, it's been my dream since I was an 8 year old to be a reporter. I mean the kind who actually go to the scene and interview people and find out what happened, not the kind who research stuff on the net and regurgitate it for a content site (not nocking content sites BTW, I work for several myself and make a decent living from it). Well I'm 35 and 36 in a few weeks, but I finally got my dream today.

It wasn't much of a story. A Christian travel web site that I blog for asked me to cover the Feast of Epiphany (I believe that's the term) celebrations along the Jordan River today so I got to go on the press bus and do a real, live, honest to goodness interview with some people from the Ministry of Tourism and then to get man-on-the-street reactions from a couple of tourists who were there for the event. Plus, I got to go into places where only reporters are allowed -- fortunately, I learned the Hebrew for reporter just before I was nearly blocked from the inner area where part of the ceremony was taking place). Six pages of notes, around 500 pictures and a very bad back from carrying everything around all day, I'm ready to write my first real news report. Very exciting. Actually, I've got one article I'm writing for the place that hired me, but I'm also considering another, playing up the travel angle which I could pitch to a general travel magazine and possibly an editorial in one of our local English language newspapers (the area where the celebrations are held is part of the territories and I had some thoughts on the subject).

Anyway. . .I'm just really jazzed. Exhausted beyond belief, but jazzed.

Eric

eric11210 said:

While I've been writing for years, it's been my dream since I was an 8 year old to be a reporter. I mean the kind who actually go to the scene and interview people and find out what happened, not the kind who research stuff on the net and regurgitate it for a content site (not nocking content sites BTW, I work for several myself and make a decent living from it). Well I'm 35 and 36 in a few weeks, but I finally got my dream today.

Click to expand...

Good job, and more power to you! I write for magazines, not content sites, but you would be surprised how much quality reporting one can do with a phone line and an internet connection. I hate it when I have to leave the house to work. Lazy, I guess.

congrats eric! sounds exciting. Have to admit, I'm more like wildscribe and prefer to stay housebound

Send a couple queries today. Not as many as I had planned because I decided that one needed more information added to it and two others were wrong for the markets I picked after rereading the guidelines. So I will play around with them a bit at the bunchkin's dance class tonight. However, one of the queries sent today responded that they would go over my query at their spring meeting and could I send clips ... this is the second time I have sent something to this mag and last time they rejected the idea straight out, so at least I am making progress.

Good job, Raven!

I have been so fogged lately. The cold I have puts me in a state of perpetual distraction... you know how unfocused you get when you're doing something and someone calls your name? Imagine that exact feeling ALL DAY LONG. And ACTUAL distractions, like my toddler? Totally shatter any kind of focus that I scraped together. I managed to turn in an article that was due today, but other than that... nada.

Hi Wyntermoon

Good Morning Wyntermoon!
I applied for 20 jobs so far. I have received several offers and rejections. I force myself to apply for more jobs each day. I hope to land more writing gigs.

I have had several of my ghostwriting articles approved so far. I am quite happy about it!

I have learned to do at least something a little bit each day. If I just apply for writing gigs all day somedays then that is fine too. At least I know that I accomplished SOMETHING that day and not nothing. It might sound pathetic, but I look at anything accomplished today that wasn't yesterday is a success.

I hope you have a nice week!

Michelle
www.visitmichelleonline.com