You Gotta Start Somewhere

Printing press

Back in this post in April I talked about the idea of freelancing. Honestly, I forgot all about it and have been just working on Spirit Hackers these past few months. Last night I was searching around the Absolute Write forums and found an entire freelancing section. An interesting thread popped up that talked about Suite101 and freelancing for them. This jogged my memory.

I went back to the site and saw that I had signed up but didn’t fill out an application. Now, of course I’m not really expecting to make anything significant from the site, but I think it would give me writing experience to place on my writing resume and get my name out there a little. I also believe this could be a possible first step into a transition of a writing career. The idea in my mind is that if I want to change careers towards the direction of writing, I cannot just sit in front of my computer typing stories. I need to have other things to work on that will also get my name out there and possibly generate some income.

I don’t know where all this will take me. Of course I have the grandiose dream of completing S.H., querying agents and getting it sold. Realistically I know that takes a lot of time and there is anything far from a guarantee. I think branching out into another project that doesn’t take up huge amounts of time may be a good way to get my feet wet.

12 comments

  1. Thanks Janna! I read a blog post somewhere (I can’t remember at the moment) about 10 reasons to write for them. If you’re not kidding yourself about the money, it could be good experience. Their commitment is 10 articles in 3 months, which isn’t bad since it’s on any topic you want.

  2. Aaron, you sound like you’re on the same track as me. I want to get into freelancing but just haven’t taken that step. I’ve heard of Suite 101 but didn’t know what it was. I’ll go check it out.

    Good luck!

  3. Aaron – you will be required to write 10 articles within three months. That’s one article per week. My suggestion, because your time management skills are um…., well, sign up when you are ready to commit to such a schedule. Otherwise, your contract will be terminated.

  4. Auria, I totally hear you about the commitment. I learned about the requirements a few days before signing up and I think that having some hard-deadlines could help out. We’ll see how it goes. I think I may work better under those requirements. 🙂

    I really appreciate you looking out for me with your comment.

  5. It would be interesting to find out. Because the reality is you don’t have a deadline, per se. As you know, they don’t say one article per week. So it’s easy to put off an article, and put off another, and so on.

    Let’s face it, you are only getting paid through adsense so it will take a while to generate a penny. 🙂 So money, at least in the short-term, isn’t an incentive either.

    What topic are you going to write about?

  6. Auria, trust me when I say I’m not doing it for the money. I know they pay very little. I’m hoping to write tech-related articles and then also work into writing style & guideline articles. I’m still feeling the whole thing out and waiting to see if they’re going to accept me.

  7. I’ve thought about freelancing but honestly have just been too lazy to research the ropes. Learning everything about agents, etc. was so much I’m overwhelmed by the idea of learning another “thing”, lol. I want to one day, though!

  8. i know you aren’t doing it for money. that was part of my point…there’s no incentive for someone who needs a gentle push.

    since you like how to stuff, check out ehow.com. no deadlines.

    crossing my fingers that you get accepted to suite

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