The Renegade Writer Blog

K asks, “Not sure how to post this as a separate question for you that I’ve not seen addressed elsewhere. Since you’ve written books and magazines, I’m hoping you can help me. I’m in the middle of writing Book 2 of a 3-book series on assignment by a children’s book publisher. I’ve published 1500 magazine and newspaper articles so I felt ready to make the leap into books. My problem is, I’m having a hard time adjusting to the different paces of newspapers and books. I’ve still got 5 newspapers articles to complete and the truth is, I could give them all up right now! I’m no longer interested in writing in this format because it seems boring and I want to concentrate on the non-fiction books. I need to bring in the money from the newspapers stories while I’m writing the book so some money is being generated quickly. But it’s a struggle at this point to focus on the smaller stories. Did you ever have that problem? If so, what did you do about it? Thanks.”

I sort of had this problem a few years ago when I was writing a branded book for a publisher. It took me about four months to write it, but during that time I had to keep the money coming in with magazine assignments. What was different about our problem was that I actually felt frustrated by the book, which was gobbling so much time (not to mention dealing with the publisher was a HUGE time suck/pain in the ass). Whether you like writing articles while writing books — or hate it — the two practices are necessary for most working writers because the average nonfiction book advance rarely covers living expenses during the time one needs to write the damn book. Juggling between book writing and magazine writing can indeed be tough, and made more difficult when you don’t want to hold one of those balls.

Since it sounds like those newspaper articles are non-negotiable for you — you have to do them or starve — I’d look for ways to make the work more palatable. Off the top of my head, you could:

• Find some new fast-paying clients who can offer work that’s more interesting to you.
• Ask for a bump in pay on future newspaper articles. Sometimes a little extra money tempers resentment.
• Pitch some story ideas relating to your book to new well-paying markets. Not only do you have the research done, you’re interested in the material, it gives you some good prepublication PR for the book, AND you might get enough work so that you don’t have to do the boring newspaper stories in the future.
• Set aside one or two days a week to commit to your newspaper work. Just focus 100 percent on the newspaper stuff during that time, then when you go back to your book work, you don’t have to agonize.
• If you can afford it, outsource. You can get a transcriptionist to do your tapes, hire a high school student to help you with research over the summer, even pay someone to clean your house or organize your office. What could you hand off to someone else that would make you feel less stressed while you’re juggling?
• Break all of your work — book and newspaper — down into bite-sized chunks. I think what happens to a lot of people doing both kinds of work is that they get overwhelmed. When you see everything in doable tasks on paper, it takes a lot of the fear and agony out of the work.

Any other ideas for K? Add them to the comments section below.

If you’ve got a writing-related question for us, send it to questions[at]therenegadewriter[dot]com. [db]

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