Getting the First Writing Assignment

The latest update on my journey to write for a living, including my first article assignment, and a plan for getting more writing assignments.

The original plan was to find local businesses I could contact about being a content writer and website-spiffer-upper, but I am still not sure how to go about that. Nevertheless, I have found a couple of opportunities that I am very hopeful about and are better than either CrowdSource/Mechanical Turk or Content Divas, because well, they actually pay more than a pittance (see previous article). 

Both of my new options were posted on that old standby Craigslist. The first job is writing articles for a website that is about to launch. I will share the website when it's up and I have some content on there, but for now I'll just tell you what I know. This website will be focused on featuring people and organizations what are making progress and solving world issues. There are a lot of options and angles to be taken. I actually have an assignment, which is strange to think about. And it will be paid a reasonable amount. So now I've done a bit of research and made first contact via email with a person I would like to interview. My only fear is that my old shyness will get in the way. Journalistic pursuits have always scared me a bit because so much rides on talking to strangers in the middle of a situation, and for whatever reason that was not easy for me to do in High School. I have to realize for myself that I am a very different and much more confident person now. And that is why I am actually making plans to write a couple travel articles in the next month as well. More on that later.

The second opportunity is to write content for real estate websites. It's a decent hourly wage for this job, and is something that would start slow before becoming a part-time or full-time position. Now this is more like a normal J.O.B. than a freelance job, but it is beginning as a remote position and has the ability to stay that way, which has obvious appeals because I could use this for some stable income as I do other, less stable writing.

So my plans for this week are:

1.Find someone to interview and put together my first assigned article.

2. Complete a few small assignments via Mechanical Turk and/or Content Divas

3. Research publications that may be interested in the travel articles I have come up with.

4. Draft a Query letter or two about these articles.

5. Talk to someone on the phone about the real estate content job - basically an interview for a position and my opportunity to learn about it some more.

6. I am also going to work on following the advice in "How to Build a Web Copywriting Portfolio Fast" which will help when it comes to contacting those businesses in the future.

I will also be writing about my experience with the Mechanical Turk platform as well as Content Divas and maybe some tips on where to buy used books in San Francisco. Links for those to come.

~CJ

To Freelance or Not to Freelance

When it comes to freelance writing, the questions really are multitudinous:

1. Is freelance writing worth my time? And the sub-questions of that: Could I ever make as much money per hour freelancing as doing a typical job? and Will I spend too much time trying to find freelance work and not enough time actually working?

2. Is it just yet another distraction from my own writing projects?

3. What am I actually qualified to freelance about? 

4. Where do I actually find these lovely freelance writing jobs?

5. Could this actually help make my dreams come true? Those of being able to live where I want, make my own schedule and maybe do a little traveling while writing, and making enough to sustain my fairly minimal needs, that is.

Are the first four questions, and the time they consume, worth the possibility that the answer to the fifth is yes?

All of this has come up because yesterday, when I went down to Columbus Cafe to escape the apartment and get some focus, I didn't get right down to business on my creative endeavors (i.e. my novel), and instead found my way to Craigslist due to my continuing indecision about whether I should stay in the Bay or move back to L.A. (hey rhyming!) where I discovered what looked like some freelance writing gigs. Hastily, I sent over my resume to a company called Content Divas and completed a quick application on Write.com. The wheels in my head started turning: If I could make a few hundred a month freelancing through these websites, build my portfolio and confidence and begin finding other gigs in a more direct way, maybe, just maybe, I could gather enough streams of income to quit the day job, or at least minimize it to part-time and work on my own terms. Such an exciting prospect! 

After the cafe, I was also reading a short ebook (which you can get for free here ) about finding a good business idea. It actually inspired me further, but only in the sense that I am now thinking about trying to find my own leads for freelance jobs and trying to contact them. What kinds of leads am I talking about here? I'm going to look for a business, or twenty, who don't seem like they have in-house marketing and offer my services via email. I may eventually try to set up a decent website, or at least a blog where I can put some samples, but initially I'll likely send them as part of the email. Could this be a horrible idea? It very well could, but who knows, maybe it will work. Maybe I can get some referrals, too. And I don't have much to lose.

So here is the current plan, which I will be updating as time goes along:

1. Write.com (which is actually just crowdsource rebranded, which appears to be a large amount of tiny jobs, paying just a bit)

2. Content Divas (they seem new and like they'll provide better compensation)

3. Offer my services to local/small businesses

Here are some more resources for freelance writing if you are interested:

Freelancewriting.com

The Renegade Writer blog

About.com Freelance Section or Write for About.com

Week One Progress:
Made: $8.20 (sort of, see info on working in Mechanical Turk)
Time Spent: (Estimated, including communication etc.) 5 hours
Written: 250 word article for a dating website, product description for cat food.

~CJ

Photo shout out goes to The Italian Voice on Flickr.

Do Outlines Work for Writing Novels?

How Far ahead can you really plan when writing a novel?

I'd like to start with a quote I came across that made me think:

"Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way."
E. L. Doctorow

It brought up the question of outlining, knowing what happens next, letting the characters or story take on a life of their own, and everything in between that concerns the process of novel writing. I actually think this quote holds true, even if you meticulously outline, sketch characters, and pre-imagine your story before you actually start to write. Because at the end of the day, if you end up following an outline or plan to a T, you'll wind up going exactly where you expect, and the only real problem with that is that it's precisely what your audience expects as well, and they will be bored.

All the planning and the outlining, however, is still extremely useful. No matter if you deviate from it just a bit, or deviate from it a lot, or scrap it all together at some point. Of course, there are those who work best with no plan at all, but in general this can slow down the process of writing a full novel. It's also possible that this will decrease your motivation. I know this is the case for me. I use outlines to keep me on track, not only in terms of the story, but also in terms of productivity. It lets me know I'm getting somewhere and if I have a sense of progress I am more likely to keep going.

Of course, there is always the point where you better stop planning, and start writing. Otherwise, the absolutely most obvious thing will happen, that is, nothing at all.

"It is good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that matters in the end."
Ursula K. LeGuin

Travel Challenge 2: Get Obsessed

Start learning about the places you want to go, even if you don't know when you'll get there.

This challenge should be fun. From the list of places you want to go at some point in life, pick one -preferably a decent sized city, or a country - and become obsessed with the place this week. Research this place to find out about it's history, culture, and monuments. Look for sample itineraries, reviews of restaurants and hotels, and fun events. From these you will figure out how long you'd need to spend in the place, and possibly what time of year you'd like to go (perhaps there is a festival in June, or something). You can also start looking at the prices: how much will it take to get there? How much are the hotel prices there? What would food cost for the duration of your stay? This will start showing you how much you need to save for your future trip. Besides getting excited and more knowledgable about a particular place in just a week, doing all this research will help you start formulating your plan for how to get there, and that's the perfect first step!

Here are some sites to help:
Lonely Planet
Frommers
Trip Advisor
About Travel

Quick Travel Challenge 1 - Make a List

To Go Anywhere, You Need Somewhere to Go

Here's a simple task you can do in a week that will eventually help you to travel more. Travel to places big and small for long or short trips. Travel on your own, with family and friends, or with strangers. The first step to achieving big dreams is letting yourself dream in the first place. So this week, make a dream travel list. List every single place you want to go, and don't just put generic items like Asia, though this could be included to. Instead include every monument you want to see, event you want to attend, and city you want to explore. If you really have the travel bug, I imagine this list will be long.

After you've made the list, prioritize it. Star the items that would be most desirable. Mark the ones that would be easy to get to because they are close or inexpensive. You can rewrite the list now if you want to reflect these changes. For extra credit turn the list into a dream board, adding pictures and using nice font for even more inspiration.

The nice thing is, that this technique is a great way to define any type of goal, and making lists or dream boards makes people more likely to achieve whatever it is that they desire. So go ahead and allow yourself to dream. It might seem like this task would be too small and easy to actually help you get anywhere, but small things will add up.

Share your lists, or pictures of your travel board by sending them to wewrite2go@gmail.com. Top entries will be featured on the blog each week.