7 p.m. Boyfriend calls. Turn cell phone off, roll over and go back to sleep.
7.30 p.m. Mom calls. “Are you still sleeping?” she says.
“No,” I reply with my eyes closed. “I was napping.”
She laughs. She’s used to my bullshit.
7.50 p.m. Grumble grumble. Force self out of bed. It’s time to start the day.
8 p.m. Call boyfriend in India, wish him a good day. “What time zone are you on?” he asks. “India,” I reply.
8.15 p.m. Shower, make self presentable. Useless exercise, but it’s managed to wake me up.
8.25 p.m. Business cards I ordered have arrived! I open up the box with trepidation. This could go really, really badly. I finally jar it open. They’re beautiful.
8.31 p.m. Make tea. Quickly scan through email. Article I thought needed to be submitted in five days has a two-week deadline. Yay!
8.37 p.m. What’s going on in the world today? Read news. Read blogs. More Golden Globe news about Slumdog Millionaire. Nice. Can’t wait to watch the movie.
9.36 p.m. Cook, feed self. Make tea.
10.17 p.m Find an interesting article about in-flight magazines having no more opportunities for freelancers. Blog about it.
10.24 p.m. Make list of things to do today. Realize can’t afford to slack-off at all today. Big deadlines. Soon.
10.37 p.m. Notice that code on website is no longer working. Fix it.
10.59 p.m. Look at emails again. Have two from editors who want to work with me, but are offering rates half of what I’m used to. Feel insulted. Reply and say “No thanks.” Have a feeling will regret this later. Should feel good about standing up for self, but wonder if will end up begging same editors for work when everyone and their mother goes out of business. Feel like shit. Fucking economy.
11.05 p.m. Go looking for inspiration. Feel a bit shitty, don’t feel like working, and definitely don’t feel like writing. Maybe some blogger somewhere in the world can cheer me up.
11.38 p.m. Responses to LOIs sent yesterday are trickling in. Most have asked me to send ideas, which is great, because now know for sure that ideas won’t go into a black hole and will get quick response. There are others however, who say things like, “We consider completed manuscripts.” So let’s get this straight. I dig up research, find an idea, read your magazine, do further research, conduct interviews, write an article that will fit in with your style, audience, and format, only so that you can tell me you don’t like the idea? Or so that you can ask me for a dozen rewrites because it isn’t exactly how you wanted? Why not give me that guidance in the first place, BEFORE I write it, like most decent publications?
You can always tell when a publisher or editor is going to be a pain in the ass. Unfortunately, there are hundreds of writers dying to write for this publication. Clearly, I’m not going to be one of them.
11.54 p.m. Start putting research together for article due tomorrow.
12.47 a.m. Never considered self a political junkie, but count RSS feeds, podcasts, and e-mails from newspapers and do a double take. Am writing piece about Obama’s new CPO, Nancy Killefer. Have already done preliminary research and interviewed someone for the piece. Now just filling in the gaps.
1.17 a.m. Haven’t read a writing how-to book in years. Am wondering if I should re-read some of the ones I have. Maybe they’ll serve as inspiration on the down days?
1.56 a.m. Have been emailing back and forth with writer friend who is wondering why I never worked on another book. Know I should. Can’t find that one perfect idea that I want to spend a year on. Don’t want to do reference stuff. Don’t know what I want. Have ghostwriting offer that am still negotiating. But own book? Still need a killer idea.
2.14 a.m. Start writing Killefer piece. Already, I’m having fun.
3.01 a.m. Sent out a request on some PR lists, looking for experts to help me with my article on weight-based discrimination. Got a whole lot of experts who’ll “help you lose weight,” but very few who specialize in the part about discrimination. PR people can be really dense, sometimes. Of all the emails had to sift through, there’s precisely ONE that is of any use to me. Sigh.
3.07 a.m. Time for some strong hot tea.
3.18 a.m. Need to do more research to fill in holes and answer questions that have come up during the writing. Hope editor likes what I’ve done with this. Would love regular work from her.
3.58 a.m. Done! Time for a break. All the movie talk is making me want to rent a movie. Seems like a while since I saw a good one. I consider downloading Man on Wire, but remember that am on a no-spending-spree, and hence should stop distracting myself with silly ideas.
4.42 a.m. Edits are due on a piece submitted a week ago. Need to cut from 2,000 words to 1,500. Painful, painful.
4.53 a.m. Editing is tough. It’s making me hungry. Make sandwich.
5.17 a.m. Send edits to editor. Try not to get distracted by email. Do not succeed in this goal. Follow-up with another editor regarding status of query.
5.51 a.m. Success! Finally figure out an angle to a story that I’ve been struggling with for over a week. Editor has been asking questions and follow-up questions to try and pin down the story, and without having done too much research already, it’s been really difficult. A new study just came out two days ago, so it’s perfect timing. Phew.
6.39 a.m. More success! Editor loves idea about reslanting the piece to the brief I’ve sent her. She’s asking for two sidebar ideas. Think, think. Tea should help in that.
6.52 a.m. Clearly, it’s morning in NYC. Editor I followed up with an hour ago has emailed back to say that she was meaning to write to me. Has more questions about the idea I sent her way. More research. Sigh.
7.08 a.m. Transcribe interview in order to get research together for an article due in three weeks.
8.34 a.m. Stomach starts growling. Time to feed self. Watch news while I eat.
9.17 a.m. Write blog entry.
9.38 a.m. Am tired and worn out. Still a lot to do, but wondering if it’s time to call it a night. Read and watch news on iTunes while drinking tea.
11.50 a.m. Call it a night.