Planning

The new editorial calendar is done. January through June of 2006 are planned … well almost. You see, the publishing of the new editorial calendar has opened the floodgates for article proposals. Now, I have to take the planning a step further and go, issue by issue, and decide what to put where. This is my absolute favorite and most troubling part of my job.

I love getting all of these brilliant ideas for articles. It’s great seeing others come up with, and improving upon, ideas we had while planning the calendar. Talking with writers about their ideas, sometimes molding them into a neat package to complement other articles is exciting.

The dichotomy enters when there are dozens of ideas that are all equally fresh and interesting, and I have to choose. I have to hold these ideas in my head and try to make sure that topics are not over-covered, not only within the same issue, but from issue to issue. I try to think whose writing styles will work best next to each other in the magazine. And all of this between putting out fires, dodging meetings and, you know, editing.

It’s all very exciting and gratifying, really, to have such a response. And I look forward to reading these articles when they come in. But for now, I have a pile of printed emails (cuz I’m old-school with my red pen) nearly an inch tall that I need to finish sorting.

I think I’m gonna need some more coffee.