Writing Goals for 2021

What a year. It’s hard to know what to say about these insane 12 months because as tough as last year was financially, this one has been one of the best for me in terms of work, despite the pandemic.

Last year’s word was abundance, which I do felt that I found. Apart from a two-month stretch, I got plenty of work between freelancing and my website. I also took on a side job that helped pay my bills. Next year, I’d like to find the confidence to pitch outlets I find intimidating.

As with previous years, these posts were inspired by those of Lola Akinmade, especially the pie charts. You can see these past posts below:

2014 – 2015 – 2016 – 2017 – 2018 – 2019 – 2020

Where My Work Went

I feel like I broke into a number of new outlets this year because I wasn’t letting the fear of rejection hold me back including four in print! I pitched 180 in all. I wrote about Sweet Auburn for Afar and country music for Frommer’s. I featured a Knoxville glassblower and brewer for October.

I wrote some of my quirkiest stories for Roadtrippers including the Tennessee town behind the atomic bomb, a Florida town of mediums, and an abandoned mental institution in Georgia. And for Simply Buckhead I wrote about Rome, Georgia.

After cold pitching the editor, I wrote two stories for FiftyGrande, a new US travel magazine, including one in their upcoming print issue. I broke into other new-to-me outlets including The Archive, Travel + Leisure, TripSavvy, Apartment Therapy, Southern Living, and Mental Floss.

I also did a few projects for Explore Georgia, Eagle Creek, Diamond Resorts, Georgia’s Lake Country, and Tennessee Valley Geotourism.

After a few years of working for Fodor’s, I decided to step back from the publication. The editor I’d worked with left after the mistreatment of her Black colleague.

Six stories got killed or postponed but some found eventually found better homes. All of my stories for 10Best/USA Today were put on indefinite hold and still haven’t seen the light of day.

I also pitched plenty of publications that I either never heard from or rejected my idea. They include Garden & Gun, the New Zealand Herald, CNN Travel, Punch, and the Boston Globe.

See almost all of my work on my Contently page and follow along on my professional website.

Connecting With Editors

This year, I found editorial contacts in a variety of ways, which is half of the battle of pitching. I subscribed to Study Hall, a paid platform with job postings, calls for pitches, and information about different outlets.

I’ve also found a number on Twitter and through connections. For example, I reached out to an editor at Southern Living after they featured me for my story on Little Free Libraries.

I cold pitched the Washington Post for a specific section. My story ended up getting killed, but I gained access to their Talent Network, a platform that allows freelancers to pitch nearly every section of the outlet. I successfully pitched a story this way.

I applied for a freelance writer job with HowStuffWorks back in July but didn’t hear back until November. I’ve since gotten a handful of stories from them.

I have also become better about cold pitching. I’ve found editor emails in Twitter bios, in tweets to other writers, in private Facebook groups, and in the masthead of publications. If you don’t want to buy all the magazines,

Committing Time to Write

It’s hard for me to set aside the time to work on projects that don’t have immediate deadlines. For example, I’ve been adding and subtracting from my memoir for years. At the beginning of the pandemic, I had endless time to work. In November, I spent two weeks at the Hambidge Center, an artist fellowship in Georgia. I’m now pitching it to agents for representation.

As I did with this project, I’d like to finish writing a fiction story I started during last year’s Nanowrimo. I don’t know if it’s something I’d like to get published, but I have to finish it first.

Dipping Into Longform

I’ve been intimidated by these longform stories that are over 2,000 words. But the more I’ve read of them, the more interested I am. I like diving into publications like The Atavist, The Cut, Bitter Southerner, and Buzzfeed. I’m currently working on one longform piece and hope to do others in the future.

Reading More Writing

With the expanding of the types of stories I write comes reading new types of stories. I’m branching outside of travel and into lifestyle. I’ve subscribed to The Washington Post, Atlanta Magazine, Smithsonian, and New York Magazine, which includes The Cut, Vulture, and Curbed, among many others. I’ve also found new outlets by reading the work of other writers.

Pitching Bigger Outlets

I want to continue the momentum of this year, pitching “big” outlets as I’ve wanting to do more since 2015. A long term goal is to pitch the top daily newspapers like the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, and The Wall Street Journal.

Other outlets I’d like to pitch and place stories with are Atlas Obscura (after lots of attempts!), Oxford American, The Guardian, CNN, Smithsonian, American Way, Shondaland, and Rolling Stone.

Rethinking Travel

After years of nearly-constant travel, it’s been nice to slow my pace in 2020. I went on a total of four work trips after the pandemic started and only went after lots of thought and consideration. The truth is that I’m not traveling for work unless the destination is taking steps to keep me safe. I’m a freelancer so I have no employee healthcare or benefits to fall back on.

Instead, I’d like to go back to the trips I’ve taken previously and mine for additional stories. I’d also write stories based on research or from experiences close to home.

Pitching Internationally

I had one small story appear in a UK publication a few years back. It was exciting, although difficult to track down. I’d like to do this again, perhaps an Australian outlet this time to honor my time living there. The current travel restrictions make it difficult to write for international outlets on US travel, so this may be on hold for a few months.

Submitting for Awards

Last year, I won two Lowell Thomas awards for my guidebook and my secondary website, which were great honors. I’d been submitting since 2018 so I felt like my hard work had paid off. But now I’d like to win an award based on my travel writing.