How to Become a Freelance Writer

I get e-mails from people wanting to know about writing since I get paid to write. They want to be freelance writers, too. Freelance writing sounds like a dream job, and it is, as much as any job that's what you're meant to do is a dream job. Meant to be a cardiologist? That's your dream job. Meant to teach math to students who hate math? That's your dream job. Doing what you're meant to do is the place where the parts click together, where your skills and the world's needs meet.

Speaking of needs, never, ever write an ad that says, "We meet your needs." I could go on but now is not the time or place.

The dream part of freelance writing is the part where the grass looks greener on the other side of the fence. Sure, I work at home. More and more people do as technology makes it possible. There's much that's wonderful about working at home. There are also many pitfalls, from welcome distractions to never really being able to leave work because you essentially live at the office.

Then there's the bit where you get lonely, desiring to be around people you don't have to be nice to. I see clients, but I have to be nice to them. This is usually not that difficult, but it's not about being completely yourself either. I have to make an effort to see people I care about, made more challenging by the fact that I live in the country. If I go to lunch with a friend, my workday is shot unless I'm lucky, careful and plan well. I'm not naturally good at any of these. I've learned to write when and where I can.

I frequently write on my AlphaSmart in the carpool line. When I haven't fallen asleep with my mouth open just to embarrass my daughter.

Most of the time, the work is hard. Sometimes it's hard because it's just so incredibly boring. My mind doesn't want to submerge itself in home foundation repair, and I have to beat my mind to make it pay attention and work. Unlike some other jobs, writing requires that you put yourself into it. You can't write about education reform and at the same think about how you're going to faux paint a wall. If you're writing about education reform, that's got to be the thing that's sucking up your brain cells.  And suck up your brain cells it will.

Then there are the people who want to know about fiction writing. They've been told they should write a book. I wish I could help, but I'm trying to figure out how to write a book myself. I read Stephen King's On Writing book when it first came out and thought it was the best book on writing I'd ever read. I'm now listening to it (King reads it himself) and it's as good as I remembered. If you want to write fiction, that book is a good place to start your education.

How do you get to be a freelance writer? Start off by being a writer. Figure out ways to get published. Then take those published samples to people you think could use the help of a writer. It's hard to build credibility. Everyone thinks they can write, especially lawyers, who are the most difficult clients. Some writer could make a career out of re-writing everything engineers write -- all you have to do is convert their manuscripts from passive to active voice. However, they won't like it. They don't think they sound smart if it's not in passive voice. Or maybe there's some other risk.  They wear me out.

How did I get to be a freelance writer? I wrote plays on the side when I worked in the family business. When it became clear I couldn't work with Non-Saintly Brother, I needed to find another job. Because some of my plays had been performed and received publicity (mostly bad), the head of one of the state's largest ad agencies recognized my name. I approached him for advice on changing careers. Instead of giving me advice, he gave me a job: a three-month trial as a copywriter. I stayed for over nine years, then, after having Lily, it all became too hard and I quit that dream job for another one, being a freelancer. Because I have a portfolio of published, performed, recorded and approved work, I can get more work. I believe most freelance writers have worked as paid writers for an organization of some sort before they started freelancing. That doesn't mean that's the way everyone has to do it. It's just the only route I know.

I view those years at the ad agency with fondness and great appreciation. They taught me a lot. It was a fun place. For a while I defined myself by my job. I loved the insanity of the place, the high spirits of so many creative-types in one building. And every day I wrote. And wrote and wrote. I wrote whether or not I knew anything about the subject and made it sound like I did. I wrote pieces for crisis management situations where I didn't have time to even think through what I was going to say. I wrote for one client who was so stupid that they had voted that their organization, which used the word "centers" in its name, was really only one entity so that "centers" should be treated as a singular noun. In other words, they would correct my copy so that it read, "Our Centers is." At last, I was grateful for passive voice, which allowed me to keep them from looking like they were completely stupid.

I wrote like a sweat-shop seamstress sews, churning out prose that I won't call seamless but there was certainly a lot of it. And I learned to control the language. That was my apprenticeship.

Though I freelance now and am grateful for my clients and the checks that trickle in, I feel my work is my fiction, which is so very hard that I must be doing it wrong. But I'm back at it. And I'm following Stephen King's advice: no matter what, tell the truth.

Comments

[lorianne]

interesting article yesterday in the (Mobile) Press Register about Rick Bragg and his take on same subject....
he is teaching at Bama now, but maintains a house over the bay here in Fairhope.

[spaghettipie]

Hi!
I’m a blog tour coordinator currently working to promote a debut novel entitled Leave it to Chance by Sherri Sand. I thought it might be a fit for your blogs since the story line involves horses. I was wondering if you would be interested in being a part of our tour. I can have a book or two mailed to you for review, and you would not be obligated to give a positive review. If this at all interests you, would you email me or leave a comment on my blog?
Thanks!

[Mrs Mom]

It is always interesting to learn how people "got to where they are". Thanks for all the great information Anne! You are an inspiration for me! :)

[Scarlett]

Great post Anne! I concur with everything you've said. Even after my years in various communication jobs (with lots of writing) I sometimes fall for the romantic dream of just writing all the time. But then I snap out of it and remember that writing is hard, ESPECIALLY when you HAVE TO do it all the time. And the topics are often mind-numbingly boring. But that's what pays the bills.

It's exactly like when I was in publishing and people used to say, "oh how wonderful! I'd love to get paid to read books all day!" Well, no, that's a HUGE rose-colored-glasses oversimplification of the job. The nuts and bolts are hardly glamorous.

Keep at the fiction writing lady! You'll get there!

[friddles]

um it is kinda blatantly obvious who ur dumb client was [cough cough excuse me I seem to have come down with an infectious disease cough cough]