Okay for all you magazine veterans out there, this is not for you. But please feel free to comment and leave your wise and experienced tips below!

As a relatively new full-time freelance writer, I surely had my share of rejections. Yet somewhere in the midst of it all, I’ve actually got published in a few magazines (even a favorite one at that).

If you’re still struggling to get your foot in the door, don’t sweat it. I’ve got a few tips that may help you get from published wannabe to magazine writer. Read the rest of this entry

As a new writer, you get to indulge in the idiosyncrasies of being green. I, for example, learned not once but twice, the reasons why you MUST get a contract before you send off your manuscript. I also learned that while I want to make a living writing, I also don’t want to take any and every job that comes my way.

So here it is, a bunch of tools to get you writing successfully by doing the opposite from what I did. Keep reading if you want to avoid hitting your head over and over on your desk from low or nonpaying clients.

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The belief that we should ask for what we need is a difficult concept for me. I am a woman for one and a minority for another. I’ve been brought up to believe statements like, “You can’t really do anything about it. Don’t bother/make trouble. Just let it go.”

This is the reason why I used to wonder if I was born in the right family. If I didn’t look so much like my parents, I might really question where I came from.

Instead, I took on a different belief system. The belief that I could do anything and be anything, if only I asked. It still wasn’t easy, however, to get past this long-held belief. Every time I ask for something I need, I take a deep breath, grasp onto faith, cross my fingers, say a prayer, and do anything to deal with the anxiety that starts when I do anything contrary to what I was raised to believe.
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Part of the gift and the challenge with being a freelance writer is not knowing what comes next. While you may be riding the wave of good fortune this month, you may be drowning the next. Although there is the rare writer who radiates an envious and endless optimism, most of us struggle day to day, typing along, hoping to be discovered and appreciated for the hard work writing requires.

I’m of the more common variety. And after reading Julia Cameron’s Finding Water: The Art of Perseverance, I was relieved that even best-selling authors go through this too. It’s actually Cameron’s phrase “keep the faith” that inspired the title and content of this post.

I think it’s easy to get discouraged in this field. Like my husband often says, “You picked a very challenging career.” Although I’m not saving lives here, because writing is such a personal endeavor, I sometimes feel like the life I’m trying to save is my own.

Staying Positive

I have to work on keeping positive and optimistic so that I can get through the valleys and get on to the mountaintops. For me, this means going out of the house to meet with weekly groups (I just joined a professional work at home women’s club.), talking to other writers, and saying silly mantras in my head like, “I’m a successful writer.” I do this all to get through the lull and discouragement that is inevitable in this business.

All Rejection is Temporary Except Your Own

I remember reading somewhere that the only real and permanent rejection is your own. You may not get that seemingly perfect writing job or get your piece published in that national magazine, but those rejections are temporary. If you give up on yourself, then the journey is over.

No matter what stage you are in your writing, don’t give up yet. Keep the faith. And do whatever you must to keep pushing through. If you quit now, you’ll never know how close you were to success. You might have been just a day away…

Last year I sent out a flurry of queries and a couple completed manuscripts. I worked like crazy to reach that impossible, unattainable dream-to get published in a well-known magazine.

And here’s what happened:

No, I didn’t get into Glamour or O magazines. A prayer wasn’t answered. A miracle was yet to be seen.

Instead, last year’s queries were answered by this year’s, “I’m sorry your idea doesn’t fit with the current needs of the magazine.”

After listening to my heart shatter for a few minutes, I put myself back together like Humpty Dumpty. I realized that one rejecting letter, did not a failure make.

So this is what I did:
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Photo by striatic

Have you ever had a bad haircut? I’m sure we’ve all had them. As for me, I’m like TLC’s Duggarts, I’m on my fifth and counting.

The thing my husband always says after I get back from another disappointing hairdo is, “I don’t get it. You tell them exactly what you want and they never do it the way you want.”

“Hmm,” I thought. There’s a bit of wisdom in there somewhere.

The more I pondered, the more I saw that there was a similarity between bad haircuts and bad business.
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I was talking with a fellow writer the other day and then it hit me. We were both striving for the same thing-to make a living as a freelance writer. But we had very different ways of reaching our goal.

For me, business is a lot slower. I really want to focus on magazine and newspaper writing but the process is a lot longer than other writing gigs. There’s querying, waiting, writing and then waiting again. To make up for it, I do have a few clients that I do copywriting for. But even with that, I’m still a world’s away from my writer friend’s work load. Read the rest of this entry