Meme Break : My Favorite Type of Writing

After a crazy and hectic week between semesters (during which I got what I hope to be my last non-writing job) and a slight lag in posting, today's post actually isn't part of the Look Like a Pro! series. We'll return to our regularly scheduled programming tomorrow. The incomparable Susan Johnston over at The Urban Muse tagged me for the latest meme - "What's your favorite type of writing?"

What's my favorite type of writing? One might just as well ask, "What is your favorite writing to read?" In fact, I'll just address both questions, since the answers are the same.

I can claim no undying love for one specific style of writing. There is no genre that I attack with any more zeal than another. I do focus far more on light journalism and magazine writing, but that's more for practical purposes than anything else. If anything, I'd have to say that my favorite style of writing is high quality, regardless of the genre.

I've written absolute dreck in more than one style, and I've read even more. The sad fact is that writers are human, which means that at any given moment we may be lazy, frustrated, uninspired, untalented, or otherwise imperfect. Everyone has off days, even the best writers. For this reason, it is all the more magical to really be on, to deliver something great.

Great writing is far more than simple words. It has life to it, substance that extends beyond paper and ink. All writing communicates something, but the best of it has power. That's what I love, both to read and to write. Do I actually write that way? Probably not. I'm always learning more about the craft, improving my skills and as I do so, I look back at what I've done before and wonder "What was I thinking?"

And so, my own writing aspires to be my favorite writing. My favorite reading shows me just how marvelous my writing could be. The best stuff pops and sizzles, filling your mind with excitement the way a handful of Pop Rocks shows your mouth what it means to be alive. It's the mental equivalent of the tender steak, the hot shower, the runner's high or the first kiss. Great writing engages the reader and changes them forever.

Perhaps a piece will only allow the reader a few moments free of worry or stress, a brief escape from the dreary world. Perhaps the reader experiences the irreparable stretching of the mind that a powerful concept brings, forever changing how the world is seen. Either way, that single quality piece of writing is what all writing should be - a vibrant, expansive experience that goes far beyond the reading of words.

Tag, you're it!

The first three people to comment and post a link to their blog get the tag! Hurry! Comment now!

Habits for Success: the meme

I’m going to take a one post break from the “Look Like a Pro” series to participate in the “Habits for Daily Success” meme. Carson Brackney, the copywriter extraordinaire over at Content Done Better has tagged me with the latest meme: “List the top 5 to 10 things you do almost every day that help you to be successful. They can be anything at all, but they have to be things you do at least 4 or 5 times every week.”

Well, I honestly don’t know just how successful I really am… I’m a very fledgling rookie in the freelance writing field. I’m still in school, and making progress a lot more slowly than I would like. I may not have what others consider to be success, but I still consider myself to be reasonably successful.

I don’t necessarily think that success is simply defined as a simple end point. Being done eating a burger isn’t necessarily the point of a burger. The point is that you love every delicious, greasy moment of eating it. Eventually you do finish it, but being done with a burger is nowhere near as wonderful as eating one. I’d know, I’ve eaten plenty.

I’d have to say then that habit numero uno is my mindset. I’m successful because of how I define my success. I’m married to my best friend, the girl of my dreams. My studies, my hobbies, my work and my passions all intersect in my writing. I spend every day doing what I love. I have a home, food to eat, and friends and family. My success depends largely on recognizing the successes I have already attained and enjoy. As a result, I’m a happy man. If happiness isn’t success, what is?

If we continue on defining success as daily happiness, we come to my next habit, which also isn’t necessarily writing related. The second habit has to be my overall lifestyle. I lead a life that conforms to certain standards of decency and conduct. My religious/spiritual life is an active and vibrant one. While I am far from perfect, I do my best to live according to the knowledge I have. At the end of the day, even though I make mistakes, I’m able to sleep peacefully.

While these first two habits might not sound all that related to success with writing business, they are. If you can’t learn be happy now, no amount of money, recognition, or expertise will satisfy you. You may achieve some visible measure of external success, but inside you’ll feel like a failure.

On to things more relevant to the writing profession:

I feed my mind constantly. The mind works according to the old computer programming maxim – “Garbage in, garbage out.” Along the same lines, if little goes in, little can come out. I’m a voracious reader, with a love for new ideas. I seek out new perspectives and experiences. As a result, I’ve got ideas coming out of my ears.

I write daily. Everything I’ve ever read on the subject tells me that good writing is the product of regular, daily writing. As a writer, words are the clay you sculpt with, the tools you work with. The more practiced and familiar you are with your tools and materials, the better you’ll be at your craft. To quote a couple writing heroes of mine:

“Runners don’t say, ‘Oh, I ran yesterday. I’m limber.’ Each day they warm up and stretch.” – Natalie Goldberg

“Set up a daily writing schedule. That is the best advice I can offer any aspiring writer. If nothing else, the schedule will make you think of yourself as a writer. … After a few months of sticking to your schedule, you should be rewarded with an astonishing improvement in your writing.” – Patrick McManus

I set goals, and pursue them. Am I happy with what I have now? Absolutely. If things never changed, I could be happy for the rest of my life. The only problem is that things always change. Growth and change are inescapable, but not uncontrollable. If my life must change, it might as well be for the better and according to my own plan. I have educational and career goals. Though I love the apartment my wife and I are in, we’d like a house with a yard. I’d like a better workspace, with nicer equipment. I’d love to get published in certain magazines. I would love to be wealthy, influential, famous or whatever else. I don’t know where my life will ultimately end up, but I do know that anything worthwhile tends to be the result of patient hard work.

Finally, I study others. I try to adopt the things that work best, and discard what doesn’t. I’m not too sure that I’m necessarily any good at that, but I’m making progress. I’m a little bit better today than I was yesterday, and that’s good enough for me.

I’m passing this along to…
Kristen King, at ::inkthinker::
http://www.inkthinker.blogspot.com/
Andy Humphrey at The Struggling Writer
http://struggling-writer.blogspot.com/
Mridu Khullar at her blog
http://www.mridukhullar.com/journal/

Blog turns to Book Deal!

Sometimes, I just love the Internet. (Actually, that's most of the time.) One of my favorite things to watch of late has been how the occasional "new media" player (be it a blogger, YouTuber, whatever) will occasionally show such creativity that "old media" picks it up.

The best example, of late? One of my favorite blogs, Indexed, has been offered a book deal, with Penguin's Viking Studio. For about seven months, Jessica Hagy has been doodling absurd little diagrams that explore and explain the relationships between all sorts of things, like the correlation between money and nihilistic fashion trends, or the futility of New years resolutions. In a surprisingly insightful manner, these doodles on index cards poke fun at fashion, politics, television and every other area of culture and human nature.

This site is a hoot, and I'm looking forward to the book.

Web 2.0 for Writers

Have you seen Go2Web2.0? It's an entire listing of high quality online sites, each featuring the stereo typical funky names, slick designs and handy buttons. Among this list (which includes more than 800 internet based products and companies) are some powerful online tools for writers. Here are just a few:

Calenders, like HipCal and 30Boxes

To Do Lists, like Nozbe and Vitalist

Online Word Processors, like Writely

Online Storage, like Box and FileLabs

This massive list is a collection of some of the coolest powertools on the web. I strongly suggest checking it out.

One Hour = Major Time

I've long been a big fan of the John Tesh Radio Show (which is weird, since I don't like John Tesh...) particularly the "Intelligence for Life" segments. They're full of, well, intellegent information for eveyday life. It's an aptly named segment.

Needless to say, I like information that I can use, and as a writer I hoard information the way a squirrel gathers nuts - I pack as much into my head as a can, and I have little stashes of information every where.

In my endless quest to fill my metaphorical cheeks with metaphorical nuts of informational goodness, I subscribed to the Intelligence for Life Newsletter, which has much of the same information, but in an easy to store pdf format. Today, I found a gem among the acorns.

The above was basically just a long winded way of saying "I found this cool bit of info via the John Tesh Intelligence for Life Newsletter."

Micheal Masterson, author of the book Seven Years to Seven Figures (among others), suggests that the single most effective habit you can adopt to stand out in the workplace is to arrive one hour early every day. An entire hour before anyone else arrives gives you time to work without distractions, it gets you moving at full speed when everyone else is just starting, and that hour gives you a significant head start compared to your colleagues.

Keep track of how you spend your time. Actually record it, and review it. One hour a day (minus weekends and a two-week vacation) totals up to 251 hours in a year. If you let your time go by unaccounted for, chances are high that you lose at least an hour a day. 251 hours comes out to be 31 (thirty-one!) eight-hour work days. What would you do with an extra month each year?

Creative Flow

Blogging self-help guru Steve Pavlina has a post outlining how to maximize your creative output.

He makes some great points in his post, and I just wanted to comment on how they apply specifically to writers. Listed below are his 7 Rules, followed by my thoughts on each.

1. Define a clear purpose

As a writer, it's not always easy to say "I'm now going to write x number of pages on (insert topic here)." However, as professionals, that's exactly what we need to do. Sit down with a clear goal in mind, even if that goal is simply to fill a set amount of time or a certain number of pages in free writing. Every time you do something as a writer, it should have a purpose. Here's a few preset purposes that I'm trying to integrate into my day to day work.

• Brainstorm x number of ideas
• Pick one of these ideas and develop it
• Write one full query letter/e-mail, then send it
• Contact this person
• Learn at least one thing about my topic
• Find at least one article idea
• Find five new markets to query
• Finish a first draft, no matter how crappy it is
  

The list might go indefinitely. The point is that if any writer is to get the most out of their time, they need to direct their energies a bit. (I'll post more on this later.)

2. Identify a compelling motive

As a writer, there are at least two motives that should always motivate us a little. One is seeing our names in beautiful black ink. The other is getting paid, earning the dinero, bringing in some moolah. Even on a bad day, while working on an article that's about as inspiring as mud, these two things ought to at least get you going a little bit.

Then, there's the added motivators of editors and deadlines.

Even more than this, find stories you really want to write. Find topics that excite you, things that interest you. Carve out a comfortable niche in this area, and your motivational needs should be a lot easier to meet.

3. Architect a worthy challenge

Every piece of writing should challenge you to do your best work. I know it doesn't always, but it should. The better your work, the better your image and the more freedom you have to earn some actual money and write what you want to write.

4. Provide a conducive environment

This is one of those points that I agree wholeheartedly with, but almost wish hadn't been mentioned. Yes, you should find the best place to work that you can. However, that doesn't mean you obsess over every detail, constructing your own little Fortress of Solitude in which to work.

For a writer, the most conducive environment is the one that has your butt in front of the computer and your fingers on the keyboard. Typing. Anything else is a distraction, and therefore not conducive to your work, which is actually writing.

5. Allocate a committed block of time.

This is absolutely necessary, especially for anyone who intends to make any serious effort at writing for a living. It's a business, treat it as such. This means scheduling time and following that schedule.

6. Prevent interruptions and distractions.

Like I mentioned about the conducive environment, the most important issue is that you get writing. You probably don't need to build a private study onto your home. Get yourself a computer, get yourself a pair of head phones, and then just write. let those around you know that you're "at work", then get to work. Don't obsess about the things that might disturb your writing - just write.

7. Master your tools.

This is a must. You have a number of tools as a writer, and the better you know how to use them, the more effective you'll be. A writer today is better equipped to research and write than any writer in any other age. You've got the Internet and e-mail, you've got a word processor, you've got a phone. heck, those things are even made highly portable these days. You can literally do it all with just a laptop and a cell phone.

However, you need to know your tools.

Learn your word processor inside and out. Know the important functions and keyboard shortcuts. Figure out how to create columns and build tables and insert pictures. That's all basic stuff. Know the basics the same way you know how to tie your shoes.

Learn how to do serious research on the Internet. Google and Wikipedia are great, but they're like baby food. A professional wants something more substantial. Learn about databases, online newsletters, associations, etc. (I'm actually going to do a post or three about this very topic in the near future.)

Finally, always be improving your ability to write. Words are your stock in trade. Grammar is more than just your friend. Formats and styles are need to know information for you.

If you're a doctor, you know how the body works, and you know it better than anyone else. Writers should be equally knowledgeable about the language they write in.

My Latest in the Scroll

I just realized that, since my initial post on getting printed in the Scroll, I hadn't mentioned any of the articles I've done since then. They're looking great, and a good number are also offered online. To check them out, just follow the links:

Element 118

Madison Memorial Ends Birth Announcements

Black Friday bliss

Self Adjustment and Goals

In a recent post, I lamented about my need to tighten things up a bit in my life, and get more focused about what I'm doing and the goals I've set. Since then, mostly in the last week, I've been working on just that.

First thing, I wrote up my personal mission statement. The section I'll share here deals specifically with writing, but I also did a similar statement for each area of my life - my marriage, school, etc. Here it is:

My major purpose is to entertain, educate and inspire others through my thoughts and my words, whether spoken or written. As a writer I have the talent and the skill to do just that.

In order to use my gifts for the benefit of others, I must make them profitable to the extent that it is my primary means of income and is the bulk of my work.

My life’s work then, is to establish myself as a writer, and write on those things that will entertain, educate or inspire.

I will help people to learn and to grow. I will also learn and grow, but in so doing, I will continue to expand and realize my own potential, even as I aid others in doing so.

I will find success in my career. Through my writing, I will provide for myself and my family. I will find financial security through earning and careful use of the money earned.

I will enable myself to have the flexibility to work from home, to earn an income that allows my family to live in comfort, and to provide not only for their needs, but for their wants as well. I will become wealthy, that I may more fully pursue my goal of helping others.

The pursuit of my career will not take me away from my wife or my family. Instead, my career will allow me the freedom and time to enjoy their company, share their thoughts and experience the joy of their love.


I also developed a brief plan of action to get some progress made on this life mission:

To find this success in writing, I must develop myself as a writer.

I will continually study my craft. I will improve my writing, and my ability to reach readers. I will find new ways to write more, thus improving both the quality and the quantity of my work.

I will develop my portfolio so that I can credibly approach publications for writing opportunities. I will always seek to improve both my earning potential and my credibility.

I will use this credibility to author books, so that my influence will expand beyond the fleeting realm of magazines and the internet, but to reach further audiences with a deeper impact.

I will write daily. I will become as familiar and practiced with words as I am with my own body. As easily as I walk, eat, or sleep, I will reach minds, touch hearts and stir spirits.

I will read daily, exploring always with an open mind to new ideas, new interpretations of the old, and to the timeless concepts that transcend generations. I will let my mind absorb the world around me, and distill from all my learning those things that will make me a better writer and person.

I will seek publication. Unless published in some medium, my words are known only to me. Unpublished words have no impact, save upon the writer. Published words change lives.

I will seek payment. Writing without pay is not a career, it is a hobby. I will not let my life purpose be relegated to the realms of baseball cards or model trains. I will make my living by my words.


I then formulated specific, measurable goals to help me follow through on these plans:

Write 2+ pages per day. (Writing for school only counts for one page, no matter how long)

Send out 1+ Query Letter per week

Submit everything I write. Get published anywhere I can, if only to build my portfolio.

A new copy of Writer's Market - Hooray!

Most people who are at all familiar with freeelance writing are familiar with Writer's Market, the big ol' honkin' book filled with contact info for magazines, publishing companies, literary agents and the like. For freelancers, it's a necessity, and I included it as a must-have book for any serious freelancer.

That being said, I'm a college student, with a college student's budget. I've almost plunked down the money for a copy many times, but twenty bucks would feed my wife and I for a week or two. We just don't have the funds available to throw around that kind of money, even if it would be a significant investment in my career. Add on top of that the fact that the thing is a tad out of date by the time it's printed, or the fact that every writer in the English speaking world uses WM as their go-to list of contacts, upping the competition for each one, means that maybe it's not the best use of my money.

So, instead of buying one, I use the copy here at my library. The only problem was that the library had a copy from 2001 and a copy from 2004. My best bet was three years out of date. Since I haven't been querying quit as much as I think I should, it hasn't been a huge issue, but it still bothered me. In fact, the very fact that it was so out of date may have contributed to my slothfulness in querying.

Those days are over now! As of today, the library is now equipped with a 2006 Writer's Market. Hooray! Granted, it still has all of the drawbacks that I already mentioned - out of date, used by everybody and their grandmother, really, really big - but it's still an improvement. Maybe someday I'll just buy my own. Until then, I'll stick with this one.

Does using a Hipster PDA make me "Hip"?

Let me start of by saying that the very use of the word "hip" is the surest sign of a complete and utter lack of coolness. It's lame, it's out of touch, and to put it in old person-speak, it's definitely not "hip".

A few years back, after reading Anne Lamontt's Bird by Bird, I began carrying index cards with me. She suggests it as a great way to jot down notes, ideas, quotes, etc. and frankly, I think she's right. They're perfectly portable, and they're big enough for one complete thought. For a scatter brain like myself, it's good to keep my thoughts encapsulated, so that they're not running wild in my head and aren't scattered across seventeen different pages in four different notebooks.

However, being the disorganized person I am, my cards were always getting lost, crumpled, ripped in half and other wise subjected to ceaseless abuse. The end result has been that every few months I buy a new pack of index cards and use them for about three days. Sometimes I'll do really well, and hang onto them for a whole week. This has been the pattern for about four or five years.

This same pattern has been regularly repeated with planners. I think, "Man, I could really benefit from using a planner." So I buy one, use it for about a week, decide it's too much trouble, and a tad too organized for my ADD adled mind, and it get's stuck in a drawer with the last five abandoned planners. This too is the regular pattern, this time followed for the last ten years. With the exception of my mission, I have never used a planner with any real regularity. On my mission I was able to do it only because it was simple, straight forward, fit in my pocket without being a hassle and was completely disposable. So I used that, but haven't really used a planner since.

Such was the cycle of my life, up until about a month ago, when I was introduced to the Hipster PDA. It's essentially a stack of these very index cards, used in lieu of a more expensive PDA. It's one part notepad, one part planner, one part filing cabinet. It's a happy mix of organization, DIY and ADD. In short, it's exactly what I've been looking for my entire life.

Since I first eagerly grabbed my stack of cards a month ago, I've become addicted. Me, addicted to a planner - it's a sign of the apocalypse for sure! Since then, I've also dug up the perfect HPDA accessory, the Mead Index Keeper (which I can't find a link for for the life of me), which is basically a little expanding file/wallet for 3x5 cards. Remix it with some HPDA basics like binder clips and a pen, and it's the best thing I have ever found. My wife laughs at me for using it so often, which strikes me as ridiculous every time. The very fact that I'm so active in using any sort of organizational tool is like catching a glimpse of myself in some parallel dimension. It's just weird, because I've never done that, ever.

So, now that I've rambled a bit about this, I think I'll wrap it up. I've got things to do, after all.

A bit of a Brain Dump

Well, I realized this morning that I need to tighten up my focus with school and writing. Like just about every other person to ever surf the web, I find myself often losing time to trivial things like aimless surfing, excessively in depth research into meaningless topics, and the like.

Don't get me wrong; I understand that a bit of decompression is a necessary thing. As a writer the mental exploration aspect of this surfing is essential to finding and developping new ideas. That and it's fun, and I'd surely be a fool if I thought I'd be able to just stop.

That being said, there are some things I need to work on. I've been doing well with staying on top of school work, which is great. The structured environs of school have long been the bane of my existence. Some part of me just revolts against it, reviles against the ceaseless hoop-jumping and assignments that don't necessarily reflect learning, which supposedly was the original purpose of education. If I can learn the material covered by a course without attending class, why should my lack of attendance be penalized? But I digress. Regardless of my chafing at school, that aspect of life is under control, for probably the first time in my life.

The issue at hand, however, is that I often let precious time escape me, and I have several goals that I've been letting slide. So, here and now, I've decided to do better. I'll post a list of some of these goals today or tomorrow, and discuss how I intend to pursue them.

NOT Writing for the Voice

Well, the editor in cheif of the Voice responded to my request to do a column for them. Sadly, because I write for the Scroll, writing for the Voice would present a conflict of interest. Meaning, they can't use me while I'm a Scrollie.

Because they're just a little rag-tag start-up pulled together by students, I don't think I'll be bailing on the award winning Scroll anytime soon, especially since they gave my last article a giant half page, with some gorgeous graphics. (Read it online, sans graphics, here.) In addition to being a whole lot better looking in my portfolio, my work at the Scroll does more for me in the way of establishing legitimate contacts and quality education about publication. (See my John Hughes Q&A as an example.)

However, the idea of an advice column may not be so far fetched, even with this obstacle. I had a conversation with my wife Jessica about the possibility of doing some blogging for profit, and she's all for it. Here main question? "Why aren't you doing this now?" I love that woman!

Oh, and did I mention that the Editor at the Voice thinks my work is fantastic? Those are her words. "Fantastic." If that doesn't build the ego, what does? (Oh, that's right, making money for my 'fantastic' talents!)

Writing for The Voice?

Today, I was handed the first copy of Rexburg's independant student newspaper, The Voice. Though they try way to hard to have a controversial tone (this is Rexburg, Idaho. The most exciting thing they have to talk about is the booting of cars. Honestly.) it is a tad refreshing to see another publication come out for students. More importantly, it seems that they've got a solid base of advertisers.

I e-mailed them today about doing a regular advice column, and I hope to hear back soon about the idea. Partly, I'd love to have a regular column, even it's for some hack job of a student paper. A column in a rag is better than no column at all, right?

Secondly, I've really been wanting to do an advice coloumn of this sort for a while. For months I've had people regularly approaching me for advice on dating, and one of those folks just got engaged thanks to my advice. If that's not a good sign, I don't know what is. My wife and I have often tossed around the idea of my doing some sort of pro-dating coach type job here, since the BYU-I dating scene is ridiculously active, and the idea of an advice coloumn has always appealed to me.

Here's hoping it works out alright.

Clip Question Answered

The Renegade Writer's Blog has responded to my question!

“I’m still new to freelance writing and am fairly inexperienced, and by inexperienced I mean lacking in clips. I’ve written a few things online, but only for article sites and websites that accept open submissions. While the articles themselves are done well, I’m worried that including these as clips would just scream ‘amateur!’ to any editor who looked at them. What should I do?” (See the full answer...)

As they so perfectly rephrased it, my clips stink! Because they're mostly for crappy article sites, they've been lumped together with whatever crappy drivel gets posted there.

Thier suggestion? Pull my articles out of these wannabe corrals, focus on writing for real publications and learn to write a killer query letter.

This sounds like excellent advice - I'll get right on that.

On a further note, the RWB has also added me to the list of 'Blogs they Like'. Yay for links!

Finally - Published in Print!

This semester at school, I joined the staff of the Scroll, BYU - Idaho's student paper. It's an excellent paper, one which frequently wins serious awards for everything from content to layout to business practices. As far as student papers go, it's one of the best there is, and I got to join the staff.

I was excited about this all summer because, in addition to the invaluable experience I knew I'd be receiving, this would also provide me with those oh-so-important published clips for my portfolio.

Needless to say, I've been anxious since the semester started to finally get something published, and to have some real clips to include with queries and the like.

Naturally, I was thrilled when they wanted me to write something for the first edition - that week, most of the new reporters were just given their style guides and told to brush up on things. I was being asked to write something right away, because of my prior experience, and my familiarity with the format they needed. Ah ha! Already my talent and professionalism were getting attention. I was feeling pretty smug when I handed my piece in well ahead of the deadline.

I was still smugly smirking when I opened up the paper to see my words printed there in beautiful black ink, done up as an impressive half-page infographic. It was so lovely - my own words, lovingly crafted, there for all of the university to see. But wait... where was my byline?

Turns out, in the rush to get the paper off to press, they just forgot to include it. Because it was a graphic and not a story, they hadn't even thought about it. So, my first 200 printed words for the Scroll went uncredited. I was a little miffed, but not overly so - surely, having impressed themwith my speed and professionalism so early in the game I'd get plenty of opportunities to get my name in print.

I wasn't disappointed. The very next week, they assigned me a story on local political events, and wanted twelve inches within a week. I jumped on the opportunity, and gave them a great story.

Unfortunately, the day before this story went to press, a student who works for one of the political groups mentioned in my article came into the Scroll offices, saw the article already in layout, and started picking at every detail of the article, calling some of it inaccurate, other parts poorly researched and on the whole saying that it was full of politically slanted editorial commentary.

Now, let me say upfront that this article was meticulously researched, and I spent hours removing anything I could even imagine being perceived as bias in any direction. However, he had pointed out one actual mistake, and raised enough questions over the article's content to get it pulled from the paper that week. Instead of my article, I opened up the paper to find an advertisement.

That was two weeks ago. I've since improved my source attribution in the article, fixed the one legitimate mistake and editted my story even further. In the mean time, I also wrote a second article which unfortunately wasn't quite newsworthy enough to run. They didn't run either. Hopefully, you can understand how a little bit of frustration might begin to seep into my efforts?

This last week, I've been busting my butt on another story, trying to get it done without neglecting either my classes or my wife too terribly. Unfortunately, I could already tell that it wouldn't be ready for this week's paper, so I talked to my editor about giving me another week, which he is.

The only problem is that, as of yesterday, I had written three and a half articles, printed only one, and still not even gotten a clip that had my name on it! Arrrgghh! I was more than frustrated, I was getting pissed off. Was my work going to get me anywhere?

This morning, I was pleasantly suprised to find, nestled nicely amid the other articles on the News page, my first article, the one that had been pulled at the last minute. Apparently, my revising efforts had not been in vain, and I am now feeling a bit more validated as a writer. So, there you have it. I've finally gotten into newsprint, and it feels great. Hopefully, not every writing endeavor will be so infuriatingly frustrating.

Someone in Cyberspace Likes Me!

I've got a small confession to make. I Google myself. I'll search for my name, I'll search for my articles, my websites, my comments on other blogs, and anything else I can find out about myself. Maybe it's the result of insatiable curiosity with just a bit of ego thrown in. Maybe it's more like a handful of ego, with a pinch of curiosity. Either way, it's not a daily thing. Once in a while, just because I'm bored, I'll Google Brian Westover, just to see what pops up.

It turns out that there are about 10 different people named Brian Westover in the USA, including myself. There's a dentist, a real estate agent, a computer programmer, a blacksmith and one devilishly handsome freelance writer. But I digress.

Today, I discovered that I've gotten a wee bit of recognition from another auther. Anita Hackley Lambert, author of the biography F.H.M. Murray: First Biography of a Forgotten Pioneer for Civil Justice and has on her site a collection of selected articles about the writing profession. Included on the site is my own article Before You Write.

Any recognition goes a long way, and I'll happily take what I can get. Thanks Anita, and good luck in your writing career!

Just to Introduce Myself - Brian Westover

My name is Brian Westover. I'm currently a college student at Brigham Young University - Idaho, studying Communications and Journalism. I'm a writer. Pleased to meet you.

To learn more about me, check out my bio on my professional site.

To learn more about WriterSpot, check it out here. Basically, this blog is an extension of WriterSpot, allowing me to post information on updates, provide more extensive detail on various links, and to allow feedback as well.