When I arrived at City University for the first meeting of my freelance writing course (two weeks ago now), the situation struck me as a little strange.
First of all, class meets on Friday nights. Who schedules a two-hour class on Friday nights? And who in their right (“I’m not a loser”) mind signs up for them?
Of course:
People like me.
(Really,
I’m not a loser).
City’s “campus” is a dark no-man’s land on Friday evenings. I arrived on my bike, and circled the place in vain for bicycle parking. (What kind of “university” is this? No bicycle racks?) An iron fence circling the main square seemed to be my only option, and when I rolled up, I found it littered with severed cable locks. On the bright side, at least the thieves had already made their rounds.
I went into the main building, just as dead as the outside, and wondered if I got the schedule wrong until I saw a few other lost souls searching for the same class. We found the room together (10 minutes and many empty corridors later), a wild contrast to the world outside: almost every desk in the room was occupied. Nineteen women. One man. And one mullet.
Oh dear.
But it didn’t take me long to get over the bad hair, or the oestrogen. The great thing about a Friday night class is that the people who show up really want to be there. And despite the chick factor, not everyone wants to write for Vogue or Glamour: there’s the mullet who wants to write about art history; the arts teacher who likes “cultural politics”; plenty of folks want to write about travel; some dig on celebrities. Some people are journalists already, others have no experience whatsoever. But everyone is enthusiastic, including the instructor, Carole Woddis.
Carole started class by rattling off a few random bits and bobs about freelancing:
- Always say yes: write for whoever will publish your work, especially at the start of your career
- Always be aware of what’s happening in the moment. Look out for niches, new trends, spin-offs from news stories, seasonal stories, anything that a newspaper or magazine will want to buy.
- Pay attention: learn how to concentrate on what your reading or who you’re speaking to
- Learn how to market yourself
- Use specialist knowledge to put a “fresh angle” on something already happening in the news
- Be energetic, charming, sensitive, persistent, brave, nosey, curious, logical, passionate, organised…
It’s the kind of stuff that gets repeated over and over again to aspiring writers, but it must be said. After all, while it’s fun to brainstorm ideas that I care about, I also need to be reminded to focus on ideas that will sell. I keep a journal to write for myself, but everything else is about writing for other people. What do they want to hear?
With all this in mind, we dove into a couple articles and discussed their merits, missteps, and most importantly, why they sold.
For the last hour, we grouped into pairs and interviewed each other for 20 minutes each. Carole offered us 5 minutes to prepare, but by that stage, “Kate” and I were already in a conversation. In retrospect, I wish I had taken those 5 minutes, because what I had at the end of the interview was very little to go on for the 300-word profile I was to write for homework.
The assignment turned out to be a huge learning experience for me, both on the interviewing side and the writing side. But I’ll save the gory details for a separate post. Yes, I actually learned so much that it warrants its own entry. In that respect, I’m definitely getting more than what I paid for in taking this class.
Related posts:
0 Responses to “Freelance Writing 101: First impressions”