I finished this short story last summer, gave it to my best friend (who's a university professor and published fiction writer), and got some great feedback. She really liked it, thought it was almost there ... just wanted me to flesh out a few scenes. (Funny, since one goal for this story was fewer words. Guess I cut them in the wrong places!)

I was ecstatic because this story means a lot to me. What needs to be done isn't hard to do and I don't think it will take me that long. But nearly six months have passed and have I touched the story? Nope. Not for one minute.

One thing you should know about this story: It contains a secondary character loosely based on a C-list celebrity whose "creative projects" and behavior I find fascinating. Now, I'm the managing editor of a B2B magazine that covers signage and graphics--stuff like billboards and vehicle and building wraps--not exactly a vast industry. Oddly, this C-list celebrity has turned up in news related to my niche and found his way into the last THREE issues. Coincidence? It feels more like cosmic bullying.

Tangentially, I'm working closely with one of my book authors this week--finishing up his back jacket copy and getting ready to do the index--and at the close of one of his e-mails he tacks on "Let's make a pact to try to write a few thousand words this week, just for ourselves.  I got a story that is just begging for some attention, and I'm sure you do too."

I feel like the universe is saying, "HELLOOOOOO. Finish your damn story!!!" And who am I do deny the proddings of both my author friend AND a C-list celebrity? So I guess I'll push my day-job writing and my freelance editing aside this weekend and try to answer the call, once and for all.

Has anyone else experienced anything like this--your story seeming to holler at you through real-world mouthpieces? I'd love to hear your stories!

This week, I made a big change in my daytime writing life: I left consumer book publishing for a position at a technical trade magazine.

It's not so scary for me because my first job out of college was technical copyediting (talk about dry--but all that jargon has come in handy in some of the strangest of circumstances...), but as I sit here and read The 2007 Guide to the Digital Imaging Industry I can feel the gears of my brain grinding. It's painful.

The neurological pathways that connect the many repositories of my personal writing-and-publishing database are like Amtrak tunnels ... but the tracks to my technical compartments feel more like those found in rusty, dust-covered filing cabinets. You know, the kind that require a tetanus shot after touching. Creeeeeeeak. Are those moths?

Has anyone else out there made the switch to tech writing? Or do you have a freelance career that encompasses both consumer and trade work? What helps you get those synapses firing again?