Day 7 from Writer’s Digest‘s “A 12-Day Plan of Simple Writing Exercises”: Write a letter to yourself telling you what you need to improve in the coming 6 months.
I spent December brainstorming and planning for 2012. I laid out my goals for the year and drew up plans to achieve them. One month in, I feel like I’m pretty well on track, but it’s a good time to assess my progress and figure out what needs to be fixed.
Dear Dana,
You’ve gotten a good start to the year, haven’t you? You hit the ground running with two magazine assignments, gotten started on interviews for CoPro, and you’re getting ready to release The Hart Compound in 2 months. But don’t get too comfortable. There’s still room for improvement.
Remember when you decided it was time to call yourself a journalist? Well, the assignments won’t keep finding you — it’s time to get out there and start pitching stories, god dammit! Make yourself a list of publications and a list of ideas, and get crackin’ on those queries. It can’t hurt you to try.
Speaking of trying, you’ve got to get more aggressive about networking. If you expect to find subjects for feature stories, get connected with comedians all over the country, sell books, and gain readers on your blog, you have to put yourself out there. Call, email, tweet, comment, follow, shake hands. Sure, you’re uncomfortable with it now, but it’ll get easier.
And finally, keep your energy up. Wake up earlier, get some exercise, eat your vegetables. Stay positive, and stay motivated. There is no good reason to stop working.
Cheers and Good luck!
What does your letter say?
Filed under: Notes
