Camenson's Careers in Writing: Staff Writers and Reporters

As said in the book, "While freelancers have the advantage of proposing their own story ideas, staff writers and reporters generally have more job security and always know when their next paycheck will arrive. Freelancers trade job security and regular pay for their independence."

I am kind of in the middle here. While job security is very important to me, I also like the idea of being able to do my own thing. I guess if I knew that I was financially secure for a while then I could feel more comfortable about not knowing what my next project will be and where my next paycheck will come from. Although there would be a comfort zone in working with mostly the same people on the same types of projects on a regular basis. I would have to be very passionate about something to be doing the same type thing every day though. It can be fun to do your own thing and throw different ideas around but I would rather have job security and do the same thing every day as long as it's something I truly love doing.

The Forest for the Trees: Introduction

"The writer labors in isolation, yet all that intensive, lonely work is in the service of communicating, is an attempt to reach another person."


I think this statement makes a very good point. While a writer usually is alone when he or she writes, he or she is writing as if someone else was there. The writer is telling a story on paper instead of telling it orally. It's like sending someone an e-mail instead of talking to them face to face, with the only difference being that a person can't sense emotion from tone of voice. A writer must be very descriptive to get his or her message across. He or she must use imagery and help the reader visualize what's going on. Eyes are always on a writer one way or another, even if no one is actually looking him or her in the face.