Interview with
Barbara Stahura
Interviewed by Jenna Glatzer
Barbara has been a full-time freelance writer for seven years. She
has written for magazines, books, and websites on every conceivable topic from
Y2K to writer profiles to spirituality.
Why did you start freelance writing?
I started freelancing out of desperation. I needed very much to escape from corporate life. I had been a
supervisor and manager for many years, but I was never very good at it and was never truly happy in
those positions. In fact, in my last manager position in the mid-1980s, the Peter Principle (people get
promoted to their level of incompetence) was definitely at work. Fortunately, I was able to quit before I got
fired.
Then I moved and applied for a job as a public information writer at a gas and electric utility company.
I'd always said I wanted to be a writer, mostly because I've always loved to read and secretly wished
that I could write things that would have a positive impact on people -- but I'd never done anything about it. By some
miracle, I was hired for this job with no professional writing experience. I guess the Universe
was getting me on the path! I basically taught myself how to write well on this job, plus I went to workshops and took a few
classes. However, within about four years, I was getting restless and growing more unhappy
all the time. I was very depressed, I couldn't eat much, and was having physical problems like pseudo-migraines and a terribly
stiff neck. I wanted out, and I didn't want yet another corporate job, but I had no
idea how I could support myself. I whined at my friends for about two years. They were ready to kill me, I think.
Then in the summer of 1993, I went to the summer conference of the International Women's Writing Guild
at Skidmore College and attended a workshop on making the leap into freelance writing. That did it. I
went home and started hatching my plans. I came up with a name -- The Word Worker -- and decided to
leave my job at the end of the year. In January 1994, I was working from a desk in my living room. I figured if
it didn't work, I'd get another "real job." But I'm still at it seven years later, even though I've moved across the
country and changed the business name to Clariti Communications (http://www.clariticom.com).
What are your favorite and least favorite parts of the job?
My favorite parts: The actual writing, particularly when I'm working on something personal, like an essay or a
poem -- something more lyrical than, say, an article on computer security. But just about any kind of
writing I do is a joy, even when it's difficult. I really enjoy the challenge of finding just the right words and putting
them in just the right order to communicate what I'm trying to say.
I also enjoy having the opportunity to do things I otherwise wouldn't be able to do. For instance, I
recently spent an afternoon riding around with four firefighters in a fire truck as they answered calls. I'm
writing a history of their department, and they wanted me to get at least a tiny feel of what the job is like.
When I was writing an article about extremely expensive fountain pens for a Rolls-Royce publication,
a manufacturer out of the blue offered me a $3500 pen to use for a few weeks so I could experience what I was writing about.
And I get to interview interesting people I would otherwise have no occasion to meet. For instance, I once spent six hours interviewing Ann
Bancroft, the polar explorer who is the first woman to go to both poles. We sat around her house and just talked. She
told me how, as a child, she would go outside during blizzards and pretend she was one of the
early polar explorers. I was fascinated. I also was able to meet and interview Riane Eisler, who wrote "The Chalice and the
Blade" and "Sacred Pleasure." And I've written several articles about Penny
Sisto, an incredible fiber artist who creates amazing art work from fabric and found objects, so I got to spend time with her. All of these
women have added something positive to my life.
The least favorite parts: Transcribing interviews. Arrrggghhh!, as they say in the comics. I'm not a very
fast typist, so this is torture. I scribble notes during interviews whenever possible, but sometimes I just
have to record interviews. I'm not fond of the marketing stuff -- I wish I had someone to write my query letters, since
I find those difficult to write. And I'm horrible at coming up with good titles.
Describe a typical day in your working life.
My first reaction was to say that there are no typical days, but I guess there are. They are typical in that I
stick to a rough schedule. I'm usually at my desk by 8 or 8:30. And no, I don't work in my
pj's. I dress casually, though -- one of the great things about freelancing is that I don't EVER have to wear
pantyhose if I don't want to, and I rarely do. I first spend some time wading through and answering emails,
and do that periodically throughout the day. After that, it depends. I might have interviews to do, or research,
or writing. I work through the day, with a break for lunch and often a walk in the afternoon. I either
stop or break for dinner, depending on the work load. But I rarely write at night, since I'm usually mentally tired by
then. I work on weekends when necessary, but I try not to.
Sometimes I take a day or an afternoon off. For instance, I'll be going on a retreat in a few weeks, just a
few days of quiet time with my journal and some books. I've been feeling a need to recharge and step
back to take a look at things. It's great not to have to get permission from a boss to do something like this.
Have you ever had trouble with editors changing your articles? How
did you deal with it?
I haven't had too much trouble with this -- with one notable exception. If the editing makes the article
better, I can appreciate it, even welcome it. But when I think it makes the article worse, it makes me
nuts. That one exception happened several years ago. Christian Science Monitor accepted my query for an article on
urban archaeology. I was really excited about it -- gee whiz, my byline in the Monitor, I
thought. Cool. The editor wanted me to use the Indiana Jones image as a way to draw readers in with a familiar figure. Well,
every archaeologist I interviewed said to NOT use that image. They said he was a grave
robber and a looter, not an archaeologist. So I was very careful not to use the image, and I told my editor why I didn't use it.
Unfortunately, he was on vacation when the article was printed. So there it was, right
in the headline as well as the body of the article -- "Urban Archaeology Brings Indiana Jones to Middle America." On top of that, they
had rewritten the entire first half of the story. I was both mortified and angry. I called all my sources and
apologized for the gaffe, telling them it wasn't my doing. I also called the paper and, well, voiced my
displeasure, in a nice way, of course.
How do you come up with ideas to pitch?
This is a really good question. Actually, I'm not very good at it. Most of my work comes from editors and
publishers with whom I've worked for a long time, and they give me assignments, or I know what they want
and we just chat about an idea. I've had queries accepted, of course, but many more rejected. When I
do come up with a query idea, it's easy for me to get overwhelmed with trying to find the right markets to
pitch it to, unless it's a very specialized kind of thing. I'm probably making this
process worse for myself than it has to be, but it is a challenge for me. I've read lots of
articles about "how to write irresistible queries," how to find the right markets, and so on, but I get stuck
there sometimes. I feel intimidated by the whole process. It's holding me back, so I'm working on releasing my "stuckness" with it.
I sometimes come up with what I think is a good idea, but then I talk myself out of it because I think no one
will be interested. For instance, when I first started freelancing, I wanted to write an article
on crash-test dummies. I was fascinated by them and thought that people would like to know about how they are made,
how they work, etc., since they help determine our safety in cars. But I decided no one would be
interested, and I had no idea who to pitch it to. Wouldn't you know, just a few months later, I was
checking out magazines in a bookstore, and there was Smithsonian magazine with a cover article on crash-test
dummies. I probably wasn't experienced enough at that point to have gotten an assignment from Smithsonian,
but that's not the point. The point is, I didn't trust my instincts. I've gotten better at that.
You write books as well as articles. Where have these assignments
come from?
With one exception, all the books I've written have been for one publisher. He produces short histories of
military units, counties, corporations, and now the fire department I mentioned earlier. He is
located in southern Indiana where I used to live, and I hooked up with him early in my freelancing career because my
computer technician at the utility company worked on this publisher's computers, too. You just
never know where work will come from. It took a year from the time I contacted him until I had my first assignment, but
the work has been steady ever since. We've also become friends.
The other book, "Just in Case: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Y2K Crisis," came about because I
was writing a lot about Y2K for several years, and someone I knew had this idea to create a book about
it. That original idea fell through, but someone else picked up the ball and found a publisher, and I was
co-editor along with him and another editor friend, as well as co-author with about a dozen other writers.
What's one thing about freelancing you wish you'd known years ago?
Actually, I suspected it would be this way, but I didn't know for sure until some time had passed. When I left
the corporate world, I knew I wasn't simply moving from one desk to another. I had this inkling that I
would be able to discover parts of myself while working on my own that I never could have done while someone
else was handing out the paychecks. For me, freelancing has been this wonderful move toward
self-discovery. For instance, sometimes people tell me how disciplined I am to do this
work every day with no boss looming over my shoulder, and I usually give them a flip answer, something like "impending starvation is a
good motivator." And that is partly true. But I found out that I really do have these great reserves of
self-discipline. I was never this motivated before, although I did the work. I also have discovered I can
deal with the fear that occasionally rears its ugly head -- mostly fear of not having enough work to pay the bills,
even though that has actually never happened. I've learned not to bring the fear of a future catastrophe
into the present. I tell myself, I'm perfectly fine now, at this moment, and I'll work to be sure I continue to be OK
in the future. And I remind myself that I have always been supported by Spirit and that I will
continue to be.
And there are many other intangibles I've received from this work that I hadn't realized before they happened.
Occasionally, I'll receive an email or a call from people who read some of my work, usually an essay
or something of a more personal nature, and they will say they've been inspired by it or that they've received
some insight. I'm always blown away by that. To think that I could have a positive effect on someone
just because I wrote a sentence or two -- that's amazing. It also underlines a big responsibility to be truthful and
caring about the words I choose.
This is what I call the pebbles in the pond effect -- toss a pebble in a pond and watch the ripples flow out from
that original point of impact, and you have no idea how the little universe of the pond will be
affected, either visibly or invisibly. It's the same in the larger universe. We're all of us affecting dozens of people every day,
even by the smallest action that can ripple outward to touch dozens of people far from our particular location.
Of course, this happens in the corporate world, too, but for me, it's wonderful that I have the
opportunity to see my words in print and know that many people outside of my immediate circle might see them and be affected
in a positive way.
Do you ever turn down assignments?
I rarely turn down assignments, except when I'm too busy to do a thorough job or when I'm so overwhelmed
that I can't take on one more thing. Fortunately, this doesn't happen often, and I think it's only
happened with ongoing clients who understand and have other writers to turn to at those times.
There have been times when, in retrospect, I wish I had turned down an assignment. Like when the interview
subject turns out to be really stinky, or things just don't seem to be coming together. But,
fortunately, that hasn't happened often either.
How do you deal with time management and deadlines?
I don't have a strict timetable, but somehow everything always gets done on time. I'm fairly organized, and I
don't usually procrastinate because I don't write well under that kind of pressure, so I allow myself what I
think will be enough time. Very few of my assignments have had very short turn-around times. When I'm doing one of the history books, for
instance, I know how many pages I have to write in a day or a week to meet the deadline. When I know an assignment will require
many interviews, I start scheduling them early on so I have plenty of time to do the actual writing afterwards.
I'm not rigid about timetables, but I usually have a good sense of how long I think a project will take.
Have you ever had trouble getting payment for your work? (If so,
what did you do?)
Only in the beginning. I had a business client who never paid for about $500 worth of work. And around that
same time, I lost out on several thousand dollars worth of work when two start-up publications went
belly-up. There wasn't much I felt I could do. I wasn't up to going to court. If that happens again, I might take stronger steps.
I've had some occasional trouble with late payments, but nothing that hasn't been worked out. I can be a pest
with the accounting department when I have to. I'm leery of working with start-ups now, however. And
I'm careful to get contracts, so at least I have a legal leg to stand on in case a problem should develop.
Any tips on interviewing people for articles?
Not really. Only that my best interviews have been with people I found personally fascinating or on topics I was
really interested in or that were fun to investigate. When I'm really curious to know more on a deep
level, I'm more motivated to do a better interview. For instance, when I did the story on the fountain pens, I really
wanted to know why people had collections of pens worth thousands of dollars apiece. It was so far
beyond my experience, and I wanted to know what it felt like. Or when I interviewed Marilyn Sewell about her two
collections of women's spiritual poetry ("spiritual" being very broadly defined here), I had
previously been moved by the poetry. So I wanted to know why she took on these projects and why she thought it was
important to publish these collections. ("Cries of the Spirit" and Claiming the Spirit Within")
She's very articulate and passionate, so the interview went smoothly.
I have to do a lot of interviews just to get information, like about computer networking, for instance. Those
can be pretty cut and dried just because of the nature of the subject. They're necessary, but not
nearly as much fun. So I guess the tip would be to be really interested
in your subject.
Where should a new writer look for job listings?
The Internet is a great source for jobs for writers. I've subscribed to several free weekly or monthly
e-newsletters that list writing jobs, both full-time and freelance. And I'm on several listservs with other
writers who share job information.
Here are some good sites: www.writersweekly.com
(great weekly e-newsletter), www.hireminds.com,
www.inkspot.com/market/jobs.html,
and www.awoc.com/AWOC-Home.cfm.
Remember that I mentioned how my computer technician told me about the book publisher? That kind
of thing has happened several times in my freelancing career, with jobs coming seemingly out of the blue. A
printer I had worked with at the utility company introduced me to a freelance editor, and we're still
working together today, seven years later, even after he's been through several job changes.
So, be open to circumstances. Let synchronicity do some of the work for you. Tell people you're a writer. Hand out business cards. Join writing
groups where people share information about jobs. You just never know the ultimate effect of that pebble dropped in a pond.
In addition, I try to remember that there is plenty of work to go around. I don't want to live in a scarcity
mode, so if I see a job that I think might appeal to a writer friend, I let him or her know about it.
And they do the same for me. That way, we all benefit.
Barbara can be reached at barbara@clariticom.com,
or visit her website at http://www.clariticom.com.
