freelance writing Archives - Page 6 of 7

Why Finding the Perfect Freelance Writing Gig is like Finding The One

Posted on November 7, 2011 Written by Pinar Tarhan

I Love My Job — Image via hamiltonwriting.com

I’m not the first writer to compare freelance writing to dating, and I probably won’t be the last. Because when we dream, we don’t like limiting ourselves and it is OK.

In an ideal world, there is this one perfect person for everybody, a soul mate. In my case, it is this perfect guy who will make me happy.

And in an ideal world, there is a perfect writing gig – a writing gig that satisfies you both emotionally and financially. Let’s see why the search for something perfect and search for someone perfect are alike, and the possibilities don’t seem very encouraging.

Here’s what my perfect guy would be like (not in the order of importance)
– Fun-loving, easy-going, exciting AND reliable.
– Able to get along with my friends, and his friends like me too
– Loyal
– Able to communicate easily
– Not possessive at all (non-intrusive, not someone who calls 10 times a day)
– Believes in me.
– Is infatuated with me no matter how long we have been together
– And doesn’t go through a major personality change as years go by.
– Able to support himself financially
– We have things in common
– There is space, and mutual trust.
– We have mutual friends, and we have separate friends groups. (I have a life outside of him)

Am I asking for too much? Am I asking for the impossible? Maybe. But hey, we are talking about ideal and perfect, so this is not the blog post to compromise, or settle.

As for the perfect writing gig: (not in the order of importance)
– Pays well, pay on time and pays via Paypal (reliable)
– It is on a topic that I genuinely love (exciting)
– It is ongoing. (Loyalty)
– The editor is fine with my style, work and personality. (easy- going)
– I feel the same way about the editor ((mutual feelings)
– I am not required to dedicate my life to this job alone. Hey, there is more than one topic I love writing about! I also don’t want to write about the same thing every day. And I definitely don’t want to be required to write about the same subject several times a day. I want a job outside work. (space)
– It doesn’t require me to research for hours all the time. As much as I love learning about stuff that intrigue me, I have my limits. (space, fun)
– The job isn’t dependent on my location or religion. I am very serious about the “free” in freelance. (I have a life outside this gig)
– It can be done from anywhere, and I am not required to go to an office. Skype conference calls are OK. Being dependent on a physical location…not so much. (non-intrusive)
– Refers me to other editors and publications as well. (believes in me)
– Lets me know in advance if things are about to go wrong, expectations or conditions change. (trust, communication).
*
Did I leave anything out? Oh well, from what I can see, both challenges seem equally daunting and difficult. And hilariously similar…

And I haven’t found either. But it doesn’t mean I will stop looking, even if we don’t live in an ideal world. Because I don’t like to settle.
I know that we all occasionally take jobs we are not 100% happy with, or date people we don’t see a future with. And it is OK. We need the fun, experience and the mistakes. But we can’t dedicate our lives to jobs or people that are not right for us, that take more than they give.
Where are you on finding the perfect gig? Or the perfect partner?
And which do you think is a more difficult process?

How Taking the CELTA Helped My Writing (and Why I Was Missing For Over A Month)

Posted on October 12, 2011 Written by Pinar Tarhan

I try to post on this blog at least three times in a month, so I was pretty disappointed with myself when I realized my previous post was published on the 10th of September. But in between getting published on the travel blog Europe a la Carte, freelance website Freelance Switch and applying for CELTA, I was pretty sure I would get to publish a fun and useful post before the end of September. But then something happened: I was accepted to the CELTA course.

What the hell is CELTA?

CELTA is the Cambridge Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults (whose mother tongue is not English). I took the one month intensive course from the 12th of September to the 7th of October- and I barely had any time to do anything else during that period. Trust me- I could hardly squeeze in the time to send my invoice to my publishers, so you can correctly assume that I didn’t have time to read/write/research anything that wasn’t related to teaching English. I didn’t have a social life, I barely slept and I spent half the time wondering why I signed up for the course in the first place.

Now, I love English. And I love teaching it. And while I had been giving freelance lessons and teaching English part-time for a while, I wasn’t officially educated and/or certified to be an English teacher. So when my part-time job gave me a month’s break, I jumped at the opportunity. After all, teaching English is a great way to make money doing something you love (and supporting your writing career- especially if you are not already a bestselling novelist or an on-demand writer who frequently sells $2000-articles to popular magazines) and keep your knowledge about the language intact.

Why I couldn’t write for over a month

When I signed up, they did warn me about how much time CELTA would take, and how intense it would be. But no one really warned me that I’d not have a life, I’d be depressed and frustrated half the time. CELTA demands %100 attendance, carefully crafted assignments, 6 hours of experienced teacher observation and 6 hours of assessed teaching practice.

And the teaching part is not the scary part. The scary part was to plan immaculate lesson plans, analyze your upcoming lessons and how you presented these to your tutors. It was also the teaching where you were observed by your tutor, who noted down every negative thing about your teaching (and yes, they also tell you the good stuff but by the time that comes up, you’ve freaked out that they totally hated it). And even if you have taught before, CELTA does have a whole set of different expectations.

Obviously there were some really fun times. I highly enjoyed the sessions where we were the students and our tutors showed us how we would teach to our students by modeling their methods through us. I made some really cool friends and learned a lot both from them and my teachers. But I am not going to lie to you; it was a bloody difficult time.

What It CAN DO for your teaching career & CV

It pretty much enables you to work in any country you wish, to demand higher rates and to apply for better jobs in general.

How CELTA Helps A Writer

– It makes you truly analyze the language, so it will really help with your editing. And it will make you question your knowledge of English, whether you taught before or not. Whether you are a native speaker or not. Some assignments might make you feel like Joey from Friends (while he was trying to speak French), even if English has forever been your strong point.

– It helps you develop a thicker skin. Were you upset when editor rejected you or ignored you? Try getting live feedback from a tutor who tells you all the negative stuff. Granted, you are given credit for the positive stuff as well- but the negative takes a lot more time, and can be difficult to digest if you thought you had done a good job one hour ago.

But then again, CELTA isn’t just about training people to become good teachers. It is about training people to be good English teachers according to CELTA standards. Which is pretty much the same thing when your writing doesn’t get picked up by an editor because it wasn’t exactly up to their standards. It doesn’t necessarily mean your writing is bad. It just isn’t made for that publication.

True, you don’t usually get a customized analysis from the editor as you’d get from your CELTA teacher, but it does wonders in helping you develop that thick skin.

-It makes you a better planner. When I first started planning my lesson plans according to their format, it took me more than 5 hours. My last lesson plan took me less than an hour. It also gives you a good idea what can be done in just 40 minutes. I’ll try a similar planning method for my writing & blogging related tasks. Who doesn’t want to improve her planning and time management skills?

-It does push your limits of productivity and hard work, as well as efficiency. As it turns out, I can work a lot more in a day than I thought I could.

-It provides you with new article/story topics and increases the number of people you know.

Should you try to get CELTA?

– CELTA isn’t recommended if:

You can’t truly commit yourself to a heavy schedule,
You don’t want to at least have a part-time English teaching career,
You don’t want to improve your ESL (English as a second language) teaching skills

– It is however, strongly recommended if you are a writer who also teaches ESL. Yeah, it’ll give you hell (and tons of tough love), but the pros will massively outnumber the cons- as long as you pass the course.

Review of Wayne E. Pollard’s I’m Not Out of Work! I’m a Writer!!

Posted on August 12, 2011 Written by Pinar Tarhan

crazy writer, from Bo's Café Life — This strip reminds me of someone....Wait...I know! It reminds me of me. That's it! I'm so writing my book tomorrow....(I mean I need a book to try to get a deal....) Courtesy of boscafelife.wordpress.com

I’m a writer. When I tell people that, I get one of these two responses “Wow! It’s so cool!” or “Hmm. Can you make a living out of that?”

And as much as I want to say “Oh, totally!”, I am not there yet. My income comes from a combination of freelance tutoring, teaching, blogging and writing. While I love doing all these things together, I want to be able to say “That book deal changed my life (=aka my finances)!” or “Eat your heart Carrie Bradshaw, I write about relationships for a living, and I have got more than a closet full of expensive shoes to show for it!”

But as I said, I am not there yet. The tasks of a freelance writer never ends (just like a blogger’s never ends, but that’s a different post). I still have to finish that book that I was inspired to write in 2004. I still have tons of publications to study and pitch to. I still have a lot of new markets to discover, study and yes, pitch to. Then I have to keep writing my book, keep up the blogs, follow-up with the queries and deal with rejection, or worse – no answers from editors.

So I need other freelancers to understand me, who have been or are still are where I am. I want to laugh with them, maybe get depressed temporarily and then move on with them. And while networking with others help, I don’t have a freelance writer friend who l can talk to whenever I feel like it.

And since none of my friends are willing to jump the 9 to 5 wagon to join me, I found the perfect substitute. Wayne E. Pollard’s “I’m Not Out of Work!, I’m a Writer” is a collection of Pollard’s Bo’s Café Life strips where he simply and hilariously depicts the life of a freelancer, complete with other freelancer friends and their meetings in coffee shops.

writers, rejection Bo's Café Life — You can find many more painfully and hiariously true writing cartoons on boscafelife.wordpress.com

Bo and all his friends are appropriately represented by drawings of coffee cups. As a freelance writer who does most (and best) of her work in cafés, and who is also (shockingly!) writing this review with a cup of coffee nearby, the collection couldn’t have been more spot on.

I first stumbled upon Bo’s Café Life when I was trying to find funny, writing-related cartoons for this blog. I loved the cartoons so much that I e-mailed him to ask if I could use them on my blog, linking to his blog. He kindly said yes, and even sent me the copy of the book, which I finished in about 20 minutes and went back to read it again. Yes, it is funny and very relevant.

It is so easy to identify with his coffee-cup characters. The multiple rejections, never summoning up the courage to send/finish some of your stuff, consoling yourself with the rejection numbers of currently famous authors, almost living in cafés…

There are so many books on motivation and productivity out there. And while I enjoy reading the good ones, sometimes I need a fast boost in the spirits and I don’t have time to read (or the strength to carry) all the necessary motivational stuff with me. And thankfully, I just have them all in one tiny book now.

It’s recommended for all writers. Except maybe not for the likes of John Grisham. I mean the dude is my favorite crime writer, but he doesn’t need it anymore. I’m sure he did need it when he was trying to get A Time to Kill published and got rejected over and over again….Ah…remember the times when John Grisham was unknown and Hollywood didn’t turn one of his books into a movie every couple of years?

Wayne E. Pollard is a published author, who shares his wisdom on Bo’s Café Life and Wayne E. Pollard’s No B.S. Blog for Writers.

“I’m Not Out of Work!, I’m a Writer!!” will be hitting the shelves at the end of September. If you can’t wait, and are up for a challenge, you can join Bo’s Café Life Fiction Contest. Details are here. But be quick. The deadline is August 31!

The Writing Gig Checklist: What Makes a Writing Job Worth Taking?

Posted on April 19, 2011 Written by Pinar Tarhan

Gerard Butler and Katherine Heigl at the The Ugly Truth premiere — Gerard Butler and Katherine Heigl at the The Ugly Truth movie premiere. Image via accesshollywood.com

If you have seen the movie The Ugly Truth, you might remember that Gerard Butler’s Mike accuses Katherine Heigl’s Abby of having a checklist when it comes to men. We all have our requirements when it comes to the type of people we want to date. And it only makes sense that as writers we have our checklist for the type of writing jobs we are willing to take.

Maybe Mike wasn’t a doctor or a lawyer. Maybe he did try to appear a lot cruder than he actually was. But in essence, he was nice, fun-loving, handsome, and romantic- and these are qualifications many women aren’t willing to stop searching for.

As writers, we may sometimes settle for less pay because we like the exposure potential or the topic. Or we might be willing to write something that is less exciting because of the prestige. But in general, there are some jobs that put a smile on our faces more than other gigs.

Here’s my checklist when it comes to accepting a gig:

1. The topic is fun for me. I hate writing about stuff that doesn’t interest me.

Technical writing, for instance, might pay the good bucks, but it does bore the hell out of me. And the main reason I became a writer is that I love writing- if I am writing about something that makes me feel good.

Being picky about the topics might make it hard to make more money, but in the long run, it will make you happier. And remember the great writing tip – if you like what you are writing about, it is a lot easier to write something great and enjoyable for the readers.

2. Pays via Paypal. I’m sorry, but this is the 21st century. Why use checks, when PayPal makes it easier for both the sender and the receiver?

3. Pays in accordance to the work it requires. There is no one specific flat fee that will please writers. $15/article may sound outrageously low, but if it takes 15 minutes to write that article, it just might feel better than taking a $100/article gig that takes several hours of research, several hours to write and more hours to edit it. Maybe it is just me, but I value my time. If it is going to take that long, and that much effort, maybe that job should pay $500/article.

4. The editor is helpful: The good thing about being a freelancer is that you don’t have a boss. The bad thing is that sometimes you feel like you have multiple bosses. They are called editors. I appreciate an editor who tries to get the best writing out of me. I don’t mind editing, just as long as my editor acts like a helpful mentor, rather than a merciless critic who acts like they don’t know what it is like to be the writer at the mercy of the editor.

5. Allows a byline/bio: Promotion is a writer’s best friend. It is beneficial to have a gig that will not only give you credit, but also some crucial information about you and your background- hopefully with a link to your website.

There we go. These are the 5 things I look for in a writing gig. What are your requirements?