I don’t know what falls under ‘freelance writing’, but have you considered writing fiction?
It’s a huge time-sink even if you’re deliberately trying to improve your speed, but the skills are also surprisingly applicable—modelling your characters in your head isn’t dramatically different from modelling other real people, even if you ignore the skills that merely fall under “knowing how to write”. I’ve had a great deal of fun with that, lately.
You don’t necessarily need to immediately jump into original fiction, either. Fanfiction is often considered “training wheels”, but that doesn’t just mean it’s easier—well, it is, but it’s also much easier to tell if you’re getting characterisation right when there’s the original work to compare to (and rabid fans to do the comparison), while the usual “benefit” of writing fanfiction (not needing to invent your own setting) can be trivially set aside if you feel like it.
I’ve written fanfiction, but I’ve only enjoyed writing fiction with a writing partner, as I did for those two stories. I get very very bored writing things that aren’t dialogue.
I’m currently at a magazine for a journo internship, and have done some freelance book/theatre reviews for pay.
If you’re planning to link this account to your real world identity, or already have, you might think twice about linking to those writings. Sorry if this was already obvious and considered.
Glad to hear it! I’m traceable to those writings, but not though easy googling. The nice thing about being a writer with daily blog updates is security through obscurity. It’s hard to trawl through to find whatever would be the worst thing ;)
I don’t know what falls under ‘freelance writing’, but have you considered writing fiction?
It’s a huge time-sink even if you’re deliberately trying to improve your speed, but the skills are also surprisingly applicable—modelling your characters in your head isn’t dramatically different from modelling other real people, even if you ignore the skills that merely fall under “knowing how to write”. I’ve had a great deal of fun with that, lately.
You don’t necessarily need to immediately jump into original fiction, either. Fanfiction is often considered “training wheels”, but that doesn’t just mean it’s easier—well, it is, but it’s also much easier to tell if you’re getting characterisation right when there’s the original work to compare to (and rabid fans to do the comparison), while the usual “benefit” of writing fanfiction (not needing to invent your own setting) can be trivially set aside if you feel like it.
I’ve written fanfiction, but I’ve only enjoyed writing fiction with a writing partner, as I did for those two stories. I get very very bored writing things that aren’t dialogue.
I’m currently at a magazine for a journo internship, and have done some freelance book/theatre reviews for pay.
If you’re planning to link this account to your real world identity, or already have, you might think twice about linking to those writings. Sorry if this was already obvious and considered.
edit: that said, I’m really enjoying APoF :-)
Glad to hear it! I’m traceable to those writings, but not though easy googling. The nice thing about being a writer with daily blog updates is security through obscurity. It’s hard to trawl through to find whatever would be the worst thing ;)