Magazines - Trash or Treasure?

There was frost on my windshield when I headed out for exercise this morning. It’s a bit too cold to spend time on the porch these days, but I’m glad to have you stop by anyway. Button up your jacket and we’ll keep an eye out for the snow that’s predicted in the next couple of days.

One of my New Year’s resolutions is to actually read the magazines I receive in the mail. For the past several years, they have accumulated on my coffee table until the stack gets so high that I finally relegate them to a back room bookshelf with a vow to “someday” explore what waits behind the pages. More time goes by and they end up either at the library or in the trash recycle bin.

Funny thing is, I am not much of a magazine subscriber. Most of the magazines I receive are a result of my membership in various organizations. I receive Toastmasters, AARP (the magazine and a newsletter sort of thing), NARFE (National Association of Retired Federal Employees), and a VFW Auxiliary magazine, plus a fairly thick Colorado Nurse newsletter.

The magazines I subscribe to are, you guessed it, writer’s magazines. Writer’s Digest, The Writer, and The Christian Communicator all appear in my mailbox on a regular basis. I glance at the article titles on the cover and think, “wow, can’t wait to read that!” But a month goes by, then two. The latest novel captures my reading time and the magazines are left to gather dust.

So, I have decided to prioritize. The most important articles, at this time in my life, pertain to writing, so my writing magazines now sit at the top of the “to be read” stack. My next order of business is to choose which articles to read and which to pass over. I’ve had to put my OCD tendencies aside and discriminate as to what will benefit me the most in my writing career at this point in time.

Right now, I’m interested in exploring magazine article writing and short work. Next comes my passion for my WIP (work in progress), so any information that adds to my knowledge of novel writing is bound to catch my eye. Articles about finding an agent and interviews with authors who write in a genre far removed from my own are not as pertinent to me as the ones that address my immediate writing goals.

After the writing magazines are read, I can pick and choose what pertains to me in the other magazines. I don’t have to read every word about an article that speaks to caring for an elderly parent in my home, for example. I’m not in that situation.

I’m finding that there is a treasure of information in magazines. In fact, I have started to apply one of the ideas set forth in an article I read yesterday to my life. In a couple of days, when I see how it works out for me, I’ll write about it.

Thanks for reading my blog!