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Write on! Plans & Probs with Publication

by Scottiegazelle

Rated: 13+ · Book · Writing.Com · #812129

How once woman went from being a SAHM of four to a published freelance science journalist

I'm revising this intro after more than 15 years to better reflect my intention

When I started this blog in 2004, I was a stay at home mom to two small children, a college graduate with a degree in English and Astrophysics. By 2007, I had four small children, ages newborn, 2, 4, and 6. For several years, Writing.com was how I kept my sanity. This blog began, first as a way of staying connected. Later, when I worked on a novel, I used it to stoke the writing fires as I plotted out short stories and the next step of my novel. Ultimately, I moved my writing preparation to "Invalid Item"

In 2010, I became a single mom who had homeschooled her children for several years. I had a 2, 4, 6 and 8 year old and had never had a "real" full time job, since I was married while in college. Everyone told me that I would have to buckle down and take on a "real" job.

Instead, I decided to attempt to live my dream: to make it as a writer. I knew that if I didn't try then, I would never really dive in. I counted my money and set a deadline. If I hadn't began making a decent (defined) amount of money after so many months, I would suck it up and get a J-O-B.

After some thought, I decided to play to my strengths. I served an internship at Sky & Telescope magazine while in college and enjoyed writing about space and astronomy. With an astrophysics degree, I thought I would be able to sell myself more easily, and a small niche should be easier to penetrate.

It's been about ten years since I was first paid for an article on Space.com. In that time, writing - journalism - has been my primary moneymaker. I've often thought about setting up a blog on my website - www.astrowriter.com - but just haven't gotten around to it. There are a few things I would like to share for those who are interested in scientific journalism in general.

Now that I'm back on WDC, there's no reason not to combine the two and use the site blog for that sort of interaction. There are certainly plenty of folks on this site interested in the publication process. So while I'll probably meander around some, that's the intention of of this blog: to share some of my struggles as a published journalist and to help answer oft-asked questions.

Show Recent Comments

10 Most Recent Blog Comments:

Kåre Enga in Montana

Aug 10, 2020 at 11:49pm
In response to "Invalid Entry"

YaY gallstones! not

So ... no excuses! Share something here (maybe a short short once a week?). Something.

July was brutal for me because I took on too much writing. Even after trying to balance it out with other real life 'experiences' (like cleaning) I was still overwhelmed. So... crash and burn the first week of August. I've cut back on obligations this month, but will still write a lot.

I'm back to studying Norwegian among other things.

Scottiegazelle

Jun 10, 2020 at 6:52pm
In response to "Invalid Entry"

Writing is the best therapy. My dad told me when I started that I would grow to hate something I once loved. I don't think that's the case, but I'm definitely tired by the end of the work day and have limited interest in creating something, where it was once a joy. On the other hand, I still enjoy my job after ten years so what can I say?

I like to build memory palaces and put eclectic information in them. One thing I would love to do is keep track of all the research I read and convention talks I see and remember who they connect with. As it stands, I remember some and forget most. I'd also like to do a better job of remembering who I have interviewed so that when I chat with them, I recognize the name, something I've been caught missing previously!

On the other hand, I'm already up to 85 books read this year, so I guess my slacking comes through in other ways.

Kåre Enga in Montana

Jun 9, 2020 at 10:19pm
In response to "Invalid Entry"

Yes, money and time and priorities!

Money: I started here when I was homeless and penniless and continued after I got disability. I could feel guilty about not working, but...

Time: I have too much time and too little discipline! Except when I travel, then I don't write much. I take photos to remember. Memory work?

Priorities: I have no one depending on me. I live alone. I have no one bugging the hell out of me! I don't even have pets.

But I also write because I HAVE to. It's a bad habit ... and cheap therapy.

1 Like

Scottiegazelle

Jun 9, 2020 at 8:57pm
In response to "Invalid Entry"

Yeah I know the worn out feeling. I have a two-fold reason for not really doing a blog. The first is because of the impression people have about my job versus my actual job. Most people who don't interact with me professionally, I think they believe I am running a mommy blog and thus making very little money. When I moved to Georgia, a friend of mine said he could help me get a job. I was like, thanks, but it turns out Scientific American - which is if you don't know a pretty prestigious science magazine - pays enough to support me. I used to say I was a "science writer" and people asked me where my blog was. Now I say I'm a "science journalist"; they still ask but in much smaller doses.

The other reason I've been so averse to a blog is because I'm literally spending my day writing. It seems silly to do for free what I usually get paid to do. What I learned this month is that it's fun to write casually, a fact I used to know but haven't really had time to remember for awhile. For the longest time, I was a single self-employed homeschooling mom of four. The only thing that has changed, other than growing my biz, is that one of my kids went off to college and two of the remaining three decided they want to do public school. So I have a little more time, but not a lot. I'm hoping getting back on WDC helps me engage a bit more.

Kåre Enga in Montana

Jun 1, 2020 at 7:37pm
In response to "Invalid Entry"

There are lots of blog prompts floating around in the ether! Just choose any you find fascinating. For June that's what I'll do.

Writing brings in money for many people, as you well know. That seems to be the focus these days. $$$ No time for sharing as one does in a community. Before spacebook many blogged and wrote here for fun and connection. Then the 'serious' writers went to Saloon and the chatty fun people went to Spacebook and finally those who just wanted to fling you-know-what decided to Tweet like baby birds.

WdottyC is a place for the young, the old, the misfits.

Serious, intellectual, inspirational? Not so much. A group for socratic bloggers might be nice. Another for religious/spiritual/inspirational writers. Maybe for 200-300 word essay bloggers on serious issues? How about politics? Mental-health bloggers find each other... group or no group.

If I had the energy to set up blog groups? I'm worn out.

1 Like

Jeff

May 31, 2020 at 12:26am
In response to "Invalid Entry"

I definitely agree on the library and the roomy living area! I've always thought that when the kids are grown and out of the house, I'd like to maintain rooms for them to come home and stay, but maybe not their own rooms or dedicated space. I'd hate the idea of just having rooms sitting vacant waiting for visitors to return, so I'd probably make them dual-purpose like you mentioned. It's a home gym AND a place for kid #1 to sleep. It's an art studio AND a place for kid #2 to sleep. The office would obviously have to be dedicated because I don't like to share... I've done enough of sharing my workspace over the years.

Sumojo

May 29, 2020 at 2:12am
In response to "Invalid Entry"

If we were to win a million dollars, we would be worse off financially, as with the terrible interest rates offered from banks these days we wouldn’t get anywhere near what we get from our pension. We wouldn’t be allowed a pension because we’d have too much cash and if we gave money to help the family or to a charity it would still be classed as our money. No, we’d have to get much more than a mill.

Scottiegazelle

May 28, 2020 at 9:49pm
In response to "Invalid Entry"

I was joking about reposting the post, but I would like to know how to export a book. That's one of the items I have locked on the site that didn't export with everything else.

Kåre Enga in Montana

May 28, 2020 at 6:52pm
In response to "Invalid Entry"

I have copy-pasted entries I wanted to keep but needed to delete because of space constraints (No longer a problem). I wanted to keep comments so I had to copy and paste those as well. Too much work. I need to back up everything here and on facebook. But how and where? I also should have hard copies of anything I value.

1 Like

Chris Breva

May 28, 2020 at 5:06pm
In response to "Invalid Entry"

Scottiegazelle

good question. You can copy, paste into a word processor, then delete the entry, and paste?

2 Like

June 9, 2020 at 9:06pm

#985361

Fun writing

I just responded to a comment from Kåre Enga in Montana

about blogging in general, and the way this website has evolved over the last decade and a half. Kare pointed out that more people are chasing the $$ from writing and doing less of the fun, and that's likely one cause in the drop in the community presence.

I can relate because that's one reason I stopped writing on the site. Ten years ago (you can skip if you've heard before), I was a single, self-employed, homeschooling mom of four. Over the last few years, my business has dramatically improved and my kids have grown up. One went off to college (homeschooled the entire way through) and two of the remaining three decided to opt for public school for high school. That reduces a lot of the workload in my day; not to mention the youngest is 13 and so able to do far more herself than she did at 8 or even 10.

I suppose like everyone else, I have a lot of constraints on my time, even with my kids getting bigger. My biggest time suck for the last two years has been a relationship. He jokes that I have cut seriously into his reading time, but it's a true statement; now he's predominantly 'reading' audiobooks. My reading is still in gear but my TV time dropped and I stopped playing Warcraft, something that used to suck up my 'down' time. I had already stopped that before we started dating, but hadn't really replaced it with anything.

I'm currently back to working on my memory palace. I have this idea that one day I'll be able to reach television proportions of memorization that I know is unrealistic. What I would love to do, however, is to be able to remember press release information, or at least research. There are some things that stick much more easily than others. I can't tell you how many times I've met someone at a conference that whose research I had previously written an article on, yet I forgot the topic and name completely. In addition to general facts and discoveries, I'd really like to hold onto people's names. These two together are my big motivation for memory work.

And I'd also like to get back to my novel, though the truth is that at night I'm just worn out still. I should work on it now but the thought exhausts me. In fairness, I had three phone interviews today for a feature I'm working on for Sky & Telescope magazine. One of the researchers mentioned a paper by a fourth person that I looked at and thought would be good for a story, so then I pitched it; that took an hour, going through all the research, making a list of further reading, and then of course crafting the perfect pitch. I sent it to an editor I haven't really worked with before, so it was an added level of tenseness. Much easier to pitch folks who have said yes in the past.

Anyway, I'm going to head over and do some memory work and then try to get to bed early, or at least at a reasonable time. At least, that's the theory!

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