September 2017 Writing News

This September marked four years since our arrival in Tasmania.

I wrote a post for my DorkyMum blog about some of my thoughts and feelings about that celebration, which also falls around the time of our tenth wedding anniversary. Along with the lighter days and warmer spring weather, there have been lots of reasons to celebrate!

Work-wise September was one of those months that felt very busy with lots of little tasks. I wrote a good few posts for my own website, including recommendations for the best places to read personal essays, a list of useful resources for Australian writers and a lighthearted piece about my obsession with reading.

I was also delighted to have a guest post on writer Louise Allan’s blog as part of her Writers in the Attic series. Make sure you head over to check out the other excellent posts in that series, as well as the details of Louise’s debut novel The Sisters’ Song which will be released in January 2018.

For reasons that are out of my hands – and also beyond the control of my client – the timetable has slipped on the main copywriting job that I was hoping to get my teeth into this month. With school holidays coming up I’ve been reluctant to take on anything else too big and run the risk of being overloaded – that endless battle of trying to find the right balance between work and life is just as hard when you’re a freelancer!

Instead I’ve been concentrating on pitching shorter features. So far I’ve had one acceptance, no rejections, and three that I’m waiting to hear back on – keep your fingers crossed for me on those!

The one thing I’ve got much better at dealing with as a writer is when rejections come in – which they inevitably do. When I first started out I would brood on it for days and feel nervous about sending a piece out again. Now I understand that just because a piece of writing isn’t a good fit for one editor or one publication that doesn’t mean it’s a bad piece of writing.

For every piece I write, I have a list of five or six places where I think I might be able to place it. Then if a rejection does come in I have a policy of sending out the same piece to a different publication on the same day. It’s a numbers game as much as anything – the more you pitch, the more you publish!

The final piece of news I’m excited to share this month is that I’ve just taken on a new role as the Chair of Transportation Press. Transportation is a boutique Tasmania-based publishing house with editors in Australia, Iran and the UK.

Tasmanian writing and publishing is in a really exciting place at the moment, with lots of potential for growth, and I’m really looking forward to being a part of that. I might even hop out from behind my computer and go to a few events – any excuse to use the beautiful new business cards that arrived from Moo a few weeks ago!

As ever, I would love to hear from you if you’d like to have a chat about my services as a copywriter or feature writer. Although I’m based in Hobart I’m happy to take on projects for clients outside of Tasmania too. Please drop me an email and I’ll get back in touch as soon as possible.