I am sitting in a local Barnes & Noble typing this blog post. It's our once-a-month WRITING ONLY writer's group meeting and, now that I've eaten the standard chocolate chip and peanut butter cookies that are my norm for our get-togethers, it's time to get to blogging.
What I and my fellow freelancer writers do for a living is very special. But, it isn't as easy as it seems. Often I think that there are folks who believe that we live the perfect life: sit at home or nearby café and enjoy ourselves while typing away, editors, publishers, business owners ready to write us a check for great prose. Not so. This chosen career is hard work. We (freelance writers) ARE the business: CEO, CFO, CIO, marketing department, employee. Translated: It ain't all just writing. Now that the message is delivered, I'll repeat what I earlier stated: freelancers writers do something very special. This is my 21st year in this business: that's over 1,000 articles (quiet a few ghostwritten for others), a number of press releases, website copy, book chapters, a few workshops taught, and so much more. Every time I walk into a bookstore I relish that fact that I create with words, tell someone's or some business's story, reflect on a past experience that has meant much to me. I'm thrilled when I see a new magazine on the market, another opportunity for a byline, perhaps even a new realm of writing to learn about. And then there's the realms of writing that are my niches: the bridal, hospitality, a profiles realms. The many wedding love stories I have written about happy brides and grooms, from their first meeting to their day of wedded bliss. Some had the grandest receptions in large halls, many nice gatherings in the home of their parents. I and my wife Lucille were there, in their footsteps, almost 30 years ago, planning for our special day and eventually living it. I've walked in the shoes of chefs as well. I feel the exhaust of the long hours line cooks and sous chefs endure in a kitchen and behind the "line" in a restaurant, understand the frustration of under-tipped servers. I see things from the point of view of a restaurant worker and a customer. And everyone and business indeed has a story, tale of success, hurt, joy, failure, all that has led them to where they are now. I get to write their stories. There's no better life. Steve
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*A brief note: The Tuesday Inspirational blog, formerly called "Freelance writing...from my remote office" will be newly-titled "Some Thoughts This Week." The latter name is the title of the former blog I wrote from 2009-2015, and I feel it better sets the tone for the blog messages to follow. Onward...
I have been thinking lately about my writing career: where it has been, is currently, and where do I want it to go. Truth be told, I wake in the morning to these thoughts, and ponder them when going to sleep. Along with those, my many well-intentioned colleagues and mentors also offer advice on which direction to take, types of writing to embrace, stretch myself in other, perhaps more lucrative areas. I thank them for their wisdom. I have to be frank here. I have always enjoyed writing articles about people and businesses, and doing them for online and print publications, photo taking included. You don't do something since 1996 without, I think, some sort of fondness for it. This type of work, assignment if you will, has always made me happy, kept me engaged. Doing these types of assignments, combined with the love of my family, helped me recover from a heart attack back in 1996 at age 34, and launched my freelance writing career during my disability period. It may be true that income in this area of writing may not rival those of other types and, yes, I occasionally will take on a copywriting or book project, but I have to and will go with my heart. Steve This week -- rather, the past few weeks, have been busy ones.
One of four articles I was writing, my first articles I was assigned to write since July 2015, was published, another was accepted for publication and will see print soon, and a third was published online this morning. Amidst all that were the visits to topic locations and meet with sources, phone interviews to do, and marketing, marketing, marketing. And yes, all that writing. It feels good to be a busy writer again. The current period in no way resembles my full-time writing life of 2010-11, where my goal was to juggle and complete 10 - 15 articles a week, which were primarily of a daily\weekly type of piece. However, I always say that a busy writer is a happy writer, so my goal is to buttress the current published works with new assignments while also marketing and studying magazine samples for the new, therefore remaining in my "happy writer" place. So where am I going with all this? Well, just to say that I feel so at home doing it. When I look back at my life, and pick out the things that have made and still make me happy, the result is always the written word. This is reflected in a basement library that contains almost 500 books written by others, contributor copies of, and clippings and tear sheets from, magazines of all the work I've done through the years, and now the almost comparable amount of the before-mentioned my daughter Stefanie has accumulated. I have my goal publications, my goal assignment (to ghostwrite books for professionals), and a life that has been and continues to be rewarding. Steve In December of 2009, three weeks shy of starting my full-time freelancing business, I typed my first ever blog post. It was about three sentences long, and detailed at that time my current workload as a freelance writer.
That post was the first of about (the total number escapes me) 375 posts over a period of 5 years, ending in 2015. Those posts, including that innocent, short, initial post are now housed on a (I think) "fried" hard drive on a currently disabled desktop pc. Sad, but true; there were (are) some great posts "sleeping" there, many of them an inspiration to me. The post you are reading right now is the beginning of a new weekly blog, for I have returned to the freelance writing world. You see, I departed for a bit, but a few wonderful folks, especially my wife Lucille and daughter (and fellow freelance writer) Stefanie, my fellow writer's group members Julianne Ostrow and Dana Fillhart, and especially fellow freelancing colleague Leigh Cooper, have, in their own special way, encouraged me onward. And here comes the standard: I apologize if I missed anyone, for I'm sure I have. I sit typing this post in a local Barnes & Noble, a spot I always come to when I'm feeling depressed, and when I have to fuel whatever writing fire is dying. There may be folks who, seeing my past blog posts and the ones I often post on social media, think I am the picture of positivity, writer's life lived extraordinaire. Not always so. But when I see my beautiful daughter working on one of the many articles she gets assigned a week, and my lovely wife marketing out of her heart's goodness for me, I come to one conclusion. No matter the endless marketing, late writing nights, sometimes late payments...(colleagues, add whatever I'm missing here)...freelance writing can be a wonderful thing. Therefore my return. Steve |
Steve Sears is a New Jersey based freelance writer
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