For a little while now I've been making a living as a freelance writer. You wouldn't believe how random and eclectic my writing jobs as a freelancer actually are. Last week I wrote a quick blog post about "Occupy Wall Street" ($15), did a 500-word stock analysis of a big pharmaceutical company ($50), interviewed an author about his new book ($30), and wrote an editorial response to an article about standardized testing ($75), to name a few.
The thing about this line of work is you have to take what's available. I'd like to do nothing but write the high-paying articles that take the least amount of time, but I don't have a guaranteed supply of them. When I don't have a paying-gig lined up, I write about something I find interesting and then try to sell the piece to a magazine. I've learned not to let any opportunities pass me by. I will take on any job that I think I can possibly do, even if it's a bit out of my comfort zone. And I will dig through everything I've ever done that is remotely related in order to make the case to a prospective client that I'm the right person for the job.
This is where I'm thankful for my high school English teacher. He couldn't know exactly what kinds of writing I would most need in my life (except how to write a cover letter and resume, he was spot on about that). But he had style guides for MLA, Chicago, AP, APA. Even when we wrote resumes he threw a book at us with dozens of different ways of organizing and formatting it, depending on the kind of job and what you wanted to emphasize about yourself.
Years later, it's like I'm in English class again, except I'm getting paid for it. Today's assignment: an article on this topic, following these style guidelines, of this length, using those sources. Every place I write for is different. Some are very strict on style, some aren't. Every venue has a different type of audience and I need to write to them. Most of these styles are unique to the publication so I couldn’t have studied them in school.
But learning every possible style was never the real lesson. The lesson was learning how to learn a new style. Because that's what I have to do whenever I get a new gig and they send me a 20-page PDF with their style guide. I need to be able to skim through it, get the important information, and refer back to it later to make sure my writing matches expectations.
For that matter, those research essays I did in history, it wasn't so I would know that exact detail about the Russian Revolution when I really needed it. None of the kids in the class were even researching the same thing. The one thing that all of us learned was how to research the answer to questions, and that's why I can write an article about the history of a company and whether it's a good stock choice even though I'm not a stockbroker. I know how to learn about new topics.
Learning how to learn. I finally get what that means.
Schmegley: Hey, nice job J.B. That English teacher -- he must have been a heck of a guy...
The thing about this line of work is you have to take what's available. I'd like to do nothing but write the high-paying articles that take the least amount of time, but I don't have a guaranteed supply of them. When I don't have a paying-gig lined up, I write about something I find interesting and then try to sell the piece to a magazine. I've learned not to let any opportunities pass me by. I will take on any job that I think I can possibly do, even if it's a bit out of my comfort zone. And I will dig through everything I've ever done that is remotely related in order to make the case to a prospective client that I'm the right person for the job.
This is where I'm thankful for my high school English teacher. He couldn't know exactly what kinds of writing I would most need in my life (except how to write a cover letter and resume, he was spot on about that). But he had style guides for MLA, Chicago, AP, APA. Even when we wrote resumes he threw a book at us with dozens of different ways of organizing and formatting it, depending on the kind of job and what you wanted to emphasize about yourself.
Years later, it's like I'm in English class again, except I'm getting paid for it. Today's assignment: an article on this topic, following these style guidelines, of this length, using those sources. Every place I write for is different. Some are very strict on style, some aren't. Every venue has a different type of audience and I need to write to them. Most of these styles are unique to the publication so I couldn’t have studied them in school.
But learning every possible style was never the real lesson. The lesson was learning how to learn a new style. Because that's what I have to do whenever I get a new gig and they send me a 20-page PDF with their style guide. I need to be able to skim through it, get the important information, and refer back to it later to make sure my writing matches expectations.
For that matter, those research essays I did in history, it wasn't so I would know that exact detail about the Russian Revolution when I really needed it. None of the kids in the class were even researching the same thing. The one thing that all of us learned was how to research the answer to questions, and that's why I can write an article about the history of a company and whether it's a good stock choice even though I'm not a stockbroker. I know how to learn about new topics.
Learning how to learn. I finally get what that means.
Schmegley: Hey, nice job J.B. That English teacher -- he must have been a heck of a guy...