Tuesday Tip… July 31, 2007

The blogging world is abuzz with posts about whether it’s right for writers to write (hey, aren’t I poetic!) for free and/or paltry pay. And though everybody has to start somewhere, we want to make sure new and new-ish writers understand that not all clips are created equal, and neither are all paychecks.

So you’re starting without a clip to your name, and you want to get some published work under your belt before you approach national magazines. What to do, what to do? With the explosion of sites out there that promise to publish your work–and sometimes, even pay you for it, if people click through or if you mention certain products in your posts–it might seem like a great place to get your start.

 But will editors take a clip from one of these sites seriously? I wouldn’t count on it.

First of all, unless you’re hoping to make a career as an essayist (all articles written from your personal point of view instead of investigative or how-to articles, often called “service journalism”), magazine and newspaper writing and sometimes pro-blogging writing is about more than, well, just writing. You also have to have reporting skills, the ability to understand editing suggestions and a temperament that will allow you to work closely with an editor without flying off the handle if they cut out even your most precious phrases. If you’re trying to pitch a long, research-heavy feature to a major magazine, they probably aren’t going to be impressed by a clip on a “content provider” site (for more info about these sites and why they aren’t a good idea for writers, read this fabulous post) that’s never been vetted by an editor, was written entirely from your own point of view, cites no research and quotes no sources. Of course, you could produce a really well-written, intensively-reported article for one of these sites, but…why would you? If you’re willing to put in time and work for free or cheap in the hopes the article gets published, it would make more sense to pitch the idea to a small, but respected online publication–you know, one where you actually work with an editor and they care about the quality of the work–small local newspaper, or regional parenting magazine while you learn the ropes. This kind of market is often willing to take a chance on a new writer, but you have to leave your comfort zone long enough to put yourself out there–and face possible rejection, which can be a scary thing.

There’s nothing wrong with writing for any outlet as long as you get really clear about your eventual goals for your work. On this site, we focus on magazine/newspaper journalism, but there’s also professional blogging. But that requires a pro-active approach, too–you can’t just wait to be discovered. And some of the websites that newbie writers flock to because they see it as a chance to get published really aren’t doing them any favors. Yes, it’s possible an editor could be impressed by a really well-written blog post or article on a content-provider site. And certainly there are plenty of people who write solely for the love of it, and getting paid for it would just be gravy.  But if you want to make a living in freelancing, it just doesn’t make sense to linger long in the writing-for-pennies-or-less ghetto.  

So this Tuesday’s tip? Put one foot in front of the other. If you’re writing for no or low pay, aim higher. Research a writer you admire and reflect how they got to where they are. Is the kind of writing you’re doing now going to impress an editor enough to take you to the next level? And are those clips going to impress the next editor? And so on, until you land a great assignment with Much-Admired Market? If not, how can you get from here…to there?

 Know where you’re going and make a plan. Everybody has to start somewhere, but that doesn’t necessarily have to mean writing for peanuts or less. And even if you’ve chosen to do just that, you don’t have to stay there for long.

Happy writing!

–Meagan

If an editor you are dying to work with Googled your name right now, would you be proud of what they’d find?

Edits, Shmedits July 30, 2007

Here’s something I didn’t give much thought when I was a newbie writer: where there are assignments, there will (usually) be edits.

 I was in for a rude awakening the first time I turned in a story to an editor, who was also a friend of mine, and she turned right back around and said (in so many words, and very nicely) “Yeah, umm, this has got some issues.”

 She was totally right, but it still stung. I’d worked hard on that article; every little phrase had seemed to flow. Now I was being told that not only was my prose imperfect, but so was my basic thesis. Oh, and my biases (everybody’s got ‘em) were showing in a too-major way, and compromising the helpfulness of the article.

 I was grateful that the first edits came from a friend, because I didn’t freak out and think “Oh no! She hates me, I suck!” I knew this editor liked me personally AND thought I was a good writer. It made it much easier the next time around, and the next, and the next, to face edits from other faceless editors on the other side of an internet connection somewhere, without taking them personally. Still, I didn’t exactly relish getting my story back all marked up, so to quell the dread I sometimes felt when facing a lot of suggestions and questions in CAPITALS or red type, I started going through a little edit ritual: first, I’d open the document, scan it quickly to get the jist of the suggestions, and deal with anything I thought seemed very easy to fix right off the bat. Then I’d close the file and give the meatier edits a little time to sink in. The next day, I’d re-open the file and work my way through the edits, point by point. If there were more interviews to be done or major changes to be made, I usually found I could face them much more easily when I’d given myself a bit of time and distance from that original read-through. I don’t need to do this every time anymore, but sometimes I still revert to this old tried-and-true technique for facing a big revision with confidence instead of dread.

Revisions still aren’t my favorite part of the job–in fact, both Toni and I are in the middle of edits that are making us tear our collective hair out–but the more I do them, the more they become just another part of the process, and not a big, hairy, “Why don’t they like my writing?” ordeal like it once was. All stories can benefit from a good editor, and it’s important to look at your relationship with your editor as just that–a partnership that will produce the best possible story, not them trying to throw their weight around, or a battle of you-against-the editor in a fight over which words actually make it to the page. On the other hand, sometimes magazines are well-known for putting writers through an editorial wringer due to too many cooks (editors) in the kitchen (passing the story around for their own shot at marking it up). The more stories you revise, the easier it becomes to tell the difference.

 Anyway, feel free to steal my method for easing into edits, or if you have your own process or philosophy, we’d love to hear about it–so comment away!

–Meagan

Tradeoffs… September 26, 2006

As you may have noticed, here at D2D we’ve moved away from following certain themes and topics, so that we could maintain a more conversational, casual flow of discussion here.

It was a great idea, really. Before, when we were posting based on specific themes, I’d see of all kinds of fantastic resources and then kill myself trying to think of a way to fit them into the topic of the month. Or I’d have an idea for a post that seemed especially timely or helpful, but then I’d file it away to post about later, when it fit the theme du jour. (I never did. They never did.)

Several years ago, before I’d gotten serious about my freelancing career, I was talking with somebody about whether or not I REALLY wanted to write for magazines.

"I mean, I love to write," I said. "I’d love to write for a living. But I want to write about what I WANT to write about, not what somebody ELSE tells me I have to write about. I don’t want anyone else telling me what to dooooooo." 

Somewhere along the line, though, I gave in, and now have even become so accustomed to writing for others that writing for myself no longer comes as naturally as it once did. Perhaps I simply don’t have the time, brainpower or creativity left to let a flood of ideas flow from my fingertips after filing how-to stories on contracted, assigned topics.

Once upon a time, I was a prolific blogger (long before D2D or any of my current blogs, I had a regularly-updated personal blog). My entries were fun and off-the-cuff and plentiful. And essays; I was forever starting (and sometimes even finishing) essays about a variety of topics. And I dabbled in poetry and half-written short stories and even plays. On the other hand, I had a very hard time coming up with ideas that anyone else might like to buy. I had a hard time tailoring my early articles to the markets I was writing for. I was overflowing with stuff I wanted to write. The only problem was that much of it wasn’t publishable.

There’s that tradeoff thing again. Most of us already know that the life of a working writer–especially a working writer with children–doesn’t usually mean a life of luxurious creativity, choosing only the projects one feels passionate about, and having plenty of time for everything else in our lives–being there for our children for all of their waking moments, practicing yoga for two hours a day, and perhaps a hobby, like breeding and training hairless guinea pigs for profit. We can have SOME of these things, and on a good day, we might manage to squeeze it all in, but day in and day out, something’s gotta give. And so it goes with our careers. Last year I was giving a talk to a group of college students in a writing for publication class, and I told them "When you’re first starting out, you have to make a choice: Either you can write only what you want to, when you want to, on the topics that you want to; OR, you can make a living at this." Okay, so it’s possible you could make a million dollars off your first novel, but you’d STILL have to put in a lot of time before you see a dime. There’s always a tradeoff, and I think we have to be prepared to make it when we are getting started. It helps to know, very specifically, what your career goals are. Somebody who wants to make a name for herself writing serious think-pieces for the Atlantic should probably choose a different path from someone who wants to pay the bills by writing advertorials. And if you’re moving your career along in a certain direction, the tradeoff is that you may just not have as much time or energy left for other things.

But isn’t it great? We can choose! And we can have the writing life and career that works for us right now and a year from now, whether that means we want to pen the occasional story when we can take a moment out of raising our families, or whether we’re hoping to build a career writing for magazines. If tomorrow I decided that I was tired of writing as my main source of income, I could get a different job and still write essays and stories and even magazine articles only on topics that move and excite me. I’m a writer for life, but I can choose the way writing fits into my day-to-day existence right now and change it later.

I don’t know about you, but I think that’s exciting. It means I can be many things during my lifetime. It means that the novel I have always felt is in me somewhere has time to percolate until I’m in a place in my life that I can get it down. Making a choice sometimes feels like giving something up, but I like to think that I’m just making room in my future life for whatever I can’t do now.

And look–I managed to write a whole blog post, without anyone telling me what to do. See? Turns out I’ve still got it :)

–Happy writing!

Meagan

Take Yourself Seriously July 4, 2006

How many times have you done one of the following?

• Put off getting childcare you desperately need to work because you can’t justify the cost. No, you’ll just find a way to write that 2,000-word article after everyone’s gone to bed, when your eyelids are hovering at half-mast
• Found yourself interrupting your work to tend to requests for snacks or break up a squabble–when your spouse is also in the house, watching TV or reading the newspaper
• Apologized to your spouse for asking him or her to watch the kids while you make a deadline

July’s theme is Taking Yourself Seriously. I’d like to tell you something I learned the hard way: nobody is going to take your writing seriously until you take it seriously yourself. Not your husband or wife or partner, not your kids, not your mother, and certainly not the editor you’re trying to impress.

It can be really difficult to do this, whether we’re just starting out or have been established for years. When we aren’t widely published or making a lot of money from writing, it’s hard to justify the time we spend working on it. Sometimes, even when we are well-established, it can feel like we’re letting somebody down if we’re taking time away from family needs to work–even when we’re squeezing writing into the hours nobody else wants from us (usually sometime after midnight). Hiring child care or household help can seem like a luxury we neither need nor deserve. Asking the spouse to help out in the off-hours just seems unfair. After all, doesn’t he (or she) deserve a break, too?

But here’s the thing–if you’re serious about having a writing career, it’s illogical to try to cram writing in after every other commitment in your life. It simply won’t work. There has to be an investment made in your role as a writer, whether it’s financial, or time, or even emotional–the mindset that you deserve to have it and that it’s valuable not just to you but the whole family. Think of it this way: if you were working outside of the home, it’s not as though you’d look at childcare, or a work wardrobe, or a business-related trip as an expense you couldn’t justify. And I’ve never heard of a single mother expecting her husband to tote a toddler to the office with him.

I’m not arguing that every writer needs or has to have child care when they’re just getting started. I didn’t for a while, for a variety of reasons. Often, money is so tight that the budget simply won’t allow for child care expenses, no matter how badly you want a sitter. In those cases, you have to improvise for a while. Some people make a commitment to keeping their children at home while they work, and I respect and admire that. But if they’re going to gain momentum–without completely losing their minds and burning out after a few months–there’s still going to have to be compromises made in some other area. It’s not about child care, specifically–what you really need is a mindset that your writing is a priority. It’s not shoved to the bottom of the list somewhere after vacuuming the drapes. If that means you have to get somebody else to vacuum the drapes, so be it. If you don’t want to use a sitter, then your partner or spouse might have to take over for you in the evenings and on weekends so you can write. Don’t apologize for it. Your career is not unimportant, and it’s not selfish. Even if you aren’t making money yet, the time you’re putting in now is building a solid foundation for income later. That’s what owning your own small business–and really, being a working writer is running a small business–is all about. You put in a lot of hours at the beginning for a payoff down the road.

It’s not always easy to convince the people in our lives that what we’re doing is important and valuable and that there will be a return on investment later. That’s why you have to convince yourself first. If you aren’t certain that you deserve or need the family to invest in your career, fake it until you make it. Don’t apologize for your work. Don’t grovel or beg for scraps of time. Figure out what you absolutely need and arrange to make it happen. Expect some resistance, but don’t give in. Just re-state what you need over and over until it sinks in.

This month at D2D we’ll be talking about taking yourself seriously. We’ll tackle some of the age-old writing-parent questions: how can I afford child care when I can’t afford child care but I need child care to work? How do I get my family on board with my plans? How do I get them to respect my working time and space? How do I get editors to take me seriously when it’s obvious I’m an at-home writing parent? We’ll offer practical tips and inspiration, but one thing that’s going to pop up again and again is that it starts with you. Take yourself seriously. Start right now. What is one thing you can do to invest in your business? We’d love to hear about it in the comments, below. And look for more posts about giving yourself–and your writing career–the respect both of you deserve.

Happy writing!

–Meagan

The Shifting Sands of Success June 24, 2006

Talk to enough writers and the subject of measuring success by a per-word versus an hourly rate is bound to arise. Some magazine writers reach a point where they won’t accept work below a certain per-word rate or beyond the most popular household titles. Others quietly make a great living writing for myriad out-of-the-spotlight pubs, including trade magazines and special interest publications. Having a low "pain-in-the-backside" factor comes up often, too. Is it worth it to write for $2/word if your hourly rate dwindles with each edited-by-committee re-write mandate or request for more research and interviews? Sometimes lesser-known publications paying $.50/word are dreamboat pubs with non-grabby contracts, few editorial hassles and editors ecstatic to have competent writing submitted on time. That hourly rate sure changes when you factor in the various requirements for any project, and knowing this is a huge key to becoming and staying a successful writer.

For me, the definition of success has shifted around quite a bit. At first, simply being published was enough. When my mother-in-law presented me with what is probably the most touching gift I’ve ever received–a scrapbook filled with every local sports clip I’d written for our tiny weekly paper–I was floored. I’m still proud of those clips; I learned a ton from writing about a topic about which I had little interest, including dodging tired, old cliches! The pay didn’t begin to cover the Starbuck’s I consumed writing those pieces, but I didn’t care. I was writing for money and being published, and that was success aplenty for me. My first national clips (including a personal essay) for a pregnancy magazine similarly thrilled me.

The definition of success kept evolving: breaking into X or Y publication, gaining an acceptance a few minutes after receiving a rejection, being able to easily say "I’m a freelance writer" when asked what I do for a living without choking on my fear that someone would point and shout "FRAUD!" Receiving generous ‘kudos’ letters from sources and editors with whom I’d worked.

Success for me currently means gaining acceptance into peer organizations like ASJA or SATW, landing that first book deal, breaking into magazines I’ve long dreamed of writing for, and successfully shifting the direction of my writing business to include subjects I’m passionate about covering. But it also means working smarter, not harder–understanding that there is value in taking gigs that aren’t sexy or prestigious but will cover my student loan payments or allow our family to take a dreamy vacation. Knowing my value as a writer while still always striving to improve and evolve. Being able to say "I’m a freelance writer" to myself, knowing how blessed and lucky I am to do what I love for a living.

What’s your definition of success as a writer? Has it changed along the way? Where do you see it shifting or evolving with time? Let us know your thoughts about success in the comments to this post.

Have a successful month!

–Toni

Success: Insert Your Definition Here June 6, 2006

I recently heard of a writer who earns $600K annually; he works about 70 hours a week and says he wouldn’t have it any other way. I know another writer who writes for a regional parenting magazine as a springboard to develop clips before approaching bigger markets. This allows her ample time to rekindle her love of fiction writing and to tend to her two young children.

Which of these writers is more successful? If you were to ask them, they’d both offer compelling arguments. Both are pursuing their passions in ways that satisfy them. Each yields specific but very different financial, emotional, and professional rewards.

During the month of June, we’re going to be examining what it means to be successful as a writer. Does merely getting paid count? The amount per word? The number of hits and comments to your blog? How about landing that first book deal? And while money certainly isn’t everything, for how much longer must the writing profession fall under that stereotypical beret of the "starving artist?"

We’ll feature interviews with writers who honed their own personal definitions of success and share some of our own experiences in this pursuit.

You may have noticed that we’ve taken down the message boards for now, but in the meantime, comments to our posts are open again. Feel free to share your thoughts and your own success stories, big, small, lucky, or hard-won. And look for more frequents posts and interviews this month!

–Toni

Interview with Diana Burrell February 20, 2006

Read our interview with freelancer and mother Diana Burrell, author of The Renegade Writer: A Totally Unconventional Guide to Freelance Writing Success.

Name One Thing You Can Do January 6, 2006

That would improve your writing business, or your writing process in general.

It’s a new year, and everyone’s already anxious to retire the word "resolution" until December 31st. But while resolutions may seem fated to dissolve faster than Alka Seltzer, tiny, incremental changes actually feel do-able.

January’s theme at From Diapers to Deadlines is "New Year, New Plan." And we’re starting off by helping you derive a workable plan, not some over-stuffed, insurmountable to-do list you’ll never accomplish in a reasonable way. Realistic, small, coherent steps to get you thinking clearly about where you really want to take your writing business. And tools to help get you there.

So let’s start off gently. Ask yourself: what one thing could you do this week to improve your writing?

Don’t pick a whole "program" or convoluted "system." ONE THING. Ditch the "overhaul your entire existence" attitude the media sells during this time of year and just pick one thing and try it for a week. Then come back here and tell us how it worked for you and whether you think you’ll keep it up, and when you’ll pick your next ONE THING.

Here’s one I’m doing: I’m starting assignments right when I get them instead of waiting a bit, sometimes until the day before deadline, as I’ve been known to do with my monthly parenting columns. I have a whole month to write the column, and yet I’m often scrambling to hammer one out the day before deadline. This year, I wrote two columns when I had a couple of free hours, clearing the boards so I could take on other stuff, and reducing my stress levels, too.

Here are some other ideas:

–Spend 30 minutes catching up on filing or tracking expenses

–Work on existing projects before checking e-mail or message boards in the morning

–Spend 15 minutes a day brainstorming new ideas (for: queries, markets, that next chapter, that first draft)

–Tidy your desk every night as you turn off your computer

–Find one thing you can let go of for one week (lurking on message boards, that reality TV show), and spend that time writing instead

–Start each week or month with a flurry of pitches, challenging yourself to see how many you can do.

When you’ve settled on your ONE THING, let us know how it worked for you. Post a comment here, or visit our message boards and talk about how it’s going.

Have a great weekend! And look from a post from Meagan this Monday.

Toni

We’d love to hear your thoughts. Share your progress, add your insights, or ask questions on our message boards. Click here to comment!

Welcome! December 10, 2005

We are so excited to have you join us in the launch of From Diapers to Deadlines, a web resource for parents who write professionally–or aim to. It’s our goal to provide you with the support, encouragement, and advice you need to balance two big jobs–professional writing and parenting.

From Diapers to Deadlines is for all parents who are also working writers, whether your oldest baby is still in diapers or your youngest child is a senior in high school; whether you came to writing after having children or are a veteran writer trying to figure out how to balance a baby in the mix; and whether you write books, freelance for magazines and newspapers, or write press releases for corporations. In short, if you’re a working writer–or an aspiring working writer–and a parent, this is the place for you.

Each month we’ll feature a mix of new content and evergreen resources–all FREE–to help you shape your career and balance your life, like inspiring interviews with writing parents and other experts, information-rich podcasts you can listen to at your convenience (say, while driving carpool), weekly challenges to give you a kick in the pants, and a message board where you can meet up with other writing parents to talk about challenges and acheivements, to ask for advice, and to discuss the finer points in the art of balancing a family with a writing career. If you’re a veteran writer, we hope you’ll stop in the message boards to discuss career ups and downs with other established professionals. If you’re just getting started, don’t be shy–poke around, read the content, and introduce yourself! We look forward to watching your career grow.

January’s theme is New Year, New Plan. We’ll be talking about creating a business plan for your writing career, giving your income a boost, and how writers can feed both their families and their souls through their work. Read our interview with accomplished writer and mother Jennifer Margulis and, later this month, Kelly James-Enger; participate in our weekly challenges, check in for regular updates to our blog, look for a podcast around the middle of the month, and visit the message boards, where we’ll be discussing all these topics and much more. And during the month of January, anyone who registers a username and posts on the message boards will be automatically entered in a drawing for a FREE copy of Kelly James-Enger’s book, Six-Figure Freelancing!

Feel free to visit the About Us page to find out more about Toni and Meagan and how this site came to be. As we add more content, the blog posts will be separated into the categories on the left, and we will archive old content so you can find it in the future. If you’d like to be notified when we update the site, please click the "subscribe" link, or add us to your RSS feeds.

Again, welcome. We’re so glad to have you here.

We’d love to hear your thoughts. Share your progress, add your insights, or ask questions on our message boards. Click here to comment!