Making Time

I’m a mother with only 15 hours of daycare a week (and a little bit more if you count the time that his father takes him over the weekend). A self-employed freelance writer, editor and teacher, and novelist too.

Before my son was born, before home ownership, I marvel at how much I got done: I worked nearly full time, enrolled in a low-residency MFA program (yeah, I graduated too), wrote fiction in the morning before work, produced a bi-monthly radio show, a weekly evening reading salon, and freelance wrote on the side. I know, what side, right?

But there was a side–I socialized and spent time with my husband and saw my family.

Did I mention I’m a little Type A?

So right now I’ve got a fever to be doing NanoWriMo…I want it so badly I could have a little tantrum, but I hate to set myself up for failure. When I don’t finish something, it really, really irks me. And I’ve got plenty of unfinished material crowding up my desktops–literal and virtual–already.

But there’s no reason I can’t try to write 1000 words during my son’s naps (rather than relaxing) this month. I don’t need to write 50,000–I’ve already got 60K written (though there will be a lot of paring eventually).

I can still ride this wave in my own way and so can other Type As with not enough time to go whole  hog. There’s never a good excuse for not writing.

Redwood Writer’s Conference

Saturday morning Jody Gehrman, author of some hilarious novels including Tart and Triple Shot Betty, and I will be teaching a workshop on Scenes, and then I’ll be hanging out for several hours at the Redwood Writer’s Conference in Santa Rosa. I have to leave early, unfortunately, but I hope to see some of you there!

Jordan

Get it in Writing: Why Writers Need Contracts

A lovely writer who is new to the freelance trade recently wrote me an email in a state of panic. Several publications that she had turned in assigned work for had not paid her long past the date she had expected to receive payment. In one case, she’d never even heard if her assignment had been accepted.

“What should I do?” she asked.

My first question was: “Do you have contracts with these publications?”

She did not.

Which means her avenues of recourse are limited to only two things:

Persistent pressure via email or phone

Choosing to take the loss

In the instance of taking a loss, at the very least she might have the opportunity to repurpose the material and try another publication. BUT…let me stress:

Always get a contract, no matter how small the job. Whether you’re writing for a corporation or for an individual, getting things in writing, while it may not deliver your money right away, gives you the legal right to pursue the money you’re owed. More so, generally I’ve found that publications or people who will not agree to a contract aren’t worth doing business with anyway.

Address issues. If there’s something in the contract that doesn’t feel right to you, bring it up! Until you ask, you won’t know how much wiggle room you have. Be tactful, but if you don’t think you can write five sidebars or if you feel that it’s unreasonable not to be reimbursed for driving 200 miles, you need to say something. They may not agree, but at least you’ll have tried.

Don’t forget the kill fee! If the contract you sign offers you a “kill fee” in case the article you write isn’t accepted, remember to ask for this in the instance that it really isn’t accepted! You signed a contract; they agreed to pay you.

Stand up for yourself. Lastly, if an editor or anyone at a publication is asking you to do more than you feel you agreed upon in the contract, the only person who will advocate for you is YOU. Let me share a story here.

I landed a high paying assignment in a glossy regional magazine some years back. I was so excited, but also extremely nervous. My contract offered a kill fee. I turned in my work on time, made some minor edits for the Editor-in-Chief, who then ran it by one of the owners of the spouse-owned magazine. She also gave me the thumbs up. I sent my invoice. Signed, sealed, delivered.

TWO WEEKS later the male owner called me up and told me that the story didn’t work for him. He wanted something different, oh, and in two more days’ time. My first reaction was: “I’m a bad writer! I have to do what he asks.” Then I talked to fellow freelancers and my husband. They convinced me that this was an egregious request. My original article, per my original contract, had been accepted by Editorial and one owner.  And the article he wanted was, essentially, an entirely new article.

Knowing that I might be burning a bridge, I nonetheless decided to stand up for myself here. I told him that I would accept the kill fee for the story he didn’t want to use, and that I would write the new article for a NEW fee, and that I needed a week, not two days.

Amazingly, he agreed. My second article was accepted and I was handsomely paid.

But had I turned to fear, I would have been out in the cold, doing twice as much work for less money.

Always get it in writing!

Writer’s Drift: How to Finish What You Start

I am an unashamed multi-tasker, even though the scientific reports are in proving that multi-tasking does NOT get any more done than focusing on one project at a time. It’s kind of a sickness, I think, the type-A personality’s desperate belief that if we do more at once, we will have more to show for our work. And thus be “more” rich, famous, loved by our parents/spouses/kids and so on. (insert wry grin here).

I wish I could say that this did not happen in my fiction, too, but alas, I’ve got five half-started novels abandoned at 100 pages each to prove that I have been known to get seduced by a “better” idea. I was about to do it again recently after re-starting one such discarded novel that a published writing friend has been encouraging me to finish. A story had hit the media, making splashes in tabloids and gossip blogs that sounded like Such A Great Idea for a Novel that I almost gave up on Novel I Need to Finish.  You know what I mean if you’ve got monkey mind like me.

Fortunately I remembered the most important rule of writing: If you don’t write, nothing gets written!! And worse: if you don’t continue writing, nothing gets finished. With nothing finished you cannot realize your big dreams of published fame and glory.

So I drummed up some strategies to keep me focused, to help me finish what I start, and then I realized that other writers could benefit from these strategies too!

So it’s not too late to sign up for Finish What You Start, a 1 week online class through my website, Write Livelihood. The class is just $49 and begins October 12th. There is still time to register: www.jordanrosenfeld.net/events-classes.html.

**UPDATE** I’m offering 2 free scholarships to this class to people who really need it but can’t afford it. Please email me with:

a) Why you really need this class and how you intend to use it!

jordansmuse (at) gmail (dot) com.

For NanoWriMo Past Participants

Now that you have the glorious mess on your hands (or several, if you’re ambitious) from NanoWriMos past, why not the perfect, short but intensive, online class to help you make some sense out of it?

Fiction’s Magic Ingredient. 4 intense weeks that will bring your writing to a new level. Register at: www.jordanrosenfeld.net/events-classes.html

Past students have this to say:

“I discovered that Jordan is a highly articulate and perceptive writing teacher. Her grasp of craft and attention to detail will move any writer to along the path to mastery. After years of devouring books on writing craft and taking workshops, Jordan provided me with a wealth of “Aha!” moments (in her on line course). Her focused and strategic assignments gave me plenty of sharp, positive and practical ways to leap to new levels of skillful creative expression.”

–Deborah Taylor French

“Rich and deep, challenging and illuminating. Your teaching style was generous and open, and your availability throughout the process was delightful. I loved having the discussion questions out there to encourage interchange among the your students. An excellent course, all in all, and I look forward to the next installment.“

–Gail Larrick

Love the Competition: The world needs writers

Guest Post by Alegra Clarke

After winning the Writer’s Digest 76th Annual Writing Competition in  2007, I began a journey with my writing that I like to describe as a cross between Dorothy Gale on the yellow brick road and Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. Opportunities were presented to me that prior to the competition I could not have imagined. They challenged me to actively pursue my writing goals with a blind bravery. Along the way, my bravery has at times traded itself in for the wide-eyed ‘uh-oh’ of a deer caught in the headlights of a car. The more roads I cross, the more I understand that being a writer requires being exposed to this onslaught of traffic. We risk being bruised, honked at, told to ‘get out of the way,’ but the other choice — remaining on the wrong side of the adventure that is ours — is more painful.

Writers are faced with a climate of competitiveness. With a struggling world economy, a population increasingly inundated with soundbyte communication, celebrity culture, and an audience whose attention span is more suited for television drama than hours spent with a book, the odds against getting published can feel overwhelming. Maria Schneider, of EditorUnleashed.com, recently wrote a great article about not allowing the doomsday declarations of the publishing industry to depress us. She suggested that we turn the tide by engaging in acts of “paying it forward” by promoting and supporting other writers.

I have long believed in the importance of this. When I look back over the successes in my life, most have come through a combination of my own efforts met by the generosity of others. Inspired by Maria, I began to think about how to harness the challenges of being a writer. For me, this begins with my attitude. I started asking myself some big questions and, as often happens, answers began appearing everywhere. Up late one night watching The Daily Show, Bruce Springsteen talked about how in unstable times, people flock to the storytellers. It made me reflect on what I love in a good book or short story. In losing myself in the stories of others, I escape the narrow-sightedness of my own struggles. I rediscover something in the pages of a story that allows me to return to my daily existence with more strength, more connection to the beauty of it. Writing gives me a way of translating both the joy and pain of existence, teaching me that they are not mutually exclusive. The harder times get, the more we need our stories.

Competition between writers seems unnecessary because our role is not to become the one voice drowning out the others; our role is to be our own unique voice. I have wondered at the possibility that  there are no new stories, only an infinite way of translating them. If this is true, it means that just like the world is rediscovered by each new generation, stories must be told over and over again, and we as writers should be supporting one another in this. If being a writer means being both transformed and a source of translation for others, rather than feeling overwhelmed by the odds, I am inspired by the challenge of being a storyteller during these times. I will gladly brave crossing the highways with their steady stream of honks and threats for the adventure of connecting with other minds.

 ***

Eros-Alegra Clarke is currently writing her first novel under the mentorship of her agent, Joel Gotler. In the meantime, she has been slowly building publications including an upcoming story “Naming Shadows” in the literary journal Bitter Oleander. A wife, mother of two (with a third on the way), graduate student and guest lecturer at the University of Waikato in New Zealand, Alegra contributes to Maria Schneider’s website resource for writers: http://editorunleashed.com  and can be found blogging about life, writing, and everything in between at:

http://alegra22.wordpress.comClarke

The Successful Writer

Guest Blog by Susan Taylor-Brown

 There’s been a lot of talk around the kidlitosphere lately about keeping your dream alive when all around you, as in this business of writing, seems to be working against you.

Some people are afraid to post their success stories because they don’t want to make other people feel bad. (Which brings to mind that great Eleanor Roosevelt quote,”No one can make you feel inferior without your permission.”)

Some people are afraid to whine about anything, especially after having sold a book or two or more because they are afraid that people won’t think they are grateful for the success they have already achieved. (I would probably put myself in the second category.)

Some writers attribute their success to everything from having a cat sleep on a manuscript, always mailing manuscripts from the same post office and kissing the envelope before you drop it in the big blue box. Sometimes it is the act of getting an agent, finding the right agent, attending the right conference, having a great critique group, not listening to their critique group, writing every day, writing in many genres, writing only one thing, writing teachers and classes and degrees designed solely around writing for children, supportive spouses, understanding children and pets who love us even after we’ve been rejected.

Some days for some writers, being a success means getting a contract, finally seeing a book on the shelves in the bookstores with their name on it. Other days, for the same writer, it might mean being able to write ten pages on a new novel that isn’t even under contract. (Hmm. I’m in the second category here as well. I’m beginning to sense a trend.)

And for all the many ways of achieving success there is a different definition of success for that writer at that particular time in their writing life.

But being a success is evolutionary process, not a final destination. It is good to remember this. Not easy, but good.

 And it is a uniquely individual process. Success for a young writer, say in their 20s or 30s might be different for a writer in their 50s or 60s.  I am a different writer now than I was in my 20s. And my version or perhaps vision of success has changed over the years. In some ways I am more realistic, which is actually rather sad because I thought I looked good with those stars in my eyes and the rose-colored glasses. In other ways I still remain a Pollyanna, true to the idea that a good story will find a home, that hard work will be rewarded, and that while nice folks might not always finish first, they will always finish.

So I challenge you to think about what success means to you. Spend a little time today to actually write it out, the whole vision of what being a success would mean to you. How do you define it? How would you recognize it? What does it mean, to you, to be a success? Not in how you measure up to anyone else in or out of the business. It doesn’t matter if your younger sister/older brother/best friend is suddenly the most powerful person ever at her ad agency and they wonder why you persist in playing around with this writing thing. It doesn’t matter if your mother/father/next door neighbor has bought and sold more companies than you can remember and has their picture on the cover of some fancy business magazine. It doesn’t matter.

I’ll say it again, slowly so you can hear me.

It

just

doesn’t

matter.

What does matter is that you have a dream. You have a dream and you are doing something, anything in any way that you can to pursue. If you get up in the morning and you remember your dream of being a writer and at the end of the day you’ve done just one thing in pursuit of that dream, well that qualifies as success to me.

No, it doesn’t replace seeing your book on the shelves at a bookstore. It doesn’t change the fact that it was great aunt Martha who called to tell you about her bunions instead of your agent calling to tell you your book has just sold. It doesn’t make it any easier to give your kid money for the book fair knowing your book isn’t going to be there, may never be there.

But it’s a start. A word after a word after a word is tremendous power.

And you can’t sell what you never write.

***

Susan Taylor Brown served on the faculty for the Highlights Foundation Chautauqua Conference, is a past instructor for the Institute of Children’s Literature, and has been the recipient of several grants from the Arts Council Silicon Valley for teaching poetry to incarcerated teens. She is the author of serveral books for children including Robert Smalls Sails to Freedom and the Children’s Notable novel in verse, Hugging the Rock. She lives in San Jose, California with her husband, her rescued German Shepherd dog, and over 8,000 books. When she’s not writing or reading, she can usually be found working in her native plant garden creating a habitat for wildlife. She blogs about her writing life at http://susanwrites.livejournal.com You can find out more about susan on her website. http://www.susantaylorbrown.com or follow her on Twitter http://twitter.com/susanwrites

Giving to you on My Birthday

Today is my birthday. I have always liked a good party, and am not ashamed to admit that during my childhood (and occasionally, ahem, since then) I unabashedly went out of my way to be the center of attention. There is a photograph of me on my 8th or 9th birthday in which I am wearing: a  fringe suede skirt with knee high cowboy boots, a lace top, a party hat AND a veil. That’s right, a veil. Or some piece of lacy fabric from my mother’s closet that passed for a veil.

I still recall waiting until all my guests had arrived and then sashaying brazenly out into my backyard, hands on hips, waiting for everyone to admire my outfit. I have a feeling the result was anticlimactic.

Anyway, on this birthday of mine in the midst of my third decade, I’ve decided that I want to give to YOU this year. So I’m giving away free classes!

That’s right!

Be the 1st, 10th and, say, 30th person to email me and I will give you a free online class:

October Mini-Series, three week-long online classes ($129 value) or

Fiction’s Magic Ingredient, in November ($149 value).

Details about classes are on the “classes” page.

Email me: jordansmuse (at) gmail (dot) com with the subject “I deserve your class!!” And then tell me in a couple of sentences why you do–or why you’d like to take them, at least

Runners up will get free copies of one of my books.

Jordan

Season of Change

I don’t have to fear sounding cliche when I say all things must change, do I? It’s just true! In the life of a freelance writer/editor this is more true than for others, I think. A magazine you write for for several years may fold, or they may cut back on their budget and you may find your column disappears in a puff of slashed ink. Clients come and go–hopefully they come back and bring their friends, but nothing is for sure.

It’s not a business for the weak of heart, for the stable of paycheck, or anyone who likes predictability.

Yet those things don’t bother me in the long run. And if you hope to survive as a freelancer, they can’t bother you too much either!

There’s been a lot of change this year. My boy turned 1, we bought our first home, one of my gigs dried up, and my teaching has expanded. Now, I feel the seasonal change upon me, though I’m not sure why I’m feeling that today. It’s just as warm as all the preceeding days of summer. The light is still long. The bbqs still going. It’s a strange shift I always sense in the air sometime before my birthday every year. I never know when I’ll feel it, but it creeps in overnight and makes me feel restless.

The restlessness is the snake of change slithering about my ankles. It’s a reminder that these lazy days are winding to their annual close. We say goodbye to late evenings outside, juicy watermelon, ice cream cones and tan lines. I do love the fall, actually, but I always feel the slightest bit of sadness when summer whistles its way out the door.

Fall will, however, bring a new set of online classes around here. Check them out at: www.jordanrosenfeld.net/events-classes.html. My “mini-series” of 1 week classes begins in October. A new session of Fiction’s Magic Ingredient begins in November.

Enjoy these halcyon days.

Down Time

I started to enjoy my summer early, around May 31st, when we moved into our new house. We finally had a back yard, which encouraged lounging, and a patio, which encouraged sitting and sipping coffee while birdwatching. I didn’t even mind that the weather was so mild until mid July that it felt more like spring.

There have been lots of playdates and long walks, ice cream cones and weekends lying leisurely in parks as a family. But there’s also been a lot of work. (And I’m only working part time), including judging a contest in which I read 25 books; teaching the first in a series of online classes (so far, a blast!); editing at least one full manuscript each month; and writing several articles/book reviews.

Now it’s hit me: I didn’t have a vacation this year! As a freelance writer and editor, vacations often get forgotten unless you force yourself to take them. Oh sure, there were some long, lazy weekends, even one at the beach, but the laptop came with on most of them, and so did the work.

I wonder if there is still time before the warm months are fully gone.

It’s not as easy to just get away now with a young child, either. My son is 14 mos, so we tend to go nowhere further than a couple hours drive. Next year, though, we’re taking a vacation. I’m dreaming of Hawaii. Though the last time we went there, we came home parents to be.

When Blogs Really Work

I love this information age as much as I often find myself overwhelmed by it. When I love it are times like this: Today, a friend I went to graduate school with, who is herself an immensely talented writer, Emily Bloch, (Google her, she’s everywhere!) posted a link to a blog on Facebook.

The link will probably mean the most to anyone in GenX, as it’s about filmmaker John Hughes, whose movies we grew up on and which managed to sum up so much truth for a lot of us kids growing up in middle class families in the 80s.

Below is that link. It’s really lovely, as is her follow-up blog post the next day after more than 1100 people commented on this post, surprising the heck out of her.

http://wellknowwhenwegetthere.blogspot.com/2009/08/sincerely-john-hughes.html

So today, I heart the internet, and am glad to be blogging, even if my readership is quite a lot smaller than 1100

Jordan