Even I, a self-confessed idea junkie who loves nothing better than thinking up ideas to research and pitch to magazine editors, go through periods where all my ideas feel uninspired and blah. These periods usually occur in late fall and early winter, when the days are short and the nights are long, boring, and cold. Same for you? Here are some clever tips to pull you out of the winter doldrums and get you back on the path to productivity. 1. Use what irritates you. During the

I meet a lot of writers who want to write essays. Scratch that. They want to be paid when they write essays. Now there's nothing wrong with wanting to write—and get paid for writing—essays. However, if you're an avid reader of popular newsstand magazines, you know that most of them aren't packed with essays. Many don't run essays at all; and the magazines that do run one essay each issue, usually on the back page and often from a writer who's well known to the magazine and/or

(I wrote this blog post years ago for the now defunct Renegade Writer blog and am republishing it here for my Become an Idea Machine students and the general reading public. It's a bit outdated; Borders has been out of business for years, but a lot of the tips still work. Enjoy!) This week I bought three magazines at Borders I may be interested in pitching. Total cost? $14.48. Ouch! To riff off Leona Helmsley, only fools pay newsstand prices, but I really needed these magazin