My First Stint as a Paid Freelance Writer

I didn't have a large body of work to show off my talent when I sent away a solitary sample of my writing in response to a call for writers. Pretty much the only work I'd had published at that stage were several articles in a Newcastle United fanzine. That material wasn't in line with what my prospective new employers, a management training company, were seeking, yet, my submission impressed and I was one of those chosen.

I'd guess that there were three or four of us on the writing team. At the start of each month, I received an email notifying me that commissions were now available, and how many of those would be allocated to me. I then went onto the website to choose what I'd like to write about - and perhaps be lumbered with something I didn't fancy at all.

We were paid reasonably well for our efforts, starting off at £40 per article (over a decade ago), but that amount dwindled somewhat as time went on. At my peak, I was writing fifteen articles per month for the company, as well as sending out work to other outlets.

Unwritten etiquette

The subjects on offer were Microsoft Office applications, and general management issues, such as negotiating skills, stress in the workplace, and managing upwards. Commissions were accepted on a first-come-first-served basis, but an unwritten etiquette dictated that no one cherry-picked all the choice jobs.

My favourite subject was Microsoft Excel, as it is a hugely powerful tool with such a vast array of functions, I was never stuck for something to write about. I would simply scour the Internet for a tutorial on how to perform a specific operation, and then weave an article around it. Each article had to be 500 words minimum, so putting one together wasn't too difficult, as I hope to demonstrate with these examples.

I came across a tip that showed how to turn a specific cell red if the value therein became negative, thus creating a visual alert. The formula to achieve this effect was simple enough, but it was also about 475 words short of my target.

To turn it into an article, I created a scenario around a guy who had a small business selling sandwiches to local offices. In an Excel sheet, he had a column for his outgoings (ingredients and fuel), and another for his income (sandwich sales). If the cost of the former went below the value of the latter, the cell showing that total would turn red.

In another Excel article, I demonstrated how to create a desired action within a specific cell, which again required a fairly simple formula. I made up a simple yes-or-no quiz, with The Simpsons as the theme, and the sample question was What is Chief Wiggum's first name? There was a designated cell for the user to type an answer, and the next cell along would reveal whether or not that answer was correct. I took the piece a stage further by showing how, with a little tinkering to the formula, the Reveal cell could be adapted to say Woohoo! for a correct answer (Clancy, as I'm sure you'll know), and D'oh! For an incorrect one.

Wing it

I really liked to get my teeth into Excel articles, but some subjects were a lot more difficult, and on occasion, I had to wing it. Again though, once I'd familiarised myself with the core of my subject, I was left with the more comfortable task of weaving it into an article. An example of that could be seen in a piece I wrote on negotiating skills, a subject I knew very little about. I demonstrated the difference between integrative and distributive negotiations via haggling in a spoof episode of the TV show Bargain Hunt.

My time management system for these commissions left a lot to be desired. Having a whole month to complete the articles, I'd barely look at them for the first week. By the second week, I'd started jotting down ideas and typing opening paragraphs. By the time the deadline approached, as often as not I might have six articles to complete in two days, with the added stress of that ticking clock. I burned the midnight oil sometimes, but after writing over 200 articles for the company, I never missed a deadline.

During one of those last-minute stress fests, I did allow myself a wry smile. It was late at night on deadline day, and I had one full article still to write. I looked at my notes and saw that the subject of my final task was how to beat procrastination.

I recently returned to the role of full-time freelance writer for a while, and I am happy to report that this time around I observed a far more rigid discipline regarding the use of my time.