Career Development for Freelance Writers: Solution to Globalization is to Find Your Bliss

Communications Director, Marci Hotsenpiller, Hans Peter Meyer

Posted by
Marci Hotsenpiller
Sep 3, 2009

I'm happy to introduce Jill Browne, Editor of Suite101.com's Outdoor & Recreation and Science & Nature sections. Jill will be guest blogging this month with a series of posts offering business and career advice for writers. Over to you, Jill ...

I hope you will forgive me for dipping into my MBA kit bag. I invested a lot of my life in learning to be a better business advisor and now I am determined to inflict it on you.

Competing in a Commodity Market

On Day 1 of MBA school in 1997, one of the University of Calgary's most respected business professors, Dr. Robert Schulz told us, "There are two trends you will find very influential in the upcoming years: globalization and disintermediation."

Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

Twelve years later, here I am, looking back and thinking about just how right Dr. Schulz was.

Thanks to globalization, any writer in the world with an Internet connection can reach the same markets as you can. Many good (and not so good) writers live where a dollar goes far. They can charge less than you can. Can you compete with them? Should you?

It rarely makes sense to compete in a commodity market.

Commodity writing is writing delivered by the bucket full, something almost anyone can churn out. It's nothing special, just a lot of words taking up space on a screen. Sometimes it doesn't even make sense.

Write What You Know

Remember the advice, "Write what you know"? It's more true today than ever. In contrast to commodity writing, it's the original voice, the eye for detail, the command of the topic and the ability to speak with authority that deliver value to the reader. A content mill cannot compete with that. Nor can a great writer, if he's never seen what you see, never done what you've done, and never cared about the subject the way you do.

Almost every day in my work as an online editor, I read at least one article about fishing. I don't fish. The best I can say is that I really like the places where fishing happens. And yet, I find myself drawn into the fishing articles because there are some writers who make me want to be there. How do the writers do that, in a little 500-word piece.?

It's simple. They write what they know.

Find Your Bliss, Localize Your Content

The person who said this best was Joseph Campbell, the renowned scholar of mythology and legend. His advice was, "Follow your bliss".

Yes, follow your bliss to your niche, to what you know and care about. Then you will stand out. Instead of globalization, practice localization. It could be geographically local, writing about the place where you live. It might be intellectually local, covering the subjects that you know more about than most people do. It could be both. But be yourself, do what you love, and write what you know.

You can follow Jill Browne on Twitter @jillbrowne.

Sep 3, 2009 8:14 PM

Tel Asiado :

Hi Jill,

Thank you for sharing your insight. I couldn't agree with you more.

Globalization is in progress as the Copernican revolution continuously takes place in the attitude of the American business leaders. International economy no longer revolves around America, as the whole market is being shared by other strong players from other nations.

By the same token, it's still the local units that decide tactical challenges about packaging and other marketing concerns. The Japanese call this "glocalize."

Bringing it down to the freelance writing career development, you nailed it, Jill: "Be yourself, do what you love and write what you know." After all, everyone experiences the same universal feelings of joy and pain, agony and ecstacy. My mind is filled with classics by such great writers who wrote about their passions: Tolstoy, Shakespeare, Homer, Chekhov, Hugo, to name but a few. I also think of all our Nobel Laureates - from scientists to humanitarians - people who care deeply, whose passions are mainly quantified from what we benefit from, as well as whose works, for future generations to improve on.

For those of us whose passion is writing - others are already making it a career while many more are trying to - we have that edge, space and satisfaction - as we write what we know, and do what we love.

Best regards,

Tel Asiado
Feature Writer, Great Thinkers