Whether you are a business person, a struggling actor or even a writer/journalist, you have to get the right timing. You see, timing seems to play such a significant role or function in any kind of success. It is so easy to see how timing is very essential for business people. They have to deliver their products and services in a timely and prompt manner—not very early nor too late to meet the particular needs of every client or customer. Also, it’s easy to see how very essential timing is for actors and thespians. Usually actors are on stage or in one scene, with another actor or group of actors and each action and every bit of dialogue from the actor is created and designed to combine with the actions and dialogue of the other performers.
Even if only one actor in the scene or the group gets the timing wrong, it distracts and throws off the timing for the whole team and eventually the story falls flat also. For a writer or journalist, timing is also very crucial. It plays such a huge part in a variety of ways. The world of writing is extremely competitive. So first and foremost, writers or journalists have to be very quick at responding to ads for writing jobs or writing assignments. And to quote a famous adage, “he who hesitates is lost.” And the writer or journalist who delay or does not fire off quickly a query or a cover letter in response to an available current job posting usually loses that job to a writer who did.
Then, writers also have to know how to pick up on the latest trends, events and happenings and then turn them into catchy and interesting stories and/or articles that would appeal not only to their readers, but first to the editors who would be interested to buy these kinds of pieces. Writers should also create and build a sense of “timing” by trying to keep up with different and diverse markets they wish to write an article or story for and then learning to “expect or anticipate” the needs of the editor for that publication. And that is why different and varied articles or stories out there regarding writing encourage and foster most journalists and writers to read and peruse numerous issues of any publication they hope to write for prior to querying or submitting anything.
Reviewing and perusing past and back issues aids the freelance writer see and understand what types of topics or issues have been recently covered and which ones would more likely to interest and appeal to the editor. It is actually such fun to have an editor that responds to your queries and say, Yes, I had been thinking about a story or article on that topic for such a long time now, but I just haven’t gotten around to assigning it. I would be very glad to have you write for it. Your timing for this piece is just absolutely perfect!”