Summer Challenge!

So I was reading Cassie's post (check it out here) about her summer reading goals. I think it is a great idea to have one attainable (yet challenging goal) that you can finish in the semi-near future. Something that won't stress you out, but will make you feel accomplished. So I decided to set a summer goal and it would be great if you set one as well and shared it with me. I'll have an update post every Friday. If you want to participate with me, copy the banner for the project and post your updates. Then post a link to your post on my Friday update. I think the most challenging part of this goal will be actually remembering to do the Friday posts! (Inserts reminder into Google Calendar).

I know its not Friday yet, but I'm going to post an intro to my goal.

I was listening to a podcast interview with a prominent pro-blogger the other day, and he said something that really stuck with me. He suffers from "analysis paralysis". Its when you think about something and analyze it for so long that you never end up actually doing it. For me, this definitely holds true in my career. I'm trying to make it as a freelance writer. However, I'm a somewhat shy, introverted person and I'm constantly doubting myself. I write for businesses, but I'd also like to write for magazines as we. I already write for a couple local ones, but obviously I would like to go bigger someday. I KNOW that the only way to write for a major magazines is to write query letters (explanation to non-magazine writers: a letter to a magazine in which you try to pitch them a story idea and hope they will assign you to write it). But the fact remains that these editors get thousands of query letters a week and 99% of them are rejected. And I. Fear. Rejection.

Analysis Paralysis has prevented me from sucking it up, writing the letters and sending them out. So I present my summer goal: sending out query letters. My goal is going to be to send out 50 query letters by the end of summer (which I will deem as August 31). It doesn't matter how large or small the publication is, it doesn't matter whether I actually get any assignments. I just have to suck it up and do it. So that's my goal.

Tell me your goal! Then when we do our updates on Fridays (or whatever day you do yours) I'll post links to your updates.