|
| |
Writing For Free Made Me A Real
Writer
By Stephanie Mojica
Believe me, I know writing for free is considered exploitation. Perhaps it is.
So exploit it!
I’ve worked 15-hour days at newspapers for free. I’ve been promised pay and not gotten it from a college newspaper in Virginia.
I know it kind of sucks, but don’t cast the idea out of your head just yet.
Ever since I was nine years old, I knew I wanted to be a writer. Growing up in Virginia, I got lots of opportunities to write for free between then and age 18. I wrote for school newspapers, literary
magazines, and yearbooks. Of course, as a teen, that is more than expected.
I wrote for two teen newspapers, and was a reporter for the local Habitat for Humanity’s newsletter. That was a great training, one available to most people of any age. I interviewed people and wrote articles. My first year of college, I wrote for a school newspaper
(and got paid for one article, though I had been promised pay for many more) and then had an unpaid internship at Daily Press.
I wrote about 30 articles in 12 weeks for a 100,000 circulation daily newspaper, including crime news. I was off and running, and immediately set out to find some paid work.
I briefly worked as a paid part-time news assistant at a small weekly, and then moved on to become a full-time reporter for a string of weekly and semi-weekly newspapers covering rural communities like Franklin,
VA. I then freelanced for more of their papers when I realized I should probably return to school.
My new college’s newspaper paid me for writing and editing. I didn’t need to work for free anymore, but something seemed missing.
In the fall of 1999, I was matched up with Battinto Batts, an editor at The Virginian-Pilot, in my college’s mentoring program. We met weekly and I expressed my desire for write for the paper.
Battinto, lovingly called “Batman,” didn’t laugh at me. He merely encouraged me to apply for an unpaid city team internship and for freelance work with the community news sections. The hope was I’d get one. I never expected to get both.
Getting both opened amazing doors for me, doors I could write a book to explain. I wrote for free for the “mainsheet” newspaper. I freelanced dozens of articles for other sections of the paper, sometimes earning $180 for a 500-word article with
two digital photos. I had a gig as a zone correspondent, which got me four stories a week in that area of the paper. I was earning over $1,000 a month writing for pay, writing for free, and writing for the college paper.
I also wrote a few articles, for free, for the monthly trade Campus Safety Journal.
Eventually, this led to a summer internship, then more freelance work, another unpaid internship, and finally an internship at The Philadelphia Inquirer.
I published two articles there, but had to leave when I was nearly killed in a car accident. When I came back to Virginia, I worked as a staff writer covering cops and courts for about nine months, did some more freelancing, and then moved to California.
I explored other interests, including producing and screenwriting, and realized after about a year that writing for newspapers and magazines, on a freelance basis, was my true love and the most pure and practical love
yet.
Today, I have some need to write for free.
I have a bit of experience writing columns and book reviews, and don’t expect tons of people to run to pay me just because I was published in two major metro dailies.
I write on assignment for community newspapers, like Del Rey News. I received such a wonderful
e-mail from publisher and editor Linda Pliagas after my first article, and I wondered what made me turn away from
writing for a while. I had published sporadically during that year, so my hand was still in the business, but I spent days and days in writers’ block trying to write the next “St. Elmo’s Fire.”
I did get an award for one screenplay, and won’t entirely give up, but my love is writing articles. At least I don't have regrets over ignoring my desire to write fiction.
Two daily newspapers in the Los Angeles metro area are interested in giving me paid work after the holidays. I write five query letters a day. I have three paid article assignments for national magazines as well.
Yet even though I’m somewhat of a seasoned professional, I can’t not write for free if it presents a chance for me to get ahead. Perhaps it’s not fair, but it’s how the business runs. If I had refused to write for free, I doubt I’d have had most of my career's opportunities. Many people I knew could’ve done this too, but refused to write for free and now moan about their "unlucky" lot in life while shooting daggers my way.
The choice is easy, if you’re passionate. Do what it takes to get going. You’ll instinctively know when to write for free, and when to write for pay.
Why did I write this for free? To give back what others so generously gave to me.
Stephanie Mojica, living in Los Angeles, Calif., started her professional career as an unpaid intern at the Daily Press in Newport News, Va. Since then, she has written hundreds of (mostly) paid articles for publications like The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Virginian-Pilot, Campus Safety Journal, and Del Rey News. She transcribes for a major television show, and is also a freelance editor and copywriter.
| |
Sponsored links
Ring binders
Make a Real Living as a Freelance Writer!
How to find a
book publisher
|
