Instead of Twiddling Your Thumbs...

After you've worked slavishly to complete and submit an article, manuscript, book, or other artistic masterpiece, you often feel so relieved that you just "veg out" for weeks... or even longer. Next time, use these methods to create income, hone your writing and build your platform while waiting for a response. Art Spikol presented these useful pointers in the latest issue of Writer's Digest:

1. Recycle. Revamp your previously published articles and pitch them to another magazine. Think of creative ways to re-package your existing work and sell it elsewhere. Look through your completed articles, short stories, poems, and book ideas, and glean the best possibiities.  

2. Write on spec. Send out one article query a day. Go to your local bookstore and look through magazines to get info on the latest trends. Pitch ideas that can be used at any time of year.

3. Make multiple submissions. Get the most mileage out of your work by submitting to several publishers at once. Follow up with each publisher several weeks later.

4. Get intimate with your markets. Study the publishers and publications you want to break into. Take notes on what types of material and articles they are accepting. Tweak your ideas accordingly.

5. Write about research you're doing anyway. Cull through the books, stories, poems and articles you've written. What are you an expert on? Pitch some nonfiction articles on those topics.   

6. Don't just sit there. Don't let slothfulness take over. Exercise. Attend writer's groups and conferences. Visit places you rarely go (the E.R., a local bowling alley, a diner, a comic book store) to get fresh ideas. Schedule interviews to get new material for articles.

7. Advertise yourself. Visit Vistaprint's website (vistaprint.com) and create some inexpensive, professional marketing tools for yourself and your ministry or business. Create flyers, postcards, brochures, and other materials and mail them out.

8. Find a collaborator. Join with other creative people (writers, designers, editors, videographers) to create material. Barter your services for theirs.

9. Ask for help. Network and connect with people you've met through interviews, conferences, writing groups, and more. Share your desire to ramp up your writing/speaking and see if they have a need. Discover how you can help them by offering your services to them.  

*For more info, see Art Spikol's excellent article "The Freelance Dance" in Writer's Digest, May/June 2009, 14-15.