Okay, question:

[hmpf]

Should I try to get into freelance journalism?

Or make that, should I try to get into freelance journalism *seriously*, now?

Pros:

- I can write really well, when I put my mind to it - and still decently enough when I'm just phoning it in. I got really good feedback from a professional writer (specialising in literary reviews) last term, and will probably get a certificate that will say something good about my writing.
- I do have (some) experience writing for fan media (webzines), and am beginning to get some experience writing professionally (on a very, very, very low level, though.) I'll also get, probably, a lot more experience writing during my next internship.
- Got a chance to impress a fairly important newspaper guy (chief editor of the culture pages of the most important German daily newspaper) this term, and may possibly get a good certificate from him, too.
- I'm constantly around people who do freelance writing at the moment; I may, just possibly, be able to make some useful contacts there.
- It's a... job that works fairly well for a 'patchwork' approach to earning your living. Flexible, etc. If it's just one of three or four things I do...

Cons:

- I'm slow - though not quite as ridiculously slow at writing articles as I am at writing fiction.
- I don't particularly see myself as a journalist; it's not a job I'm particularly interested in (especially not on the level that I would be working on, i.e. mostly writing about boring and inconsequential stuff), just one that I think I could nevertheless do reasonably well.
- I'm not sure how much thought I'm willing to invest in this. If someone gives me a topic to write about, I'll do it - but if I have to pitch my own ideas, I may just be... not interested enough, after all. Dunno.
- So. Scared. Of the idea of freelancing as an even moderately long-term survival strategy.

***

It's so odd talking to my parents, 'specially my mum. She's always kind of helplessly boggled by the complications of my life. Like she thinks it's all kind of... not supposed to be difficult.

Comments

[svilleficrecs.livejournal.com]

I just got accepted at this site http://demandstudios.com that was recommended to me by a friends lister (she vouches that it's legit and they pay.) It's all incredibly inane content-mill stuff (300-500 word articles to a very strict template for ~15 bucks a pop) and the pay is relative crap compared to more 'legit' freelance jobs, but it's also not asking for terribly high level writing.

I haven't actually written for them yet (I have to get off my ass and submit a bio, then claim a title) but if you're thinking of dipping your toe in and seeing if you can write to spec for stuff you don't necessarily care about (it's mostly autogenerated search engine optimized titles that don't always make sense) for a few bucks... it might be worth trying to see if you can get into the groove of writing easy stuff for a little cash.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Give it a go and see if you like it? It's not like it's a deep, lifelong commitment if it turns out you hate it. Especially if it's something you're considering doing as a sideline, it's not even like you'd be wasting a chunk of your life heading down the "wrong" career path. :)

[torn-eledhwen.livejournal.com]

IMHO, as a journalist, I think your cons are quite major ones. Freelancing is difficult. You need to have an area (or areas) of expertise, you need to be willing to pitch ideas - people won't come to you and say "please write this", at least not initially - and unfortunately it's not really something you can do in a flexible way until you're well established. All the successful freelancers I know are very, very busy, because you can't turn work down. You (as in the generic you, not Hmpf-you) turn it down once and that publication might not come back to you. Once you're established you can be a bit more flexible but it takes time to get to that stage.

Writing well is of course key to being a good journalist but I think more important is curiosity and a willingness to ask questions, lots of them and often difficult ones. If you haven't asked the right questions of someone it doesn't matter how well you write, your story will be dull. (Our new reporter made this mistake this week.) Are you prepared to do that? To make phone calls to people you haven't met and who probably don't want to speak to you? Deadlines are also crucial. Would you be able to meet them?

You might be better off looking at copywriting (eg the link svilleficrecs gives below) rather than pure journalism if you're looking for flexibility and if you're not particularly interested in it. Journalism is immensely rewarding if you find a niche you like, and if you're prepared to work at it - but it's not an easy job and I do think you have to commit to it.

Don't let me put you off, but I am concerned that from your pros and cons you're not invested enough in the idea to want to put in the inevitable effort.

Also, if you're freelancing, make sure you look at the tax requirements for Germany - I don't know what they are, but freelancers in the UK have to keep records of their earnings to fill in tax returns, as obviously you're self-employed.

Thanks for the tip.

[hmpf.livejournal.com]

Not sure how it is if you're not in the same country as the site, though. I mean, how would they even pay me? Anyway, I'll bookmark that, to check out later.

Ah, in German there really isn't a different word for copywriting...

[hmpf.livejournal.com]

(I think) - I actually meant something very much like that by the phrase 'journalism at the level that I would be working on'. E.g. I'm writing for this university magazine of which people get free copies in the university cafeteria. There's the occasional article that requires some research and possibly even a bit of an interview with somebody, but a lot of it is just "sum up this Wikipedia article" stuff, too. So, it's somewhere between what you would call journalism, and what you would call copywriting. And that's basically what I'm thinking about expanding a bit.