Tuesday 15 April 2014

Year of Opportunity

My new year resolution this year was much woollier than last years' "Enter a comp every month" idea. So it's been much easier to ignore. Clever, that, for a procrastinator.

I promised myself that this year I would take opportunities that came up, and that I'd make opportunities for myself.

I suppose the fact that I'm working (regularly) on my novel deserves a reserved pat on the back. (It's a long way to The End...)

But I'm afraid to say that an email whooshing into my inbox suggesting that I enter a local short-story competition that I was unsuccessful in last year didn't get a response from me. Oh dear. I think I'll have to chalk that one up as a missed opportunity. My PR gremlin might say it was good that I was fully focused on the task in hand, and didn't like to get distracted...

Anyway, yesterday I received a message from a magazine editor who published a short article of mine last year. It was unpaid work, for a very small, very local parenting magazine, which disappeared from view immediately afterwards without so much as a poof. They are intending to publish another magazine and the editor asked me to write another article, on single-parenting issues. It is another instance of experience rather than cash incentives, and I'm happy to do that right now, as it is such a small magazine.

But the simple act of someone asking me for something has ignited a flame of enthusiasm (must not lose focus from my novel....) and I've been jotting down ideas for articles all day and intending to make a list of possible markets for my ideas sometime soon when the kids finally go to bed.

Might not be such a bad resolution after all.

3 comments:

  1. Oh I can so relate to this! I'm also knee deep in a novel (rewrite) and a busy mom, and a short story writer as well (plenty rejected). So great to be asked to write! Really helps the heart soar.
    -Dana

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  2. It does, Dana! Sounds like you're spinning a lot of plates at the moment. How do you fit in your writing time?

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  3. During my toddler's naps while my daughter is in school, that's prime writing time (if I ignore household chores which I often do!) and one morning a week I have a sitter. It's not enough, but soon my son will be in school so that will help. I'm fortunate that I don't have to work right now, because if so I probably wouldn't be writing much at all.

    Do you work also? If so I'm in serious awe!

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