Magazine article to be published
I can’t release the details yet, but another of my articles is tentatively scheduled for an August issue.
Two More Interesting Freelance Opportunities
1.) This branding company is looking for experienced writers and they won’t waste your time applying.
http://create.pulsepoint.com/signup (external link)
If you already have a resume you can be done in five minutes. In lieu of writing credits they will look at your online portfolio. Which, again, is why every writer needs one. (internal link)
2.) This content creation site is looking for writers.
http://bydevan.com/write-for-us/ (external link)
Besides clips and a resume, they want pitches (internal link). Pitches are a great way to show how creative you can be to a new employer. With pitches you control part of the hiring process. Consider it a writing test which you should always offer to do. Follow their guidelines and submit several.
UC Berkeley Extension Course Continues
I’m taking a course on creative nonfiction. (internal link). This workshop stresses writing the personal essay, focusing on memoirs and self reflection. My first graded essay has been turned back and I am not sufficiently nuanced:
“One of the traits of a successful personal essay is the writer’s willingness to dissect his own assumptions about himself, and question, test, even reverse longstanding opinions about his life. I think you have the skills to do this and end up with an essay that is more complex and nuanced.”
Nuanced? I’m not here to nuance, I’m here to be clear. Leave nuance to fiction. Fiction is like a stained glass window. It’s pretty and ornate and sometimes mysterious but not always clear. I regard nonfiction to be a pane of pure, clear glass, all nicely polished. Transparent and beyond guesswork.
Still, I continue happily with the course. It makes me think about things I’d normally not consider and I am reading essays that I would not have read before. My first reaction to the class orientation, though, remains the same: “Where’s the market?” If we’re not writing personal essays for family and friends, whose going to pay for this stuff instead of reading Kennedy, Lincoln, or Keats?
