This summer has been one of making decisions, determinations, about my career as a writer. I've written past posts about what I think of writing online content after a year of trying it, another entry about writing regularly for a only a few publications, simplifying my life, and most recently, about how I've determined to place working on my novel as top writing priority, relegating article writing as something to do to deal with fiction writing block.
So I'm still basically sticking with those decisions, but with a little tweaking. OK, I do confess, I've not written as much on my novel as I wished. But I've also found I cannot write exclusively on only it. For me, writing such a long work of fiction takes a lot of mulling time. I don't always know the next step for my characters; I have to let them tell me (and they're not always revealing immediately). Also, I'm becoming increasingly aware of mood and atmosphere, and until I've decided on the mood I want to create in a scene, I can't write well. So I need other writing projects to work on while I let the novel simmer.
I've written a lot of new articles, though I told myself not to. However, I've made a smart, less-risky change in what I write: I am now writing in answer to call outs, rather than writing what I want and then doing the grueling work to find a magazine who hopefully might want to publish on that topic, from my point of view, and with my style. (This takes a blessed long time, as my post about it taking 13 months to sell one article. But that's not even the whole story--that was simply the first post I could write about the long-term nature of the business; I have other articles I've been trying to sell even longer--I've just not written about how long they took yet because I have yet to sell them!)
So now I'm writing on given topics or themes that publications say they are looking for. Since August, I've done everything from listing ideas for summer family fun for Thriving Family magazine to personal essays about buying a house and how positive thinking affects health for Chicken Soup anthologies. Obviously, my work is better targeted. I don't have the time though to search out these opportunities--that'd mean looking on the website of every publication in the Writer's Market monster book! But I've found a great website done by someone who loves to share all the market info she gathers. She posts, almost daily, what she finds, and her interests match mine pretty well, so I've found many call outs that I've been able to answer pretty easily. Also, some info is the kind that the public is not privy too--it's insider info that is known only to writers who've already been published by the publication.
This change really does impact the kind of writing I'm doing though--I'm writing fewer 3rd person magazine articles, and many more first-person experience kind of essays. That is an attractive change; it is easier in my current employment as stay-at-home-mom: not so much research!
Success rate: While it's too early to tell in most cases--I've done this only 6 weeks--I already got word back from one that my essay will be published, and is also in contention for one of the cash prizes as one of the top essays. For more data, I just have to wait.
Online articles I've published:
Veggie-loaded Meals Kids Like
Pampers' Myths and Facts Page About Environmental and Health Impacts: A Critique
Zucchini for Breakfast, Dinner and Dessert: Five New Ways to Use Up Summer Squash and Zucchini
How Much Genetically Modified Food Do You Eat?
Lyme Disease and Autism Patients Prescribed Diets Free of Genetically Modified Foods
http://www.christwriters.info/index/burning-the-midnight-oil-poetry-contest-sep-19-2011-7-06-35-pm-35
