From To-Do to Ta-Da, Part 2

It’s a good crème rinse day. So what If my hair is flat from conditioner? As my former neighbor Betty K. used to say when she was tempted to gloss over the housework, “Who sees it?”

I’m not going anywhere. All my excuses are used up. I’ve already worked out twice this week. I’m low on groceries but not out. I filled the gas tank yesterday. There are no errands to run. I have nothing to buy; nothing to see; no one to meet. I put on my worst pair of jeans this morning, because…well, by now I’m sure you’re getting the idea.

I’m staying home because one of my urgent assignments is to prepare magazine submissions. Simply told, that means researching magazines, finding contact information, matching my ideas to their publications, crafting queries, and at least outlining the articles I’ll write if the queries are successful.

I’ve never submitted to magazines and find it daunting; however, that has become irrelevant.

Today’s organizational focus is my computer files. Specifically, I’m opening every Word file that might be relevant to my upcoming article blitz and making a list of what they’re all about. You might think the filenames would tell me, but you’d be giving me too much credit. What, exactly, is “Publicity Notes 120412”? What might be the content of “Article 82912”?

This morning I found 24 Word documents in which I began a query, an article, or notes for an article. That’s not bad, even though the keyword is began. Though none of the pieces are finished, these discoveries have spared me from a far worse starting point.

So, creating yet another Word document, I listed the other 24 by filename and content. I have a separate list of target magazines, so the next step will be to match the queries to the article notes and then match the topics to the magazines.

The other day I bought a 2013 Writer’s Market, which was a good move. This well-known reference includes nearly 350 pages of information on consumer magazines and trade journals. Luckily, when I went through those sections page by page, I had the sense to highlight magazines that seemed compatible with my subject matter. So part of today’s project is to note what page they’re on so that I can find them again among consumer categories from “Animals” to “Women’s” and in the trade section, “Advertising” to “Veterinary.”

So, the laundry’s caught up. Dishwasher’s been emptied. It’s time to dig back into the aforementioned project. The good news is that cutting a path through the confusion of files sitting in my “Documents” folder has enabled me to see logically what I have to do next. And, of course, it’s a good crème rinse day.