If you’re interested in this teleclass and would like to RSVP to reserve your place, you can also find the full details on that page.

Thanks so much! [lf]

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Well, I can now say I’m becoming a master at turning down inappropriate work. Most recently, an editor I love at a magazine I enjoy writing for approached me about profiling six up-and-coming European Olympic athletes. I knew that if I took the assignment, although the money was good, I would kick myself later because I know nothing about Olympic sports (I’ve never even watched the Olympics).

I’ve also been turning down work that would pay poorly for the time I put into it. For example, one editor asked me to write a piece on a topic I’m interested in. I was excited about the prospect until I found out that the piece would be 200 words long. I know from experience that writing shorts for this magazine is almost as time-consuming as writing features, but at a fraction of the pay — so I said no.

And you know what? I have no shortage of work, and all of it is interesting and pays well. I always knew that turning down inappropriate assignments leaves more space for good work to come flowing in, but now I’m seeing it in practice. Besides that, I now have more time for doing projects I’m passionate about, such as organizing free teleclasses for writers. (Not only do I love giving teleclasses, but they do eventually pay; six students took advantage of the e-course offer I made during my last teleclass.)

Of course, I don’t just turn down work simply because I’m not super-excited about it. My goal is to support my family working just 2 to 3 days per week (so I have more time to hang with hubby and baby!), and that means that sometimes I’m taking on work that doesn’t exactly make me jump with glee. If it pays well and is at least somewhat interesting — and I can find something that interests me about almost any topic — I say Yes.

So how about you: Have you recently turned down a project that just didn’t seem right? What happened? Please post your experiences in the Comments below! [lf]

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While I did garner one client almost immediately (and I’m still writing for her), the rest of the year it was crickets. Then, last month, I got a $1,250 assignment to edit an alumni magazine’s class notes section. And last week, more than a year after I sent my letter of intro, another university contacted me about writing articles for their website.

Getting assignments a year or more after I market to a potential client isn’t rare. A couple of months ago I got an assignment from a $1+/word custom publisher after more than a year of occasional follow-ups. The same thing happened with another custom pub, which came to me needing a rush article after a year of silence.

Many writers will send out a few queries or letters of introduction, sit by the phone waiting for a response — and get discouraged when they don’t hear anything after two days. It’s enough to demotivate any writer! That’s why I consider all my marketing efforts planting seeds. You plant seeds, water them when needed, and are happily surprised when you start seeing little plants coming up. The more seeds you plant, the more results you’ll get. But you can’t force them to sprout…they’ll take their own sweet time, so you shouldn’t drive yourself crazy staring at the ground waiting for the seeds to put out shoots.

The same thing applies to marketing: You should market widely (after all, who plants just one seed?), follow up occasionally, and consider it a happy surprise when something eventually comes of it. You’ll be a lot happier and more productive — and you’ll probably get more work as well. After all, if you let yourself become discouraged by lack of an immediate response, you’re likely to procrastinate on doing more marketing. But if you consider marketing an investment in your future (maybe even your distant future), you’ll be more motivated to do it.

So…get out there and plant some seeds today! And don’t be surprised if they sprout a year from now, when you least expect it. [lf]

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As some of you know, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I should probably write an essay about WHY turkey day makes me light up. But since I have enough on my plate these days (pun fully intended), I thought I would start a new tradition. Truth is, I’m just borrowing a genius idea from my friend and fellow writing instructor Monica Bhide.

So in the spirit of gratitude and creating abundance, I’m calling on YOU (and all of your loved ones, friends, colleagues and enemies whom you choose to send this message), to share what Thanksgiving means to you. The person who tugs at my heart strings the most will get a free essay writing class (Premium version) when the new session starts up on January 11.

Please forward this message on to anyone who may be interested. To learn more about the course, please visit the Renegade Writer e-course page.

NOTE: All entries must be received by Thanksgiving. You can e-mail your entries to amy@amypaturel.com. [lf]

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The disaster: A key source blows off the interview.

How to head it off: Check in.

After being ditched by one too many sources come interview time, I started sending confirmation e-mails a day before the interview. I write something like:

Hello! I’m writing to confirm our phone interview tomorrow, October 15 at 1 pm ET. The article is for Writer’s Digest magazine and is on how to use online forums to boost your writing career. If you need to reschedule, please call me at 555-867-5309 or e-mail me at lindaformichelli@gmail.com. Thanks, and I look forward to talking with you!

This is especially helpful when there are more than a few days between first contact and the interview itself. When you schedule an interview for three weeks from now, the source is more likely to forget about it.

The disaster: It’s a few days before deadline, and you managed to get only two interviews for your 2,000-word piece.

How to head it off: Start early.

Nothing sucks more than having to ask for a deadline extension because you weren’t able to nail down sources for interviews, so I typically start searching for sources the very day I get an assignment. I might put out a request on Help a Reporter Out, search Amazon for new books on the topic of my article, write to the appropriate organizations and universities, and post to related forums if I’m looking for “real people.” Remember, sources don’t schedule their lives around your deadlines, so contacting them early can help you work around sources’ vacations, work schedules, etc.

The disaster: Your article is due today and it somehow manages to both suck and blow.

How to head it off: Ask for help.

Sometimes an article just doesn’t work out. Your lede is clunky, the body is disorganized, and you can’t think of a conclusion. First, I have to say that this is another case where starting early helps. If you wait until deadline day to start writing an article and you have trouble with it, you’re S.O.L. So give yourself at least a few days to write.

Whenever I have problems with an article, I ask a writing friend to critique my piece. For example, I was recently working on an essay for a parenting magazine and was unhappy with the way it was turning out; because of the word count the editor gave me, each section of the essay was too short to get any real information in there. So I asked my essay writing friend Jennifer Lawler to take a look at it. She did, and she gave me some very helpful suggestions. In another case, I was working on my first narrative piece ever and wasn’t sure if I was doing a good job. Elaine Grant, narrative journalist extraordinaire and instructor of our Magazine Writing Basics class, read it for me and taught me how to weave scenes together for the biggest impact.

Of course, if you ask your friends for help you have to be willing to critique their work when they need it!

Another possibility is to ask your editor, well ahead of the deadline, if she would mind taking a look at your outline or first draft because you’re having trouble with X, Y, and Z. Your editor wants you to succeed as much as you do. Just be sure the draft you turn in is not too rough; you don’t want to scare your editor with numerous typos and too many organizational issues.

The disaster: The source you spent so much time lining up is a dolt.

How to head it off: Prep them.

I recently had an interview with a source — who approached me asking to be interviewed, might I add — who answered every question with, ” I don’t know anything about that” and “Well, that’s obvious.” Then I had to go and find another source before my deadline. Ugh and double ugh. Avoid such snafus by making sure the source really understands what your article is about. For example, you can paste your editor’s article description into an e-mail to your source, provide your own detailed description, or even send along some interview questions. I wouldn’t send questions if I were writing a profile or an investigative piece, but since most of my articles are service pieces, this is fine. And you don’t need to stick to the questions you wrote; other questions are sure to pop up during the interview. This is just to help the source get an idea of what you need from him.

The disaster: Your deadline is three days away, and you realize you have no story.

How to head it off: Do your research.

It happens: You come up with a great idea about how yoga causes high blood pressure, based on something you read in an online forum, and an editor bites. But when you start to line up sources, all of them agree that the claim is bogus. In short, you have no story.

That’s why I always recommend doing research before you write your query — and not save it for when you have the assignment. You’ll want to contact a few expert sources and find good studies and stats, which will not only impress an editor, but will also let you know before you send the query whether your idea will really fly. The even better news is that if you research your query, (1) you’re more likely to get an assignment, and (2) you’ll have part of your article done before you even start writing it.

What disasters have you headed off in your writing career through smart planning? Please post about your experiences in the Comments below! [lf]

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I also asked an editor of mine at a national magazine, who just sent me his reply because he was on vacation. Here’s what he said:

Off the top of my head, whenever I see any credentials in a writer’s query indicating that they’ve been paid for their skills and delivered in a successful manner, it’s definitely a positive sign, and to me indicates that they know how to professionally write and hawk their content (as long as there’s no ethical overlap with the subject at hand). Any clip like that is better than no clips at all. [lf]

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One part of one of my assignments (to help beat perfectionism) is to purposely send an e-mail to an editor with a typo in it. One of my students said “No way,” but later that day, as she zapped a query off to an editor, she realized that she had a big fat typo in the very first sentence. And what happened? The editor wrote back an hour later expressing an interest in her idea.

My next session starts on Monday, October 26…that’s just a few days from now! Learn more and read the FAQ here. I hope to help you Get Unstuck! [lf]

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