It's been 4 had 1/2 weeks. I leave for too long, I know.
It's actually a good thing though because it means (at least in this particular case) that I'm busy!

After taking the Article Writing lecture at the local library, I signed up for Ms. Edward's class at the community center. I've taken enough of these classes now where I'm not learning a ton. What I'm getting are a couple really awesome gems here and there though to add to my collection. Sometimes it's a slant on something I already learned but the new angle resonates more with me. Other times it's a how-to I didn't know how to do before. In addition to learning both those things in the 2-week class, I found there is a writers' support group forming specifically for freelance article writing. I'm thrilled. I've been looking for a group for a few months now. There are so many locally that you'd think one would fit, but it hasn't yet. I'm hoping this one will be just right.

Many of the other groups have reading of one's work and the work is far more creative than what I'm looking to do. I don't have anything to read. I'm still mulling things over and learning. This group will focus on non-fiction writing and selling. We're hoping to help one another focus ideas and draft queries. It always seems to happen that just when I think I must re-create the wheel and start something myself I find just what I'm looking for. Last time it was a moms club, and I couldn't be happier with the group I found near our new home.

In the past month I've continued work on my freelance writing project for a local educational publisher. The end date is near. I stress myself out with this type of job which is why I don't seek them out. I'm pleased this fell into my lap and I'm equally pleased it's nearly done. As for the second job possibility, I've not heard a peep and I'm not going to inquire. If it circles back to me again then it's meant to be I suppose. Otherwise, I will gladly use the time to focus on the new group, some new ideas I have for articles, and enjoying the summer.

There was one other writing-related event I attended a couple weeks ago. It was a writers workshop at the local community college. It used to be a 2-day event, but has cut back to one full day with lunch. I wasn't sure what to expect because in the past I haven't always gotten that much out of it. I must say I was able to mine fewer "gems" from the four hour-long sessions with four different lecturers on four different topics than my shorter class with one instructor that I mentioned above. It was disappointing. The lecturers were fascinating in their own right but they didn't offer anything for me to take away. Maybe if I were planning to follow closely in their footsteps I could have gotten more out of their experiences for myself. But I was hoping to take away some basic concepts in history writing and adventure writing that I could use in writing about genealogy and camping with my toddler. I don't think I'll be taking the time to attend next year. I did leave appropriate feedback so hopefully they are able to adjust their content in the future.

I'm definitely busy and still chugging away with writing. I will admit I'm still lacking the very basic foundation I know I need . . . a writing practice. I need to carve out time to write, and I recognize to do so I need to make it a larger priority. I'm sort of stuck at this step one though - acknowledgement of what I need to do. Now I just need to do it.

I love learning. However, this love affair is often a hurdle that I place between myself and actually moving forward with something or producing a completed piece of anything. I'm usually conscious of this but often can't stop myself. I've taken many writing classes and lectures because of this, and I've even attended a number of workshops.

The only time I managed to create something without the lengthy schooling process was when I started my t-shirt business. The thought of learning about business concepts was so boring that I knew the actual schooling would be an acute sedative for me. Why pay money to drool on myself in a public setting - or at home in front of my computer? I think this alone allowed me to just jump right in, besides I knew that having a ton of business knowledge wouldn't necessarily translate into a higher percentage of success. Why then do I feel like increased schooling and learning in writing will? While that is an intriguing question, I'm actually making my way to a more intriguing question. Bear with me.

While at the library last week, looking for books that would teach me the structure and basic 'musts' for article writing and journalism, an unrelated title made it's way into my online search. I found it rather serendipitous so I checked it out too. It was "How to start a home-based professional organizing business." My friends have often said I should do something like that, or more so I should do planning and research in which organization plays a critical role. I don't really need anything else to tempt me away from writing, but I started skimming the book anyway. In the introduction the author recalls asking herself a particular question. I loved it. The next time I have quite time (ha!), I will be asking myself the same thing.

Here it is:
"What would I love to do tomorrow? . . . Could I lose track of time doing? And wouldn't care if someone paid me or not?"

The author's answer was "clean out a closet." While I like organizing a closet and find it ridiculously calming I'm not sure I would want to do that everyday and I'm almost certain I wouldn't want to do it for free. Though my answers may differ after some reflection my gut response to this question was "research." I am always researching things and looking for the answers. It goes back to my love of learning.
While I don't think I'll be Diddy's next personal assistant researching the latest and greatest white fashion for his next white party, I do think I can turn research into a career. I can research every little thing I find intriguing, for instance ARE Nittany Lions the largest cat to purr, and sell it to a publication. Research is a fundamental part of article writing. A-ha moment complete.

I hope everyone enjoys the new look. I really liked the previous blog template, but it just wasn't working correctly. I tried repeatedly, but I couldn't figure out the html to fix it. I found this one which is similar enough, and I may actually like it more. What's better is that it's functioning properly, AND I was able to tweak the html for the look I wanted.

Yesterday I attended my very first lecture at our local library. I wasn't sure what to expect but somehow thought it would be small and intimate like a community center class. No. It was a conference room full of seats, with someone in nearly every one of them. I should have suspected this when I couldn't find a parking space but even then I remained shrouded in my naivety.

The entire session was 2-hours long and despite many annoyances (cell phone after cell phone, people snipping about said cell phones, inappropriate questions, etc) the time flew. I not only managed to take 2 full pages of notes, but I also managed to get nearly a full page of ideas for myself. So while the lecture ended up being a complete free-for-all I did manage to walk away with good ideas for future articles, as well as a few book suggestions and writing how-to suggestions.

I'm hopeful that the best tidbit I came away with is that the lecturer is offering a class through a local community center that starts in a couple weeks. I hope there is still room to sign up; I plan to call Monday morning. She is also considering forming a freelance writer organization locally. She isn't aware that one already exists, but that's not surprising. The current group, from my understanding, concentrates on educational publishing not magazines. I think a group like the one she is suggesting would be awesome. I had considered putting a message out on my social networking sites to start just this thing. Though I really feel like having this spear-headed by someone with the lecturer's experience is much better.

In other news, I've had an educational publishing freelance job fall into my lap. Roughly two days later I got an email with a lead on another similar job. I'm not currently looking for work, but I won't pass any up either. I want to concentrate on article writing but writing of any sort is good practice. Plus getting a paycheck is a nice change.

This month is looking good. Between the jobs and classes I hope to establish good (better) habits that will help get my article writing off the ground floor.

As I wrote in my last post, I spent six weeks this winter taking Christina Katz's class Writing and Publishing the Short Stuff (Especially for Moms). I was looking for a manageable class (both time and money) in which I could see measurable results from what I learned. I really did love the class and I learned a lot.

Time flies. November, huh. Wow. I knew I'd been gone awhile but that's almost abandonment. I've been working on a couple writing related "projects." The first project led to the second and so on. Momentum. I rely on it, possibly too much, whether I'm doing multiple sets of squat jumps in bootcamp, making my son's new bedding, or writing. Personally, I like to mix my momentum with caffeine.

In the years since that course, I have continued used his suggestion for handling the inevitable thoughts that slip into our consciousness. He suggested we find a peaceful, favorite location to sit mentally. Wherever our personal location may be, he had us add a stream nearby. As the thoughts appeared we were to place them in the stream and allow them to float away. We were not to inspect, analyze or judge the thoughts but to simply place them in the stream. I still sit by that stream. I still place my thoughts in it. When I’m doing exceptionally well, and managing to have fewer thoughts than normal, I still enjoy the sound of the water the stream provides as a backdrop to my mantra.

For the last week or so I’ve been working on free-writing. It’s the first writing suggestion of Chapter 1 in The Longman Guide to Fiction Writing for Beginners. With this exercise, I relax and try to clear my mind before I begin. Like meditation, thoughts will inevitably appear. However in this exercise, I capture them and place them on the page one after the other. Often a word I have just written leads to a new word and I’m off in another direction. Sometimes I’m back to meditating without thoughts and I wait, listening to the babbling water next to me until I hear what’s next. To keep myself from writing full sentences and getting bogged down in the structure of the thought, I have followed Johnston’s suggestion in the book. I write vertically down the page in columns.

Once I have done this for two weeks, I’ll move on to looking over what I’ve collected. I’ll look for a recurring theme or anything of interest that jumps off the page. I’m excited to see where this takes my writing. Yes my writing, I’m writing. One page at a time, I’m creating a private writing life and learning to work around the critic so that one-day I can work with her.