|
| |
When Serendipity Steps In:
Three writers’ success stories
By Dawn Allcot
When Thomas Edison said, "Genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration," he didn’t factor in another very important part of the equation. Luck helps ensure that a genius’ work—or a writer’s words—won’t remain buried in anonymity.
Serendipity has played a large role in the success of many writers. For instance, Stephen King’s wife pulled an early draft of
Carrie out of the garbage and forced the young writer to finish it. Supportive spouses notwithstanding,
sometimes writers have to make their own luck.
One inexpensive way to do this is through networking. Targeted networking through
writers' workshops or online writers' groups can be very effective. But if fate is working in your favor, you can also make connections and land assignments under some very unusual circumstances. Here’s where the law of averages works in your favor. Tell everyone you speak to what you do for a living. People are fascinated with writers; you’ll find yourself making interesting connections using only your voice and your business card.
It worked for Lori Anne Elias, a middle school general music teacher and a part-time freelance journalist. "I was at the Ohio Music Educators Association show, standing at a booth, and there were some copies of Band and Orchestra Product News [a professional trade magazine] lying there, inexplicably," she recalled. "An old college friend walked up, and we chatted and he asked if I’d read it. I mentioned that I’d been taking a journalism course. I started talking about what I liked about the magazine and also what I thought could be improved upon in music education publications as a whole." Elias didn’t realize her friend had already been writing for the magazine for several months. He liked the ideas Elias presented, and offered to introduce her to the editor. The editor, too, liked Elias’ ideas, and she became a regular contributor to the magazine. "I’m convinced that God had a hand in the whole thing!" she said. "I mean, I was standing next to a few copies of the magazine?!"
I was blessed by a similar coincidence nearly a year ago. Shopping at the local paintball store with my husband, the sales
clerk inexplicably asked me if I was a teacher (I get that a lot, for some reason!).
"No," I replied, "I’m a writer."
"Who do you write for?" the clerk asked me.
"Anyone who pays her," my husband replied, loudly.
The marketing director for the company-- the largest paintball distributor, manufacturer and retailer on the East
Coast-- happened to be in the room. His eyes lit up.
"We’re looking for writers," he said. "We have this captive audience of paintball players—an extensive mailing list and several web
sites-- but we need to figure out what we want to tell them, and then we need to have someone write it for us."
Since last spring, I’ve helped the marketing department pinpoint the message—that paintball is a sport for everyone—and created articles and press releases exemplifying this angle. Cousins Paintball, Inc. has become a steady client that pays me promptly and generously for writing about one of my more interesting hobbies.
For Brian Howe, a writer currently living in Washington, D.C., being friendly helped him place a poem in a prestigious journal. "I was the co-host for a poetry slam in Huntington Beach. I watched the door and collected money and filled in on emcee duties as necessary. I usually got there early to have a beer and maybe dinner before I set up the show."
On this particular night, he noticed a woman who looked familiar. "I knew she was there for the slam, so I said ‘hi’ and invited her to sit with me," he said. "We started talking about poetry and poetic theory. I told her about this piece I had written and how it had this crazy theory behind it. She asked to see a copy, so I gave it to her."
Howe’s dining companion was the editor of Perl magazine, a national literary journal. She liked the poem, and was so impressed by his opinions and knowledge that she published his work in the next issue. "Usually, there’s a one year wait once you get accepted," Howe explained.
So, fellow writers, hold your heads high and tell the world what you do for a living. For every person
who bores you with his own ideas for that unwritten novel (which will, most likely, stay that way), there’s a person
who needs something written—and may just look to you as the writer. When it happens, you can say it was simply serendipity.
Dawn Allcot, former editor of Band & Orchestra Product News, is a freelance writer specializing in the music, audiovisual, arts, education, and paintball industries. She is a regular contributor to a variety of trade and consumer magazines, including School Band and Orchestra, Church Production Magazine, Sound & Communications and Paintball Sports International. She is the Broadway correspondent for N2Arts.com, a new website devoted to adolescents who are passionate about the performing arts. She works from her home office in Long Island, New York, with her three cats underfoot. (Don’t believe what they say about her forgetting to feed them because she’s "on deadline!"). She and her husband, T.J, are collaborating on their first novel and a non-fiction book about the paintball industry. Find out more at
www.dawnallcot.com.
| |
Sponsored links
Ring binders
Make a Real Living as a Freelance Writer!
How to find a
book publisher
|
