Hey everyone,
Many of you have been asking me how you can share these newsletters with your friends, and I have to admit, I’ve always liked the idea of having them be exclusive to email and nowhere else. But I realized some time ago that I also really liked the idea of these little notes sitting around somewhere that I (and perhaps you) could go back to for reference.
I’ve also heard from new subscribers who would like to binge on old content, and since that’s something I’m known to do and love, I figured, it’s time.
So, here for your viewing pleasure, all my emails and blog posts since the beginning of time (okay, 2005).
It’s been quite fun going back into the archives and discovering what I was thinking on February 13, 2006 (apparently, I was a bit obsessed with how to write the perfect bio), and watching the writer me grow through the years. That early frustration of trying to write and finish my first novel, worrying about whether my journalism would ever mean anything, wondering if I’d ever make enough money, it’s all there. I didn’t edit any of it, even the parts that make me cringe now, because they were all part of the journey.
While I have a private journal of my writerly evolution, I love that I have a public one as well because when writers who are new to freelancing come to me and think I can get published because I have experience and credits already and they don’t, I can point them to those early years, show them how much I struggled, how unsure I was about everything. I have a public record of how much sucked at freelancing before it worked, how much I worried about money before I started making it, how difficult it seemed to make headway when I was doing well by everyone else’s standards but my own.
As I unearthed and published these blog posts and newsletters from over a decade ago, my own journey and progression was so obvious to me. There was the “I don’t know what the hell I’m doing” phase, soon followed by, “That was an awesome pitch I just sent” phase to “If I just did more of this, it would work” phase.
It’s not just what I teach, it’s what I did.
No editors came to me with assignments, not then. I knocked on doors all day long and sometimes, those doors opened.
Maybe other people have some other secret to succeeding with writing and publishing. I don’t. I only have one: Knock on doors, and keep on knocking until they open.
Of course, those doors open quicker if you have something to offer the people on the other side.
And that’s exactly what I teach in 30 Days, 30 Queries.
Which, as it happens, is open for registrations this month.
There is only one way I “made it” as a freelancer. I wrote excellent pitches and I sent them as far and wide as I possibly could.
It’s how I’ve done it. It’s how my students have done it. It’s how I can teach you how to do it, too.
And if you’re ready to start knocking on some doors yourself, join 30 Days, 30 Queries and let me help you make the process easier.
Cheers,
Natasha