The Struggling Writer

The chronicles of a freelance writer as he tries to make a living.

Friday, September 22, 2006

My internship continues

This is the time of year that we Phoenicians remember why we live here. It's such a nice day that it causes me physical pain to sit inside and work.

I'm working on another HTDT article, this one on infant cognitive development. These don't pay that well but that's not why I'm doing them. I'm trying to get into the rhythm of writing, particularly writing on a schedule. My original goal was one article a day (except on the two days I take care of my niece). I haven't met that goal, but at least I have a little money coming in. Since I took so long to jump on the HTDT train, most of the subjects have been picked over and the ones that are left are either 5-point articles (not worth my time unless I can write without any research), or really boring subjects. Yeah, I know, as a writer I have to be prepared to write about boring things sometimes. Up to now I have had the luxury of being able to find subjects I have a personal interest in, but those are running out fast.

HTDT is sort of like an internship for me. A few clips, a little money, and (most important) experience being a writer rather than just writing as part of another job. I should hunt down a few other similar sites where there is a pre-approved list of assignments that I can crank out like this.

Remember that book I'm working on? Yeah, that hasn't gone anywhere. The neurology support forums where we all met shut down a while back and may or may not ever return, so that killed a lot of the project momentum. I haven't done any writing on it, and only some very superficial research on publishers to start the query process. In one of the refugee forums someone did a project roll call, and no one else has done much either. When this project started out I was reminded of those old Mickey Rooney-Judy Garland "Hey, kids, let's put on a show" movies. I figured a lot of the people involved would have great intentions but never accomplish anything. I never figured I'd be one of those people :)

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