Anonymous asked: How did you get your job as freelance writer?... #I-want-your-job
This is somewhere in the epic “How I Do What I Do” post that I still haven’t had time to write, mostly because I have a lot of other things I am getting paid to write that I haven’t even started. BUT! The short answer is I wrote, a lot, and convinced people they should pay me for it.
The long answer is I have a degree in journalism and started writing on my HS paper (I read some recently, I was horrid!) then my college paper (thankfully much better) then after a lot of other career things happened in my life I ended up focused on entertainment and working for companies that needed someone to pick up some extra writing. With that under my belt I made connections with other writers and editors and pitched ideas, or sometimes got asked to pick up a beat or a few posts places. I obviously tend to focus on certain topics, but I’ve written all sorts of things when asked — parenting, food, tech, sports even (I know nothing about sports). Freelance as a fulltime lifestyle is VERY HARD and I only did freelance writing itself as my only job for 2 months and I am still waiting on some checks three months later. In short - write write write, network network network, focus on your passions but don’t turn down any opportunity at least for a test run because you never know where it will lead you.
(If you are asking more specifically how I got my job freelancing about Glee, that was in part because an editor friend happened to know I liked the show and a while back asked me to write for her, then later another editor actually did the same thing for the current publication. It’s been a great ride so far and I really do enjoy covering the show, the actors, the fandom, etc.)
And that’s a little preview of the sort of rambling you all have to look forward to in more of my how I am me posts.
