This morning I wrote the outline of the table of contents for a chapter I’m doing for a book being written for a hot segment in the marketing industry. It was flattering to be invited to contribute a chapter, and I’m thankful to be given a kick start for writing professionally.
At the same time, Rachel’s screenplays are getting better and better. She shared one with me on Wednesday that was very powerful. I was so certain her class and professor would love it and was shocked that they “didn’t get it" when she read it for them on Thursday. She’s being so cool about working in their notes and holding onto the integrity of her piece. Her game plan is to resubmit what the people want but to hold onto her original, more streamlined piece to submit to writers’ contests or festivals or to wherever it is that screenplays get submitted.
Then, as it turned out, Marc and I were at separate networking events in the city that night and took Rachel out to dinner with us afterwards. We ate at Gotham Bar & Grill on 12th Street in the West Village, one of my two favorite areas of the city (the other is Murray Hill). She was so funny and intelligent that night. The conversation the three of us had was one of the best I’ve had all year. Very inspiring and motivating. How funny that one of the sparks for my writing more often is my daughter going off to college to be a writer.
How nice that another spark is the woman who invited me to contribute the chapter. Her name is Shari Thurow and we met when I spoke at conference last year. I’d always admired her and she came up to me after the panel discussion and was so complementary of my company’s practical approach to social media. And here it is, a year later, and she’s asked me to write a chapter for an upcoming book.
Another door that has opened is that American Express Open is looking for business owners to write content for it’s blog. I requested more info and they asked me to submit some ideas for blogs I would post, so this is another potentially large-exposure writing assignment I’ll be doing. Coincidentally (or is it the Universe making sure I know it’s paying attention?), I met the woman who heads Amex Open at the networking event/panel discussion in NYC on Thursday evening. Her name is Marcy Shinder and she is brilliant and very down to earth at the same time. She was one of the panelists at the event, which was hosted by the NY Business Marketing Association at the Forbes building.
The funny thing about all of this is that I’ve been actively thinking about ways to be creative, write more, and generate income from my activities. I have just finished Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and am working through the companion workbook. In setting out plans for one set of objectives I wrote about how important it has always been to me to write. One of the exercises is to think about what kind of work you fantasized about doing when you were young. I have fond memories of sitting at my roll-top desk in our basement “playing newspaper.” I was the publisher: I wrote editorial pieces and ran the business side too.
Today I head a company that does a great deal of content marketing though I myself do very little writing other than proposals and presentations. I need a channel for my right brain and for now, this blog and my little forays into writing more often professionally are helping. It’s a start that I think is going somewhere.å
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