I’ve decided to sell the domain for this website. If you’re interesting in buying www.ninetofive.com, send me your best offer at dianaburrell at gmail dot com. If it’s not obvious, I’m just selling the domain name here.

I’ve decided to run my Become an Idea Machine class through the Renegade Writer site again this summer, starting on Monday, July 12 July 19.  You can sign up here, or through The Renegade Writer site.

In this class:

• You’ll learn how to generate dozens, even hundreds of possible story ideas, starting on the very first day of class.
• You’ll learn how to sift through your ideas to find the good ones, the stories that have potential to sell to editors, and you’ll learn how to refine and shape them into pitchable stories.
• You’ll figure out how to target your ideas for the right markets.
• You’ll never be at a loss when an editor asks if you have any more ideas for them.  You’ll have dozens of good ideas at the ready.

This three-week course costs $99 for the basic level (web-based class with no e-mail support) and $149 for the premium level, which includes e-mail support. I encourage nearly everyone to sign up for the premium level — not because I want to take more of your money, but because for an extra $50 I can work with you on your specific problems coming up with salable story ideas.

Who benefits the most from taking this class? Students who are extremely self-motivated and driven to sell their ideas to national outlets. If you’re at all a slacker, this isn’t the class for you because it’s a lot of work and expect you to put in a lot of effort shaping your ideas and finding homes for them, even with my help. Hey, I’m not going to come up with ideas for you — the point of the class is so that you can learn how to do this yourself. My students have gone on to sell ideas they’ve generated in my classes to publications like Parenting, Woman’s Day, Yankee, Discover, the New Scientist, and more.

So if you need a kick in the pants this summer, sign up for my class today!

I’ve gotten a lot of e-mails over the past couple months from writers who wanted to take my Story Ideas That Sell workshop. I had a lot going on in my life, so I pulled the workshop down. It was just too much for me at the time, plus some of my students wanted me to offer one-on-one coaching along with the workshop and I just couldn’t figure out how to fit that all in.

My life has settled down somewhat, and I was able to give the material a second look and figure out a way to provide more coaching and hand-holding. So I’m happy to announce that I’ll be offering my three-week class, Become an Idea Machine: How to (Painlessly) Build Up an Inventory of Story Ideas to Sell to Magazines, starting Monday, May 17. You can take the class with e-mail support ($149) or without ($99), although if you really struggle coming up with salable story ideas, I strongly urge you to sign up for the premium level.

What you’ll get from this course:

• You’ll learn how to generate dozens, even hundreds of possible story ideas, starting with the first week of class.
• You’ll learn how to sift through your ideas for the good ones, the stories that have potential, and learn how to refine and shape them into pitchable stories.
• You’ll figure out how to target your ideas for the right markets
• You’ll never be at a loss when an editor asks if you have any more ideas for them? You’ll have dozens of good ideas, sorted into subject categories.

I’ve reworked the material from my “Story Idea Workshop” for this new course, but if you’ve already taken that class, I’d urge you not to sign up for it again UNLESS you want to do it again with e-mail support. Contact me if you’re interested in doing this; you only have to pay the difference between the Basic and Premium levels, which is $50.

In the coming weeks, I’ll be doing a teleseminar with Linda Formichelli, tentatively titled Five Easy Ways to Generate Story Ideas That Sell. Details TK. In the meantime, you can sign up for my class at the Renegade Writer site.

Greetings! Some updates on my schedule.

Unfortunately, I’m no longer offering my Story Ideas That Sell workshop. Last fall I had a long think about what direction to take my career, which meant ruling out projects that pull me away from my goals. Teaching was one of them. Sorry folks! But I’ll continue posting at the Renegade Writer blog, and in the next few months, I’ll be giving a teleseminar with the fabulous Linda Formichelli on — ta dah! — idea generation. Details TK.

So, that new direction I mentioned. I’ve been working on a book proposal for the last few months, and I’m really, really, REALLY psyched about it. The book’s topic is one that’s close to my heart; the proposal itself was actually a lot of fun to write. Yeah, you read that right … fun! (If you know anything about me, you know that I rarely describe writing as “fun.”) My agent sent the proposal out last week, so keep your fingers crossed for me, okay?

I continue to write for the Boston Globe (I just reviewed the honkingly huge Cuisinart Elite food processor), and Kiwi Magazine just published a story I wrote about all-natural food colorings and flavors. I’m working on another piece for them about a topic near-and-dear to my heart. Let’s just say it’s raw.

As for speaking engagements, Smith College (my alma mater) invited me to speak on a freelancing panel at “A Century of Women in Type: A Conference for Smith Women in the Media” on March 25-26, 2010 in Northampton, MA. I was honored by the invitation, as I’ll be speaking with the Smith alums Gloria Steinem, Wendy Kaminer, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, Andrea Cooper (a freelancer I admire greatly), among others. Yay!

Till next time.

I’ll be offering my popular “Developing Story Ideas That Sell” workshop through The Renegade Writer this summer, starting on Monday, June 8 with a second session starting on Monday, July 6. I won’t be offering the class in August due to travel/vacation — the next workshop will be offered in September.

If you’re “idea challenged” when it comes to pitching editors, or you’re just sick and tired of writing about the same old subjects, this workshop can be the kickstart you need to put your career in high gear. You’ll learn:

* How to find stories that can earn you thousands of dollars in magazine commissions, even while you’re running errands, caring for young children, or surfing the Web;

* How to train yourself to come up with salable ideas effortlessly;

* Why your stockpile of story ideas makes you more valuable to editors;

* How to build an idea inventory that can take you through months, even years, of pitching.

So sign up today! Any questions? E-mail me at dianaburrell [at] gmail [dot] com.

In the midst of a creative lull? Want to ramp up your income 2009? I’ll be running my three-week Story Idea Workshop this spring with start dates on March 2 and April 6. Sign up through my classes page.

I really loved teaching my freelance writing classes locally for the past few years. But with my shift to food writing and a kid who has a more vibrant social life than I, teaching was one thing I had to cut out in the last year.

However, I’ve figured out a way to teach online. I think this is going to be great because I can reach beyond Boston. Now it doesn’t matter where you are — you can take my fun 3-week workshop! The other thing I did differently was focus on my favorite part of freelancing — generating salable story ideas for editors. It’s the part of my in-person class I found the most exciting. Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, has a story to tell sell and I get a kick out of showing my students they have dozens of ideas right in front of them. They just need to learn how to see them.

This workshop came about when, maybe a year ago I was talking to my writer friend Sandra, sharing with her some of my idea-generating tips and she said, “You should really teach a course in this.” It took me awhile to gather my thoughts, tips, and ideas, but finally this week I finished the three-week workshop. And now I’m really excited to share this with the world.

So check out my class page. If you have any questions about the workshop, send an e-mail to diana at ninetofive dot com and I’ll be happy to answer them.

For some reason I get gazillions of hits for people looking for Clean Eating recipes, so hey — if you’re so inclined, come check out my food blog. I’ve been food blogging for awhile, but recently I did a site revamp of DianaCooks. It’s basically a place to write the things that I want to write vs. what editors want me to write. Do come check it out — and grab the feed! I’ll be doing more recipes than what you find in the archives.

My, how the winter has flown by. I’m weeks away from my India trip and in the midst of getting all my immunizations updated. This a.m. I finished my typhoid series, and tomorrow I head back to the doctor for my next round of rabies and hepatitis a/b shots. I’m starting to feel a little like the family dog! Then there are all the prescription meds I have to take along with me. My husband took one look at the immunization and prescription list and said, “You won’t catch me visiting a country where I need shots to get through immigration.” Haa! To be honest, I’m most worried about mosquitoes when we’re cruising the Kerala backwaters. It’s not malaria season in south India, but mosquitoes seem to think my blood is sweet and tasty. I’ve stocked up on repellents with the highest amount of DEET allowed.

I’ve also just purchased a new Nikon digital SLR camera. Once the current slew of assignments are off my desk, I hope to get out and play with it, as I need to take magazine-worthy photos for an assignment when I’m in south Asia.

Nothing much going on except that I’m swamped with work, which is, of course, a good thing. I recently got named as a contributing editor at Clean Eating magazine. When I picked up the premiere issue on the newsstand a month or so ago, I literally gasped when I thumbed through the pages. It’s a stunning magazine, filled with such gorgeous pictures of food — and I was so proud that I’d developed many of the recipes, including the main recipe feature. In the January/February issue of fresh, which you can pick up at Hannaford markets in the northeast, you’ll find my recipes for a romantic Valentine’s Day dinner.

Right now, I’m working on some stories for an inflight magazine, as well as some recipe development projects for fresh and Clean Eating. Oh, and finishing up two long-overdue-to-my-agent book proposals. Tomorrow I’m speaking to a food writing class at Boston University about how to write a great pitch letter. My Boston Globe editor is teaching the class, so I’m pretty flattered she asked me to speak!

Till next time! [db]

Check out my week-long food blog at eGullet. I’ll be blogging until Sunday, January 20.