After School Activities Create Writing Opportunities

If your children are school age, they no doubt may be involved in after school activities. Band and choir practice, volleyball, football, cheerleading - it can start as early as middle school and wreak havoc on the writing parent's weekday as you try to transport kids, attend games and events and still write that best-selling novel or feature article. So how can you maximize your writing time during after school activities, while still attending to your children's needs?

Use the time you're waiting for your child as a time to brainstorm. Are you waiting on volleyball practice to end? What about a profile of the local superstar? A piece on sports injuries? How to become a coach? Maybe an article discussing hard issues like steroid use in high school sports? A poem about the smells and sounds of a gymnasium?

Five minutes of waiting for your child to get out of practice can quickly spiral into 25 new ideas for articles or a scene in a book. Snatch some effective dialogue between teens, or think about writing "where are they now" pieces on the former years super stars.

So, once you have these ideas about local student happenings, where can you market them? Writers often overlook their own localities as a source for writing opportunities. You may come from a small town, or maybe a large city - both have abundant opportunities to profile local school events, although they may not pay well or at all.

1. Check with your local newspaper. Small town presses often won't pay much, but are in need of freelancers to cover local events because their staff is small. As a parent, you will most likely be attending anyhow, so why not write about the joy on your child's face and that of her classmate as the winning play occurs?This is a quick way to improve your journalism skills and begin making a name for yourself.

2. Find out if your city or town has a Web site. It's become the latest craze for every city government, and many school districts to have a Web site. It allows individuals who may be moving into the area to get a peek at what life in your town is like. Typically these are small, understaffed endeavors just waiting for someone to help them along. All the better if you have Web design experience. Offering to write a weekly or monthly column about your child's events or even posting a schedule of games with wins and losses, or when the drama club is putting on a play will get you clips, get your name out there and open the door to more writing opportunities.

3. Offer to write a school newsletter for parents. Usually you can get some minimal funds from a booster group, and this is a fantastic way to not only get to know the other parents, but also get your name out to them. Remember, they may not be writers, but they have careers too. The local dentist whose son plays basketball with yours may well need some ad copy written in the future, or the local restaurant owner whose child sings bass to your daughter's tenor may
need a new menu designed.

Although these may seem like no or low paying jobs not worth your trouble, expanding your thoughts of what writing is can open up a host of new writing opportunities. Ten or fifteen minutes of brainstorming while waiting in the parking lot or in the audience for your child's play to start can bring you a wealth of opportunity. Once you've thought locally, you can expand your horizons globally to national magazines, Web sites, medical journals and opportunities for that brainstorm session about sports injuries to become dollars in your pocket.

Most of all don't forget about expert opinion. The band instructor got her credentials somewhere, the baseball coach may have played in the minor leagues - these facts make the parents around you invaluable resources. Remember they have to wait for their child as well and in ten or fifteen minutes you can get a lot of conversation in and obtain quotes, while forming a strong link with your community and student life. A dentist is an excellent source of expert opinion for an article on braces, and it's likely your child has friends who could give first-hand accounts to add more impact to an article. Expert opinion is everywhere. By just adjusting your thinking a bit, your child's after school activities can become a hotbed of writing opportunities.