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Our New Year edition features expert advice on how to keep months ahead of the game using editorial calendars, 10 Top Tips on making your work more saleable by adding illustrations, plus the usual dose of inspiration and helpful websites.
Happy New Year and welcome to the first edition of 2009 and our 100th edition.
I am going to start this New Year edition with 10 simple little words; if it is to be, it is up to me!
These are the words I have chosen to motivate myself this year instead of the dreaded New Year resolutions which, according to research, a third of us break before the end of January.
This can be particularly detrimental if you are, or you want to become, a freelance writer as it is up to you and you alone to make sure that you motivate yourself to complete your projects by the required deadline and get paid!
So, I suggest you recite this mantra when you feel hesitant about taking up that special offer from us inviting you to join; recite it when you feel like you just can’t be bothered to sit down and get on with that assignment or article you’ve been putting off and recite it when you receive those dreaded rejection letters.
It is also worth bearing in mind the words of philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson who once said "When you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen." Think about that for a moment – if you think that something is going to be easy then it will be! This is because you have a positive state of mind when starting the task and you can deal with obstacles as challenges rather than problems. And, of course, the opposite also applies. Now, whether you believe in that kind of thing or not it can only be good to promote a positive state of mind when starting anything you want to do in life. Evidence shows that you are much more likely to succeed in your goals if you think you will – simple as that!
Expert advice comes from one of our newer tutors, ex- student Lorraine Mace, (www.lorrainemace.com). This month she advises on how to be “Months ahead of the game” by finding and using editorial calendars to plan your working schedule.
10 Top Tips explains the dos and don’ts of illustrating your work and, in the same vein, Useful Websites reveals a nifty little site where you can buy stock photos to add to your writing and sell any photos you may have to make a bit of extra cash.
Local writing events you could spend some time at this month are the Wordsworth Arts and Book Festival, held 23 to 25 January. In their own words, “We have assembled a wonderfully eclectic programme, including sessions on some of the people who were influential on Wordsworth, both personally and through their work.” You can choose to participate in a full residential weekend, non-residential day events or just choose individual events to attend. Prices for the full residential weekend start at £395.00. www.wordsworth.org.uk/events/index.asp?pageid=404
If you can get along to the University of Chicago on January 29th at 5.00pm you can listen to emerging writer, Deb Olin Unferth, read from her works. And even better – this event is free! More details here.
The Second Annual Savannah Morning News Book Festival is being held between 6th and 8th February in Savannah, Georgia, when “more than forty nationally-known and local bestselling authors and their avid readers will descend upon Telfair Square in historic Savannah”. The key note speaker is southern humorist and author Ray Blount Jnr. The festival also features hourly presentations by fiction, history and biography, lifestyle and poetry authors in different venues around the city, with book signings and various other activities taking place throughout the weekend. For further details click here.
Finally, we are now ready to start our students magazine created entirely by WB Students, and to mark this occasion we would like you to come up with a suitable name for the publication - e-mail your suggestions to me.
Happy reading and have a great month!
Shelley
P.S. Writing can be a useful part time income so have a look at our website to see if you could ease the credit crunch by earning from your writing with one of our courses.
