The inquisitor and the world he used to inhabit.
My friend James Glave has posted this useful little quiz on his eponymously titled blog. I can only cop to two yeses, so I guess I’m doomed:
“Please check all that apply.
- Do you have a trust fund?
- Are you married or engaged to a lawyer, airline pilot, surgeon, petroleum or mining engineer, dentist, or pharmaceutical executive?
- If not, can you grow hydroponic marijuana?
- If none of the above apply, are you at least married or engaged to an individual with a “real job”?
- Are you are childless, or monastic, or both?
- Do you suffer from low self-esteem?
- Are you comfortable waiting six to eight months to be paid for two months of work even though your mortgage lender or landlord may not exhibit the same flexibility?
- Are you Malcolm Gladwell?
“If you answer ‘yes’ to at least three of these questions, then congratulations! You may be a candidate for a career in the glamorous and rewarding field of freelance journalism.”
No question: A lot of affirmative replies will help grease your freelance career. But not all is grim out here in writerland. I’ve had a decent year. But I’ve worked hard, hustled, and tapped new markets.
James, by the way, is a former colleague from Outside magazine and one of the best writers about things green in the business. His book, Almost Green, is a classic of the emerging “how to balance being green with being alive in a brown world” genre. After a stint as a freelancer during which he flunked his quiz, he’s gone into PR. Green PR, of course. I see that as a smart move, a way to parlay his writing skill and knowledge into steady bucks.
Which, really, is exactly what I’m doing as a freelance writer. Some of us do it full time. That’s not easy. Some of us do it part time—a lot easier. Some do it to be able to work at home. Others do it to leverage a career in another profession, whether a desk job or an Internet marketing gig. You know—raise your status. Publicize your online gig. All sorts of combinations. More than ever.
So whether or not you pass James’s aptitude test, and whether or not you write for a living, it’s a great time to be a freelance writer.
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Took the test, got three yeses out of it. Thank goodness, because I freelance full time. Well, I parlay the work with speaking gigs, too, which helps a lot. At one time, I would have had six yeses. Made the freelance life a lot easier, but not nearly as interesting.