Want to join me on a 30-day writing/work goal... motivation... thing?

[Smokering]

So I used to do a moderate amount of freelance writing - mostly web, some print. Then I got depressed, then pregnant, and my main web writing source went belly-up and started netting me about a third of the income I previously got from it, so I pretty much gave up on that. I'm still writing regularly for a quarterly pregnancy/parenting magzine, but that's about it.

Anyway, now we're broke and I'm depressed again, and thanks to an easy baby, have more free time than I expected. And I have pretty much no other marketable skills. Soooo, time to get back into freelancing! I convinced DH to let me get my own bank account, so I can save up all my (miniscule, pitiful!) income and use it for treats for us, which are in short supply at the moment due to aforementioned brokeness. At the least, I can use it to fund birthday presents for DH without it showing up on our account so he knows where I bought 'em; and the occasional dinner out or movie ticket. If I get my act together, though, I can start saving for bigger things, like the holiday to Disneyland we were planning on going on before we got broke. Of course, the way things are presently looking, it may end up being emergency rent and grocery funding... but hey, that helps too.

So. I decided to send off one pitch every day for the next 30 days. Anyone want to join me? If you don't write, you can make it any business or non-business goal - 30 minutes of marketing a day for the next 30 days, or going for a walk every day for the next 30 days, or cleaning the kitchen, or building a pipe bomb, or whatever floats your boat. And we can all nag each other. :p Anyone keen?

Also, I won't be writing queries on Sundays, so it'll be more like 30 pitches over the next 35 days. Deal. :p

[Smokering]

Well, I'mma keep a tally here.

Day 1: Sent two pitches

Day 2: Sent one pitch, plus emailed an editor about a long-ago-discussed project to see if it's still wanted. (Day 2, later: Turns out she'd quit. Heh. Emailed the new editor and re-pitched the idea; luckily, she wants it, but won't confirm until her current deadline's been and gone, which I quite understand.)

Days 3 and 4: Disaster. Don't ask.

Day 5: Sent three pitches

Day 6: Sent two more

Days 7 and 8: Weekend, didn't do nuthin'

Day 9: Sent two pitches (and received two rejections... heh)

[Several days of not pitching due to crippling depression, lame apathy and getting distracted by the garden]

Day 18: Sent three pitches and had them tentatively accepted, all by the same editor! Considerably less than my usual fee, but hey.

Days 19 and 20: Nothing.

Day 21: Sent four pitches.

Day 22: Sent three pitches (and a general "do you accept freelance commissions" query; no, no they don't)

Day 23: Sent one pitch, plus one follow-up editor-prod.

I've decided if I send more than one a day, it doesn't "count" - ie, I have to keep sending at least one a day for the full 30 days, even if that means more than 30 pitches. Some queries can easily be sent to a number of similar magazines, so I should make sure I write a lot of pitches, not just click "send" once each day. Especially given the likely dearth of response... recessions really suck for freelance writers!

Edited by Smokering - 8/17/11 at 3:25am