March Letter From the Editor

Hello, and welcome to March! Time of rain showers (or, as in the case of Colorado, typically, month o' snow.) Are you hoping for one of those monster blizzards we occasionally get, or ready for spring?

Courtesy of OCAL at clker.com

When we hit the beginning of the year, we jump in with goals, but spring is also a time of new beginnings. It's also a time of spring cleaning. Why not apply that to your writing space? Does your office need a little work? Could you be more organized? Is your email inbox cluttered?

Courtesy OCAL, clker.com

A positive thing to do is to look at how you're organizing your writing, your writing space, your files, and your time. Maybe you need more time, or you need to switch it up to work around some other things. Maybe you haven't been documenting submissions of your work, or you've saved a bunch of copies of one piece of writing, and it would be good to go through and put these in files so you don't have to dig to find the latest version of your WIP, article, short story, poem, etc. Now's a great time to cast an eye over how you're doing things, whether you're keeping up with the goals you set in January (or whenever), and whether anything needs to be changed or updated.

We're actually doing a little rearranging around here. I'm looking for someone who would be interested in taking over as Managing Editor of Writing From the Peak. You need to be organized, able to keep to deadlines, comfortable with editing and giving feedback to columnists and guest posters, and willing to work with various other departments in Pikes Peak Writers to insure your information is accurate and timely. If you might be interested in this position, please contact editor@pikespeakwriters.com. Please note that this is a volunteer position, but it's also a great position to have if you enjoy reading great posts on writing, and if you'd like to be a part of the Pikes Peak Writers team.

Take a moment to share how you're doing with goals, and what you think may need reorganization!

~Shannon Lawrence
Managing Editor, Writing From the Peak
PPW Director of Non-Conference Events

Letter From the Editor - Make it Snow

We've nearly made it to spring. Around here that can mean gorgeous, sunny days and rising temperatures, or more snowfall than we've had collectively for the entire winter. Usually it's a combination of both.

Now is a good time look at your writing habits and see if they're working for you. Are you accomplishing a blizzard of writing? Or are you basking instead? Somewhere in between? Look at what's working for you, and what isn't, and change the things that aren't. Spring cleaning doesn't just have to apply to dust bunnies and winter clothing. Then again, it probably wouldn't hurt to do a little office spring cleaning. After all, if your writing space is cluttered, that may distract you from getting anything done.

Writing distractions and space were addressed at the Write Your Heart Out event we hosted in February, but the good news is that the presentations given at WYHO were miniature versions of workshops that will be presented at conference in April. If you need help figuring out beneficial changes to your work space, be sure to look up the workshops having to do with the topic. JT Evans and Chris Mandeville spoke on space and time, so you'll want to look them up in the program.

With conference fast approaching, we will have profiles of faculty, keynotes, editors and agents going up 2-3 times per week, most Tuesdays and Thursdays, and occasional Saturdays. It's worth stopping by on those days to see who you might be interested in seeing at the conference, and which agent or editor you might want to pitch to. If you intend to pitch, you should definitely know the background of the editor or agent you'll be selecting. Your genre should always match up with what they're accepting, and especially with what they've specifically said they're interested in. Do your homework for the best results! We hope to help you a bit with that by doing these profiles, but a short profile cannot take the place of in-depth research.

If you aren't attending conference, no worries! We will have plenty of content that has nothing to do with conference, whether that's a piece on ghostwriting, tips for writing fantasy, or an essay on reading. While conference is our big event each year, it is by no means our sole focus, and we hope to bring you great monthly content of both conference and non-conference interest.

Have a wonderful month, enjoy the warm days and the snowy days, and work on turning your writing into a blizzard of accomplishment. In like a lion!

Shannon Lawrence
Managing Editor, Writing From the Peak
Director of Non-Conference Events