Lately I've been suffering from flagging focus. I have many, many ideas but I've just not been very efficient at following them. I've got the idea for a particular publication to write for, about how to apply for a job, and someone in a hiring position already as a good source. I've got another article, at least in my head, about how I used a particular strategy to make mornings smoother with my preschool aged son, and am just trying to figure out which parenting magazine is the best first place to try it. I've got a sort of prevention-minded article for a woman's health magazine I could pursue, if my head is in the right place. A particular magazine that has already responded favorably to my work has a call our for articles on how to find the time to maintain spiritual life when you're raising kids, and i have some thoughts on that. And there is a deadline this Friday for essays about mother/daughter relationships; I have the idea, but it's complex, and i haven't yet gotten it written well enough. And that's just a sampling of recent things. I'm also trying to hold off on a piece about how to involve your kids in making a whimsical herb garden, because I know it's about timing, and when magazines are working on spring issues is the better time to query with that idea. (But i"m already debating if I should try a new local publication, not knowing if it pays, or trying an national one). Not to mention, I should be doing what I mentioned in my last blog, a report on how many articles I've sold versus gotten rejections on. I should be taking rejected manuscripts/queries and trying them on other publications.
When there are so many directions I could put my energy into, I do this--write a blog entry!
I am most productive when I'm arrested by a topic and work passionately on that one thing, almost exclusively, until I'm done. In between passionate projects, I do stuff like write articles for content websites and blog.
I have a topic I'm really passionate about--seriously under-recognized risk factors for postpartum depression--but I'm in a place in my new career where I don't have the clout to get it to a magazine with a wide general audience that the topic deserves. I just haven't yet landed on where to send it. So I haven't even written it. I've done the research, and in bits and pieces, do write about it. For instance, I've written short articles on a single study I'm using for this larger piece, and published those short, focused articles on content websites. But I've not written the larger piece.
I get frustrated by the truth that my ideas are judged, not on their merits alone, but by my credentials as a published writer. So if I have really good ideas worthy of national publication, too bad, my resume doesn't show me to have enough national publication experience, so my idea will be turned down. Sometimes I wonder, should I keep hold of my best ideas, and wait until I've got a more impressive resume? Or, if I try that, selling only my second best ideas, will I not get far enough to propel the best ones to better publications? The catch 22. I may need to "waste" my best ideas just building my resume!
Here are articles I've written recently in the manner discussed:
Postpartum Depression, Psychological Distress Predicted by Previous Traumatic Birth
Postpartum Depression: Options for Medical and Other Treatment
Infertility, Delayed Conception Linked to Fire Retardants in Homes
Fire Retardants Found in Babies' Umbilical Cord Blood Associated with Developmental Delays
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