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Is There Anything Good on My Writing Desk?
I love to write. There is no question about that! I’ve written a daily reflective blog since February of 2017, at The Apples in My Orchard. There are over 1800 posts on that site that I’ve written over the last five years! As far as a daily writing habit, I’ve got that nailed down.
This year I decided to stretch myself. In the midst of a life-changing, retirement move to our rural Northwoods cabin (which is an ideal place to write, incidentally), I am taking more chances with my writing.
Last month, I submitted a short story to an online magazine. I’m still waiting to hear if they’ve accepted it or not. Today, I have been writing for several hours before I even thought about starting this blog. Later this week is a deadline for a print magazine piece that I’d like to be hired to write. This is called work or write for hire, obviously. I had to write a cover letter, which is essentially a pitch trying to sell to the editors why I’m the one they should hire for the advertised topic. I have experience, I have the knowledge, and I’ve written about this topic before, so I can be hopeful. But still, I’m not confident.
I’ve spent time putting together my pitch including all the things that I learned should be there when I took a “write for hire” course from a fellow author I know through blogging. I previewed the publication, as they asked in their submission guidelines. This entailed even ordering a set of these magazines in hard copy so I could pursue them at my leisure. They were hard to come by at the local library when I first looked several months ago. I viewed the expenditure as an investment in my potential writing career.
I’ve edited the pitch several times over several days, watching for those mistakes that Grammarly doesn’t pick up. These are things like a word misspelled or improperly used for the context, or even omitted. Only with careful proofreading can you catch those errors.
I’ve re-written my resume which is no easy feat when you are fifty-something years old and have had a variety of degrees and careers in seemingly disparate subject areas. Still, I am an expert in some and need that as well as my passion to shine through.
Most of my adult work has been voluntary. But, now I want to be paid. I think I’m good…
