Making Things Harder Than They Are
by Dawn Copeman
I've done some time travel. I was sorting through my desk drawers (yet another writing avoidance strategy), when I came across my old notebook, the one I used when I first started freelance writing.
I was just going to throw it out, but then I started to look through it. Wow! It was amazing seeing my early enthusiasm for my new-found career. Pages upon pages of story and article ideas, covering a wide variety of topics, some of which were clearly based on Calls for Submissions I'd seen at the time. There were brief paragraphs outlining story ideas and nonfiction articles, research notes and even the draft of two successful queries to TimeTravel-Britain.
There were contact details for a wide variety of magazines, some of which showed I was aiming far too high (not that I knew it at the time).
But what amazed me most about this book was my unbridled enthusiasm for the craft, the energy I had and the sheer number of article ideas I'd come up with and the number of queries I was sending out.
I wish I were so prolific now. Then I had four hours a week to do my writing, whilst my young daughter was at nursery. Now I work at home, and although I do home-school my daughter, I still have around four hours a day in which I could write, yet I often don't. Is it that because I have more time I've become lazier, choosier about projects I undertake?
Nowadays whilst I still check 'Calls for Submissions' I find myself dismissing most of them: not my area, I know too little about it, there's bound to be someone with more experience in this area. Then, I just went for it. Brainstormed ideas, figured out angles, and queried. It worked, too.
Looking back, it all seemed so simple. Now, however, it seems to have gotten so hard. Why, I wonder, do we make life more difficult for ourselves as we progress in this craft? Is it partly recognition of our strengths and weaknesses as writers? Or is it that we grow scared of breaking into new areas or markets? Or is it just that we find ways to make life more difficult for ourselves?
I'm hanging on to that old notebook. In fact, there are a few blank pages at the back that I'm now pressing into use again. Having had the chance to revisit an earlier version of me as a writer, I'm going to try a fresh approach to my queries, the one the novice writer in me tried. It worked before; let's see if it can work again.
Dawn Copeman is a freelance and commercial writer who has published more than 100 articles on travel, history, cookery, health and writing. Dawn is the editor of the Newbie Writers Website (http://www.newbiewriters.com) and also edits the Writing World newsletter (http://www.writing-world.com/newsletter/index.shtml). She can be contacted at editorial "at" writing-world.com.
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