Some Catch-22, huh? In the writing business, you can't get published until you have some experience. If you can't get published until you have experience, how do you get experience? How do you get publishing clips to show all those publishers who want to see "previously published clips"? It's almost as if Lily Tomlin's telephone operator character came up with this: "Is this the party to whom I'm speaking? Are you the unpublished writer who has published clips I can look at? (Snort, snort!)"

What's an unpublished writer to do? Get published, of course! I'm not being flippant; I'm serious. Think about your life. There are a number of things you can write about right now (essays and travel articles about that great place you stumbled upon last summer). There is a lot more you can write about if you do a little research (an article regarding something that has been on your mind