Today when people ask me “what do you do for a living” I automatically answer, “I’m a freelance writer and I love it”! You see, I write for several websites and have found other freelance writing work through online classified advertisements. Sometimes people will ask me how long I have been doing this, or how long I have wanted to write. I have to shyly say “oh, for about three months now.” You see until recently I have never wanted to be a writer. In fact, I never liked English class in either high school or college. I had to take them, but I much preferred Biology class or in college my Anatomy and Physiology class. Even when I did suffer though an English class I hated the ten page term papers the most. So, for someone who used to hate writing, you might be wondering how did I actually come to love it after so long? Well, allow me to tell you myself.
After my divorce in 2004 I felt like I had hit a brick wall. I had just gotten out of an abusive marriage that had lasted twelve years. I came to a point in my life where I honestly didn’t know myself. I then proceeded to take time to heal and, even though it might sound like a bit of a cliche’, I had to find myself and really get to know who I was and what I wanted. That was easier said than done. I had only done a few odd jobs between then and the beginning of 2007, and by then my back couldn’t take the janitorial work I had been doing. So I was concentrating on my other love, computers. I had begun to go through the classified ads and was going through Craigslist, a classified ad list that a friend of mine had told me about.
I was searching through the employment section, when, I took a look at the part of the list where it said “Writing/Editing.” I decided to check out the ads even though I had never done any editing or enjoyed writing much. I took a chance that I may as well have been checking out engineering or other jobs that I knew nothing about and found the two ads that have changed my life. One of them was an ad for a local magazine that was looking for contributors to a new magazine in town and after I contacted them I was accepted. I had until March 5 to write a 500-800 word article for the April edition on the topic of health. It only took me a few hours and minimal research and I was able to put together an article about Alcoholism since April was Alcohol Awareness Month. I hadn’t even sent it in yet and even though I had written many papers before, I felt a rush of joy and excitement as never before. I had been hooked I had caught the “writing bug” My article would be in print around the 15th of April.
The other advertisement I had found was for
I submitted my first article to them just after I finished the one for the local magazine and I felt the same rush of emotion that I had felt the first time. The more I have written for them over the last few months the more I have felt that I have finally discovered that writing is exactly what I want to do for the rest of my life. I have found that I am able to express myself clearly and a lot easier than when I express myself verbally.
In the beginning of May I found another website that advertised solely to freelancers of different types and found yet another short part time job there doing some SEO copywriting. However, it didn’t pay much and was not really worth it.
I am so glad that I took a risk and did something that I wasn’t sure I could do at the time. In doing so I have learned that by trying new things I learn more about myself and what I am able to do and what I like to do. Thus I discovered a way to find out who I am and what I like to do. I had found a way to heal and move on in life and begin living again.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/lang . That would pay a little less, but would be more of a steady income for me. In addition, I could write about most any topic I wanted to. It has been fun writing for them and I intend to continue to do so. I have written on a variety of topics including foods that help lower your cholesterol, Epilepsy, Asthma, kayaking and canoeing trips around the US.
