Beg, Borrow or Steal… Time

Everyone’s busy. I’m busy, you’re busy, your neighbor’s dog is busy. And while that’s become the catchphrase of this generation, don’t let it become your crutch. Don’t get paralyzed into thinking that because you have a life full of responsibilities, you can’t have anything else. Many successful writers have written books while working full-time jobs, managing kids underfoot, and living through financial, emotional and physical hardships. They wrote, published and promoted their books in the same twenty-four hours that you have. The only difference is that they probably learned fairly quickly that dreams come with a price tag. They needed to give up something in order to get that finished novel, book or query letter.

Your dreams have that price tag, too. The question is, what are you willing to give up in return for them? When I found that my day was falling too short, I started keeping a daily journal of time spent. What that did for me was tell me how much I’d achieved each day, and whether I was really working as hard as I thought I was. Turns out, checking e-mail every 2.6 seconds does into your time. As does posting on message boads, answering writing group e-mails as soon as they arrive, and discussing with fellow writing class participants why my mom is being unfair in thinking I should learn to cook.

Point being, even if you’ve been convincing yourself that you’re only networking with fellow writers so that you have another person who’ll help promote your book, or a friend to guide you when you get that contract from Random House, or someone who could maybe refer you to Oprah, you’re only pretending to write. A lot of work is writing-related but it’s not writing. Keeping a tab on your time will help you eliminate the unnecessary jobs and write.

Cut back on the luxuries, too. What’s more important: watching daytime television or finishing that query letter?

And finally, figure out what your high energy times are. Some people like to get up early in the morning before everyone else is awake, and use that morning freshness to bring sunshine to the page. Others, like me, find they’re less distracted at night when doorbells don’t ring, people don’t call, and there’s a huge stretch of time lying in front of them. Whatever be your preference, stick to it. If you’ve decided to get up at five in the morning each day to write two queries, get up and do it.

Sacrifice. That’s what success is all about.

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Three at a Time

I rarely come up with a single idea. I come up with them in multiples of three. That’s because I take the initial spark of an idea and try to transform it into something that would fit into a number of different magazines. So my query on how busy women can keep fit won’t just be sent to a women’s magazine, but a magazine for working women (”The One-Minute Fitness Program for Executives”), a parenting magazine (”Fitness Tips for the Time-Crunched Mommy”), and maybe a general women’s magazine (”Fitness on a Stopwatch”).

That way, while the basic query letter remains essentially the same, I’ve re-slanted it to meet the needs of several non-competing markets. Much better than simultaneously submitting. Not just that, I’ve also kept my daily goal of two queries, plus a nice extra.

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Fill-in-the-Blanks

In order for this fast, machine-like approach to work, you need to have a query letter that has a good chance of selling. Sending out pitches by the dozen isn’t going to do you much good if it’s riddled with mistakes and editor turn-offs. You need to develop something that’s not only tried-and-tested, but something that works for you.

For service pieces, I have a handy template. All I really need to do is fill in the blanks with my material and I’m good to go. You’ll probably develop your own templates in time. Meanwhile, feel free to borrow mine.

(A word of caution: this template will NOT work for profiles, trend pieces, or news reports. Only straight-up service pieces, usually ones with several subheads or bullet points.)

Dear [Name of Editor]:

[Intriguing hook + short introduction]

[Why the article is important to her readers + quote from expert]

“Name of Article” will discuss [precise angle of my piece]. Some of the major points that I’ll cover are:

* A bulleted list
* of main points
* of the article.

I’ll include many more ideas on how to [solve the problem]. For the piece, I plan to interview [name of experts, if appropriate].

A bit about me: I’m a freelance journalist based in New Delhi, India. I have written for [list of credits].

Thanks for your time and attention. I look forward to hearing from you.

Warm Regards,
Mridu Khullar

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Become a Market Collector

A common problem among writers is that after they’ve come up with their ideas and succeeding slants, they simply can’t locate the markets to place them. Trying to mix and match then, is a lost cause, and a huge waste of time. That’s why I suggest collecting markets as and when they come to you. Don’t hit the delete key when you receive a newsletter with aviation markets; you never know when it could come in handy. If you’re concentrating on being a fitness writer, but come across a listing for a high-paying personal finance magazine, store it away for later. Who knows, a few months later you may have changed gears or might have a fitness idea that could do well in a personal finance magazine, like how to find the best deals on workout gear, maybe?

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Join the Dots

Putting together a pitch is like joining together pieces of a puzzle. Your ideas sit in one folder on your computer, markets in another, and your query template in another. Now all you need to do is match each of the elements. You pick out an idea, match it to a market, get the relevant experts from your Rolodex, and write up the query.

Sounds easy, doesn’t it? And while this methodology may seem mechanical and lacking in creative energy and luscious prose, it’s really not. Once you’ve put together the elements, you’re free to pump in as much creativity as you want. A preliminary step-by-step approach simply ensures that you don’t waste all your time and energy in hunting for ideas and markets instead of focusing it on the actual writing.

The best way to do this is, of course, to stay organized. Keep a separate idea notebook where you can jot down all ideas that strike, make a separate folder on your computer for experts, and store all the markets you’ve ever come across in clearly identified folders. Organization’s not my forte, but hey, once in a while I do get around to doing it, and when I do, it works!