Thursday, April 9, 2009
April 2009 archive
If you’ve got a passing interest in Egyptian history and can write for a younger educational market, hustle yourself over to the Learning Through History website and look over their guidelines for their upcoming Egyptian-themed issue.
Wonder what types of articles they want? A sample of topics…
Valley of the Kings
Ahmose I and Egypt’s Expansion
Akhenaten, the Heretic Pharaoh
Boy King Tutankhamun
A Unusual Pharoah:Hatshepsut
The City of Thebes
Battle of Kadesh
Egyptian Deities
Ramses the Great
Tomb Robbing
New Kingdom Mummification
Farming in the Nile River Valley
Art During the Reign of Thutmose I
Amenhotep III’s Stone Scarabs
The only drawback is that they only take articles on spec, so if you can whip something up quickly, (deadline is April 15th), it might just be a fast $75 in your pocket.
Curious? Check out the guidelines for more information:
Accepting Submissions for Learning Through History Magazine’s Egyptian New Kingdom issue
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
New Huffington Post Blog Entry from Dennis Palumbo
Dennis Palumbo's Writing From the Inside Out
At my first (and only) RWA conference, I spent far too much money in the book room buying all kinds of books I claimed were “research” tomes. (Don’t act like you haven’t done the same! It’s the curse of loving words).
Once back in my room, the first book I picked up to enjoy for the evening ended up being one I’ve read over and over again since: Dennis Palumbo’s Writing From the Inside Out. The pages of my copy are worn from time and pure enjoyment.
Lucky for us, Dennis is still busy analyzing and writing about the creative mind at The Huffington Post. I especially like the message of his latest post…creativity does not equal craziness.
Enjoy it for yourself at Dennis’s post:
Sunday, April 5, 2009
4 Approaches to Setting Writing Goals
One of my favorite writing soapbox issues happens to be goal setting. I’m a huge proponent of thinking through what you want to achieve as the first step in the process toward success.
As I talk to writers about the whole goal-setting/achievement/reflection/resetting process, interesting themes come up in goal conversation: how to reward yourself, how to change goals when the ones you’ve set aren’t working, when to throw in the towel and start fresh, how to keep writing despite life obstacles…the list goes on and on. One of these related topics I’ve struggled with on and off over the course of writing–and one shared with me in recent conversation with an author friend–is one you may have met yourself along the way: the approach of goal setting.
Boiled down to basics, the approach is the actual way you go about setting your goals. Not to be confused with the type of goal (set number of pages, length of time spent writing, amount of finished edited work), your approach is the venue in which you actually set your goals. Four of the most common types are:
1. Personal goal setting: you are accountable to you and you alone. Personal writing goals aren’t goals you share with anyone. You may journal them but don’t share them publicly.
2. Partner goal setting: Fairly obvious–you work with a trusted writing partner and share your goals to make you accountable to someone outside yourself. This requires both partners to share their goals openly.
3. Communal goal setting: Maybe you’re a part of a writer’s group or a blogging group who meets regularly to account, reassess and reset the goals you’re working toward. Communal goal setting groups are larger than partner goal setting and have a different interactional dynamic than individuals or partners.
4. Interactive goal setting: Interactive goal setting can actually integrate itself into the other three types of goal setting as a means of accountability. Interactive goal setting involves using some type of online or electronic goal setting program, service, website or reminder system to keep you moving forward.
As our careers change, our goal setting approaches are bound to change. Goals have a way of becoming far more rushed and less a leisure activity once we’re at the publishing level of our careers. Likewise, we don’t set all our goals with the same approach. Much of my freelance writing goals are individual, though I will set broad goals with my communal writing group, such as a specific number of query letters I want to get in the mail or number of new publications I want to research. My creative output goals are normally set with the SeriousWriters; my daily page count and weekly list of accomplishments are individual. I have tried working with a partner in the past, both as a creative partner and as an editing peer, and neither worked for me. Luckily, I worked with two wonderful ladies who understood that hard, fast deadlines and set number of chapters per week don’t work for me.
There are lots of online places where you can set goals and reminders to be sent to you on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. I’m just discovering those now and will share them in afuture post. Regardless of the approach you use to setting your goals, all of your goals need the same elements to help you prosper:
–accountability on an ongoing basis (daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly)
–reward and recognition, even if it’s just a cup of coffee at your favorite coffee place
–reflection and evaluation to weed out what isn’t working and to put the growing light on what is working
Getting into the goal setting process can be a challenge at first, but with constant nurturing, reflecting and observation of what works for you in your individual career, it will evenutally pay off and serve you well.
What approach works best for your writing? Which one doesn’t? Share with fellow writers and give us something to chew on for future reference!
Friday, April 3, 2009
(Writing)Goal Check!
And I’m not referring to the NHL game I went to this week!
I’ve a new goal post (not “goalpost”) in the works to hopefully be up this weekend, but in the meantime, how are your goals coming? You know, those elusive little dream nuggets that keep you moving from tiny idea to big dream on a daily basis?
We’re officially 1/4 of the way through 2009…where do you stand in terms of accomplishments, tasks finished, plans made and all that other good goal-related stuff? If you haven’t poured yourself a cup of coffee and looked over your accomplishments thus far, do it soon. If you have, what are your big plans for the next few months?
I’ll be back in the next day or two with a handful of helpful links on goal reviewing & setting as well as questions to help you figure out where you’ve been, where you are…and where you hope to be going with your writing.
In the meantime, take an assessment of where you stand. What can you do to make 2009 the best writing year yet?
It's pretty simple, really. I'm a writer who loves writing about writing, and sharing all the tricks of the trade with other writers. And when I'm not writing, I'm thinking about writing. I have a hunch you know what I mean :)