A big part of starting this page was to encourage other writers or creators and give any advice I feel competent enough to give, so I wanted to talk about freelance work. It’s something I’ve been doing since I used to write college papers for beer money, which eventually led me to pursuing paid jobs working with companies, promoters, individual webpages, actual freelancing sites, etc etc. 

Full disclaimer: my experiences were not positive. I’m not saying don’t pursue that freelance work if it’s how you want to get yourself out there, and it certainly did help me...but there’s a reason I don’t do it anymore. Maybe through reading my observations, you can avoid the mistakes I made and have a more fulfilling experience. Also I won’t be naming any websites or individuals for super obvious reasons.

1. We’ll start with the no-brainer: Don’t work for somebody who won’t pay you. I see this a lot with smaller webpages: they get a modest following, “hire” hungry talent, and then these page owners work their writers to the bone for content to boost their page. Most of them will promise to pay eventually if you stick with them long enough, but ultimately they will clean house and start the process over again. And in the worst circumstances, they’ll most likely continue to use your work without crediting you, and you will have very little recourse when that happens. 
   
   I know writing can be considered a disposable medium with a lot of competition, but if a page can’t afford to compensate you for your work, they most likely don’t have the resources or following to give you the “exposure” they’re promising.
   
   

2. Pay attention to who owns your work when the job is complete. This comes up a lot when you work with freelancing websites or other companies, where if you choose to maintain the rights to your work, it can result in pay reductions, usually a percentage(if you even have the option to retain ownership).And this in itself didn’t really bother me; most of my jobs were small or based on topics I’d never need to reference ever again. But a big part of getting membership to these sites is submissions, and these companies want the rights to your submitted samples as well.
   
   One of the services I used implemented a ranking system which would determine what kind of jobs you would receive based on your rank which was based on your submission. And if you didn’t give up the rights to your submitted samples, you would be automatically ranked lower. That’s not a conspiracy- it was explicitly stated. Maybe me seeing that as distasteful is naive, but if they can find a way to monetize that material later down the line, they will.
   
   

3. Be mindful of unhealthy working relationships. One of the worst freelance experiences I had was a one-on-one working relationship: it was his promotional network, brand, and access, and I covered major releases. What differentiates this from the scenario I described in #1 is this was someone who knew me through someone who knew me, and he reached out to me specifically. We went on to work together for a little over a year. By all accounts, we got along amicably and there was a sense of mutual respect.
   
   However, as my responsibilities grew, the cracks started to appear. Off-color remarks clearly not intended as jokes, being more demanding and less flexible, and my compensation as it related to my increase in responsibilities was laughable. All of that on it’s own is kind of whatever at the time; I was young and didn’t overthink any of it. Eventually though, there was a blowout over a mistake I admittedly made. And even to this day, I can say with full confidence that nobody has ever talked to me like he did since. That’s when I realized I wasn’t working with a person who respected me or valued my work. I quit on the spot.
   
   He tried to patch things up afterwards, but you can’t walk shit like that back. Now I’m not saying you should bail whenever things get tense or you feel like you deserve more than you get, but you also shouldn’t tolerate behavior you wouldn’t accept in a conventional work environment. 

I might add to this post later if anything comes to mind, but I really think it is important for people to understand the value of their work, not just in a monetary sense. By all means, if you have the drive and you like the work, freelance writing can be a gateway to greater financial freedom, so go get fuckin paid. I just know some of the experiences I went through took a lot out of me and made it difficult to write for periods of time, so I’d like to do what I can to prevent those things from happening to other people.

If you ask most writers what the rules of writing are, they’ll either give you a list of their best tips based on their own formulas for success, or they’ll say something like “THERE ARE NO RULES,” which is super lame and unhelpful. It’s a simple answer that you think sounds smart, but it’s not. You provided zero information. 

No two writer’s lists are alike; they typically cover a wide variety of topics and identify lots of potential shortcomings. It can be a reflection of how an author felt about their own work or what they observed in the work of others. I decided to do something similar, so I feel like I’m in a good position to make a solid list. This won’t be based on my formula for success; this’ll moreso be my take on what can move you forward in your own creative process. And seeing as you picked the least lucrative form of human expression possible, you’re gonna want to hear people out when they tell you what they would put on their own list. So here we go: 
 

1. Read/write every day. You’ll notice a lot of people say this, and that’s because it’s 100% true, and not just because you need the practice. You ever binge watch a tv show and your inner voice picks up an accent or manner of speech from a character on that show? That's how easy it is to lose the sense of what your inner voice sounds like, so it's best to sit somewhere quiet once a day to read or write in order to actually hear yourself. 

2. Write the way you would speak, unless it's an academic assignment. If you can’t read it smoothly back to yourself, chances are your audience won’t be able to either. Plus it’s just more fun for everyone when a work reads like a natural extension of the author. 

3. You do not have to be 100% grammatically proper to be a decent writer. That’s why you pay an editor to look at your work when you're done. So in the meantime, focus on not making the obvious mistakes instead of driving yourself crazy trying to keep track of every bullshit grammar rule in the English language. Cause there's a lot of those. 

4. Stop using words you're not comfortable using. Some people seem to learn new words, and they immediately try to cut them into their sentences, and the end result is...it’s just awful. It doesn't add any value you to what you're writing, and you'd be better off with a more organic approach. Expanding your vocabulary will give you a lot more tools to work with, but taking your time to fully understand how these words are used can save you a lot of embarrassment. 

5. Avoid repetition. Look out for words you use repeatedly that don't add anything to your sentences(you'll notice I use the word "just" too much, for example), and  start becoming aware of them.  If you use too many simple or complex sentences in a row, it all starts to bleed together, and it's awkward as hell to read. Once you get in the habit of looking for these things, breaking up sentences and incorporating a natural word variety becomes a lot easier. 

6. Don't take yourself too seriously. Work hard, put out pieces you can be proud of, and keep practicing. 

Like I said at the beginning, this list is mostly based on things I’ve noticed in my own work. I’d encourage you to come up with a list of your own. But regardless, I hope you got some use out of it.