Writing Articles

For a long time, I’d known that I was no longer passionate about what I was doing – helping to write proposals, website content, brochures, leaflets or flyers.

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I was going through the motions, but I wasn’t dogging people’s heels to persuade them that I was hungry for work and full of enthusiasm for telling the world about their unique and wonderful products and services. Without that passion, I was not going to continue to be successful as a marketing consultant. I was tired of working through the night to help other people meet their deadlines. What I really wanted was to have my own deadlines to meet, to see my own byline against my own work, even finish that novel that’s half way there but hasn’t been touched in years.

I found www.writelink.co.uk by clicking on a link from a business forum. It hadn’t occurred to me to investigate the help and support available on the worldwide web because when I was freelancing 20 odd years ago, it just hadn’t been available.

Having found Writelink, it wasn’t long before I was hooked. Of course I started as a reader but that was never going to be enough. There were all those things that readers only are not allowed to do. As soon as I became a paid up writer – for the ridiculously small amount of £15 – I was off. Here was a veritable library of useful articles and links to other sources of help, as well as a chance to get free independent advice before subjecting my work to the not so tender mercies of professional editors. I was soon participating in the Writelink forums and it was not long before I took the plunge into reviewing. Getting two articles and a poem spotlighted on Writelink was an enormous boost.

Soon though I realised that I was spending so much time on the site that I wasn’t getting much work out of my door and onto editor’s desks. The forums alone were fascinating and I would find myself checking my emails as soon as they arrived, just to see if there was a new post on one of the topics I was following. When that happened I just had to view it and, while I was there, I’d look to see what else was being discussed. Often that would give me an idea for a response that, of course, would have to be drafted, checked and posted there and then.

If an email brought me the exciting news that I had another review, back I would go again to see what other members thought of my work. Then I might check what other new work had been posted on the site and get sidetracked into reading for my pleasure. I might even feel that I must give something back right away and do some reviewing myself. Always before returning to my work, I’d check the forums again. Hours and hours could pass in this delightful way, but I was not much nearer to earning a crust with my writing.

Something had to be done. I needed to discipline myself. But to what? I had to devise a plan that would allow me to get the full benefits of the site, and give something back, as well as do my writing, researching, contacting editors, keeping records, etc.

The focus of my plan must be the writing and I decided that the discipline should initially be a minimum of two hours a day on at least five days a week. On good days it would be much more than that but I was never to slip below that target. Each day would start with a visit to Writelink to check the forums for anything useful, but no more visits before my writing time was up. So forum visits could be seen as a well-earned reward.

Reviewing was another discipline – at least one a day when working in my home office. I could use the excellent guidelines provided in the Resources section of the site, which I copied and stuck up on the wall behind my computer screen. Again this had to be done after my writing time.

I would try to always have at least one item in the Arena area for others to review. I would need to use the comments of my peers to hone the piece, confirm my chosen market, finalise it and wing it on its way to a future that looked a bit brighter. Unless the work was spotlighted, these comments would be deleted when its 10 day time slot was up, so I scheduled a time before then to copy and keep all the reviews. Then I’d be sure to have the benefit of the majority and only be in danger of missing the last minute ones.

I would also schedule a time to read new items in Resources and consider submitting something myself. My initial target would be to submit something every 2 months. Even when items were not accepted, I would get professional advice on them.
Other areas of the site could also be really useful, so I needed to make sure I would check these at regular intervals. I wrote out a checklist that would also be pasted on the wall in front of my desk. Against the titles:
Markets
Competitions
Events
Freebies
Vouchers & offers
Book reviews
etc, I could enter the date I last visited and know when I ought to go back.

So far my plan is working well. I love interacting with the Writelink community – so different from my earlier freelance days when I worked in complete isolation. In the last month I have been motivated to write and submit beyond Writelink: 6 readers letters (1 accepted so far); 3 queries; 1 article; 1 poem. One novel is out of mothballs and another is being developed from a short story after reading my reviewers’ comments. And I have a long list of ideas.

The snowball has started to roll.