Need concerns of newbies

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Aquilegia

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Well, I’m relatively new and my biggest obstacle was Never Good Enough Syndrome. That is, I believed nothing I thought or wrote (non-fiction) was ever good enough to be published anywhere. I would dismiss most of my article ideas as being not unique or useful enough. Those ideas that did seem good enough I would attempt to either turn into an article (to send on spec, being a newbie and all) or compose a query for, but my writing never seemed good enough to me. I would complete 99% of an article then fuss over a few words for weeks...and then fuss over punctuation. It wasn’t that I feared rejection so much as that I thought sending a less-than-perfect article would be a waste of my and the editor’s time.


I got over this in several ways.
  1. Dumb luck. The first thing I had published in a news-stand level mag was actually a quickly composed note to an editor. I wrote the mag to let them know some info at their Web site was out of date and included a suggestion for what they might put in place of the old info. I didn’t hear back for a few months and the Web site didn’t change, so I assumed they’d ignored me…until I got an e-mail saying my “article” had made the first editorial cut…and then I got a cheque about five months after that! I thought, hey, if my e-mails can get published, then my articles can't be far behind.
  2. Encouragement (bowls of it) from someone who both knows about this business and whom I respect. This is not to say that I hadn’t gotten encouragement before; it just took the right words from the right person (at the right time, perhaps.)
  3. Reading other people's writing. Sadly, there are actually published writings out there that are worse than my own. :Shrug: If those writers can do it, why can't I (well, I mean, I do try to be better)?
Hope that's something you can use.

-- Marie


 
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Fern

practical experience, FTW
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Where to find experts and do you pay them. I remember that as being a big question for me. . .made me hesitant to ask for interviews, because I was afraid experts were supposed to be paid.
 

nickyswriting

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Aquilegia said:
Well, I’m relatively new and my biggest obstacle was Never Good Enough Syndrome. That is, I believed nothing I thought or wrote (non-fiction) was ever good enough to be published anywhere. I would dismiss most of my article ideas as being not unique or useful enough. Those ideas that did seem good enough I would attempt to either turn into an article (to send on spec, being a newbie and all) or compose a query for, but my writing never seemed good enough to me. I would complete 99% of an article then fuss over a few words for weeks...and then fuss over punctuation. It wasn’t that I feared rejection so much as that I thought sending a less-than-perfect article would be a waste of my and the editor’s time.


I got over this in several ways.
  1. Dumb luck. The first thing I had published in a news-stand level mag was actually a quickly composed note to an editor. I wrote the mag to let them know some info at their Web site was out of date and included a suggestion for what they might put in place of the old info. I didn’t hear back for a few months and the Web site didn’t change, so I assumed they’d ignored me…until I got an e-mail saying my “article” had made the first editorial cut…and then I got a cheque about five months after that! I thought, hey, if my e-mails can get published, then my articles can't be far behind.
  2. Encouragement (bowls of it) from someone who both knows about this business and whom I respect. This is not to say that I hadn’t gotten encouragement before; it just took the right words from the right person (at the right time, perhaps.)
  3. Reading other people's writing. Sadly, there are actually published writings out there that are worse than my own. :Shrug: If those writers can do it, why can't I (well, I mean, I do try to be better)?
Hope that's something you can use.

-- Marie



Thanks, Marie! I have a feeling many writers feel this way, even when success comes!

Thank you for taking the time to write that. I appreciate it.
 
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