The Renegade Writer Blog

After a long day of entertaining houseguests, doing housework, and -- oh yeah -- writing, I checked my e-mail and found the most delightful note from freelancer Karen Abalos, thanking us for the advice we dispensed in The Renegade Writer. She wrote, "With your advice (and a little bit of luck and hard work) I was finally able to land my first health feature gig in this month's Women's Health and Fitness magazine. And, holy crap, they actually put a reference to the story on the cover!" Karen sent us this photo, which she graciously gave us permission to post, along with a mockup of her story, complete with her writerly comments. (Too funny! Wish we could post it here.)


Linda asked Karen what the secrets were for her success. In her words:

"1. Removing instant messenger from my computer. No instant messenger, no fooling around.

2. Keeping my desk clean and organized.

3. The just five more trick. I often have a hard time focusing because I work from home and I'm constantly tempted by distraction. When I get the urge to deviate from the task at hand I tell my self "just five more." For example: brainstorm just five more story ideas, read just five more paragraphs of this book on writing, answer emails for just five minutes, or write this query for just five more minutes. This trick usually gets me to focus for a longer amount of time on the task at hand."

So run out today and read Karen's article ... it's the July 2006 issue with the coverline (Karen's) "Brownies vs. cupcakes: How to choose the best splurge."

Way to go, Karen! :-)