{"id":1762,"date":"2010-08-14T09:25:33","date_gmt":"2010-08-14T15:25:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1762"},"modified":"2010-08-14T09:29:44","modified_gmt":"2010-08-14T15:29:44","slug":"freelancing-the-horror","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1762","title":{"rendered":"Freelancing: the Horror"},"content":{"rendered":"

Via Rod Dreher’s new blog, Macroculture<\/a><\/em>, comes this essay by Richard Morgan on the horrors of freelancing.<\/a><\/p>\n

By the time that I finished it, I was thinking of Knut Hamsun’s novel\u00a0 <\/a>Hunger<\/a>. <\/em>See the movie version<\/a>\u2014I saw it as a teenager, and how I ever became a writer afterwards, I do not know. Youthful optimism, I suppose.<\/p>\n

I used to tell magazine-writing students that the first rules of successful freelancing were “Don’t quit your day job” and “Have an employed\u00a0 spouse\/partner who thinks that being married to\/living with a writer is wonderful, romantic arrangement.”<\/p>\n

Morgan, of course, was trying for the top tier of consumer magazines. Quite a few writers do make livings\u2014of sorts\u2014by specializing in something less eye-catching but more lucrative than celebrity-interviewing.<\/p>\n

Specialists in financial writing or science writing might have a better chance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Via Rod Dreher’s new blog, Macroculture, comes this essay by Richard Morgan on the horrors of freelancing. By the time that I finished it, I was thinking of Knut Hamsun’s novel\u00a0 Hunger. See the movie version\u2014I saw it as a teenager, and how I ever became a writer afterwards, I do not know. Youthful optimism, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[12],"class_list":["post-1762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-writing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-sq","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9550,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=9550","url_meta":{"origin":1762,"position":0},"title":"Does No One Read the Description?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 25, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"I was in my first month as managing editor of the (long-gone) Colorado Outdoor Journal when an article came in about fishing in Utah. Hello? \"Colorado\" is in the title. When I was freelancing for commercial magazines, I was told always to read at least a couple of issues before\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"academia\"","block_context":{"text":"academia","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=academia"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1242,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1242","url_meta":{"origin":1762,"position":1},"title":"Fate Magazine Reanimated","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 29, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"When pre-writing the blog post on dining above the dead (something best done while walking the dogs), I was thinking about how it was perfect for Fate magazine.Digression 1: Dog-walking is not all that meditative, because Something Always Happens, like this morning when they charged off through nine-inch-deep snow to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Halloween\"","block_context":{"text":"Halloween","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=halloween"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1251,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1251","url_meta":{"origin":1762,"position":2},"title":"Writers and Money","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"November 12, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I am back from the American Academy of Religion meeting in Montreal, of which more later, where I also collected a freelance-editing check that I was owed.When I collected nine days' worth of mail at the post office, I was happy to see that another check that was \"in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"writing\"","block_context":{"text":"writing","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=writing"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4186,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=4186","url_meta":{"origin":1762,"position":3},"title":"A Professional Writer’s Approach to the Job","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 1, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Kathy Shaidle is not the first person to say that the successful writer is not necessarily the most talented writer, but in this post at PJ Lifestyle she offers some guidance for being a successful freelancer. One of the reasons I\u2019m a freelance writer is that, frankly, I don\u2019t \u201cplay\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"writing\"","block_context":{"text":"writing","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=writing"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2662,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2662","url_meta":{"origin":1762,"position":4},"title":"Do Not Follow This Link …","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 18, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"... if you are not a style-conscious writer, editor, or otherwise a word-nerd. Otherwise, move on; there is nothing to see here.","rel":"","context":"In \"writing\"","block_context":{"text":"writing","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=writing"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6305,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6305","url_meta":{"origin":1762,"position":5},"title":"Journalistic Cliches and Their Academic Cousins","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 27, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"My least-favorite journalistic cliche is \"time will tell.\" Despite the president's charm offensive, some pundits say that the world will end next Tuesday. Time will tell. Read the whole list of 150 here. As a journal editor, I could make my own list, particularly those stupid bits of wordiness that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"academia\"","block_context":{"text":"academia","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=academia"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1762"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1762\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1764,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1762\/revisions\/1764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}