From the Editor:
New Job, Less Time, and More Fun!
By Lazette Gifford
Copyright © 2007 by Lazette Gifford, All Rights Reserved
Every year there's at least one issue of Vision that just does not fall
together the way it should. It fights me all the way, with problem
articles, missing interviews, workshops that I try to write that just
don't work. This is the issue for 2007. However, I'm blessed with
people who are willing to come to my rescue. Holly Lisle sent me a
workshop from one of her books. My husband, who writes nonfiction for
newspapers and such, is handling the interviews and we'll have one in a
few days. Margaret Fisk handled the reviews and market report and Ellen
Wright did a great job of copyediting on the usual short notice.
I'm trying to put everything together and get most of the issue up on
time. I still have half an hour until midnight, so I'll definitely have
something up for the first day of the new month.
So, what happened?
I'd love to say that it's because I am writing, and that's at least
partially true. I snagged a nice little job editing a weekly newsletter
for a graphic company. It's not much writing -- probably no more than
three or four hundred words an issue -- but I have to know the product
before I can write about it, and that takes a bit of time. Just the
same, they're paying me about thirty cents per word at this point, so
it's worth it.
But like any new job, it's taking me longer to fall into it than I had
hoped. And that means other things are suffering, like writing and
Vision. But you know what? I'm really enjoying it. I have to use very
few words in order to describe a model (a figure, clothing, scenery, or
other things like that) and make it sound interesting. I have to do it
two different ways each week. It is, if nothing else, stretching my
vocabulary so that I stop using the same words too often.
It's fun. It's a good exercise. And eventually, I think it's going to
pay off on the rest of my writing.
I just have to survive these first couple months! |
