This week’s installment is long enough to need a table of contents, so here we go:

1. Music (and music competitions)

2. Writing (and writing competitions)

3. WHY ARE YOU SO OBSESSED WITH COMPETITIONS, NICOLE

4. Going Forward (pun intended)

5. Upcoming freelance classes

6. Recent freelance articles

Music (and music competitions)

Here’s what I’ve been working on since Thanksgiving:

This is the beginning of Walter Saul’s Sonata #3 for Piano — and although I have A LOT A LOT A LOT of slow practice and positive-control polishing ahead of me, it’s obvious that I have increased my efficiency at both learning and memorizing music.

Basically, I’m spending more time doing work that yields results and less time doing work that doesn’t yield results, which means I’m getting more results out of every practice session.

Which is a delight — as is this sonata.

Walter Saul, in addition to being an award-winning composer and an extraordinary pianist, is also a family friend. My mother has this story about the first time our family invited Walter and his family over for dinner — I was, like, five years old — and how I distinguished myself by spilling a glass of lemonade all over him.

I had wanted a reason to start digging into some of his piano music for, like, years — whenever L and I talk about the repertoire we’d like to master during our respective lifetimes, I always bring up the 48 preludes and fugues in From Alpha to Omega — and then I decided to enter the San Diego International Piano Competition & Festival For Outstanding Amateurs, which meant I needed an hour of music.

I was 15 minutes short, and I realized that Sonata #3 could be a perfect fit — not only because of its length, but also because it was a contemporary piece by a living composer, which is the kind of music all of us should be playing more of.

THIS IS NOT TO SAY THAT I AM ANTI-MOZART.

OR ANTI-BACH.

Just that — well, if you are going to perform at an amateur piano festival, are you going to end your program with yet another attempt at Beethoven’s Appassionata (that will undoubtedly be compared to all previous attempts, many of which were better than yours) or are you going to play a delightful, rollicking, mixed-meter sonata by a living composer whom you have admired since you were old enough to spill juice on him?

Also here’s some Mozart, just to prove that I also practiced Mozart this week. I did this recording to test for speed — how fast can I take this piece before it starts falling apart, and which sections need specific work to get them up to tempo?

THERE IS MORE WORK TO BE DONE, THAT’S FOR SURE…

Writing (and writing competitions)

This is the kind of story that would be cliché if it weren’t true —

At the end of September, I completed the second(ish) draft of a mystery novel that I had started writing in late 2019. I took a break from the novel in early 2020, and started it up again in summer 2021 after reading the first few chapters to L and hearing him not only laugh at the jokes (yes, it’s the kind of murder mystery that has jokes) but also request that I finish the book because he wanted to know what happened next.

So I did.

The next stage in the process would theoretically be another revision pass, with the goal of addressing all of the problems that I identified when I shared the first chapter with you (as well as all of the problems that are in all of the other chapters).

I procrastinated on this for, like, TWO WEEKS, which is a very long time for me to procrastinate on something.

Then I started writing another novel. Completely different, and yet completely what you’d expect from me right now.

When I read the first section of this new piece to L, he said “Wow. This writing is so far beyond anything you’ve ever shared with me — it’s like you took what you learned from the mystery book and made this leap into something that was even more consistent and coherent and compelling.”

Earlier this week, I submitted an excerpt of this work-in-progress to the Masters Review Novel Excerpt Contest, just to see what would happen.

Because when you’ve got the kind of work that gets that kind of response from the people you love, it’s worth seeing whether other readers will respond in the same way.

That’s the button to this story, right?

NO.

NO IT IS NOT.

Here’s the part that’s so perfect as to seem ridiculous — after I got the first section of NEW BOOK prepped for the Masters Review contest, and after my dad said “this excerpt you shared with me is really excellent, beautifully written, but someday I want to read that mystery novel you’ve been hinting at,” I went back to the good ol’ MYSTERY BOOK and gave it a good ol’ reread.

You can guess what happened next.

(I’ll wait.)

I suddenly realized that I knew how to solve the problems that had previously stymied me into procrastination, and that I could probably make the necessary edits in time to submit the draft for the St. Martin’s Minotaur/Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel Competition.

So why not, like, see what other readers think of that book, too?

WHY ARE YOU SO OBSESSED WITH COMPETITIONS, NICOLE

Okayokayokayokayokay I know that it sounds like all I want to do with my work right now is COMPETE COMPETE COMPETE.

But let’s take the word “competition” out of it and look at what I’m actually doing.

I’m pitching — just like I did during my early years as a freelancer, before I built my career to the point where clients started reaching out to me.

Essentially, I’m looking for opportunities that are congruent with my current abilities and interests, and then applying for those opportunities.

And yes, the big difference between pitching freelance work and entering competitions is that most competitions have entry fees — but the cost of admission comes with a guarantee that your work will be reviewed.

Which is the other reason why I’m doing this. I want to see where I can improve, and part of the way you do that is by entering competitions that come with six pages of editorial feedback from three different judges (in the case of the Masters Review), or by attending festivals that put you in the same room as dozens of other amateur pianists.

And then, if you’re very, very lucky, you meet a few people who are working on their art/craft/practice in the same way that you are — and those people end up working with you on a project or recommending you for a job or becoming a lifelong friend.

Trust me on this — because I’ve done it before.

Going Forward (pun intended)

If you’ve made it this far into this week’s post, you might be asking yourself whether there’s a way to have, like, shorter versions of these things.

I mean, that’s what I’m asking myself right now, because this has taken nearly all day to write, and I still want to get a pile of holiday decorations out of the basement before L and I curl up to watch Neal Stephenson and Lev Grossman discuss Termination Shock at Powell’s Books (tonight, 7 p.m. Central, get your free Zoom tickets here).

I suspect that in 2022 — and maybe even the tail end of 2021 — these posts will be less “weekly roundups” and more “not-quite-daily insights.”

Shorter, sweeter, easier-to-completer.

Good good good?

Also — there’s going to be a post, very soon, about the Forward Party.

(That was the pun, in case you were curious.)

Upcoming freelance classes

How to Pitch Freelance Work

Hugo House online course

December 12, 2021, 5 p.m. Central

Are you a freelance writer who wants to learn how to turn ideas into pitches? Do you want to know how to get an editor to pay attention to your pitch—and to increase the likelihood that your pitch will turn into a paid assignment? Is it possible to expand a single successful pitch into a series of paying gigs? This course will teach you how to pitch, what today’s editors are looking for and how to develop a pitching strategy that can help you build your freelance career.

Recent freelance articles

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Don’t Write Alone | Catapult

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