Major changes coming up this week on this blog. It’s a massive undertaking, but I’ve decided to update my version of Wordpress and change the theme.

This theme, while beautiful, has become pretty outdated. I can’t post videos, change sidebars, and even the friends list I had has disappeared (and I can’t bring it back without breaking something).

I’ve decided to start from scratch. Because I think I actually know what I’m doing, I’m planning to do this myself. I’m going to start tonight, and hopefully finish up over the weekend.

In the meantime, you might find an error page or weird ongoings on this page. Because I have to delete pretty much the entire contents of the blog in order to restore it, there is a chance some things are going to get lost in the process. If there’s something you can’t live without, feel free to save it to your computer (no distribution please!).

You’ve been warned. See you on the other side!

I’m sitting on a fantastic story. I was told about a doctor who’s undertaken some very controversial (but successful) research, and is now using it to cure patients of disorders that were once considered untreatable.

This doctor’s story is amazing. The research is controversial. And I’ve managed to locate at least one patient who is willing to go on record and give me the documents of the treatment for third-party evaluation. I also have people who can do this third-party evaluation.

The problem? So far, the damn thing hasn’t sold.

I haven’t kicked in to high gear yet though. Today I’m going to sit down and figure out which markets might be willing to pay for the tons of research this story is going to require.

I have about three more deadlines before the end of the month. Most of these are how-to pieces that I write under a pseudonym. I’d never actually thought I’d be writing under an assumed name, and it’s not like I don’t like this work—some of it is actually quite good. I just don’t want these pieces to be the first thing an editor sees when he or she searches for my name on Google. And they probably would be. So that’s strictly for-money work. I get no joy from it, except maybe for the paycheck that comes every month (on time, every time).

I was sitting outside drinking tea yesterday, thinking of how I could replace this income, and then I suddenly realized: I didn’t want to. I was reminded of a conversation I had with one of my Professors the other day. I was moaning about how I don’t get to focus my energy on work that I want to do, and instead, have to spend about fifty per cent of my time writing this stuff for the money. He said I should consider myself lucky that I get to do a fifty-fifty. A fifty-fifty is the best percentage there is, he said. Most people are lucky if they get to do a eighty-twenty.

He’s right. Most writers I know write for trade magazines or take up copywriting for the money. I’m lucky in that I don’t have to do that. My work is 100% consumer and mass media. I don’t supplement it with any other kind of writing at all. I do make a living writing only for consumer magazines and newspapers. How did I not realize that before?

He also told me that even though I’m itching for the investigative journalism now, I’m going to need a break now and again, and these “fluff pieces,” as I call them, are what will keep me sane.

After three weeks of intense research on topics that don’t quite make me feel good about the world, I’ve realized he’s right. I’ll need to hold on to that distraction for the sake of my sanity.

Read it here:

http://thewip.net/contributors/2008/09/dignity_women_in_mumbai_avoid.html

There are some people (writers, even) who can focus so well on their work that nothing, absolutely nothing, can distract them. These are the people I tend to hate.

My boyfriend, Sam, is like that—when he’s writing, he’s unaware of what’s going on around him. I could jump up and down (and I have), I could throw things at him (and I have), I could whine, moan, and scream (and I have), and he’ll just go on writing, totally immune to my cries for attention, completely ignoring my existence. I’m so sure the whole room could blow up around him, and he’d finish his work, turn around, and say, “Did something happen in here, darling?”

Me, I’m the exact opposite. For starters, I need complete and utter silence. Closed doors, no movement, blank white screen. Maybe I’ll just check my e-mail. The door opened—let me go see who it is. No one. Okay, let’s start. No, first I need tea. Yes, tea. Okay, blank page, warm cup of tea. Silence. Mmm. What was that sound? Did a pin drop? Let me see what happened? Where is it? I don’t see it. Let’s go look for it. Don’t want to be walking around barefoot and step on it. Oh, there it is. Good, okay. Now I can focus. Oh wait. I need to call my mom first. Maybe I have new e-mail too.

You get the idea.

I’m also supremely in awe of writers who can crank out articles in days (or hours!). For me, I find that for every 800 words of good writing, I need two full days of research, if not more.

John Jerome addresses this issue in his book, The Writing Trade: A Year in the Life of a Writer. He says, “Magazine writing sometimes flows along at a thousand words a day—but writing for magazines generally requires two or three times more (or more intensive) research than writing books. That means two or three days of scut work for every day of writing: more like four days for a thousand days of production.”

Jerome wrote the book in 1989 and it was published in 1992, an era in which online writing and blogs hadn’t yet become commonplace. And maybe it’s the topics I’m writing on, but I’ve never been able to crank out a 1,000 word magazine piece in a day. Of course, most blogs don’t require interviews, updated statistics, and fact-checking departments that call you in the middle of the night to say, “I’m not sure you should say that without attribution. We might get sued. Get someone else to say it.”

I’ve been leaning more and more towards the idea of doing article series and books. A publisher in India has been interested in my work, and we’re in talks, but while I love what they’re doing with their titles, the advance for their other writers has been so low, it’s embarrassing. I’ll likely have to walk away. But at least I’m thinking seriously about this avenue of work now. I’m really just waiting for an idea to fall in love with. Short attention span and all that. Then, we find an agent.