Look into possibilities of doing some freelance writing.

just subsuming to “unleash my creativity” as part of the new year goal clear-out.

I`m just including this in my number one goal for 2007, and I`m trying not to have too many similar goals on my list.

that I could write about without doing interviews. I`ve done quite a lot of writing in the past, but almost only articles based on interviews. I don`t have the energy to go out and interview people as long as I have the office job. And Getting people to take the time to be interviewed when the chances of getting articles printed are very uncertain can be difficult too.
But there are other kinds of articles. I need to start working on that. It doesn`t even have to articles to be sold and printed, I just really need to start writing to get into it again and get some experience.

What exacly is copywriting? I`m seeing quite a few jobs in that online, but I`m not sure what it means, anyone?

by listing ideas.
-There are local newspapers in Oslo. I mean really local, they only cover a small part of Oslo each. Maybe it would be easier to start by trying to sell something to them than starting with bigger papers/magazines etc. They probably would not pay well at all, but I`m thinking the most important thing is to get something published somewhere.
-My field of work so far has been organisations. I`ve been doing a lot of volunteering before, if there was a comittee, I was on it. I haven`t been doing that the past few years though, because I`ve been sick a lot, but still. My jobs has also had to do with organisations. Funding for projects in organisations, developing youth organisations, things like that. Maybe I could use that for something. Lots of organisations have publications, webpages and so on. Most of them have people writing the contents for that though, but still. There might be something.
-My last job, which I had for about 6 years, also had to do with immigration issues, anti-racists work and multicultural organisations. Also a field I know.
-Health issues would also be interesting. It`s not a field I`m an expert in in any way though. But after having been on lots of sickleaves, trying all sorts of treatments to get better, dealing with the public health system, getting a diagnose and dealing with that and so on, I have some understanding of it that others might not have, and I`m interrested in it. (Obviously, the arguments above can`t be used to sell articles though. ;))

trouble in freelance writing paradise. As long as it`s about free flow of fun ideas, I`m good. But when it comes down to organizing them and working on it in a structured way, I`m in trouble. That`s where my ADD enters the picture. Sigh.

A friend once told me about an interwiev she read of a painter who had ADD. He said he never works on less than 10 paintings at a time. Painting a little bit here, then a few strokes there, getting a new idea and starting another new picture, then back to the first one. That was the way he had always worked, and it worked out great for him.

That`s the way I do things too, exept I`m just driving myself nuts with it! I started the separation anxiety article, then got an idea of an ADD article, started that, then some research on separation anxiety, then some more sentences on the ADD thing. But then I realized that those sentences was actually on another topic, so started a new article. Then, I went to do laundry, but got a good idea for a headline, so rushed back to write that down, was on my way out the door again, but then thought of a better headline, back to the computer… And so on. It`s complete chaos, and I`m getting a headache.

Sigh. How does other ADDers make this work for them? Or, alternatively, find a way to structure the chaos?? Sigh. Am now going to go do something else for a while, and think about way to structure this whole mess to keep it fun instead of just frustrating.

to try out the separation anxiety idea first I think. Obviously not a topic that exites a majority of people. But, there are lots of dog magazines out there. And, I just read that 14 % of dogs have it. So, someone might be interrested maybe.

So, plan of action.
-Check out magazines that might be interrested, see if they accept freelance articles, what kind of articles they want etc.
-Do research on separation anxiety
-Write down article ideas.
-Write the article.

That should be doable I hope! :)

of facts about me, that I could use as starting points to find article ideas. Since I was at my friends cottage all weekend, I haven`t been able to read more in the book or start writing, but my plan is to start doing that this week.

I`m now thinking about what magazines it could be possible for me to send articles too. There are ofcourse quite a lot of magazines in Norway. But still, it is sort of a limited market. So I bought the “writers market 2006”, and am pretty amazed by how many pages that book has! Meaning, there`s a lot of magazines in English in the world! Quite a few of them are focusing on one spefific country or state ofcourse, but many are more general, focusing on topics, not places. So, maybe I could try submitting an article to one of those too?

That would mean I would have to brush up on my english though. But I could probably do that. Or maybe I should just focus on Norwegian ones?

I`ve started reading “Writer’s Digest Handbook of Magazine Article Writing”. And I`ve started thinking about some ideas for articles. I just read an interresting article in the book about how to find ideas for feature articles. One of the ideas there was to write down a list of facts about yourself, and use that to create articles. Not to write about oneself (necessarily, although personal experiences can sometimes be interresting for an article too). But as a starting point for ideas on subjects to write about.
So for instance, one thing I might use is the fact that I have two dogs. And one of them has separation anxiety. So I have read all I could find on that topic, and I have a lot of experience on working with it. So I`m thinking: article for a dogs/pets magazine, personal experiences mixed with some how-to-avoid it and train if it does happen advise?
Or, I have ADD. Lots of material there. Yes. Will make the list before I go to bed tonight.
Now, I`m off to work out, to get rid of some report-from-hell-related aggression. ;)

I`ve started doing this by buying a bunch of books about it. Problem is though, that won`t help much unless I read them! I will make it a priority to read at least one this summer! Plus, write down some article ideas.