Learning’s Not Enough

Fletcher Library at ASU West, where I went back to school in 2007-2008. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

You’ve probably figured out by now that I am a perpetual student. I would stay in school my whole life if it didn’t cost so damn much money. But I have been able to periodically feed the need to learn through the years. I read books, because I believe you can learn anything you need or want to know from books. I sign up for classes, including online classes, because I believe there are people “out there” who have things to teach me. I watch the History Channel, Discovery Channel – all those channels with programming that can teach me about the world past, present or future. I can’t remember a time in my life when I wasn’t also learning something on the side.

I’m always taking classes. That’s fine to learn for learning’s sake. But it’s not enough when striving to meet a goal.

When I went back to college, I got a lot of creative writing instruction, but no magazine writing instruction. So, I kept an eye out for someone who could teach me. When I was participating in the Internet Writing Workshop (read about it here), I saw a posting on the forum from Linda Formicelli, who I later discovered was a prolific magazine writer and author. She was offering a free “teleclass” called “Querying with Confidence.” Perfect. The query letter had eluded me for years. An October night in 2009 found me sitting on the floor in my closet (it’s huge), away from TV and conversation, furiously taking notes with one hand as I held the phone to my ear with the other.

The teleclass wasn’t a magic pill, of course. I didn’t suddenly get a clue about the query. But I had found a source, someone who had something to teach me. Linda’s teleclasses are free and full of information, and they are often also introductions (including discounts) to upcoming e-courses she or her guests are offering. I listened to a few teleclasses over the next year and signed up for her “Write for Magazines” e-course in September 2010. (She still teaches it – check out her Renegade Writer website for tons of information for freelancers.)

The class wasn’t free, but it was worth it. By signing up for the premium version of the course, I received email support from Linda – personal comments on what I had written, specific answers to my specific questions, suggestions for improvement. Even after the class was over, she emailed me with the name of an editor who might be interested in my query. Now that’s support! My article query was not a good fit for the magazine, as it happens. But, writing a good query and actually sending it to an editor showed me I could do it.

There is no reason why I shouldn’t have been one of Linda’s success stories.

Work In Progress (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

What I should have done with that query is continue sending it to other magazines. I have all kinds of excuses why I didn’t. But I think the real reasons were a lack of marketing expertise and the ability to push off “rejection,” both fatal flaws for an aspiring freelance writer.

Linda Formicelli, and others I choose to learn from, can teach me till the cows come home, can hammer it into my head that I should continue sending out queries, continue writing, persevere. But it’s up to me to put what I learn into practice.

I am a work in progress, though, figuring things out as I go.

Wait until I tell you about a class I left in 1996. Would you believe they let me come back in 2011? Really!